One Month Old!

I think Mom forgot my sticker Landon, can I have yours?

Happy one month Landon!!  I can hardly believe a month has gone by with this little man. Time is flying by, and seeing all of my friends who are celebrating their little one's first birthdays really make me stop to think that the next 11 months are going to be gone before we know it.  We really need to stop and enjoy these days with this little guy because it'll all go by so fast and we'll be wistfully looking back at these days wishing we could relive them.   

Our child loves to be on the go. I couldn't imagine where he gets that from... If he's in the car, his stroller, or his Bjorn he's a happy camper. I have figured out that the Bjorn is not only amazing when you're out in public and you don't want the burden of the stroller but its also amazing when you have a fussy baby and need to do things around the house. I plop him in the Bjorn and after we happily look around for 15 minutes, he's zonked out and both mommy and baby are happy.  

My days of wearing dangling earrings are officially over.  Landon has developed a serious iron grip.  Hair, neck skin, your nose, they are all in the line of fire and he will grab and pull and it can be rather painful for a baby of his size!  Poor Vedder experienced his iron grip after getting dangerously close to Landon, a hand flew out and grabbed a chunk of Vedder's face fur.  The poor pup just looked at me wide eyed, screaming for help.  After freeing his fur from the iron clasp I gave Vedder so much praise for not lashing out at Landon.    

My sister is currently here and it's been fantastic having someone here with me all the time helping with the little man.  Being the obsessed aunt that she is, she's wanted to do a lot of the feedings and diaper changes which I am very happy to hand over.  It's allowed me to catch up with a few things around the house which makes me feel a lot better.  Grandma Freaney will be here tomorrow which means we can enjoy another 10 days of help, and we will lap it up while we have it!   

I am feeling great!  I'm ready to get back to running and exercise, and to get this baby weight off.  It's time to pack up this maternity gear and pull back out my regular clothes.  I'm hoping that at my 6 week check the doctor gives me the ok to start exercising again! 

I finally downloaded some of the photos off the good camera so I thought I'd share.  I've seriously loaded up on the photos for you so enjoy! 

Right after he was born!

Our first family photo!

He loves to sleep with his left hand out of his swaddle.  

A little morning snuggle time with Aunt Katie and Mom. 

Passed out in his swing. 

Morning snuggle time. 

Chunky cheeks! 

Everyone wants to play with Daddy! 

Thunder buddies for life!!! 

Learning Curve

Wow, no one ever tells you that having a baby starts off as a giant game of trial and error.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  Just when you think that you have things all figured out... you get a curve ball that puts you back at square one.

Thankfully we had my Mom here for the past 10 days to help us through this giant learning curve, but sadly she left on Saturday and we're back to being on our own.  It was so nice to not only have the extra set of hands to help with dishes, cleaning and feeding but our favorite was having someone who picked up a feeding shift at night.  

So, what is this learning curve I talk about?  What have we tried to mess with trial and error?  The other day I asked Kevin, if you could give anyone going home with a newborn a piece of advice what would it be.  He said it would be that you can't put a baby on a schedule, as we quickly (maybe not as quickly as we should have) learned.

They tell you that babies should eat every 2-3 hours, and between 2-4 ounces of milk at each feeding.  We thought clearly we should force this child to wait 3 hours to eat and then we'd have this babe on a schedule in no time.  Nope, not unless you want to listen to blood curdling screams for an entire hour while you make your child starve.  Not only did we learn to feed on demand, but we learned that this boy can eat and just because they say they should be eating 2-4 ounces doesn't mean that it's the case with every baby.  You feed until they are full and sometimes that's 3 ounces and sometimes that's 6 ounces.  Lesson learned.

When Kev and I registered for Landon we had no earthly idea what we were doing, so we heavily relied on the help of the people at Babie's-R-Us and when the sales associate told us most babies prefer the vibrating chair over the swing, we listened and we didn't register for one.  After several failed attempts of getting him to calm down in the vibrating chair (maybe he was hungry though?) we realized that maybe our baby would prefer the swing.  So, thanks to Grandma Holly we trekked off to Babies-R-Us and bought him a swing, which he loves.  Now mom and dad can happily get things done around the house as he coos happily in his Snug-A-Puppy.  Lesson learned.

