Going to start the VERY slow process of updating this blog....

So, I've obviously done terrible at updating this blog. Jackson is now almost 10 months and the last time I blogged he was 2 weeks. Ooops. Apparently, having 2 kids, being in school full time, having a husband that is deployed and assisting with the FRG doesn't leave much time for blogging.

SO, I am going back to my facebook page and going through my status updates to compile a post of each month so that I can enter the stuff into Jackson's baby book. THEN, my goal is to update at least monthly again in 2012. Fingers crossed that I stick to my plan....LOL

Here goes nothing......

April 2011

April was a bit of a hectic month for us. Having a newborn, a 3 year old, a husband that is in Iraq, and being in school full time is a LOT of work! Thank GOODNESS for my Mom!!! She came to stay with me for a week because I was NOT handling the stress of a new baby and everything else well. Moms are great. I highly recommend having one.

Anyway, Jackson as a newborn is very involved. He is ALWAYS gassy! After speaking with his doctor, she suspects an allergy to Casin, a protein in milk and recommends switching to soy. After switching, he appears to be doing much better, but is still a very gassy baby. We suspect a touch of colic as it seems that he is very cranky between 4 and 8pm. The other possible condition is acid reflux and so we started prevacid. That medication is TERRIBLE! Jackson HATES taking it, and after tasting it myself, I do NOT blame him!!! It's strong, and NOT pleasant at ALL. He is also on nystatin for thrush and weighed in at 10 pounds on April 6th! Big boy! :) On April 10, he slept from 11pm to 5:45am!!! It was AWESOME, but ended up being a fluke. It didn't last, and was probably just a growth spurt. Little booger. He does seems to favor being swaddled to sleep and actually slept in his crib for the first time on April 22! He's growing quickly!!

Brandon is adjusting.....sometimes not so well, to his new little brother. He has some difficulty understanding that he cannot play with Jackson yet, and is often a little rougher than I'd like. We often remind him to use gentle touches, and try to distract him with other things. Occasionally, there have been some aggressive behaviors displayed and we are very quick to correct the problem. In other areas, B is VERY observant and is a little sponge. He is continuing to repeat things that we say, which sometimes comes back to bite us in the butt. He is so intelligent and he often surprises me with his questions. He asked me about the difference between boy/girl private parts, which was NOT a question I was prepared to answer! I DID answer, and managed to use correct medical terminology and keep a straight face and that seemed to suffice. We'll see......I definitely wished that Daddy was home to help field some of that, but he will be back soon enough.

Easter was a great time! The boys were spoiled rotten by the Easter bunny and had a great time exploring their Easter baskets. Our wonderful friends the Elix family (well, Sarah and Elijah) came over for a yummy Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt for the boys. They had a great time and Sarah got some quality Jackson snuggles in. All in all, it was a successful Easter despite having a cranky baby and a deployed husband. :)

2 weeks!

Jackson is 2 weeks old as of yesterday! Today was his 2 week check up. He weighed in at 8 pounds 10 ounces and is now 21.1 inches long! He has a little cluster of extra blood vessels on his tummy that the doctor said would resolve itself. No other major incidents to report from his check up.

He has been SUPER gassy/fussy lately. I suspected the formula to be the culprit, so I asked the WIC office yesterday if I could try a different formula. They switched us over to Similac sensitive, which I checked with the doctor this morning and was given the ok to start. Hopefully that will resolve the problem because I feel SO helpless! He scrunches his whole body up and screams and occasionally will be able to pass gas. Poor little dude. Let me tell you.....dealing with a screaming newborn and a 3 year old that needs juice/snack/attention by yourself is NOT easy!

Brian went back to Iraq on Wednesday. I miss him like CRAZY!!!! He will be home in approximately 5 months, which seems like an eternity, but I know will pass by quickly. I just hate doing this by myself. It is one thing when it was just B and me, but I am outnumbered! I need someone else in my corner!

Fortunately, my mom is coming to stay for a week the first week of April. Then, when the spring semester is over, I am going to stay with her for 2 weeks in May. I also have a month between the summer semester and the fall semester in July, so I may go stay with her for another 2 weeks. THEN, Brian comes home in August!! So, hopefully my sanity will remain as long as I have these little milestones to look forward to.

Anyway, I should be utilizing this quiet time to work on some homework and start studying. Ugh....is it August yet??

Jackson's Birth Story

Our beautiful baby boy, Jackson was born Thursday March 10, 2011 at 7:03pm. He weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce and was 20.5 inches long. His birth was an amazing experience, and I wanted to put it all down in words so that I would remember all of the details.



His birth story begins with the perfect timing of Daddy's arrival from Iraq. Brian flew in for his R&R on March 7. Brandon and I met him in Dallas to avoid an almost 8 hour layover from Dallas to Killeen. We spent the next couple of days as a family of 3 hanging out. We went to the Zoo, went to dinner, played with toys, and of course there was a lot of snuggling. Wednesday evening my parents came in to keep an eye on B and be here for Jackson's birth.



