For us Friday the 13th turned out to be a great day. We finally made it home on Friday, May 13. My parents brought the dogs home and they were unsure what to think at first. They were like what the heck is going on but after a few days they settled down and now always check on Colton while he is sleeping. It's pretty sweet to watch them be a little protective over him.
Brian's work let FMLA cover the two weeks that Colton was in the NICU; so our first week home he was able to take a week vacation and be home with Colton and I. That first weekend was a dramatic nightmare for me. I was so tired, exhausted, overwhelmed, stressed and everyone in the world wanted to come over to see Colton. When Sunday night rolled around I lost it. After a house full of people left I started crying and could not stop. Poor Brian, I don't think he knew what to do. He knew I had hit a brick wall so he just hugged me while I cried it out. Since then I've tried to manage the visits with telling times they can come over.
Colton had a dr appointment that Monday morning with the pediatrician. His lungs and heart sounded good and healthy thankfully. When Colton left the NICU on Friday he was back up to his birth weight, 6 lbs 13 oz and at this appointment (3 days later) he weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. We were happy to see that after our stressful weekend, Colton handled it well and was moving in the right direction. We really like our pediatrician. We selected him with the help of Pat (our caretaker for Colton when I go back to work). We learned that one of the NICU nurses uses him for her son, our neighbor uses him and one of our friends uses him for their twins. And they are all spread out over the midcities area and are willing to drive to Hurst for Dr. Deitchman. It's always nice to know others have had good experiences and recommend the dr you randomly selected to use! Since Colton was given a good bill of health, he doesn't have to go back until he is 2 months. I think Dr. D could see the worry in my eyes so he again went over everything with me and reminded me that if I ever have any concerns, their phones are answered 24 hours a day. He is part of cook children's and is officed right next door to the new hospital location in Hurst. After many questions and answers, I felt assured and okay with Colton going till 2 months before being seen again.
I then had my c-section 2 week follow up that afternoon. My incision was healing very well. I was back down to my pre-pregnancy weight already. I can assure you this was not from trying to get there...it's all because of the pumping breastmilk that I am doing. But I certainly don't have the pre-pregnancy body back yet. It has a ways to go in regards to getting back in shape. Dr. Walter's asked what all I do in the gym and when I told her she said, "well lets just start with walking for now." I think she was afraid I would over do it in the gym, lol. She was glad to see Colton was out of the NICU and with us. After a few laughs like we usually have with her, we were on our way home. My next appointment is at the 6 week mark which will be on June 13. She said then we will talk about me working out and birth control. I have to say that the c-section was not bad at all. It was completely the opposite from the horror stories I had heard. I didn't have much pain, was able to hold Colton right after he was born while the dr's were sewing me back up, and had hour recovery with him till it was decided to move him to the NICU. If we decide to have any more babies, I would definitely be up for a c-section again.
The rest of the week went great. Since Brian was home, we had a chance to be together and settle in. You know, figure it all out together. It was really nice that he was able to be home. Since Colton was on a 3 hour feeding schedule in the NICU we kept it and are using it. I planned to use the Babywise system which incorporates a feeding schedule like that so it worked perfectly. In fact, I had it easy because I didn't have to work on getting Colton on a schedule. All I had to start doing was working on his awake time after he ate. He was on a 9, 12, 3, and 6 schedule but just this last week we have moved it to 7, 10, 1, 4 schedule. It seems to work better for us. We start our day at 7am and his last feeding is 10pm. We then let him sleep till he wakes up wanting to eat. He usually wakes anywhere between 3 and 4am and then I have to wake him up at 7 to eat again. With this I am able to get good sleep and feel great during the day. According to the book and other friend testimonies, around 6 to 8 weeks Colton should start sleeping through that middle of night feeding which will be nice for when I go back to work.
That next weekend we had someone come to the house and take newborn pictures. Colton did really well for her. We were concerned since he was tad older that he wouldn't sleep well but she managed to get some good pictures. She had a lot of patience with Colton!! The pictures turned out great! And it was Brian's 40th birthday so we had our first outing that Saturday evening. We took Colton by the church to meet everyone there and thank them in person for all their prayers. We then headed over to Rio Mambo for Brian's birthday dinner party. Several of our friends meet us there to meet Colton and help Brian bring in 40. It was a big night for me with taking Colton out and about like that. I made everyone sanitize their hands before touching Colton, lol. I'm slowing getting more laxed on that but you know after 12 days in the NICU, you become a bit over bearing and paranoid. But the night was successful. Brian had a good time and I managed to not have a breakdown like I did the weekend before.
Brian has since gone back to work. His first week back was welcomed with being on call. And I was welcomed to being home basically alone all week and to weather those crazy storms we had by myself. I'm not a big fan of tornado type weather with having a baby and two dogs to worry about. Poor Brian has had to work nonstop the entire week. And because it was a holiday weekend (memorial day), he had to remain oncall through today, Tuesday. I am very happy that he is off call today as I'm sure he is too.
Colton has been doing great. This last week we had a few days of fussiness. For about 3 days I was ready to pull my hair out. I couldn't seem to make him happy. I tried all the usual things to check, like did he have to burp, did he have a dirty diaper, was he hungry, did he just want to be held, etc. I first thought he was extremely gassy so we tried the mylicon for gas relief. I've even cut out most dairy and chocolate from my diet in case it was those two things. I then realized it was because we hadn't been swaddling him. He had been getting stronger and escaping from it so we thought that he really didn't like it. So the last several days we just wrapped him lightly with his arms out. He seemed okay with it. He was sleeping and seemed happy for a while till I guess he finally had enough of it. Apparently it overstimulated him because as soon as I swaddled him tight again he was happy as can be. Miracle cure!! It is hard though to get him swaddled tight because he has a lot of strength in those arms. I'm going to try a few of those blankets that make swaddling easy and see if that helps. I've also ventured out with him by myself. I've met friends for lunch, been to dinner with my mom, visited a friend on bedrest in the hospital, and even had a successful shopping trip to Target. I'm slowly getting used to and being comfortable with taking him out and about.
Time is flying by so fast. Yesterday started Colton's 5th week of life. I don't want him to grow up. I love all his little coo noises, his smiles, and how he lays his head on my shoulder & wraps his arms around my neck when we have what I call mommy time. I know we have many more fun times ahead but man I really enjoy this stage. It's a feeling I cannot explain. My maternity leave is almost half way over and I am so sad!!! I can already tell you that I am not going to want to go back to work. But I will have no choice and shall survive (since I have to). One thing I know for sure is that I love be a mommy!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment