Alex's first camping trip

This past weekend we took Alex on his first camping trip.  I was a little nervous, because last weekend, we went to DC for the day and the car ride didn't go so well.  But, this trip went suprisingly well.

We took him wheeling this weekend.  It was so exciting for him that he slept through all of the rides. It was the first time he got to sit in the seat facing front.









The craziest part of the weekend was when Matt, Stacy, Andrew, Alex, and myself went looking for the mud hole.  Up to this point we had done some pretty technical trails and had some fairly tense moments when we thought the truck might not get to keep going.  But we had successfully done two day rides and one night ride.   Then we went looking for the mud hole.

We found a water hole, not the mud hole Matt was looking for, but it was fun.  Matt was driving and we being a wussy about going through the water.  We finally talked him into going through the puddle.  I wanted him to go one way, he decided to go the opposite.

It took a few minutes to get wenched out and then about another 30 minutes to get the car dried out.  We were very lucky and the car is fine.  Very muddy, but still working.

Catching Up...

Okay, so it turns out that I am not very good at this blogging thing.  I am going to try harder to at least get something down once a week.  But for now, I should catch up on what has happened.

Alex is now 8 months old, he eats tons of food, is crawling all over the place, and babbles like crazy.  He is a very vocal little man and very cute.  He loves pretty much everything including his mommy and daddy.
Here is Alex right after he was born. He spent a week in the NICU, but I have already written about that.

I can't believe Alex was ever this small.  He was 2 weeks old.

This was one of my favorite outfits.  He used to cut himself with his nails, so we put these cute little gloves on him.

Here he is starting to sit up in his bumbo.  The bumbo is the best invention in the world.  He loved to sit in this thing.  I believe he was 2 months old in this one.

Alex's halloween costume.  He was a monkey. 

Alex loves to go on his walks with Daddy.  Most of the time he falls asleep.  This trip was in December, we had just gotten him a snow suit and hat.  I love this hat.

Alex is a very busy boy.  He can sit up by himself and climb out of the bumbo, so it is now only used with the try to feed him when we go out.  He can crawl from room to room and now is even standing up holding on to objects.

When we started bathing Alex, he was on this contraption that looked kind of like a bed in the tube.  The he graduated into the kitchen sink once he could sit up, and now he plays in tub.  He loves bubbles and bath toys.  He doesn't seem to mind water over his head and now our bathtub looks like it belongs to a child.  It is very odd for me to have my life and bathroom turned upside down.

Family Pictures

Well, it took three weeks to coordinate, but we finally got everyone together to take family pictures. This is something my family hasn't done in a very long time. And now I remember why. After much debate and rescheduling, we settled on Sunday at 3pm. Everyone would meet at my parents house and we would take the pictures in front of the wood pile. It would look rustic, but not like a back drop.



Now, what to wear. My mom had bought my nephews matching sweaters to wear for their annual pictures at Sears, so we went with a color palate that would match that. Everyone was told to wear blue jeans and either a red, black, or white shirt. The black was for me, being only 3 1/2 months post baby, I need it to cover the jiggly parts.

Finally, it is time. Everyone has arrived, the Redskins are winning, time to get the pictures before the skins loose and ruin the moods of my brothers. We start out inside and take some pictures in front of the bay window. My mom has dragged out this horrible picture we took in the 90s and now we are trying to recreate it. It is a shame my younger brother weighs about 150 pounds more now than when we originally took it.



Next, we move on to our outdoor shots.  This actually goes remarkable well.  We took a variety of shots that included the whole family, each individual family, grandparents and grandkids, ect.  Emily was kind enough to take the picture for us and I don't think I can ever thank her enough.

 Alex did very well during the photo shoot, but by the end, he was unamused and wanted a nap.  I am happy to say that we not only got some great shots, but actually had enough to make books for my parents and siblings that included pictures of Alex and the family from 2009.  They made for great Christmas presents.

Circumcision

Wow, what a highly debated topic this is.  I had no idea that it would be so controversial for Matt and I to decide not to circumcise our child.  Everyone has an opinion and is more than happy to share it.

I left this decision up to Matt.  My only conditions were:
1. If we decided to have this done, it be done in a urologist office, not the hospital.
2. He was going to have to take him to have it done, I would not.

I prefered to not have our child cut, but felt like that was a decision that his father should make.  Matt did a ton a research, polled all of our friends, and finally decided not to do it.  This made me very happy. 

Breastfeeding

I never thought of myself as the kind of mom who would breast feed my child.  I alway found it to be a little creepy.  However, after attending my natural childbirth class and being around a bunch of people who planned on breastfeeding, I felt like I should at least give it a try.

From the begining, it was a challange.  Alex was in the NICU for a week being bottle feed, he had a tounge tie, that made it difficult for him to latch, and he just didn't seem interested. 

I pumped every two hours the first week he was in the NICU.  It took about 4 days for my milk to come in and once it did, boy did I know it.  We tried to get him to latch on towards to end of his stay in the NICU, however he would just get so upset, his breathing would get elevated again, and it was a little bit of a disaster.  Finally, the lactation consultants gave me this nipple shield that basically turned my boob into a bottle.  He took immediately to that and I thought we had solved our problem.

About a month into feeding him, I had noticed that my supply had gone down substancially, and I could not figure out why.  I told Matt about my concerns and he didn't think it was a problem. Well, one day I went out to the lactation center to get e new bra and found out that I was suppose to be pumping evertime I used the shield.  I had not know that and it caused my supply to dwindle.  Apparently, if you use the shield, there is not the direct stimulation needed to keep your supply going.  I immediately started pumping after each feeding and also drinking mother's milk, a tea that helps to promote milk production.

I continued to breastfeed Alex for another month.  The week right before I started back to work, I moved him over to only bottle feeding.  He still got breast milk, since I was pumping, just from a bottle.  I was much happier with this arrangement.  I had been so fustrated with the whole process, and I liked being able to see exactly what he was taking in at each feeding.

The kid on the block

Well, having a new baby is definately a challange.  Matt and I are very thankful that Alex is such a easy going and well behaved baby.  It doesn't change the fact that having a newborn is exhausting.  When Alex came home, he would wake up once a night to eat and that was great.  However, you are still only getting 3-4 hours of sleep at a time.  The first couple of nights, we were okay.  We even thought, "This isn't so bad."  But after about two weeks of never getting more than four hours of sleep at a time, we are now offically exhausted.

Doctors, Doctors, and more Doctors

We brought Alex home on a Monday, then had to take him to the Pediatrician on that Tuesday to be weighed in and have his vitals checked.  That appointment wasn't too bad, lots of questions to answer and some poking and prodding at the little man.

I also had to take him to and ENT to have his tongue tie corrected.  This was probably worse for me than for Alex.  I took my mom with me, and boy am I glad I did.  We got to the doctors office and the nurse was kind enough to let me nurse him before they started messing with him.  Then I had to hold him in my lap while they numbed and snipped the tissue that was attaching the tip of his tounge to his month.  Alex screamed and I cried while to procedure was happening.  It took no time really, and once it was over, Alex was fine.  I think I may be traumatized forever now though.  It is the worse thing to have to haold your baby while he screams and know there is nothing you can do.

He has now been to the pediatricians office about 10 times.  Most of the appointments were for well baby visits, but at least three have been because of his breathing.  He now has a nebulizer and is on singular once a day.  He is a very congested baby, and sometimes at night, he sound absolutely horrible.  His doctors say he will be that way for the duration of winter, but then it should get better.

NICU

Alex spent his first week of life in the St Francis NICU.  He was diagnosed with pneumonia and transient tachypnea of the newborn (TTN).  TTN is basically rapis breathing.  He was breathing over 100 breaths per minute.  Anything above 60 is considered rapid.  He was not even allowed to eat until he was consistantly under 80 BPM.

The hardest part of giving birth was leaving the hospital without my baby.  I had walked in with him, worked for many hour to deliver him, and now I had to go home without him.  It was the first time I had been without him in 10 months.  It was very hard and very weird.

Everyday, I would go to the hospital and spend time holding Alex, feeding him, and trying to produce milk for him.  I was on a very strict pumping schedule.  Even at night, I would pump every two hours.  Matt would come around 5pm to spend the evenings with Alex.  My good friend Jessica lived just two minutes from the hospital and was kind enough to fix me lunch and let me come over to rest at her house.  Her mom was there at the time, helping out with Jess's new baby, Sawyer. 

