Gavin 2 days old. - Update d 11 pm

4/24/08 - morning weight: 6 lbs 0 oz.

2:00 a.m. I woke up very ticked off that they didn't wake me up for his 1 a.m. feeding and I went to the nursery to see what was going on. They said he hadn't digested much of the 10 pm feeding so they were going to wait to feed him til 4 a.m. (they use the tube to extract the fluid from his belly to see how much is still in there - he was fed 10 cc's at 10 pm and at 1 a.m still had 9 cc's in his belly).

4:00 a.m. - 2nd attempt at nursing went same as the first. He wouldn't wake up to try so again he got 10 cc's via tube. They also moved his I.V. from his arm to his foot because his hand swelled up pretty bad.

6:00 a.m. today's labwork back - no infection so antibiotics ordered to be stopped at 2 pm. Bili levels 11.3 :(

7:00 a.m. - I.V. moved from his foot to his head because his foot started to swell. Also OG tube moved from his mouth/throat to his nose because he kept trying to pull it out plus they wanted to make trying to nurse easier.

11 a.m. - another try at breastfeeding. Again he would not wake up - he's getting more and more yellow looking too :( I did finally get it in his mouth though and he gave a couple 'sucks' here n there. They're weighing him before and after and he did gain 0.3 of 1 ounce so he did get a little bit. He was then given 10 cc's via tube.

2 pm - Neonatologist ordered the iv fluids to be lowered and will continue to be lowered more the more he eats. Another try at nursing, this time he woke up just a little bit and latched on a couple times. Not a great latch but much better than last time. He did however lose 0.2 of an ounce this time due to him being a bit more active during this feeding. He did get some milk though via breast, about 5 cc's. Then they gave him another 5 cc's via tube.

It's 4 pm now and I'll get to go try to feed him again at 5 :) Here's hoping he gets a good latch and eats n eats :) Will update more later.

6:00 pm - HE ATE!!!!!!!!! I went in for his 5:00 feeding and he was wide awake finally. I held him and he was fascinated looking all around for about 5 minutes then I offered him the breast and he started going at it like he had done it for years!!! He nursed for 8 minutes straight then stopped to let out a couple burps then latched right back on for another 5 minutes stopping to burp another 4 times. At that time the neonatologist came back in so we weighed him again (first right b4 the feeding) and he gained 8 grams from that feeding which they say is about the same as drinking 8 cc's then he drank another 13 cc's from a bottle. The neo. said that he wants him to eat about 25-30 cc's per feeding - he can be at the breast for 20 minutes, no more as to not wear him out, and if he doesn't get that amount from the breast he can take the rest from a bottle. They turned the iv fluids down again, he was getting an 8mL (or mg i dont know) drip and they cut it down to 4. If he keeps up eating well and the amount the dr wants him to through the night the iv can come out in the morning and he can leave the special care nursery and start rooming in with me!!! =) He's still pretty yellow so I'm really hoping his levels are good in the morning. The neo said as long as they are under 13 he will be happy - anything above 13-14 he's going under the lights. I am just So so happy that he finally nursed :) I worry a bit about nipple confusion since they gave him a bottle too But I found out that they've been giving him a paci (against my wishes) and he's been liking that and he still nursed great so hey whatever it takes to get him in here with me :) He will always get breast before bottle and this last feeding he didn't seem to mind the transition from one nipple to the other one bit. Next feeding will be at 8:00 unless he shows he's hungry before that. Oh yeah and he pulled out his feeding tube just before I got in there for the feeding. Since he ate so well they are not going to put it back in :)

8:00 pm - well this feeding didn't go well :( ugh what a freaking roller coaster ride, he wouldn't wake up to nurse and lost 2 grams during the 20 minutes we tried. So then the nurse tried the bottle and of course he wouldn't wake up for that either so she basically forced it down him, 13 cc's worth. At least it was enough to avoid them putting the feeding tube back in. I'm hoping the 11:00 feeding goes better. I hate this schedule crap. NONE of my kids were ever on any kind of feeding schedule. I really believe that if they were to take all that crap off him and let him in here with me that we could get the feedings going. If I was stuck in a room under a heating lamp all day I'd do nothing but sleep too!! The up and down emotions are exhausting. Not only am I away from my 5 babies at home but I can't spend the time I want with Gavin either. Sure I can go in there any time I want but having to sit there in that chair and hold him with all the wires is rough. Well off to surf the web a bit, 1 hour 20 minutes left til next feeding time and hopefully it will be an "up" time.

11:00 pm - He was wide awake when I went in to start his feeding. And he nursed the full 20 minutes!!! He gained 16 grams too! Afterwards he drank another 12 cc's from the bottle so a total of 28 - WOO HOO!!!!!!!! Dr. wants 25-30 cc's per feeding. Here's hoping he does the same for the 2 a.m. feeding! I'm hoping that by tomorrow he'll be able to get the full feeding done during the 20 minutes of nursing and not need the bottle afterwards.

