Aiden - 3 weeks old!

It's hard to believe, but Aiden is already 3 weeks old! 23 days old today, to be precise!

He continues to be... well... PERFECT! I don't know how else to describe him! Everything about him... his smiles, his coos, his toes, and his fingers... everything is perfect! He brings a smile to my face and to my heart every time I look at him! When I hold him and he just stares at me as if saying, "I love you, mommy" it melts my heart! I know my love and affection for this little man will only continue to grow as he does, and I simply cannot wait to see what God will do with his precious life!

Okay, enough with the sappy stuff, I'm getting all teary-eyed! Today Aiden weighs approximately 10 pounds 7 ounces (and when I say, "approximately", I really mean it! I weighed myself, then held Aiden and weighed again and subtracted the 2 weights to get his :) Lol.) and he is about 22.5 inches long (when he was born he was 7 pounds 8 ounces and 21 inches long).

He is now starting to mimic faces that Jeff and I make - mostly sticking out our tongues and opening our mouths in an "O" shape. He is awake more during the day and very alert during his wake periods! He will focus on people's faces when they are talking to him. He smiles a lot, and just yesterday started smiling when I made a funny face at him.

He is now sleeping from about 9pm-2 or 3am steadily, without waking up at all! Then he wakes up every 3 hours after that to eat. During the day he eats about every 2 hours, though. He is eating about 3 ounces (sometimes 4, but not often) in a feeding, which is great for him! His jaundice is completely gone and he is a very healthy, growing boy now!

I continue to feel great! I feel completely healed from the delivery... it was so easy, there really wasn't much healing to be done! I feel great, and have somehow managed to lose 20 pounds (the 14 pounds I gained from my pre-pregnancy weight, plus 6 more) since delivery... I hope 20 more comes off that easily ;-)

Today is mine and Jeff's 3 year wedding anniversary! When we got married, we always knew we wanted children, but we didn't know when! But now that Aiden is here, we think now is a perfect time :)

Aiden Update

Aiden is now 1 week and 1 day old... wow! Time flies! I finally decided to put him in his swing while he is sleeping and get on here to let you all know how things have been! Well, it's been rough... First, when we got home from the hospital I called my family doctor, who would be seeing Aiden, to schedule his first appointment. However, the receptionist informed me that she isn't seeing any newborns. I informed her that she had already approved seeing Aiden and that it is in my chart. So, they say they'll have to call me back. The nurse calls back and says, "I am so sorry, but the doctor has had to make the decision not to see any more newborns, and that includes Aiden, even though he was preapproved". I was devastated! I called my mom in hysterics practically, because who wants to have to find a pediatrician to see a baby in 3-5 days while having a 2 day old baby at home?!?!?! So, my mom calls the office the next morning and talks to someone she knows there. She told my mom that she can't tell us the details, but she said something has happened and the doctor has no choice but to not see any newborns. So, all we can assume is that someone is suing her for something with their newborn... which is SO sad, because she is the most amazing doctor EVER! So, my mom told me of a pediatrician group by the hospital that a friend of hers takes her twins to and highly recommends, and which they recommended in our birthing class. So, I call them, explain the situation, and they were awesome and got Aiden in on Saturday!!! (They have incredible hours! 8am-10pm weekdays, and 8am-5pm weekends!!! WOW!!!) Anyway, we brought Aiden home from the hospital last Wednesday. On Thursday night he was extremely fussy and would not calm down! I tried to nurse him and he acted extremely frustrated with feeding. So, we kept at it until Saturday when we took him to the doctor for his first well-baby appointment... turns out he wasn't well :( He had continued to lose weight since discharge and was becoming jaundice (Aiden was 7lbs 8oz. at birth, 7lbs. 1oz. at discharge, and 6lbs 13oz. at the appointment Saturday). So, they sent us for blood work to check his Billi Ruben, which came back at a 14.6 - not too bad, but still not as low as it should be for a healthy baby! Also, the doctor had us try Similac and told me to pump and see if I was getting anything.... I didn't. I pumped each breast for 5 minutes and had maybe 5 drops... literally, drops... from each breast. I was so frustrated, and a little upset with myself because little did I know that my body was denying my baby the nutrition he needs to thrive! I'm not blaming myself... it was just disappointing! So, we went back to the doctor the next day (Sunday) and he had already gained 3 ounces in 19 hours from being on the formula! They rechecked his Billi Ruben levels, and they dropped from 14.6 to 13.8! YAY! So, the doctor said we are on the right track for sure, and to come back in 1 week (we have an appointment for Friday). Needless to say, I was terrified - especially when the doctor said the word "hospitalization" as a possibility if his levels were too high. I was in tears in the doctor's office. However, God is good and pulled our little guy through just fine! His coloring is awesome now, he is eating like a champ (about 1-2oz, sometimes 3, every 2-3 hours... not as much as he should, but he's getting there! He's just a little thing anyway!) I'll keep trying to pump and see if I get anything... but in the meantime, we've stocked up on Similac!

