1 month

Way back on March 5th, Edwin turned 1 month. I was pretty great with photos and blog posts for Miles so I'm going to try to do the same with Edwin.  His first month flew by, he has slept a lot and we had tons of help from family and friends. So many people brought us meals (I didn't have to cook for a full month) and many friends took my big boys for play dates nearly everyday while I bonded and adjusted with Edwin. We've had the same nursing issues that I've had with my big boys. With Miles, we were able to get him to latch eventually so we were hopeful with Edwin. After some latching issues and still waiting for my milk to come in, we gave Edwin some formula and then pumped milk in a bottle so then he decided that he liked bottle better and just got mad at me if I tried to nurse him. So, as of now, he still isn't nursing and I pump milk 6-7 times a day. (another reason it was such a blessing that I had friends take my bog boys on play dates.) Sometimes I think I'm crazy for dedicating all this time to pumping milk for my baby when formula is still a great option, but most of the time it just seems like the right thing to do when my body is producing plenty of milk for Edwin. Anyway, so far this post has been about lactation. Let's talk about Edwin.

He is such a good baby. He is calm and sweet. He cries if he's hungry and starts to fuss when he's getting tired, but other than that, he is so easy-going. He sleeps for good stretches during the night so we usually only have to get up with him 1-2 times per night (if we go to bed at midnight) Every morning it looks like he has grown. He started to smile at us right at one month, he is especially happy in the morning after he eats and gets a clean diaper.

Charlie likes to play with Edwin's toes.

 He loves bath time, from the moment we set him in his first bath, he was truly peaceful.  If I remember right, both my big boys were pretty shocked at first then grew to like baths.

He doesn't mind tummy time, he rolled from his front to back at 3 weeks, I thought it was a fluke, then he started doing it again and again at 5 weeks. (like 11 times in a row, Charlie was keeping track)

He loves being swaddled, if he's not swaddled he wont sleep long unless he's in his swing or carseat, which is where he often naps.

He loves it when you get up close in his face and make cooing baby sounds. He will smile and coo back. He seems to love hearing his noisy brothers.

And his brother's decided they wanted to hold him and jump in on some photos.

 These big brothers love Edwin. Charlie wants to greet him every morning. he likes to show him off at his preschool.  If Edwin is sad Charlie usually says it's because Edwin can't see Charlie's face. He is always saying that Edwin is his best friend. Miles is a little less involved with Edwin but loves to be my helper. He is always willing to get a diaper, binky, milk bottle or snot sucker. He has said "I can serve you and Edwin!"

He has so much snot and boogers. We are constantly sucking it out. This may seem like a weird detail to include but Max and I keep saying, "i don't think Miles or Charlie had this much snot..." and if I would have documented it, I would have known. 

His eyes are gray/blue. Miles started out this way then went brown. So we'll see how Edwin's go. They look more blue to me than how Miles' were and we have the genes for any color in our families. (out of my 3 brothers, one is green, one is blue, and one is brown. Max's family is all green and blue) So far both our big boys have my brown eyes, and Charlie has my blindness. I may secretly be hoping that I get a child with Max's dreamy green eyes.

And totally random, but as I was taking Edwin's photos, Charlie was setting up a "family fun center" in his room. Which seemed to mean, dumping all the stuffed animals, toys, and costumes on the beds and then playing with them. But he did specify this bucket as the baby area of the family fun center so Edwin had to try it out.

Anyway, this is mostly me rambling about our baby but I'm glad that I'm keeping some kind of record so there's that!