Gavin's 1st 48 hours

Gavin was taken to the nursery shortly after birth because his body temp was a little low. I got moved into my postpartum room and Rich had to head home to get the kids off to school. I dozed off for a bit and went to the nursery to get him but he had been moved to the special care nursery because his breathing was too hard and fast. They like the respirations between 30-60 breaths per minute and his were ranging 80's-100's. They had him hooked up to monitor's that monitored his heartrate/pulse/oxygen levels and respirations. Just going to do this in time line format will be much easier.

4/22/08 - birth weight 6 lbs 4 oz

11:00 a.m. - started on i.v. fluids to prevent dehydration from breathing so fast and OG tube put in (down his throat, very small tube) to relieve the air building up in his belly.

2:00 p.m. - I.V. antibiotics started to prevent infection from fluid in lungs.

3:00 pm - throughout the day respirations remained high, oxygen levels were down some and there was talk about possibly starting him on a little bit of oxygen.

4:00 pm - oxygen levels back to normal and oxygen was never given.

6:00 pm - talked to pediatrician about feeding Gavin and was told no due to the risk of him aspirating the breastmilk since he was breathing so fast still.

4/23/08 1 day old: morning weight 6 lbs 6 oz.

5 a.m. - lab work drawn - later came back showing no infection in lungs, bili level was 7.
His respirations were great throughout the night averaging between 40-60 breaths per minute. Oxygen levels stayed great also.

8 a.m. - Neonatologist came in to talk to me. Said the antibiotics would be administered for 48 hours and if still no sign of infection he can come off those. Orders given to feed breastmilk via the tube - 5cc's every 3 hours. If he tolerates 4 feedings well and his breathing remains stable I can try to breastfeed :)

Pumping every 2 hours and he was fed breastmilk via tube at 9 am, 1 pm, 4 pm and 7 pm.

10 pm - got to try to breastfeed for the first time - but he wouldn't wake up and after 15 minutes of trying never got the nipple in his mouth :( They don't want me trying more than 15 minutes as to not stress him out. So he was fed via tube - 10 cc's per feeding now rather than 5.

Introducing Gavin Robert!

Introducing Gavin Robert!

On Monday 4/21/08 I was just pretty much hanging out at home doing the same ole same ole........I coughed and then realized oh wonderful I didn't prepare for the cough and now I wet myself. So I go get changed didn't think another thing of it. Well then a few minutes later as I was walking up the stairs I noticed more wetness and started to wonder if maybe it was my water. So I call up my friend and told her I thought my water might be leaking then we just talked about other every day stuff as I walked around outside. Well during our conversation the leaking continued to increase so it was at that time I knew for sure it was my water. I called the midwife just before 3 pm and she had me come into the office to verify. So get there and sure enough the little strip turned blue immediately. She checked me and I was a loosed 2 cm's dilated. After All those contrax I had for the full week beforehand........yeah they disappeared. Figures!!! So we talked and decided I would go home, pack my bags (yeah i still hadnt done that lol), eat dinner then head in to the hospital to be induced. I hate pitocin and really wanted to avoid it this time but I also knew that walking and using the breastpump never got my labor going with the last 2 kids so I decided that instead of killing my nipples and wearing myself out we'd just start right up with the pitocin.

