Who does Ammon look like?

Does Ammon look like Mommy or Daddy?

He looks a little more like Mommy with those lips but he has Daddy's chin.

Our little Ammonal

Our little nickname for Ammon is Ammonal switching the m and n in "animal." He isn't ravenous yet...just eats, sleeps, cries, and poops--all in that order.

Survival

This past weekend has been one of the most stressful I have ever experienced. Ammon and I were having a difficult time nursing. Since he wasn't getting food, he was getting sleepy. And since he was sleepy, he wouldn't wake up to eat. This resulted in a trip to the ER at 2 in the morning--no wet diaper in 24 hours, no food in 10 hours. Plus, he has jaundice and it his bilirubin levels were growing. Eventually, we had to feed him something in some way so we gave him a few bottles of formula while my milk was arriving. Once my milk came in and I got the hang of pumping, we fed him the breast milk through a little medicine dropper. It was like feeding a little birdy. A medical in-home service came over and dropped off this...thing (I don't know what to call it) that Ammon would have to be strapped to to get his bilirubin levels down. Our schedule went put Ammon in his bouncy seat which had the "thing" for three hours; wake up Ammon up and feed him with the dropper (Steven would do this while I pumped for the next feeding); burp and change Ammon; rock Ammon back to sleep; strap Ammon back into his bouncy bilirubin thingy. It was frustrating that we couldn't hold him or play with him. But it all paid off. Today was his first doctor's appointment: his levels are down. No more "thing" to be strapped onto. And I went to the breast feeding clinic at the hospital and they taught me how to nurse him. We have had two successful nursing sessions. No more pump! Today has been just a great day. We are so very happy and blessed today.

Our glowing little baby. Ammon in strapped to his "thing."

Another ailment of the weekend was my spinal headache. Since they punctured me several times for over 90 minutes to get my epidural going, this resulted in a spinal headache. Read this for information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinal_headache. Before I left the hospital on Friday, I had a blood patch done and the pain went away. Then on Sunday, after lifting Ammon's baby carrier, I felt the patch go and the pain start up again. I had to spend Sunday laying on my back watching Lifetime for the pain to go away. If I raised my head, the pain would come back and I couldn't function but I had to so I could pump and take care of my baby. It's been tough and there's not much I can do but wait it out. My doctor has prescribed me to drink caffeinated soda so Pepsi and water are the only beverages I've had in the past 24 hours. The headache is getting better, which makes this day even better. For those who have ever had a spinal headache, my heart goes out to you.

My dear family and friends, I am so sorry how weepy and stressed out I have been these past few days. A few of you have called to talk and I just ended up sobbing my guts out. Thank you so much for the calls and prayers. Now that we are doing better I promise that you can come over and visit now. And for those family members on Skype, we would love to chat now! We can't wait for Ammon to meet all our cool family members and friends.

Sanchito is Finally Here!

Our little Sanchito is finally here. But his name isn't Sanchito...it's Ammon!! A few hours after he was born, I kept calling him Sanchito but I'm pretty used to Ammon now. There's so much to write about that's happened since my last post but I don't have to time to write a whole novel so you'll get just a snip it here and there of what it's like to be a new parent.

I'll just write this for now: he is one smart little baby. Since he was born, Ammon likes to nom on his hands since that is what babies do for suckage. Steven and I don't really like that habit because he then thinks his hands are my nipples and we don't want him to eat himself. To solve that we gave him a soothie pacifier. At first, he'd suck on it a few times, it would fall out, and then he would cry. I put a rolled up blanket near the soothie to keep it in his mouth and that kept it in for a little bit longer. And then, I had the idea to put his hand near the soothie. He's already learned that if he keeps his hand on the soothie, the soothie stays in his mouth. If he moves his hand, he moves the soothie. If he rolls is hand over the soothie, it goes back into his mouth. This is such a small accomplishment but for Ammon I think it's pretty huge. Good job baby!

The waiting game

Hello. I am Jess, Becky's most fabulous big sister (though she is bigger than me). I am transcribing Becky's blogpost as she bounces on her yoga ball in the hospital (or rather...she is supposed to be bouncing). The following are the words of Becky:

We got here at 5:00, but it's now 9:30. They're monitoring me, but I'm not in active labor. They need to induce me; they're not sending me home, so I'm not leaving here without a baby. [Steven: They're not going separate you from the baby. LOL.] My family (Jess, Christian, Mom and my husband) are all here with me. Jess french braided my hair, so one dream has come true tonight so far. I didn't have a chance to shower before coming to the hospital, so my mom washed my feet. [Right now the nurse Marci is re-hooking me up to the ultrasound after my hour-long exercise session. Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh.] I looks like it's going to be a long time for this baby to come. So don't expect anything big over the night. You don't need to blogstock me all night long (though I know you will anyway). That is what Twitter is for...which I don't have. So good luck. That's it.

Ok...Back to Jess. This has been quite the experience. Christian (my husband) and I are learning an awful lot--like what a crunchy placenta is (though don't ask me to describe it further). It has been so exciting...we are all running on adrenaline and ready to stay the night out (though we will probably go home when she sleeps). We'll be sure to try to update regularly (in the event that an event happens), so check back when you can! Bye for now!

Crunchy crunchy

I had my last prenatal check up today. What we found was that I am still 2 cm dilated with no signs of labor. So, why am I going to the hospital right now? I only have 2 cm of amniotic fluid left. (They measure fluid by cm on an ultrasound.) The average amount of fluid of a laboring woman is 10 cm. The doctors start to get worried when the fluid is 5 cm. Well, I'm 2 cm so they are going to induce labor. First, they will break my waters. If that doesn't start contractions, then I will be given pitocin. I'm all packed and ready to go. Steven is finishing up putting the car seat in the car. I'm going to faint. My last meal was a sloppy joe. I won't be able to eat anything until I've given birth.

Oh, yeah. This post is called "Crunchy crunchy" because my placenta is calcifying--pooping out on me--and will be crunchy. Ahh, all the information you get from me about my pregnancy. Pray for us that all will go well! Thanks for reading!

The day has arrived...

...but the baby hasn't. Oh well. We're okay with waiting. It just means the baby is comfy and still growing in the best environment for him right now. Of course, I'd be ecstatic if I went into labor this very moment, but I can wait. Until then, I'll just keep cleaning my house. I found this lost USB drive with pictures of me and Steven when we were dating so I'll entertain fellow readers with those. We wouldn't be expecting this baby if we never met, dated, fell in love, and got married three and a half years ago! Oh, how we love each other and we can NOT wait (but I guess we have to) for this little baby to arrive.

Oh no! How did this slip in?!

Oh, how my heart aches

I can't sleep. I'm out of Fruit Smoothie Tums. Instead of lying in bed feeling like I'm having a constant heart attack, I've decided to get up and go about my day--even though it's almost three in the morning. So far, I've packed Steven's lunch and cleaned the kitchen. Now I'm going to pay bills. But I don't know if that's such a smart idea seeing that the witching hour draws near and I'm about to pass out from sleep deprivation. I haven't even had the baby yet and I can't sleep! But I'm not about to waddle my 9-month pregnant butt into Wal-Mart this late in the night/early in the morning. There are weird people out and about this time...like pregnant ladies who are looking to overdose on Tums.

We're still waiting. Of course. I had my 39 week check up today. Oh boy, did it hurt when the doctor checked to see how far along I am. I wanted an epidural just for those 30 seconds she was poking around. I was thinking maybe I was 4 cm dilated and 100% effaced because it hurt so much. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. I'm still 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. But the doctor says I can burst any day now. Let's hope it's soon before Aunt Jess and Uncle Christian get here.