Pain and Peeing

Yesterday Baxter was doing some naked tummy time and started to get fussy. When I picked him up he had his finger stuck in his mouth and it hurt him so he started crying. I laid him down naked on the bed and was about to put a diaper on screaming baby and he started to pee all over me. He hasn't peed outside of a diaper for at least 5 weeks, so I wasn't expecting he. He thought it was hilarious. As soon as he peed on me he was all smiles and giggles. Stinker.

And after a week of terrible evening naps, he slept from 5:30 to 9:15 last night. He woke up happy, so we changed him, fed him, and he was back to sleep by 10:00. He then slept from 10pm to 6am. It was amazing! And he didn't cry when he woke up this morning either. I picked him up and it was grins for mommy. His smile is such a heartbreaker, it makes all the little things worth while.

Big and Tall... with a small head

Baxter did great at his two month appointment yesterday. He cried when he had his immunizations (and was cranky last night) but he didn't pee on anyone! He's actually pretty good now and doesn't pee into the air anymore. He's grown a ton though! He's now 24.5 inches long (up 3 inches since birth) and 13 lbs 9 oz. That means he's in the 95% for both height and weight. But his head circumference is only 15.25 inches, which is in the 25th percentile. So he's really tall and weighs a lot for his age, but he has a tiny head. The funny thing is it makes him look more normal, because most babies look like they have oversized heads.

We also had pictures taken at Sears again yesterday. They were really impressed with how well he handled his head (maybe because it's so small?) and that he could actually lift it up so well. We got some great photos.

And on Sunday night he rolled over FOUR times in a row! The fourth one I got on video, but he's naked so I'm not going to post it on youtube. Every time he rolled over he had the most surprised look on his face like he couldn't figure out what just happened. It was hilarious!

Ok, enough doting mother, class is starting now :D

I love my husband

He's so incredibly supportive. He appreciates that I breastfeed, and understands how important it is. He feels bad for babies who don't get held as much as ours does. He thinks that cloth diapering was the right decision, that it's better for Baxter, the environment, and our bank account. What did I do to deserve him?

He took a bath with Baxter tonight. We have discovered that Bax LOVES to take baths with a parent. Having freedom in the water, and being able to play, and be warm and wet, he grins almost the whole time. It calmed both him and his dad down. Jason is grading tests tonight, which is not always fun.

I started classes again this week, and I have no idea how I will finish all my school work. Luckily I have one professor twice, and he's super supportive. He's been a supporter of the mother baby center for a long time and he told me that if I ever needed to bring Baxter to class I was more than welcome to! That's one stress gone, but that doesn't help me get the required reading done...

there's a first time for everything

Baxter poops made Jason gag tonight. I couldn't stop laughing. But at least we all made it though my first day of classes! I just hope Baxter likes it when I read, because there's going to be a lot of that this quarter.

They don't tell you...

That leaving your child for the first time is harder than labor itself....

I had to leave Baxter with Miranda (our babysitter) this morning. I cried, and didn't stop until I got to school. I can't wait to go pick him up, and classes haven't even started yet.

Eep!

Baxter rolled over! He did it on friday, but I thought it was a fluke, but he definitely did it today! He's so strong!

Big Boy!

This boy just keeps getting bigger and bigger! Baxter is now up to 12lbs 9oz. He looks a lot bigger too.

My mom got married last weekend, and Baxter was great. He slept through the whole ceremony, and was quite the attraction at the reception. The wedding was beautiful too.

But now he's going through a phase where his digestive system is maturing and he's pretty fussy. So I get to hold him. A lot. And my snap press came in so I've been wanting to finish diapers, but that's not in the cards at the moment!

My son is amazing

Baxter is almost completely bald now, but he's still super super cute! He's had a bit of a cold this week, so he's gotten lots of cuddles, and he's pulling through it just fine. His smiles are becoming more and more social. The other day I was nursing him, and Jason walked over, and Baxter GRINNED at him, spilling milk all over his face and me, but it was just toooooo cute! And he loves the chair Grandpa and Grandma Dilley bought him. He'll sit in it for quite a while, just happy. Then if I walk over and get close to his face so he can see me he breaks out in smiles.

I love baby smiles.

I've taken more pictures, but I've slowed down some. I need to get them uploaded, but with Baxter being sick and clingy, I'm behind this week. And I'm working really hard on getting more diapers made before my snap press comes in, because since he's outgrown his newborn diapers we're running a bit low.

