Sunday, May 31, 2009

Grandparents!

I thought today would be a good time to show just how much Kam loves his grandparents and how much they love him!

We'll start with how much he loves his grandfathers. Last weekend and this weekend we were amazed by the way he just stopped crying and was immediately calm after his Bip or his Pawpaw got him!









Now, rest assured he certainly loves his grandmothers, too!! They dote on him and he loves on them...it's a wonderful circle, really=) Here's Kam with his Nan and his Mema!







Kam sure is a blessed baby!!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

No Pictures Today...

Thought I'd warn you early! I will have quite a few when we get back home tonight or after church tomorrow, though! We had a big day yesterday! Kam made his first trip to The Ehrhart School to meet all my kiddos and my co-workers. They all loved him! My 4th graders were at P.E. and swarmed him. Well, the girls swarmed him. The boys swarmed me to tell me how they did on their TAKS tests! (They did AWESOME by the way, I am SO very proud of my kids this year!! (83% of my 4th graders passed and half of them got Commended, only missing 1 or 2 questions overall!! And my 5th graders are at 70% right now, but I am really hoping that at least one of them (hopefully 2 or 3) passed their TAKS the second time around!) Both these scores are the best that our school has ever done in these grades for the Math TAKS. Woo hoo!!

After our trip to the school, we made Kam's first overnight trip to Mema and Pawpaw's house in Starks! He's been here for short visits before, but we spent the night this time and he did so great!!! He gets lots of love and he just eats it up! Also, we made a record last night...he let us sleep from 1 a.m. to almost 5 a.m. WITHOUT WAKING US ONCE!!! That is a 4 hour stretch. That is HUGE for our boy! Just hope it can continue to happen:) He has been such a sweet baby today...in a truly great mood!

Tomorrow we're going to take Kam to our church for the first time. We had a trial run last week at my parents' church, and he slept through the whole service! I hope that's the case again tomorrow!

Check back tomorrow for pictures from this weekend...I am off to play some Yahtzee with the fam!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

It's Been a While...

I know I haven't posted in a while (a week!!) but I had good reason. We have been busy! We spent this weekend making Kamden's first long visit to Many to see my parents, drop off Ella, and let all my family meet him! Here's Kam ready to go:

He did GREAT on the trip. He slept the whole way there (3 hours!), which we weren't really shocked about since both the Breaux and Lambert sides of our family are excellent car sleepers:) All my family was able to visit (except Uncle Roger, but since he's in Maryland we'll excuse him:) ). We took pictures of everyone holdin Kamden, but there is no way I'm posting all those on here. See my Facebook album for all the lovely pictures from this weekend. Here are a few highlights.
Kam spent a LOT of time this weekend like this:
and this: . He spent a little time like this:

and this: and this: !
We took our first full family picture on Sunday!

Kamden also did great on the ride home. Slept the whole way again!

He's really been having touble sleeping at night. Well, unless we are holding him. This weekend was really bad, and I am assuming it is because of my chocolate and peanut butter intake :( So I have given up both. I haven't had either since Friday and man I am craving it! I have had some chocolate chip cookies, but I figure that can't hurt much and he hasn't had any problems with gas this week. Still, even when he wasn't gassy, he wanted to be held all night when he slept. Kaleb discovered that he really likes to lay on his side, so we bought a sleep positioner for him on Monday. It's a piece of cloth and at the bottom of it there are two wedges that velcro and we put him in there on his side in his pack n play in our room (wow lots of prepositional phrases there!) and the wedges keep him from rolling onto his stomach. He is doing great with it!! He still wakes up every 2 hours, but he eats for 30 minutes and then I can usually put him back down and he only fusses for a couple minutes if any and then falls asleep! It is nice!! And it was really cheap, too, just $15 at Target! Here it is in action:


Speaking of Target, Kam and I hadn't been anywhere except to hospitals, doctor's offices, Kaleb's parents', my parents', and my parents' church until today. We went to Target!!! It was so nice to get out. I found this awesome sling there!!! I really think Kam and I are both going to enjoy this. It's hands free cuddle time!! I definitely feel like a mama kangaroo.






That is about it for this super long update. I promise I will try and do better with the daily postings from now on!!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Sleepless Nights






I know I didn't post yesterday. That's mostly because I slept for most of it. Kamden stayed up ALL night Monday night. What a party animal. He wasn't happy to be up all night either. He was pretty upset about it. My wonderful husband let us both sleep as much as we wanted yesterday, though, so it definitely made up for it!! I don't think it's his congestion keeping him up. He's still stuffy, but it's so much better during the day. He just did not want to be put down and I'm guessing he just still has his days and nights mixed up. Not fun. He stayed up for a while yesterday evening and while he slept yesterday during the day Kaleb made sure that we put him down in something each time. Like this:






So precious! Shout out to Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Glen for that bouncer! He loves it=)

Last night after I put Ella to bed I came into the living room to this:



Wondering what has him so interested?


He is his father's son!! Kaleb didn't make him turn his head or anything. Guess he just noticed there was a game on. I sure do love these guys!!!