A little known fact (at least it is now) is that 3/4 of babies have issues with gas.  What happens when you have a gassy baby?  They scream as if someone stole their puppy, and then they scream some more. This is where the wonderful invention of Gripe water has come into our lives.  A few drops of Gripe water and all is well in the world again.  This miracle product was purchased late one Sunday night when no one could console this babe and we needed something, anything to get him to calm down.  I could just kiss whoever came up with that goodness.  Lesson learned.

I have decided that for our family, it works best when I pump milk, store it in the fridge and then I am not the sole person responsible for feeding this baby (which is wonderful when we have help and there are three people that can feed him a bottle.) Landon seems to have breast feeding ADHD and cannot focus when I try to feed him from the breast.  He does so much better when feeding from the bottle.  Because we're feeding him this way we have learned that not all bottles are created equal.  A regular ol' Medela bottle was seemingly creating more gas, spitting up, and once again a screaming baby.  So last night we headed to our new "favorite" store, Babies-R-Us and got Tommee Tippee bottles that help with gas, spitting up and colic.  They seem to be helping so lets hope they continue!

We had our two week check up last Wednesday, and we got a great bill of health!  Since Landon was born he's grown 3/4 of an inch, which makes him 21.75 inches long and in the 83% percentile.  He's gained a pound so we're now 8.6 pounds, and puts him in the 37% percentile.  The doctor said we seem to have things all figured out, and to keep up the good work. (He clearly isn't at our house during melt downs from both baby and parents.)

Sleep at night is getting better.  Thankfully I think that my mom was here to help with the brunt end of it.  (Knock on wood.) Since she's left we seem to be on a (sorta) sleep schedule.  Kev wakes up and does the 10:30/11:30 feeding, I wake up and the 2:30/3:30, and then Kev gets up and does the 6:00/6:30 feeding.  Last night to seem to go extremely smoothly, I say this now, however tonight will probably be a terror.

We've been really bad about where Landon sleeps for naps.  He LOVES to sleep on Kevin's chest and in the swing.  Today's goal has been to get him to nap in his crib.  It went okay the one time I tried it today, we'll work on it little by little.  He's currently napping on Kev as he takes work calls, which happily gives mommy some free time to do what she'd like :)

Landon's had some adventures out and about in Atlanta.  Thankfully he loves to ride in the car and by the time we get to where we need to go he's either happily looking around with his big blue eyes, or he's zonked out and sleeping peacefully.  So far he's ventured out to trips to the grocery, Target, Babies-r-Us and to dinner twice.  Lets hope we have a child who continues to cooperate when we go out in public.

Puppy Brother, Vedder, has been such an amazing pup.  He continues to check on Landon in the night, and sometimes will even come in during my feeding shift and sits with me in the chair.  He's given Landon kisses twice on his feet, which we have deemed the seal of approval.  He does try and put his toy next to Landon when we have tummy time or we're playing wit him on the floor.  He doesn't quite seem to understand that he can't throw his toy for him.

Okay, now that I've officially written a novel I will get to the good part... pictures!  Enjoy!    

Sucking our thumb after a night time feeding. 

Getting ready to go on an adventure.  I think he looks like Kevin in this picture!

Landon's first play date with Grant!  

Puppy brother love.

His first, rainy, 4th of July.

Vedder keeping me company at 3:30 am.

It's seriously tough work being a puppy brother. 

I mustache you where you got your shirt.

We will save this picture for their wedding day.  Arranged marriages are normal these days, right?

Tummy time!

Landon was screaming bloody murder in this picture, as you can tell from Vedder's face.

Milk drunk.

One Week Home... AKA One Week Without Sleep

Things here at the Freaney household are finally starting to calm down, which really translates into we're finally starting (sorta) to get this guy on a sleeping schedule at night.

As much as we were itching to get out of the hospital last week, once these nights roll around I think we're singing a different song.  Why was it that we wanted to escape so badly, when all we had to do was roll his screaming body down to the nursery and we could sleep?

We have started to get Landon into a sleep routine at night.  Sometimes he follows along, sometimes he doesn't.  I think it's mostly for our benefit.  Last night he decided that during Daddy's feeding time he was going to scream bloody murder for no reason for 3.5 hours.  Poor Kev was a serious champ and dealt with it the whole time so I could sleep.  A good friend gave us the book Mom's On Call, and we're going to try and follow that user's manual on how to get your baby to sleep through the night.  We're getting there, one step at a time!