Also we have discovered that Baxter hates tummy time. But he loves being naked. Our solution? Naked tummy time. This has been great, and he enjoys it the whole time. The purpose of tummy time is to get them to exercise their head and neck, and pushing up with their arms. His neck is already pretty strong, but he loves exercising his legs when we're playing with him. He pushes up and stands with us supporting him.

Last night I put Baxter down for some naked tummy time, and briefly left the room to wet down a wipe. When I came back Baxter had MOVED! He sits there and gets a grip with his lower legs and torpedos himself forward. He starts with his hands under his chin, pushes off, drags his head, and ends up with his hands around his belly, and hasn't figured out much more then that. And he's gotten very close to rolling himself over too. That boy has some strong legs!

One more cute story - Last night Jason was playing with Baxter and had him leaning up against his knees while reclining in bed. He was holding Bax's hands and raising them above his head and telling him to roar. And Baxter did! I couldn't get the camera in time, but it was so amazingly adorable.

I think that was a good enough update for now, right? Mom (Grandma Deanna) is getting married this weekend, so I'm going to be busy the rest of the week. I'll try to update next week. Can you believe he's almost 6 weeks old?!?

Mama makes whole milk!

I took Baxter into WIC today to get him registered (yay government cheese!) and all that fun stuff. They also weighed him and measured him. The man child is huge!!! Baxter now weighs 11lbs 10oz, and is 22.5 inches long.

His weight is in the 90th percentile, and his height is in the 75th. Proportionately he's perfect though, so that's nice!

I did get a free breast-pump from them, but it's a super irritating one. They will give me a good one when I hit 8 weeks. They don't give out the good ones early because the good ones are single user, so if I stopped BFing, they wasted money on giving me a pump. This one can have multiple users, so they just pay for a kit of parts that are single user. Makes sense, but it also means that I will have a hard time pumping my first week of classes because he won't be 8 weeks until the end of it. But once he hits 8 weeks I can go trade out pumps, so that's a plus!

So anyway, that's about all I have to say for now. I just write snippets when I have a moment now. Oh, I guess there is one more thing, I uploaded a super cute video of Baxter to YouTube. So check it out :D

Baby Pattern Baldness

Baxter is losing his hair. At least some of it. He has a receding hairline. He kind of looks like uncle Brent. Right before we're scheduled to be taking family photos, and Mom's wedding... I hope it still grows back red. I love the red :D

Acne and Smiles

Well, baby acne set in shortly after my last post. But the smiles began! Baxter has even giggled in his sleep a few times. He's the bestest. We went to Seattle this weekend to visit family and had a great time. But now his schedule is a little off, so we're experiencing some fussiness. Sigh. Jason's week went great last week, but tomorrow he starts with kids, wish him luck! Ok, Baxter is crying, must go, but I"ll update more later!

Last Day...

Today is our last day before Jason starts work. The babymoon is ending! Tomorrow I have to take care of Baxter all by myself. It's a little scary, but I think I can do it. What I'm concerned most about is feeding myself. He knows every time I want to eat, so it makes making myself food nearly impossible. I've tried.

Baxter is already three weeks old! Time has flown by. He's doing really well with his neck now. I wouldn't call it stable, but it's certainly a lot stronger. And he has such great facial expressions. And his smile is fantastic! Still have yet to capture it in a picture, but believe me that it's a heartstopper.

Jason is up changing a diaper, so I only get a few more moments before I'm needed again. We had a BBQ yesterday for some of our friends to meet Baxter, and it was a lot of fun! We got a chance to reconnect with some old friends, so that was really special. We're going to Seattle this weekend to visit family and Baxter gets to meet the Dilley Clan. So it will be an interesting week!

So Big!

I can't believe that Baxter is over 2 weeks old already. He's grown up so much! If you haven't been watching, I've been posting a LOT of photos on flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/liarsandfrogs) and rarely a day goes by that I don't take a few more. His hair is turning redder and redder, even his doctor noticed at his 2 week check up. Baxter looks so much like Jason when they're asleep. It's really the sweetest thing.

So far he really enjoys tummy time on Daddy's chest. He's getting really good at holding his head up, but his neck is still pretty unstable. He also regained his birthweight by yesterday, which is incredible. On wednesday he was 9lbs 7oz, and babies usually gain between 1/2 and ounce and an ounce a day, so I didn't expect him to gain 4 ounces in 2 days. But he did! No wonder he wouldn't leave me alone the last few days, the boy is growing like a weed!