Aiden's Birth Story

On Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010, I started having some harder and more regular contractions off and on all day. They would be regular (like, 2 minutes apart for about 50 seconds each) for about an hour, and then they would stop for a little while. So, we went to church, had Easter lunch with my family, went to my mom's house and spent some time with my parents and my siblings and our new nephew, and then came home and went for a walk. We had a late lunch, so around 8pm we made some spicy cheese dip for a snack and then went to bed.

Around 1am on Monday, April 5, 2010, I woke up having the strongest contractions I had felt yet! I started timing them and realized they were very regular. So, I got up and walked around the house to see if they would go away - they didn't. At 2am, my husband woke up to go to the bathroom. He said, "Are you okay?" and I told him what had been going on. We got out the laptop and loaded up Contractionmaster.com and started accurately timing them. They were coming every 2 minutes and lasting for as much as 1 minute and 10 seconds. After a few of those I said, "Let's go to the hospital!" So, off we went!

We got to the hospital at 3am. They hooked me up to the monitors and said that I was 2cm dilated. After 1 and a half hours, the nurse came back in and checked me again. As she was checking me she said, "Well, it looks like you haven't dilated any more. You're still at a 2..." and proceeded to tell us to go home... just then my water broke! She said, "Ok, well I think your water just broke, so I'll go get you a room and get you admitted!" I was ecstatic! I did NOT want to go home just to go through all that again when the "real" time came! So, we all started laughing and got VERY excited! My mom was already there, so she made some calls for my dad to come with my younger siblings around 6am (it was about 4:30am at this point), Jeff called his parents, and we got a room!

Almost immediately my contractions came to a screeching halt! They became irregular and practically non-existent. I was so disappointed... but glad that my water had broke, so I KNEW we would be having a baby in the next day or 2!

When they checked me for dilation again, I was only at a little over 3cm! Ugh... so, the nurse started talking about Pitocin. I was very leery of this and told her my fears of the contractions coming too strong too fast! So, she sent my doctor in (my actual OBGYN was the one on call that day so I was very happy about that!) So my doctor came in and started discussing the pros and cons of Pitocin. I decided to get the Pitocin, but to only start at a 2 and if nothing happened, to only go up by 2 every hour (they wanted 30 minutes, but I said no!) So, they started the Pitocin at a 2 and almost immediately the contractions started coming back! They were regular for a while, but eventually started spreading apart. So, they raised it to a 4. That really picked things up and they came every 2 minutes and started getting longer and longer. They gave me some pain meds that did NOTHING for the pain. After a while I asked for an epidural. The nurse checked me first and I had already progressed to 6cm!

The anesthesiologist came in and did the epidural - however, it only took on my right side! My left leg became a little numb, but I still had complete control over it and I could feel every contraction on my left side! The nurse called the anesthesiologist back in for a little more of the epidural and he had my lay on my left side to see if it would go that way... no such luck! So, I decided I could live with the pain and dealt with it as it came... about an hour and a half later, the nurse came back and said that Aiden's heart rate started to decelerate a little (but nothing alarming) so she wanted to check me for dilation again because this could be a sign that I was ready to push. Lo and behold, I was 10cm dilated and she could see Aiden's head!!! (we were all shocked, because the doctor said to expect 1cm dilation per hour after 6cm). So, she called my doctor in and while the doctor was changing she had me start pushing! I gave about 3 pushes and she told me to stop because Aiden was about to come out! (She said I was pushing like I had already had 5 kids!) :)

So, the doctor came in and I gave 4 sets of 3 pushes, and out came my baby boy's little head!!! They suctioned him and did their thing, and with one more push we had our little boy!

Aiden Michael Freeman was born at 4:59pm on Monday, April 5, 2010 weighing 7lbs 8oz. and measuring 21 inches long! He has a full head of beautiful brown curly hair and a beautiful olive skin tone. He looks identical to Jeff, but he has my mouth. We are both so head over heels in love with our son... he was so worth every bit of heartache and waiting that we have endured over the last 2 years!