Monday, May 18, 2009

2 Weeks Old!

Wow! So hard to believe that our little man is already 2 weeks old!!! I've been watching the clock today and trying to remember what was happening at that time 2 weeks ago today. I like today much better:) Right now I'm relaxing in our recliner while Kam is sleeping soundly in his swing to some Ben Harper. Mmm this is nice. Here, let me show you!


Last night was pretty funny. Ella left some of her penguins in the living room and Kaleb had put Kam in the floor to change his diaper. We noticed he wasn't crying like he normally does when he gets changed. Kaleb looked and saw that he was staring at the penguins, captivated. So we had a little photo shoot=) I would love to know what he was thinking about those crazy penguins!!



Thursday, May 14, 2009

Stud

Okay, not much in the way of an update today. Nothing's really happened! But check out the pose our little man struck while waiting to get a bath this evening. I swear we did not pose him like this!!



Is that a stud or what??

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Big Sister is Home!

Today was so nice! I woke up feeling great (after my initial dose of 3 ibuprofens--yes, the doctor prescribed it!) and vaccuumed and mopped the house. It reallllllly needed it! Tomorrow I'm tackling the dusting. I also got a lot of clothes washed today. It feels really good getting up and getting something done! I'm glad I'm feeling well enough to do it. I am having a hard time realizing that we came home from the hospital a week ago today! Wow.

Kamden took a nap in his pack n play for the first time today!




This morning Kaleb's mom and aunt came over to bring Ella back to us and to see Kam for a while. It was so nice to get to visit with them! I really enjoy having visitors over, especially when it's to gush over our beautiful baby! Ella didn't waste any time. She hadn't gotten to hold him in a long time (her words).


Here's how I've spent most of my evening! Loving on this little guy...


And watching this sweet girl perform for us...



We are so very blessed!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Second Opinions

So yesterday was pretty stressful. I won't go into great detail, but we are basically tired of getting orders from our doctor through nurses and asked for him to call and speak with us since he wouldn't see Kam yesterday and hasn't seen him since the day after he was born. Two nurses called me back instead. We decided to use a pediatician in Louisiana that Kaleb's family has used for years who is awesome. We had quite a bit of drama from our doctor's office about returning the stupid Bili Blanket, and I am now on a mission to make sure no one I talk to ever uses Beaumont Pediatric Center!

Today was a new day. A beautiful day. It was the first day since Kam came home last Wednesday that we didn't have to get up and be at a doctor's office/lab/hospital at 8 a.m. We had an appointment with our new pediatrician at 1:40 in Sulphur, exactly one hour away. We were excited to get a second opinion on his jaundice. Kam slept the whole way there:


And back:


Here's one time he woke up:


Sweet boy!! The new pediatrician was AMAZING. He said Kamden looks great! He actually LOOKED at him, didn't prick his heel to get a level, used his eyeballs to look at his coloring. He said it looked fine, yes he has jaundice, but it'll clear up in about 3 weeks. He said with his weight gain that we are doing a great job with breastfeeding and that we didn't need to supplement anything at all. He wants to see us again in a month, and he told us to call him if we needed anything at all. What?? Call him?? Wow. We are praising God that we have found a doctor who cares about our baby boy and not how much money he can squeeze out of us.


Because my family expects daily pictures of our boy and I missed yesterday, I'm doubling up today. Here's how I get to spend my evenings with my two favorite men!









And lastly, check out this smile!!


Monday, May 11, 2009

Bilirubin, How I Hate Thee

So when we came home from the hospital on Wednesday, the on-call pediatrician told us she was concerned with Kam's bilirubin levels. He was a little jaundiced. At that time, they were 10. She wanted us to come in the following day to their office and get it checked again. So at 8 a.m. Thursday morning we went back to the doctor's office. This time, his levels were 16.5, so they had us rent a Bili Blanket, this light paddle we strap onto his back, to bring his levels down. They also told me to supplement formula with my breastfeeding, which I did not do because I did not see a need for it. He'd also lost 5 more ounces, so he was down 11 ounces from his birth weight, but my milk hadn't come in yet. The next day we had to get back out and have his levels tested, but this time we had to go to the hospital to the walk-in lab. Be assured that jaundice isn't the worst thing they test for, so we were obviously a little ticked that they made us get back out into a place where sick people come to get tested with a 4 day old baby. His levels were up to 18.5, but the doctor said that he expected that because the Bili blanket would cause his levels to peak. So they told us we had to do it again the next day, but we had to go to another hospital because the lab would be closed. We did, and they made us wait in the EMERGENCY ROOM for over an hour with a 5 day old baby. We were absolutely livid at this point. Especially when we found out that our county now has its first confirmed case of swine flu. We told the doctor about it when he called back that afternoon, and he said his levels were down to 16.7 but we needed to come back to the same place on Sunday to get them tested again. This time we were able to go straight to get the bloodwork done, but his levels had gone up a point to 17.7. Happy Mother's Day. Needless to say, I was pretty emotional for the entirety of our Mother's Day, which was actually fabulous. We got to spend it with Kaleb's family and mine, and it was an amazing feeling to know that I am actually a real mama now!! It was just very hard to hear that his levels were back up, and we hate how they are treating it. Everything we've read says that they usually don't start treatment this aggressively unless the levels are above 20. I understand they're trying to make sure they don't get that high, but they have now stuck my baby boy's foot every single day since he's been born and we are just tired of it!! Not to mention the fact that we learned that births involving pitocin have a greater chance of resulting in high bilirubin levels in babies, and the fact that most breastfed babies have jaundice and it just runs its course. We had to go back in and get it done at the same hospital again today and then went to our doctor's office. We don't know the results of the bilirubin test, but they weighed him and he is back up to his birth weight, so we are hopeful that that will at least stop the doctor from telling me to supplement with formula, which I refuse to do. We have many people praying that his levels are down, and he is peeing and pooping a lot more now, which is how his little body gets rid of this bilirubin, so we are trusting that God is working on our little man! Please help us pray that this goes away quickly. We are also going to try and bring the bili blanket back today as it costs $55 every day we use it and we've already had it 4 days and it's obviously not working that well! We have him swinging in the sunlight right now, and we're going to take him outside for a little while today and try to let him get some sun that way, too. I never knew jaundice was this big of a deal!