Arrived at the hospital at around 7 p.m. and pitocin was started at 8. The contrax started up within about 10 minutes - nothing heavy, just light ones every 3 mins or so. We did alot of walking the halls and my midwife arrived around 9:30. The contrax started picking up in intensity around 10:30 pm but nothing I couldn't manage. Midwife asked if I minded if she go lay down for a bit - of course i didnt mind :) - and told me to call if I need her. I think it was around 12:30 that things started getting intense. I put a pillow on the floor and spent quite some time on my hands and knee's as that was the most comfortable I could get, things were getting pretty painful by then. I remember feeling a soft touch on my back rubbing my lower back and shoulders and after a few contrax I finally looked up to see who was there cuz I knew it wasn't Rich rubbing my back lol, it was my midwife :) It's like she knew I needed her without me even having to send someone for her. From that moment on she never left my side. I couldn't have asked for a better support person, she was awesome! Around 1 a.m. she asked if I wanted her to check me, due to the pressure and pain of the contrax I was Sure i was progressing.......when she told me I was 3 cm's dilated and 90% effaced I lost it. I was Pisssed! All that pain and that's all it's done!! She calmed me down and filled the tub up for me. I got into the tub and omg that was heaven. The contrax went from a pain level of 10 on a scale of 1-10 to about a 3. We thought the water was stalling labor since I was so calm and comfy in there but she checked me again at around 2 a.m. and i was 6cm's!!! I needed to use the bathroom so she told me to get through a couple contrax on the toilet to help bring him down a bit more. Yeah that wasn't fun lol. If I thought things were intense before I was wrong because this was just excruciating!! I got through about 5 contractions on the toilet then got back into the tub. The water wasn't helping anymore though and I was losing all focus and focusing on the pain. My midwife just kept talking to me and rubbing my back and pulling me back in to focus. Shortly after 3 a.m. I told her I wanted to get out of the tub. My legs were very stiff and I need to stretch them out. She told me 'If you get out now you probably won't get to get back in, you are THAT close'. I tod her I didn't care at this point I just needed to move. So she asked me if I was sure (she knows how badly I wanted a waterbirth) and asked me if I would have any regrets if I got out of tub and I told her I wanted out. So she helped me back out to the bed. The minute I got in the bed things really got bad. She checked me again and I was fully dilated! After all that time of me wanting this over, I froze when she said I could push whenever I felt ready. So I spent a few minutes telling her I changed my mind and begging her to make the burning stop lol, then yelling at dh that I am NOT doing this again lol. And then I decided ok we're getting this over with. So I started pushing, I was laying on my left side which I thought would have been comfortable but it wasn't so I flipped to my back. The minute I did that I hear the m/w saying "Jessica reach down and catch your baby" I was holding the bed rail and rich's hand so tight that I couldn't let go! I kept telling her I can't and she grabbed my hands and Made me! I reached down just as his head was being delivered. I gave another push and felt him 'fall' right into my hands and I brought him up to my belly. *I* caught him! It's something that I always wanted to do and I am SO so glad she MADE me do it :)

The cord was pretty short so i was unable to bring him up closer to my but I just stared in awe at the hair he had!! None of my kids had that much hair lol. Daddy cut the cord and I was able to then move him up on my chest. I started bleeding pretty heavily and saw the worried look on the midwife's face. I was feeling ok but was nervous thinking back to how badly I hemorraged with my 1st. She gave me a shot of something in my leg then kept massaging the uterus. This went on for quite some time before things got under control. But important thing is that it was under control :) I tried to nurse but he wasn't interested at the time.

Here is Gavin Robert
born 4/22/08 @ 3:29 a.m.
6 lbs 4 oz 19.5"

34 weeks

Wow 34 weeks today!!  Here's my most recent 2 belly pics, and some more diaper covers I've been working on for him (still gotta finish that black one).

Oh and yes one of these days i'll put a picture in that frame on the wall lol, my daughter hung it up there, no clue who those ppl are lol, they came with the frame.

Wont really give an update in this post.  I feel like crap, everything hurts, lots of gross stuff going on, etc etc............fun end of pregnancy stuff.   So I'll just say Here's hoping to at least a week more, even better 2 more weeks before Gavin tries to make his appearance.

Oh yeah and apparantly photobucket thinks my belly is a boob cuz they deleted this pic from when I was 28 weeks lol:

A Long "what i've been up to" post lol

Let's see, we'll start with the pregnant stuff lol. I am now 31 weeks.......WHOA!!! It's recently hit me that I'm gonna have another baby!! Sure........I've known for quite some time now that I'm pregnant, the big beach ball belly...........the heartburn........the kicking and flipping and turning I feel all day.........kind of gives that away lol, but I've been so busy these past months that I never really had time to sit and think about what the end result would be. Fact is......in just a short few weeks I am going to have SIX kids! SIX!!!!!!!! Hard to believe! Am I ready for this? haha guess i better GET ready huh? Let's see, he has tons and tons of clothes thanks to my buddy Natasha :) So at least he won't be naked. I have boobs......lol......so he won't be starving. And well........that's about it! lol. I still need to bring the bassinet in and get that washed. But more importantly I have lots more diapers to make!!! Here's 2 diaper covers I just made him recently:
I think this one will be my favorite lol.

This past Saturday night I couldn't sleep.......well and every night since then too lol. My hips and.........well........other things down there were just in so much pain. So Sunday I had my daughter take a new belly pic because I had a feeling that baby had "dropped". Well here's what I saw:

Guess that explains things!! A bit nervous now though as my last 3 kids all came exactly 4 weeks after I dropped. So if this one follows suit, that would make his arrival to be expected on April 13th at which point I will be 34 weeks 3 days. A bit too early. A full week earlier than my last one. Plus it's my nieces birthday. I'm not due til May 22nd but I am pretty sure I won't make it into May at all. So now fingers are crossed that I make it as long as possible in April and that he gets a healthy start!!

