Dax's Journal

Four Weeks

Dax is now four weeks old. He had a doctor's appointment yesterday and we found out he weighs 9 1/2 pounds and has grown to 21 1/4 inches. I was stunned at how much he's grown.

Here he is in his "Poohjamas" which he is about to outgrow. These used to be way too big for him. Because of that, last night was the first night he wore them. We figured we better take a picture QUICK because tomorrow he may be shopping for jammies in the men's department.

Last week, Dax got more mail than I did. With his mail he received more gifts. He got the softest, fuzziest little hat I've ever seen from his Aunt Johannah, Uncle Sean and cousins. They also sent him an adorable, soft elephant rattle and a very cool baby book. I can't wait to start filling that out. Johannah's parents also sent Dax a gift of a super cute little outfit that he will be wearing in no time due to the fact that he grows faster than anything I know of in the entire universe.

Perhaps the biggest news in Dax's life is that his Grandma Diana is coming to visit. This will be his first introduction to the woman who will spoil him more than any other human being on the planet. This is a frightening thought considering that his father and I have been fairly gifted in the "spoiling" department lately.

Three Weeks

Dax is three weeks old today. Baby Center says, "By the end of this week, your baby may be able to lift his head briefly when he's lying on his tummy. He may also be able to turn his head from side to side. His leg and arm movements are less jerky and, as he gains more control of his muscles, he'll soon be the picture of grace compared to those first few weeks."

Dr. P recommended last week that we start giving Dax "Tummy Time" so he can start working on lifting his head up. As you can see, he's doing quite well.

Dax is sleeping less during the day and more at night. His record for staying awake so far is three hours. His record for sleeping at night? Five hours! I wish I could say that I also slept straight through for five hours. I kept waking up wondering why he wasn't awake yet.

We're already starting to work on getting Dax on a sleep schedule. We're looking at his sleeping patterns to see what his natural rhythms are and we're also trying to establish night time rituals. I'm so fortunate to have a long maternity leave. I can't imagine having to go to work at this point. Hopefully, by the time I do have to go back, Dax will be sleeping for longer stretches at night. (And hopefully I will, too.)

I was looking at pictures of him in his first week and I can't believe how much he's changed already. It is amazing to see how quickly he learns. He seems to really enjoy spending time on his tummy and learning to lift and turn his head. He also loves to imitate faces. If you stick your tongue out or open your mouth, Dax will do the same. Sometimes he initiates it. Sometimes, after he eats, he gets this little smile on his face. I like to pretend that it *isn't* gas and I daydream about the time when he'll break out in adorable, gummy smiles just for me.

Not Turkey Jerky

Yeahhhhh.

That whole umbilical cord thing. All of the pamphlets, handouts, magazine articles, and doctors say that in about 1-2 weeks your baby's umbilical stump will naturally fall off. But what they don't say....they say nothing of the horror if you happen to be in the vicinity when the stump does fall off.

Last week, Dax's umbilical stump was hanging on by its last thread. It was only a matter of time before it fell off. Then I started to change his diaper. As I pulled the front of his diaper from him, the stump got caught on my fingers.

Think about the time you had that scab on your arm that was about to fall off. But then it got caught on your jacket, or on the couch, or on your bike. That microsecond of slight pain that hits you as the scab prematurely comes off.

Multiply that feeling a few thousand times and you'll start to understand how I felt as Dax's umbilical stump stretched from his body before my eyes, in slow motion mind you, before finally giving way. The horror.

Apparently, that high pitched scream of pain was NOT emanating from Dax. It was in my mind. Dax was fine. He just lay there with his legs kicking and arms flailing. A look of content on his face.

The Name Game

Michelle says that Dax will be a confused child as he begins to comprehend things. We have two cats, Puck and Duncan. We have me, Cat. There are just too many cats in the household.

I sometimes call out to the cats: "hey kitty" or "here kitty". It's not going to help that I sometimes joke with Dax by saying "hey kiddie" which, you know, sounds very similar to "hey kitty."

Since he'll be crawling soon, it won't be very long before we have Dax potty-trained by using the cat litter boxes.

I'm joking, of course.

Two Weeks

Dax is two weeks old today. He also had his follow-up appointment with his pediatrician. He's been eating like a champ and apparently mommy's milk agrees with him. He's up to 8 pounds and 1 ounce. He's in the 25th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference.

This week's Big New Development is that we will start giving him "tummy time". We're also going to be trying to keep his sleepy little butt awake longer during the day so he'll sleep better at night.

We're going to be resuming our walks again this week, too. Hopefully. If the weather cooperates. It has been very VERY hot. It will be good to start exercising again. I miss it. I have been feeling a little "blue" and I think part of that is from my lack of working out (and, of course, lack of sleep). Despite not working out, I've lost all my pregnancy weight gain (and then some) and that definitely makes me happy.

Visitors

Dax likes to sleep sometimes with both arms flung up over his head. This charms me like you wouldn't believe. Well, look for yourself.

He had a big day today. Cat's mom and sister drove down to meet him. He seemed to be quite smitten with both of them. He is Cat's mom's first grandson and Mary Ann's first nephew.

Here he is with his Tia.

And here he is with his Lula.

Dax's Birth Story (Mom's version)

I had been having contractions fairly regularly for a couple of days before Dax finally arrived. They never got stronger or closer together and I was starting to think he was never coming out. But on the morning of August 30th (which was a Monday, by the way), I woke up very early because the contractions had gotten stronger. At 6AM, the alarm went off and I got up to go to the bathroom. When I got up, my water broke! At least, I thought it did. It wasn't quite what I expected.

I called Labor and Delivery to explain what had happened and to ask them what we should do. In the meantime, Cat sort of wandered around in a daze and asked, "What do I do?" I had an appointment at 10:15 that morning for fetal monitoring and the nurse at Labor and Delivery told me to just keep the appointment. Even they weren't sure by my description of what had happened that my water had broken.

As I waited for my appointment, the contractions started to come about every 15 minutes but they didn't hurt too bad so I didn't think much about them. I went to the appointment I had scheduled and they decided that I should probably go to Labor and Deliver to be examined. I called Cat from the parking garage and told him I was going to be examined at the birthing center. I said that I'd let him know if they were going to admit me. I was so dreading going there and having them send me home again.

When they examined me at Labor and Delivery they confirmed that my water *had* broken and they found that I had dilated to 4 centimeters so that meant that he was really on his way. I was so excited, I insisted on calling Cat right there from triage before they even took me to my room. It was 1:40PM.

My contractions were still coming regularly but they weren't really getting stronger. Cat showed up within the hour and we even took some time to call some people to let them know I was in labor.

At 4:00, one of the doctors came to tell us that they were going to give me Pitocin to make my contractions stronger. Because my water had broken in the morning, they were worried about infection and wanted to hurry things up a bit. That's when things started moving really fast.

By 5:40, the contractions started coming every couple of minutes and they were really, really painful! This is when I stopped smiling and happily announcing, "I'm in labor!" This is when I totally stopped being a lady and started to liberally fling about the "F" word. Cat was incredible. He held my hand and told me stories to keep me distracted. I couldn't remember any of the stories he told me now if my life depended on it, but I remember focusing on his voice to get through the contractions.

They eventually gave me some sort of pain medication that made me feel as if I had sunken about 2 feet deep into the mattress but the pain was still just as bad. By 7:00, I wussed out and asked for an epidural. That only took about ten minutes to do and I felt so much better afterwards that I professed my deep and abiding love for the anesthetist.

All the nurses I had had up until then were awesome. Unfortunately, the night nurse who was there for his birth was completely inept. COMPLETELY. Cat and I didn't trust her at all. At about 10:00, she checked me to see how dilated I was. She said I was fully dilated and that I needed to do a "practice push". First of all, I didn't trust her enough to know if I was really dilated to 10. And there was no way I was going to do any pushing with just her in the room. So I told her no and told her to get the doctor. She said she had already paged them but that I needed to start pushing because it was my first baby and I'd "be pushing for hours". Again, I told her no. Cat was right there by my side backing me up. Most of you know how quiet he is. He wasn't then. He was very vocal and strong and I knew that everything was going to be fine.

The doctor (and her entourage) arrived shortly after that. It was about 10:15. She explained to me how to push and told me to go ahead and do a "practice" push. I heard her say to the resident that the baby was starting to crown, so they told me to STOP PUSHING while they made sure everything was ready. In another five minutes or so, I had my legs propped up by the attending resident on one side and Nurse Inept on the other. Cat was at my head, supporting it as I pushed. I felt like I had an entire cheering squad. The doctor and resident were awesome, coaching me through pushing and counting for me. Nurse Inept shouted "PUSHPUSHPUSHPUSH" frantically at me and, if I could have moved my leg, I would have kicked her in the mouth. Cat held my head and told me what a great job I was doing. I focused on him because he seemed so calm and so confident in me.

It took three sets of pushes to get him out. Seriously. My expected "hours" of pushing turned into "minutes". The first three "sets" included three pushes each and the last one included four. And then he was there. I looked down and saw him flailing his little arms around and screaming his head off. He promptly peed on the doctor to announce his arrival.

We had been told that Dax would be taken from us for the first four hours of his life so that his blood sugar levels could be monitored. I'm happy to report that they did not take him. They left him with us and did all his tests in my room. Cat was there for Dax's wipe down and while they weighed him and did his APGAR. Then Cat got to hold him. He brought Dax over to me so I could sniff his little head while the doctor stitched me up.