Vedder is getting more and more curious about the baby.  We haven't officially given the seal of approval with a big sloppy kiss, but we're getting close.

I'm feeling pretty good.  I have slowly been easing myself into normal life with tiny walks with the family and doing things around the house.  I'm such a busy body that this sitting in the house and doing nothing can really drive me up the wall.  Thankfully now that my mom is here she can watch the babe while Kev and I take exciting field trips out of the house, like going to target and the grocery store.

On Monday we went to have Landon's newborn photos taken, I cannot wait to get the rest of the photos, they are going to be adorable.  During the photo shoot the babe was naked the entire time, and of course the photos of us as a family were at the end of the two hour shoot.  We were both so afraid that at some point Landon was going to poop or pee on one of us, after two hours of nothing we were sure it was bound to happen.  Thankfully, he decided to be kind and waited until after a diaper was put on his tush.

Here's the link to the sneak peak of his pictures...

http://tinytushphotography.com/atlanta-newborn-baby-child-infant-maternity-photographer-newborn-landon-newborn/


Here are some adorable pictures of my two boys...

A little family time on the couch.  

My first bath!  

Puppy towel! 

One of my new favorite pictures. 

A little play time! 

Being a puppy brother is hard work.  Naps are needed often. 

Welcome Landon Jack!

To say it's been an insane past few week is an understatement!  It's brought lot of emotions, little sleep and a whole new life!  So please excuse all the spelling and typos!

Last Monday morning Kev and I went to the doctor's to have my cervix checked.  I still had yet to make any progress.  We were sent home with instructions to wait for the hospital to call and give us a time to come in and have the medicine inserted to begin the process to prep my cervix for birth.  Kev and I both made the mistake to think that we would be going into the hospital late evening and would have all day.  While across town having our last relaxing lunch we got the call to from the hospital that we would need to be checked in, in 2 hours.  To say we were frantic is an understatement.  By 6:00 Monday evening, meds were in and we were forced to watching bad reruns of TV and try to find ways to get comfortable on those luxurious hospital beds.

Tuesday morning the doctor came and checked to see if the medicine had worked, it had helped a little but not nearly as much as they were hoping.  We started the second round of labor inducing drugs, pitocin and to speed things along the good doc broke my water.  Soon after my contractions began to get worse and worse, for once I put my stubbornness aside and asked for some pain meds.  The first round of meds they give you before the epidural made me feel flat out drunk.  The loopy meds unfortunately don't last long and a few hours later I was practically screaming for an epidural.  God bless the women who opt for no meds.

Around 2:00, right before my epidural the doctor checked my cervix to see if I was dilated and how much progress I'd made.  When checking my cervix the doctor's could feel the baby.  Where they should have felt something hard, the head, they felt something soft and squishy like lips.  After getting an ultrasound they confirmed that Landon was a face presentation baby.  They wanted to wait another hour to see if he would correct himself and if not then we'd have to move forward with a c-section.  The nurses and I joked that this babe was coming into the world with something so important to say that his lips were coming out first.  Landon opted to stay face first and so we had to move forward with the c-section.

At 3:30 we were taken to the OR and by 4:12 a sweet baby was born.  As soon as he was taken out of his cozy comfy home, we heard Landon loud and clear, screaming all bloody hell.  Immediately we were told not be alarmed, that because Landon was face presentation he was very very swollen in the face and within a couple days it would all go down.  

My favorite moment in the OR, and probably on of my favorites of all time, was when they cleaned his screaming body off, and walked him over so that we could see and hold him.  As soon as he was placed in Kevin's arms he stopped crying and started started cooing, he knew right off the bat that Kev was his daddy and was comforted by his touch.  It was really was one of the most touching moments of my life.

Kev followed Landon to the recovery room while I was finished being put back together again (as I write this it sounds like humpty dumpty.)  It gets kinda boring after awhile so I decided to strike up a convo while I was being reassembled and sewn up, one of the questions if I was officially diabetes free.  The answer was of course yes.  Another was how many babies my doctor has delivered, and the answer to that is almost 4,000.  No, we would not have gotten a prize had we been lucky number 4,000.

After Landon was checked once again (he got a 10 on his apcar score, a perfect which is rarely given) we were escorted to our final room!  Where shortly after we were greeted by Landon's first visitors!  No, we may not have family here but we sure do have some hell of some friends.  It was quite the birthday party for this little guy in that room!

Our stay in the hospital was fine.  I can say that by Friday we were both (maybe all 3) going stir crazy.  I was practically clawing my way out and I told the nurse that if they didn't check me out I was escaping one way or another.

Now we're home.  We're still trying to catch up on everything around the house.  Usually I could get all this stuff down within a solid hour or two but between my restriction from the c-section and this adorable blue eyed distraction it's making things difficult. 

Friday night, our first night home was rather rough.  We apparently were not feeding Landon enough (because I'm breast feeding we had no idea how little he was actually getting to eat) and boy did we pay the consequences of that.  He was up all night screaming and the only way we could get him to sleep was by putting him on one of our chests.  So, we took 2 hour intervals with the babe and boy were we all cranky that night.  Once we realized how little he was actually getting we started supplementing with more formula and we have a whole new baby!

I know every one's question is... how is Vedder.  He is by far way better with Landon than we could ever hope for.  He seems to already be protective of him, a couple times last night I could see on the baby monitor that he had gone into his room and looked into his crib.  He usually will go in with the person feeding Landon and sit at their feet waiting to go back to bed and making sure he's okay.  He's incredibly patient with not only us but with the babe.

Before I get to the good part, pictures, I want to say thank you to all the amazingly wonderful people who we have in our lives.  Landon is so lucky to have each and everyone of you.  You have no idea how much it meant for you to not only come meet this incredibly special baby of ours, but to support us and think of us in a time where you need friends the most.  The meals, the treats, the gifts they will forever be a special part of the birth of our son.  We cannot thank you enough.  For those of you far away, we love the support via text, phone calls and emails.  Your kind words, thoughts, and much needed advice at times help keep us sane.

To my dear and loving husband.  I never thought that I could possibly love you more than I already did and the second I saw you hold that beautiful baby of ours my heart grew ten sizes.  You were far more than I could have ever asked for during this delivery and I cannot thank you enough for you support,  and care.  You put Landon and my needs before your own without a question.  I am so lucky to have you as my partner in this new journey.

Someone did not like the car ride home...

Go Tribe!

Love those giant blue eyes!

Brotherly love

Tummy time

Induction Day Set!

This unruly tenant of mine has been given his final notice.  He has been asked to vacate the premise and if he can't do that on his own by June 18th, then we're bringing in the authorities and they'll be evicting him.

I went in for my weekly check up this morning.  My cervix is still not ready for labor, and because of that I had two options for my induction.  My first choice was to go ahead and try to be induced on Friday and hope that it doesn't result in a fail, in which case I would have a c-section.  My second option was to wait it out until Tuesday, hope that by giving myself a few extra days my cervix will be ready and the induction will be successful.  I obviously would prefer to meet this babe sooner than later and not have him get any bigger than he already is, however I think I'd prefer a little bit bigger babe over a c-section.  Obviously I could still have a failed induction on Tuesday, and end up with a c-section regardless but the doctor doesn't want me going any later than Tuesday.  There is still the obvious chance that I could go into labor on my own between now and then.    

With all that being said I'd like to say, I've very sorry, to you cruel people who had me going past my due date, you are out of the running to win this competition.  These folks are still in the running for guessing the right birthday...

Kev - June 12th (doubtful)
Uncle Karl - June 13th
Aunt Sis- June 14th
Jen Z. and myself - June 16th
Mal - June 17th
Jason R. - June 18th

I think I'll sleep until the baby gets here.  

Cocktails on Ice

Here I am in all my pregnant glory.  

I spoke with the doctor Friday about whether or not I would be induced next week.  They are going to make the final call about an induction this upcoming Tuesday.  As of this past Tuesday my cervix was not ready for labor and if they were to induce me, the induction would most likely fail, which would lead to a c-section.  Obviously a lot could happen in a week (hey, I could even go into labor on my own between now and then!)  I was hoping I could jot down "Induction" in my planner and have it all mapped out, like my overly planning personality would prefer, but I guess we'll just wait and see!

Everyone toasts a new baby with a glass of champagne (or two, or three...) and surely Kevin and I can't break the tradition.  However, there is something special to us about this particular bottle of champagne that we will be toasting with.  During our wine drinking extravaganza in Napa (or a three day bender as some might call it) Kevin and I started our final day of tastings at promptly 10:00 am at a vineyard that made champagne.  While we boozed away in the sun, we laughed saying "What if I'm pregnant right now?" thinking surely I wasn't.  We loved the champagne, and picked out our favorite one to bring home.  A few days after we got home from Napa, we found out we were pregnant.  That bottle of champagne has been taunting me since October, and soon we will be able to drink it!

Here is the glorious bottle, now chilling in the fridge.  I hope Kevin doesn't want more than one glass of this... I think I've earned the rest of the bottle. 

For the most part I've been feeling pretty good.  I have a small linebacker in my stomach that enjoys the night hours, and whether I feel like partaking or not, has a dance party every night in my uterus.  It can be incredibly uncomfortable to have an 8 pound baby dancing in your stomach.  Other than that, I have plenty of energy during the day and still am walking this pup at least 2 miles a day.  

I assume that it has gone without having to say it, but any and all friends and family near and far are welcome to visit.  We have an lovely guest room, a guest bathroom and soon an adorable babe that would love to be held, cooed and spoiled rotten with attention.  So please, if you want to visit, give us a call and we can iron out dates! 

I was promptly scolded after I published my last blog, a certain furry someone was NOT happy that he was not mentioned in the blog.  I reassured him that it would NEVER happen again.  

Is this what I have to take a bath in from now on? 

You forgot to mention me in the blog?  You should be ashamed to call yourself a mother. 

Fully Cooked

Alright Baby L, lets get this damn show on the road here.  We.  Are.  Ready.

I am officially 37 weeks pregnant, which means that this babe has been fully cooked and can make his grand debut at any time.  So, much to the constant nagging of my husband (who is the world's largest procrastinator might I add) my bags have been packed and we are ready to hit the road when the time comes.

I've been going to my biweekly doctor's appointments to monitor the babe's heart rate.  Everything has been checking out great, although last Tuesday he was refusing to cooperate and it took nearly an hour to get 15 minutes of usable data.  Apparently, he could not be bothered during nap time, thank you very much.  When we went today for our regular check up, he did the same thing when we were put on the stress test.  Right when we had a great heartbeat he got ticked and moved his tush elsewhere, away from the machine and once again we had to fiddle with it for a good 10 minutes before we found where he was hiding his heart.  He does realize that the sooner he comes, the less he has to deal with this doesn't he?

Due to the gestational diabetes we had to go back to the ultrasound doctor one last time to get a measurement on Baby L.  As of Thursday he was measuring a little over 7.5 pounds, which is over a pound more than the average babe should weigh at this point.  What a little chunker this babe of ours is!  The ultrasound tech said that she could see lots and lots of hair on this babe's head, which has peaked my curiosity more than ever as to what he will look like!

Dr. Stone (the ultrasound doc) was supposed to call my regular doctor and suggest that I am induced by week 39 due to the baby's weight.  He feels that if we are proactive with an induction we lower the chances of having a c-section, and it'll make for an easier delivery overall.  He was supposed to call on Thursday and talk to them about the induction but he apparently hasn't done that yet, so we're hoping to straighten this all out on Friday when I go in for another stress test.  If they decide to induce me his birthday will either be on the 14th or the 17th, depending on how many people are being induced on either of those days.  Which means A LOT of you will be knocked out for the running right away, with your mean and cruel late birthday guesses.  

A little side profile, he was drinking the amniotic fluid while we were doing the ultrasound, resulting in the fish lips you see here.  Or maybe he didn't feel like getting his picture taken and like his dad made a face in protest.

Along with our hospital bag packed this babes room is ready to welcome him home!  We have assembled every item, hung every last decoration, and put our loving touches on everything in that room!  I have to say I am quite fond of how it all turned out.  However, I am a bit biased.

Just the L still in the scrabble letters... not much longer until the name is finally reviled!