Alex was probably the most viewed NICU baby on the internet.  He had lot of people who would watch him every day.  I loved being able to log in and see him when I was at home.  It allowed me to keep and eye on what was going on even when I wasn't there.

The hospital let us stay in a room there the night before we where bringing him home.  We were allowed to have him in the room with us most of the day.  When we got into the room, I had suddenly become very cold.  So cold in fact that I was shivering uncontrollably.  I just figured that is was the room and asked Matt to turn up the heat.  We had visitors that day, including my parents, Matt's dad and step mom, my brothers, sister-in-law, nephews, and of course, my best friend.  She stopped by to bring us lunch before she went back to DC.  Once everyone had left, I was still not feeling well, so Matt took my temperature.  It was 102 degrees.  We called my midwife and the on call doctor sent me down to the ER to be checked out.  After about 5 hours in the ER, and lots of uncomfortable tests, I was told I had a severe UTI and needed to be on antibiotics.

I finally was able to come back to my room around 6am that morning, and got a couple hours of sleep before Alex was brought back in from the NICU. 

Alex finally came home on August 24th.

He is here!

Alexander Tyler Broxterman was born on Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at 7:24pm. He came out a whopping 10 lbs, 2 ozs and 22 inches long.

Alex's birth was a hard fought for delivery. Our birth story actually starts the Thursday before he was born. I went in for my weekly ultrasound and midwife appointment. The perinatalogist as usual wanted me to schedule a c-section for the next day, and as usual, I just tried to ignore him. He sent his report up to my midwife and I went and saw her later that day.

After much discussion and a few tears, we came up with a game plan. We would spend the weekend trying to get me to go into labor, if we where not successful then I would have a c-section on Wednesday morning. Our plan for the weekend involved stretching my cervix on Thursday, stripping my membranes on Friday and Saturday, and me taking the German Birth Drink on Saturday afternoon. For anyone who doesn't know what any of that is, you are better off. ;) Let's just say I was in for a very uncomfortable weekend.

After my appointment on Thursday, I went home and called Matt with the news. He as always was very supportive of either situation. He was going to go to my appointment the next day, which as it turns out, I am so glad. That night, I was very uncomfortable and didn't sleep well at all. Friday morning, we went in to see Leslie and she stripped my membranes. As it turns out, that hurts alot. I was glad Matt was there to hold my hand through it. Then I went home to wait and see if I would go into labor that night. No such luck, but I did have a lot of cramping, heart burn and no sleep. Saturday, Matt got up bright and early to go get a bike ride in before our midwife appointment that day. I am glad he was able to get his ride in since he has not been on the bike since. Just another example of how great my midwife is, she came in on Saturday just to strip my membranes again and give me the birth drink. The german birth drink is a combination of castor oil, almond paste, apricot paste, and some herbs. You drink it with 6 oz of champagne, which is just about the only good thing about it. We left the appointment, got some lunch and champangne and went home. At about 2:30pm, I drank the cocktail and went to lay down for a while. I watched Jersey Girl, which is not that bad of a movie. About the time the movie ended, I had started noticing that I was really crampy.

At about 5:30pm, I was noticing that I was having regular contractions and started timing them. I sent Matt a message, that I was having contractions, but not to get excited yet. I wanted to make sure they where the real thing and not false labor. Matt, being the excited daddy to be, came straight home and we called our Doula Sara and Midwife Leslie. We agreed to check back in later that evening and Matt and I went for a walk. We walked to the end of the street and back with Bandit. By the time we got back from our walk, I felt pretty confident that this was it, we where going to have a baby!

We decided to go get some dinner with my parents, so we went to Anna's pizza. By the end of dinner, I was getting pretty uncomfortable and squirmy. I was ready to get back home. Our game plan was to stay at home as long as we could, then go to the hospital. At about 9pm, I was coming out of the bathroom and stopped in the doorway to the kitchen, when all of the sudden there was two large gushes. My water had broken, or so I thought. It turns out that it had only sprang a leak. We called Sara and Leslie again just to let them know what was up. My contractions started coming faster and more intense. They where coming approximately every 2-3 minutes, so we called Sara back and asked her to come over. Sara is our Doula. She is a proffesional birth assistant and was there to support both Matt and I during this process. She was an invaluable part of our birth and we highly recomend hiring a Doula.