Bright and early Thursday morning (4:30am) Brian and I got up to head to the hospital. We reported for my induction at 6am. After getting all checked in, I was hooked up to monitors and given my IV. When the doctor came in and checked me for the first time that morning, I was at 3.5cm and had thinned out a bit more than on my appointment on Tuesday. I was started on pitocin (at 2) around 8:15 and it was ordered to be turned up every 45 minutes. They said they were going to take it relatively slow since I had a c-section with B and they didn't want to put too much strain on my scar. After the pitocin was started, the contractions began to pick up slowly, but they weren't bad and I barely noticed them. Over the next few hours the contractions started developing a nice pattern of every 4-6 minutes and as the pitocin increased, the pain with them also increased. It wasn't unbearable, but there were definitely times that I had to stop and focus on my breathing when they came. I HATED being stuck in the bed, but because of my c-section they had to keep me monitored as much as possible. Thanks to the WONDERFUL nurses (Hanna and Jessica), I was able to be monitored via a "tube top" looking contraption that allowed me to sit on the birthing ball to relieve the pressure of sitting in bed. After they let me get out of bed, I was golden. At this point, my pitocin had been turned up to 10 (out of 20) and they were waiting on me to feel more pain before they checked me again. I asked at what point my water would be broken and the doctor came in to discuss it with me and check me again. The doctor explained that they could break my water, but that would mean that I was not able to leave the hospital and return for another induction and that if the induction was looking like it wasn't going to work I would be forced to go into a c-section. I was ok with that option and fully expected them to let me labor on the pitocin for awhile longer; however, they decided to go ahead and break my water. I was NOT expecting it to happen at that moment, but after the doctor checked me I was between 4 and 5 cm so I had made good progress and the doctor thought it would be a good idea to break my water around 3pm. After my water was broken, she checked me again to see if it had dilated me anymore and I was at a 5-6 cm dilated. While she was checking me, she noticed that Jackson had his hand on the top of his head, so she tried to move it. He stubbornly left it there and when she grabbed it, he grabbed back! She recommended that I turn on my sides to help move him and get him to move his hand. At this point, I requested the epidural, so the anesthesiologist was called. I was SO worried about getting the epidural because it was SUCH a terrible experience with Brandon's delivery and didn't work anyway. So, I was beyond relieved when the epidural actually worked this time! They had to stick me a few times to get the epidural placed correctly, but once it was in, and the medicine took effect, I was golden. The epidural went in around 4pm and I started having some blood pressure problems due to the epidural medication. They quickly remedied the blood pressure issue by lowering the head portion of my bed. The epi also made me really nauseous, but I will gladly take nausea over terrible contraction pain, so no complaining from me! Around 6 I started pushing. I couldn't really tell that I was pushing, but the nurse kept telling me I was doing well, so I just kept doing what I was doing. At 7:03pm, Jackson made his entrance into the world!! He was placed on my chest immediately after delivery and I cannot even begin to describe the miraculousness of holding your child for the first time. It is a memory that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Jackson scored a 9 on his apgars and the nurses just kept commenting on how pink and alert he was when he was born. It was an amazing experience and I am SO grateful that I was able to successfully have a VBAC.



After Jackson was born I began to hemorrhage. My uterus would not clamp down and firm up. The details of that are kind of sketchy because everything seemed to happen so fast, yet so slow at the same time. The doctors and nurses were pushing and massaging my stomach so hard.....again, thank goodness for the epidural. The doctor that delivered Jackson asked for another doctor to come in and help. That doctor then called for the Staff OB to come in and help. There were a couple of nurses that took turns massaging my uterus along with the doctors that were massaging my uterus internally. They gave me extra pitocin in my IV as well as 2 shots of some medications that I cannot recall at this time. They continued to massage my uterus taking turns when they got tired. Another dose of one of the medications was ordered and they started discussing taking me back to emergency surgery to remove my uterus. Thank GOD my uterus started to firm up and things finally calmed down. I began to shake from the hormones/epidural and the nausea returned with a vengeance.



After things finally calmed down enough, I was able to hold Jackson and feed him for the first time. He latched on and began nursing like a champ. Soon after nursing Jackson, nausea reared her ugly head. Fortunately, my steadfast husband was there to help! Actually, it was MUCH less severe than with Brandon. I threw up every 30 minutes during my entire labor with Brandon and only once with Jackson. So, Brian got off easy this time. :)



All in all, the experience was amazing and I just cannot believe how lucky I am that all of my hoping and planning worked out. It seems like everything fell into place perfectly. Jackson is doing great. Nursing is my nemesis.....as it was last time with Brandon. We'll see how long I can keep it up, but it causes SO much anxiety for me that it may not be worth it. I stress about it a LOT and I'd rather be stress free because Jackson picks up on the tension and it makes it worse. Plus, with school this semester and summer.....aye.....I don't know. It stresses me out just thinking about it. We'll see. I am going to wait until my milk has officially come in before I make that decision.



I am off to get some sleep.....apparently newborns are not fond of sleeping at night, though they sleep for crazy stretches during the day. :)