Anyway, that's what we've been dealing with. My parents and sister were here on and off last week, and it was sooooo nice to have all the extra help! Now it's just me and Kaleb and Kam and we are trying to get ourselves on a schedule of some sort. I know my mom expects new pictures of Kam every day, so I will update this afternoon with those! In the meantime, help us pray for his bilirubin levels!!

Monday, May 4, 2009

I am Officially a MAMA!!!

This morning, I woke up to the horrible feeling that I was wetting the bed. Only it didn't stop. So, at 2 a.m., I woke up Kaleb to tell him that my water broke. I think we were both pretty much in shock at that point. We got to the hospital around 3 a.m. where we spent 3 hours convincing them that my water really did break. We got into a room at 6, and both our families were able to make it there during that time, praise God! I still wasn't having any contractions and I wasn't dilated anymore at 9, so they started me on pitocin. Wow. That stuff is brutal. I was really worried because I know the horror stories about it, especially when the mother is trying to deliver naturally with no epidural. They were pretty true! I have never been in that much pain in my life. Around 12 they offered me some nubane, but said that Kam had fallen asleep and they needed his heart rate to get back up before they could give me any. I took it when his heartrate went back up around 1. So I didn't do it totally without drugs. I was 6 cm at this time (I'd dilated 2 cm that hour). Around 1:30 I was considering an epidural. Our nurse checked me again and I was fully dilated! We got ready to start pushing...and at 2:16 our baby born entered this world!! He is 8 lbs 1 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. And BEAUTIFUL!!! He's got quite a bit of very dark hair and gorgeous coloring. He's also doing really great at nursing so far. We've been able to have 2 feedings and are due another one in about 30 minutes. We'll get to come home on Wednesday as long as everything continues to go smoothly.

I could not have done this without a) God for giving me the strength I needed to get through it, b) my amazing husband who wore himself out rubbing a hole in my back through every contraction. He NEVER ceases to amaze me. I love him so much!!! And c) my wonderful mama who gave me a crash course in Lamaze and helped me breathe through the worst pain I've ever felt!! There is absolutely no way I could've done this without them.

Now I'm going to rest my eyes for a bit until they bring Kam in to feed again. I will post pictures tomorrow!!

Friday, May 1, 2009

It all happens for a reason...

So I've been pretty complain-y lately that Kamden hasn't come out yet. Which is really ridiculous when I stop and think about it. He's not due for another week. I just figured with my whole measuring 6 weeks ahead thing (8 weeks ahead now) that there was no way I'd carry him to 40 weeks. It is quickly approaching, though! I'll be 39 weeks on Sunday, and I haven't been having many contractions at all. My energy and nesting have been WAY up during the day. My classroom is more organized than it has ever been. My desk drawers are beautifully arranged, and I've done everything possible to put my entire brain into a binder for my sub. Copies are made so that she won't have to do anything while she's here except work off my lesson plans. I dusted every piece of furniture I have yesterday at school. The house is pretty clean...bathrooms look great and the bedroom furniture is dusted. I have plans tomorrow to vaccuum, mop, and dust the rest of the house to keep busy. I have to be doing something right now it seems. Except in the evenings when I am so completely drained that doing more than watching TV seems like a major feat. I finished all the thank you cards and Kaleb mailed them for me yesterday. I applied to a couple other schools and Kaleb also mailed that stuff off for me. Just to see what's out there. So, we are basically just waiting around, twiddling our thumbs til Kam comes.

However...

Everything happens for a reason. We found out this morning that the girl who's been planning on taking my class for the last few months changed her mind and decided to stay at her old job. She was supposed to start on Monday to get into the swing of things in my room. So we are back to square one trying to find a sub to take over my class for the last 4 weeks of the school year. Please pray that we can find someone quickly who will be good for my kids!! I don't want to leave not knowing what will happen with them.