Sara got to the house around 11pm, I think. I get hazy about time at this point. I was having contractions about every 2-3 minutes and definitely had to stop and concentrate through each one. Sara helped me by suggesting various positions and having me get in the shower for a while. At approximately 1am, we decided to go to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital, and the nurses strapped on the fetal montior and the contraction monitor. Baby was doing great, and I was having nice strong contractions. Leslie arrived shortly after and checked me. Unfortunately, she didn't have good news for me. I was only at 4 cms, after being in labor for 7 hours and starting my labor at 3 cm. She also noticed that I still had my bag of water. Apparently, I had sprung a leak that fixed itself. She asked if I wanted to go home, or stay. I chose to stay, I could imaging that car ride again.

As the night progressed into morning, I was walking laps around the hospital, sitting on the birth ball and trying to rest some. But, my contractions had started to get further and further apart. By 7 am, they had disapeared. I was devistated. Why had my labor stopped? What was this going to mean for my birth? Leslie came in and finished breaking my bag of water. We were going to give it a little time to see if my labor would kick back in. She said I should try to get some rest while I could. I tried to lay down, but my mind was racing to much and I could not rest. About 9 am, Leslie came back to discuss our options. We could either, go ahead with the c-section, or start a pitocin drip to restart labor. We discussed the positives and risk of each senerio. After much discussion, I decided to go for the pitocin. I really wanted to avoid the c-section, and felt that I needed to do everything I could before I allowed it to happen.

As the nurses came in to start the drip, my contractions started again. We still went ahead with the drip, to insure that my labor would not stop again. I labored for about 4 hours with the pitocin, and was starting to feel the exhaustion of how long it was taking. I didn't know how much more I was going to be able to do. My midwife checked me again and I had only progressed to 5 cm. It was that news that made me decide to have the epidural. It was the hardest decision I have ever made. My midwife was concerned that if I didn't get some rest, I would not be able to push out my baby when the time came. She also told my husband on the side that we where looking like a midnight delivery at the rate I was progressing. Neither told me that, which was good. I looked at how long it had taken me to get to 5 cm (19 hours), and the fact that I had not slept, and decided to get the epidural. I cried the whole time I was making the decision and for a while after. I felt such disapointment in myself, but I had to do what was best for Alex. My midwife was also concerned about my back labor and wanted to see if we could get Alex in better positioning.

The next 30 minute where the longest ever. Once I had made the decision to have the epidural, I lost my ability to cope with the pain and just wanted it to be over. It is a interesting thing, how you go from coping to not.

Once I got my epidural, I spent four hour taking 15 minute naps and being flipped from side to side. Each time I woke up, I could feel more and more pressure. I knew the time was coming soon. My midwife came in the check me and I had moved from 4cm to 10 cm in the 4 hours I had been resting.  She still wasn't ready for me to push him out yet.  I had to labor him down some more, 2 hours more.  When I finally told the nurse that I could not wait anymore, Leslie came in and checked me.  Alex's head was right there.  So we went to work.....58 minutes later, Alex was born.  10 lb 2 oz, 22 inches.  He was the most beautiful sight I think I had ever seen.

Learning to just go with the flow...

I think Alex is trying to teach me how to just let go and trust everything will be okay. I had my weekly ultrasound and midwife appointment today.

From the begining of my pregnancy, I had decided that I wanted a natural child birth. This is actually a very different than what I alway thought I wanted. I had always said that when I had children, the doc better be chasing me in the door with the epidural. Then I got pregnant and it was like a switch got flipped in my head. I started researching everything and realized how much better it was for me and Alex to have as natural of birth as possible.

So over the last 10 months, Matt and I have been preparing for our child's entry into the world. We have selected a fantastic midwife, taken our natural childbirth class, hired a doula to help during labor, and have been mentally and physically preparing for the upcoming birth.

Well, today I found out that I may not get my natural birth. Not only is it possible that I will not have a natural childbirth, but I also may end up not getting to labor at all. I am 40 weeks and 5 days into my pregnancy, and if I do not go into labor by Wednesday morning, I am scheduled to have a c-section. This is just about the worst senerio I could have come up with, and now it is my reality.

We are going to do everything we can to get labor going in the next few days. Tomorrow my midwife will strip my membranes, and Saturday if I still haven't gone into labor, I will drink the birth drink. I am okay with going into the c-section at least knowing that I did everything I could to get him here naturally.