Been keeping busy sewing and getting orders out. I'll be taking my "maternity leave" on March 31st so I have time to finish getting things ready for Gavin and also work on some projects to stock in my stores when I come back =) All of my orders lately have been custom orders and as much as I love doing customs, it doesn't leave much time to get things in stock. Here's a Mei Tai I did a few days ago though that I can't resist showing off =)

She's for sale too over at www.crunchycongo.com ! Oh and check out the Awesome easter egg hunt we have going on over there too! It ends March 26th and there's some great prizes to be won :)

Guess that's about it for now. I don't expect things to slow down any time soon. Kids are off school tomorrow, we have easter at the in-laws Sunday, next week I have 3 chiropractor appointments, one midwife appointment, 1 school concert........and who knows what else lol. Then in 2 weeks the kids have spring break......hope they're ready cuz we have some major Spring Cleaning/Getting ready for baby stuff to do that week! Speaking of which........I need to start cramming those hypnobirthing cd's into my head!! lol time is running out fast!

Granola Chicks? Them girls are Nuts!!

lol. So I'm part of this Awesome online community called Granola Chicks. ( www.granolachicks.com ) I've been there almost a year now and the ladies there have taught me so much. The other day I was looking for advice on how to relieve this horrible heartburn/reflux I've been dealing with, and several of them had suggested Apple Cider Vinegar. Well I finally broke down and bought some today because lately the Tums are just making my heartburn worse. After dinner it was bad, felt like I was breathing fire, so I got up the courage to take a swig of the vinegar. That stuff was THE Nastiest Grossest stuff I've ever drank!!! As I'm shivering from the nasty taste I'm muttering things under my breath and wondering Why oh Why would these ladies do this to me lol. But once I finally quit twitching from the taste I was amazed to find that my heartburn was gone!!! haha those nutty granola chicks were right once again. That was over an hour ago and the heartburn is Still gone!!!

There's so much more to the Granola Chicks. As nutty as they are (and I mean nutty in the most loving way :) Nutty is fun!!) they are some of the most loving caring women I've ever met. I was in a car accident back in January, I was ok, sore but ok, but at barely 20 weeks pregnant I was very concerned about he baby and if he was ok. Since it was a car accident, my pregnancy only insurance wouldn't cover a visit to the midwife to check on the baby. I still had 2 weeks before my next appointment and just couldln't shake the fears I had on if he was ok or not. Well, some very very special Granola Chicks came together and thanks to their donations I was able to fully pay for an office visit to go in and make sure baby was ok :) Had it not been for them, I would have been a nervous wreck for the next 2 weeks wondering and waiting. These ladies there would give the shirt off their back to help another mama out and I am very blessed to be a part of such a great community.

There is such a variety of women there, different styles, different personalities, etc, but one thing they all have in common is their hearts, and passion. I've never seen any drama there, and was even able to share with them a very very difficult part of my past and in return got only love and support, not criticism and guilt. It doesn't matter there if you're black/white, rich/poor, all out 'crunchy' or just a lil bit crunchy, everyone is welcomed with open arms and That's why I love Granola Chicks so much.

In addition to all the great ladies there, you'll find loads of great information on things like cloth diapering, breastfeeding, natural health remedies, special needs, wahm raves, and so on and so on. So if you want to be part of a great community, come on over to http://www.granolachicks.com/community and tell them mama2five sent you :)

Update

As usual I'm slacking on the updates lol. But the past weeks have just been crazy busy. Between orders and stores I'm working working working :) It's great though! I plan to start my "maternity leave" March 31st so trying to cram everything I can in now then will spend my time off doing some much needed maintenance on my website and work on getting a good stock built up to cut down on customs.

Pregnancy - Can you believe I'll be 30 weeks in just a few hours!!!! Time has just flown by so fast. I still have a ton of diapers to make, and need to wash the bassinet, but thanks to a great friend Natasha Gavin is far from a clothing shortage lol. I don't think the boy will ever wear the same outfit twice!!

Now to the blah parts.........the discomforts are really setting in, I can barely get my shoes on, getting up off the floor after changing Ashlyn is quite the adventure, it's getting harder to pick her up, and just walking from one end of the room to other leaves me feeling as if I just ran a marathon. My back hurts, other parts of me hurt lol, and Gavin is just having a field day beating on my hips. He seems to prefer the left hip. Oh yes and the ribs, he gets his feet into those really good.

Trying to take it easy as much as I can, but 'easy' doesn't come easy when you have 5 kids. I've had FFN tests come back positive 2 weeks in a row now, which doesn't guarantee that he will come early but does indicate a chance of it happening. REALLLLLY really hoping I have at Least another 5 weeks left. I go back to the midwife again tomorrow. The good news is the contractions are minimal, I have bouts of them here n there that will last an hour or so then subside. Let's hope they stay at a minimum.

Will update after my midwife appt.