Once they had me stitched and cleaned, I got to hold my baby and try to breastfeed. Mostly I just stared at him in wonder. I still do that. Stare at him. I can't believe he's ours.

This first couple of weeks of his life have flown by. It has been the most amazing and stressful two weeks of my life. I love this child intensely. I also worry more about him than I have ever, ever, ever worried about anything in my entire life. He is so adorable and he smells so good. I love holding his tiny, warm body next to mine and smelling his sweet baby smell. I love watching Cat hold him as he sleeps. I love his funny, unfocused looks and the weird little noises he makes.

Cat has just been incredible. I expected him to be supportive during my labor and Dax's delivery but he really went beyond my expectations. Let's face it, no matter how much you try not to see what's going on when your wife is having a baby, there's a certain amount of "fallout" that you can't avoid seeing. He didn't pass out or get sick or run away. He was calm and strong and supportive and wonderful and he continues to be that way now that we are all home learning to be a family.

Time flies

The time has been flying by at an incredible pace. I can't believe that another week has almost passed.

My coworkers sent us this adorable bouquet congratulating us on Dax's arrival.

Dax is getting more and more alert and spending more time awake. Here he is in his swing.

Today I had to clip his nails. There are no pictures of this because I didn't want to have a record of me snipping off the top of my tiny son's pinky. We made it through without injury to him or to me. Whew!

Cat is mastering the art of multitasking with his son. Look! He is able to bond with Dax and to play video games at the same time. Let no one say my husband is not a talented guy.

Cat has to go back to work on Tuesday and I am dreading it. I have no doubt that I can handle being on my own with Dax but it will be difficult and I will definitely miss having Cat around. So, if there are no updates to the site for a bit, it is because I've got my hands full of yummy baby.

One Week

I can't believe that Dax is one week old already. This week absolutely flew by. Baby Center said that Dax would spend his first week getting adjusted to his surroundings and enjoying being swaddled.

He also had his first two sponge baths. He LOVES having his hair washed. It will be fun to give him a real bath once his umbilical cord stump falls off. I think he will really enjoy being in the water.

He also spent a little time with his gymini, swing, and bouncy chair. His bouncy chair also has a massage function that he seems to enjoy. He's not quite big enough to make it bounce yet.

He's having longer stretches of alert time although he still sleeps a lot. When he's awake, we love talking to him. His daddy read books to him tonight and he seemed to really enjoy that. He likes to pull his daddy's glasses off and he likes to grab his mommy's face.

He also likes grabbing his own face. Sometimes he sticks his fingers right in his eyes. One time, he stuck a finger right up his nose. Sadly, I missed that photo op.

Cat and I are slowly adjusting to becoming parents. Each time we do something, we do it a bit more efficiently than the time before. The first sponge bath was pretty chaotic but the second one went very smoothly. We still cling to each other in fear in the face of some of the frighteningly filthy diapers our little one has churned out. We're learning and we're loving it.

Sleepy boy

This week is flying by. We are having so much fun with our little one. He is starting to have more wakeful moments and he is eating like a champ.

Mostly, he sleeps. He loves to sleep on his mommy.

AND he loves to sleep on his daddy.

He's getting very good at communicating what he likes and what he doesn't. Actually, I guess Cat and I are just getting better at understanding what Dax is communicating. He HATES being naked and cries when we change his diaper. But that's pretty much the only time he really hollers. So far he is being very good to us and giving us loads of time to adjust to being parents.

Home

First Pic

Can you believe it? He's finally here. This is what he looked like just moments after making his big debut. (Just click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.) He came out screaming and promptly peed all over the doctor who delivered him. Cat and I will both be writing about the whole experience soon. For now, we just wanted to share a few pictures.

Going Home

Here's our little one ready to go home. Some people think he looks like he's giving the "A-OK" sign here. The little outfit we put him in is the one that Tosha and Eric bought for him. It looked so tiny but he was swimming in it. The little hat that Cat's mom made is too big so he had to come home hatless. Everyone said that drive would be the longest EVER and they were right. Nerve wracking!

D and D

Cat is an awesome daddy. He was born to do this. I'm so impressed with how comfortable he is with Dax. Dax is also impressed and is very smitten with his daddy. They've been spending loads of quality time together.

We are all doing very well and adjusting to being a little family. I'm sure the words will come to me, but for now I am having the hardest time explaining how incredible this is. Did anyone ever think that *I* would be speechless?

The Baby Has Arrived

Born: Monday, August 30, 2004 @ 10:33pm.
Weight: 7lbs. 4oz.
Length: 19.5 inches

Due to keys being left at work and camera being left at hospital...pics to follow. Otherwise, at least one pic would have been up by now.