Life is going well, we're adjusting to having him around. It really helps that neither of us is working right now. There's random things that come up that we never thought about before and we can take care of them right away since we don't have other things going on.

We went down to SedroWooley the other day and got to check out Jason's classroom for next year. That was a lot of fun. Although I'm not sure Baxter really enjoyed the afternoon out. He doesn't like being warm, and it was rather warm there. Overall it went well though.

Cloth diapering is going well. No leaks (besides one minor poo blowout) so far! he's such a heavy wetter that I'm sure we would be having more problems with disposables. And the cloth is just so cute! Jason's getting really good at changing diapers. And we're both getting better at catching pee before it goes everywhere.... So far the worst it's gotten us is a tiny bit on my pants and a rather large patch on Jason's shirt. Our bedding gets washed a lot more frequently now too.

And Baxter makes the cutest noises ever. He squeeks and grunts all the time. And he GRINS in his sleep! They are oh so elusive though, and I have yet to get a picture, but man, when this kid is able to smile in response to people he's going to be a heartbreaker.

Ok, enough typing today. Jason's changing a diaper now which means I'll be needed after it's done. That and it's lunchtime soon, and Baxter has this crazy sixth sense that means he wakes up as soon as I want to eat, even if he just went down for a nap. I'm getting good at eating one handed!

A Jason Story

Last night I was up for a feeding (or an attempted feeding) and Jason partially woke up and grabbed the pillow that he had between his knees. He then clearly stated "This is not a valuable object, it is just a pillow" then put it back and laid back down. I asked him what he was talking about, and he said he was dreaming that he had a valuable object between his knees. Ok....

Red?

Baxter is turning into a redhead. I'll try to get good pictures soon, but it's going red. Who knows if it will stay or not. My great-grandma Eva (his great-great-grandma) was a natural redhead. When Jason grows his beard there's a lot of red in it. So it would be possible.

And man, this boy can POOP! He's now pooped three times today. I guess I shouldn't pray for that much poop. Maybe I should pray for normal newborn poops instead of these blowouts he's been having. He's also gaining weight, but not quite enough. So my job this week is to feed this boy as much as possible. Which I would be doing if I could wake him up! He's such a heavy sleeper. It's amazing. I wish I could sleep like that.

He's been sleeping really well at night too. He'll go for 3.5-4 hour stretches. Nice for mommy. Sometimes he falls asleep in the middle of a feeding, so we have to change his diapers to wake him back up so he finishes nursing. So far diaper changes are the only thing that will wake him up, but those don't always wake him up either! He sleeps like Jason.

I don't think I told you all this story, but the day he was born they were moving us to the recovery room. The recovery room had nicer beds (that didn't convert for labor) and less extraneous medical equipment. Anyway, they rolled me there in a wheelchair. By that time I'd spent close to 7 hours sitting in a bed and my tailbone and back were hurting, and the wheelchair felt really nice to sit in. So I asked the nurse if I could stay in it for a little while and I would call when I wanted to get into the bed. She said sure, and showed me where the call button was (on the other side of the room). After she left Jason asked if he could lay down for a while, and I said sure. I was having a nice time holding Baxter and resting my rear. Well, Jason fell asleep. Hard asleep. I was shouting (as loud as I dared) to wake him up, and he wouldn't even flinch. I tried for an hour to wake him up. Since I was holding Baxter, and was attached to an IV, and my right hand was useless to try to wheel myself (from the IV line) and the brakes were on the wheelchair, I was completely stranded. For an hour and a half. Until a nurse wandered in to check to see if I wanted to move yet. Honestly, after labor and everything, that was the closest I was to wanting to cry the whole day! And then that night I couldn't wake him up to help me to the bathroom, or to get Baxter when he cried. I had to call in the nurse instead.

But it's fun to tease him, he's actually been more than wonderful. I feel sooooo blessed with how well he has been treating me, and how much he loves his son. He will (usually) change diapers in the middle of the night without complaining. Bring me icepacks and water, make all the food, and he's even talked about baking cookies.

I love my family :D

Grumbler, Squeeker, or Growler?

Baxter makes the cutest noises. Sometimes he grumbles, sometimes he squeeks, and sometimes he makes growling noises. So he'll end up with a nickname, I'm sure, but I'm just not sure which one yet!

Oh, and HE POOPED! After a day of super fussing, he's now feeling much better and napping peacefully. He's also a master nurser now. After a visit from the mother baby center yesterday I learned some new tips and tricks. He's also a supersoaker. It's amazing how much you can learn in one week.