August 9th came and went....

I am officially one day past my due date. Yesterday was August 9th, which was our EDD (Estimated Due Date). According to my Bradley class, most first time mothers who plan on natural childbirth go 10 days late. Ugggggg, I don't think I can take another 9 days of waiting.

Matt is also not a big fan of waiting. He really wants to see his son and start being a dad.

We spent the past weekend going to the Forest Hill Farmer's Market on Saturday morning and the Watermelon Festival on Sunday morning. Both were fantastic! The farmer's market was fun and we were able to pick up some fresh veggies, and chocolate cake mix. I have developed this infatuation with chocolate cake since becoming pregnant. We also met this really cool woman who makes cloth diapers. Matt and I are both upset by the amount of waste our child will produce in his first two years of life. We are seriously considering at least supplementing with cloth diapers at home. The ones that the woman makes are really cool. They snap on and off, and are the diaper and cover all in one. They also grow with your child from 8 lbs to about 28 lbs. So in the long run, they would save us money too.

Sunday, we went to the Carytown Watermelon Festival. It was very hot, 97 degrees, but we had a great time walking around. Matt found these really cool barrels that you can put whiskey in and age it. Supposedly, you put in cheaper liquor and then let it age for 3 weeks or so and it come out tasting like the more expensive version. They are oak barrels and seemed very well made. Matt is now infatuated with them. We walked around for about 2 hours, which was the time limit placed on me by my midwife, ate lunch at Nacho Mama's and went home. I have never been so tired. I was telling Matt that I wasn't that tired after completing my Olympic Distance tri. I took a nap and spent the rest of the day resting and hoping to go into labor.

It is now Monday morning and I am still pregnant. I guess we will have to wait and see when Alex decides to make his grand arrival. There are lots of people anxiously awaiting his arrival.

39 weeks Prego

We offically became 39 weeks pregnant on Sunday. I delveloped high blood pressure approximately 2 weeks ago and was placed on bedrest for the duration of my pregnancy. Luckily, my BP has come back down in the two weeks since I was put out on bed rest.

Yesterday, I went for my weekly ultrasound to check on Alex's progress. We found out that he is a rather large baby, somewhere between 9 lb 11 oz and 10 lbs. Yes, you heard correctly, we are potentially have a double digit baby.

He is healthy and very active, and so far the midwives a very happy with his progress. There is a slight concern about his shoulders and the possibility of them getting stuck during delivery, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.

Welcome!

I wanted a way to capture the adventure that Matt and I are getting ready to undertake. This seemed to be a great way to do that.To back track just a little bit, Matt and I found out that we would be welcoming a new addition to the family back on December 2nd. Matt still likes to make fun of the fact that it took 3 test and google to convience me that I was reading it correctly. Needless to say, we where both suprised to see that we were going to become parents. It was quite by accident that we even found out. I had suffered a bout of depression following the death of my grandfather and aunt earlier in the year and was concerned that maybe it was coming back. I had been very emotional, tired, and feeling just run down for the previous week. I had made an appointment with my doctor and just wanted to be able to say with 100% certainty that I was not pregnant when he asked. Boy was I suprised to find out that I was indeed pregnant.

The last 9 months have been an crazy flurry of activity for us. Matt got a new job in Richmond and moved back home in January, we put our house on the market that month as well. I got a new job in March and also moved down to Richmond. We sold our house in May and have been preparing for our new addition ever since. Note to self: Do not move while pregnant ever again.

My pregnancy has gone pretty smoothly. My first trimester was a little rough. I missed having Matt around, had morning sickness, emotional mood swings, back pains, gave myself food poisioning, and spend two weeks in bed sick with a upper respitory infection turned sinus infection.

Second trimester went by very smoothly. I had more energy, stop throwing up, and was able to start feeling like a human again. Matt and I were even able to take a couple of camping trips and go white water rafting down the James River.

We are officially due on August 9th, 2009. We have decided to name our son Alexander Tyler Broxterman. Alex for short.

We are planning a natural, unmedicated child birth. In preparation for this, we have selected two wonderful mid-wives to be our primary care provider, a doula named Sara to help us through labor and delivery, and have surounded ourselves with a great community of parents to be who are also looking for an natural, unmedicated birth.