Edwin James...a birth story

Around 2:30 pm on February 4th we were told that there was room for us in the hospital to go get our induction started. We ate lunch, put our bag in the car and went on our way. We were in a triage room getting the baby monitored by 4pm. I ended up being in that room for quite awhile since they were still waiting on a delivery room to be cleaned for me. They had a lot of births that day and they were short on cleaning staff so I ended up waiting for awhile. The doctors came in and out checking how dilated I was (I had been at 5 cm for almost a week) and talking about different pain medications. I had decided that I didn't want an epidural since the epidural had stopped working with Miles and I felt the contractions when it was time to push which I feel helped him come out faster (2 pushes, as opposed to 3 hours of pushing with Charlie) They informed me that another form of pain control was laughing gas I could breathe while I was going through contractions. I decided that that would be a good idea. It was about 7pm when we moved into the delivery room. I had also asked if they would just break my water to see if that would get labor started instead of doing the pitocin. After the doctors had checked on the baby, they felt that he wasn't low enough to safely break the water and have that start labor. We started the pitocin in small doses around 7:30pm. I didn't really feel anything for a long time so Max and I walked the halls, and paced the room, then watched a movie. They would increase the pitocin dose in increments until I started feeling light cramping. Max and I rested and tried to get a little nap in around midnight. Close to 2:30am they checked me again, and I was still at a 5cm but the baby's head was lower so they decided that they could break my water. Within a minute the contractions came on hard and strong. They brought in my gas mask and after about 10 minutes in, I was dying and the laughing gas didn't seem to make a difference. I kind of just wanted to throw the mask across the room. I forgot how bad contractions hurt and I swear these were way worse than with Miles! I told the nurse I was interested in the epidural, and she said it could be a little wait before I would get one because many people on the floor were getting epidurals. I just said, put me on the list right now. She checked my cervix and I was at a six. Shortly after that (but what seemed like a long time) I told Max that I HAD to start pushing. He ran into the hall to tell the nurse and a flood of people came running in. I hadn't had the urge to push with either Charlie or Miles but this was a weird sensation where the baby just felt like he was going to explode out of me with every contraction. The Doctor said to hold off for one more contraction then I could start pushing. It seemed impossible to hold off but after that one contraction, I pushed through the next 2 contractions and watched Max's face to know that the baby was close! And after the 2nd push he came out and was thrown onto my chest. It was only 56 minutes after my water was broken and contractions started. It was a very traumatizing and painful 56 minutes but I'm glad that it was only 56 minutes. Our baby boy was born at 3:20am.

 

 

All the sweet little features.

The hard part about this time was I could feel the placenta being delivered and the doctors stitching me up. In some ways I felt like that, combined with the rapid delivery made my bonding experience with the baby a little different. Max was instantly overwhelmed with love for me and the baby. I could tell he was so proud and was emotional in a way I've only seen when we've delivered each of our sons. We cuddled as a family for a little while before he was weighed and measured. He was 8lbs and 3oz and 20 inches long. He scored 9 on the APGAR and everything looked great and healthy. We named him Edwin James. We held him some more and Max got to hold him which is always nice to be able to pass off the baby and let Max have the turn of carrying him. We stayed in the delivery room for a little while before being transferred to the recovery room. We tried to get some sleep for the rest of the night. In the morning we got to just relax and cuddle with the baby while having food delivered to us. It was actually quite relaxing, especially knowing that our big boys were being well taken care of with Grandma.  Max and I could just focus on recovering and snuggling. We spent all day in our room. I was feeling the best I had ever felt post delivery. And of course, here are a lot of photos, some from phones and others from my camera, many are blurry or pixely but whatever.

Max and baby Edwin had a lot of skin to skin time. I don't think we even put clothes on Edwin for a day or two. 

It's so funny to see these now, nearly 3 weeks later, and see how swollen his little face was. I feel like he already looks so much different.

In the afternoon my mom came down with the big boys so they could meet their baby brother. I had been looking forward to this moment for a long time. Both Charlie and Miles were excited about the baby and Miles even seemed super interested all throughout the pregnancy. When they entered our hospital room the first thing Miles said was "He came out!" and Charlie looked at my belly and said "why do you still have that?" (Something both boys have still been asking me to this day) Charlie was so excited to hold his baby brother and didn't want to give him up. He talked with him, sang with him and held his little hands and toes. He didn't want to share with Miles or my mom. Miles was more hesitant to touch or hold the baby. His turn holding the baby was brief and he kept asking us to set Edwin down in the bassinet. The boys visited and played in the hospital for quite awhile before heading back home with grandma.

Charlie was so giddy and excited. One of my favorite parts was when we was singing his lyrics, "Edwin, Edwin, I love ya, Edwin" to the tune of Tomorrow from Annie.

Miles was a little more hesitant to touch Edwin.

But he did hold him for a good 30 seconds before wanting to pass him off.

Charlie tried to claim another turn holding his brother but we soon let Grandma hold him. Charlie still stayed close.

My big boys

Our family of 5!

More good chats with Edwin.

Since baby Edwin wasn't born until Sunday, we got to stay in the hospital until Tuesday. We spent the time resting, cuddling, trying to breastfeed, pumping, and enjoying our time with our new baby. We were tired most of the time but happy for that time we had to bond with this new member of our family!

We had a slow morning on Tuesday then packed up and made our way home. I dressed up Edwin in the same outfit that Charlie and Miles wore home from the hospital...

...so naturally, there is a comparison photo. (Each photo was taken with a different camera, and with different lighting)

We got home, and minutes later, Max had to go to a business appointment and my mom got home with the big boys. Miles decided to spend another 30 seconds holding his little brother.

 

And that is all for now.