ONE WEEK! He's a week old already! I can't believe it. I'm falling more and more in love with him each day. The chub in his cheeks is starting to come back. He lost weight to just about 8lbs 14oz. Perfectly normal, and now he's back to 9lbs 1oz. He's just great.

His umbilical cord stump is just about to fall off. I can't wait for it to be gone. It kind of looks like a dirty raisin with a corn flake attached to the top. Yuck. Hopefully it will be gone soon.

Praying for Poop?

That's right. Baxter is backed up. The poor little guy hasn't gone in two days, which is pretty long for a new guy. So that's probably why he's so fussy while eating, because he doesn't have that much room in there.

On the positive side, I'm producing plenty of milk, and I'm healing just fine. I'm still sore, and if I over-do it I get swollen. And I'm below my pre-pregnancy weight! Just for a kick I tried on my old jeans, and the fit too! So overall things are going well over at the Dilley House. As long as there is explosive (which I'm told at this point it will be) poop in Baxter's near future.

A whole new life!

We came home from the hospital on Saturday afternoon. Great Grandpa and Grandma Spears came to visit us at the hospital before we left, and it was so neat! After we got home, Jason's parents and his younger sister came to visit. I was a long day, but so neat to see everyone.

Life is definitely different now that Baxter is home with us. He's such a blessing. He's really strong for a newborn, and the nurse that came to visit says he's about as active and social as a 6 week old! He takes really long naps, and he's nursing really well. He had his days and nights mixed up a little bit, but last night he slept from 2:30am to almost 8am! It was soooo nice.

Since he's a big baby he needs to suck a lot, even though he's not hungry the whole time. We haven't used a pacifier yet because I really want to make sure that breast-feeding is established so we don't confuse him. In the mean time my fingers almost look like permanent prunes!

Jason is doing a bit of tutoring this morning, so I've been cuddling and taking LOTS of pictures of Baxter this morning. They're not there yet, but expect Flickr to be filling up with photos... :D

Official Story!

On July 31st, I started having contractions at about 8pm. They were pretty strong, but not at all regular. They were happening often enough that I couldn't sleep, and about midnight Jason went to bed and I realized I should be timing them. By 1am, I woke up Jason because the contractions were 3.5 minutes apart and 1.5 minutes long. By 2 we were at the hospital. Overall it wasn't too bad. By the time we got there I was just about 5cm.

Mostly I was excited because I didn't have to be induced. My nurse was great, and Jason was fantastic. I had wanted to go as natural as possible, and so I made it by thinking "if I can hold out a little longer it will be too late for drugs" over and over. And it worked! My water broke naturally at about 3:30, and I got to 8cm by about 6am, and then stayed there in Transition for about an hour and a half. That was the worst. At that point in time they were having a hard time finding his heart beat on the monitor and were starting to get concerned.

Now is when they called in the OB thinking I would need to have a c-section. They put in an IV but didn't have a chance to really start it, because I started pushing. I had just barely gotten to 10cm, and they wanted to prep me for surgery, so I surprised them all (and myself) by pushing him out in 27 minutes! At that point they did start the IV with pitocin because I was bleeding pretty badly. I had some pretty severe tearing that had to be fixed, but Baxter came out perfect.

He scored a 7.5 on his first APGAR because he was a little distressed by labor, but scored a 9 on the next one. He's huge! 21.5 inches long, and 9lbs 11 oz. But he's so sweet and perfect. He sleeps great, and eats great too. We're still in the hospital, but I think we'll try to make it home today. I really don't mind being here, but I miss it there too.

I posted a few photos on here, but there are a TON on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/liarsandfrogs/
Enjoy!

Baby Update 8/1/08

Let me try this again...my last update was baleted.

Jason updating right now as that our mother is currently a little busy. Merrilee was having strong contractions all night and around midnight she started measuring them closer. At around 1am she woke me up and we arrived at the hospital at 2am.

So we're just waiting now. Doctors and nurses have said she is doing well and our lab results from the blood all came back normal. Looks like he is on his way and will hopefully be arriving later today.

::edit::

It's official! The Dilley's are parents! At 8:10am pst, Baxter Bennett Dilley was born at 9lb 11oz. He is healthy, happy, and a has a strong set of lungs.

I will update with pictures later tonight.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support :-).

We'll keep everyone updated!

Jason