I'm calling this Dash's one month birthday; I'm going to work on the picture for it tonight after his bath. He had his circumcision on Tuesday and I'm a little nervous about washing him while he still has the ring on it and looks sore. Even though he doesn't act like he's in pain, it's hard for me to imagine that he's not.
We have moved up to size 1 diapers and at his circumcision appointment, he was 9.1 pounds. He's still nursing every two hours for the most part; sometimes at night he goes three hours or so. I think he's nursing about ten to twelve minutes per breast and he's started nursing on both sides pretty consistently.
He sleeps in his bassinet until about 4 am and after that he's very fussy and doesn't sleep unless he's being held, so Zap takes him downstairs and sleeps on the couch with him until Delaney wakes up around 6am.
He is still loving to be tightly swaddled and is starting to really prefer to be carried in a baby sling or be skin to skin.
I would say that now he sleeps about 75% of his day. He's awake a little more, but he's still a little guy who needs his sleep.
He smells wonderful (most days, right now he is due for a bath and smells like milk) and his eyes are a little lighter than two weeks ago. He still has all of his straight, dark hair.
The breathing deal is slowly improving. Now he's just a little squeaky at night when nursing.
Delaney is doing well with Dash. She still needs to kiss him whenever she sees him, which I think is the sweetest thing in the world.
Overall, we're doing well. There's not enough hours in the day to have the house as clean as I'd like it, but we have set our priorities. I'd rather play with Delaney and enrich her day than make sure that every load of laundry is done.
Delaney is coming up on 18 months here in a few weeks and it is a big milestone. We've started loosely potty training. We sit her on the potty and sometimes she pees or poos and sometimes she doesn't. I've also let her do a little bit of the wander around the house naked; hoping she'll start to learn when she has to go.
I went to the store today to get her "big girl" hair clips. The bows we've been using from the Target baby section aren't working anymore. I'm thinking my friend Kate's baby, Bridget, could use them. She's got a lot of hair :)
Speaking of my big girl, she's eating lunch and I better go help her before it ends up EVERYWHERE :)
Friday, August 28, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Two Weeks Old!
Dash is two weeks old today!
He is still wearing newborn diapers, but we're probably getting close to moving to our size 1's. He continues to nurse every two hours (here and there an hour or an hour and a half). His nursing sessions are getting longer and longer. We may be working our way up to ten to twelve minutes.
At night, Dash still sleeps between me and Zap but we are slowly working our way to his sleeping in the bassinet next to our bed.
He still loves to be swaddled - tightly!
I would say that now he sleeps maybe 80-90% of his day. He was awake for a whole hour on Thursday morning.
He continues to smell delicious and he still has very deep blue eyes and straight dark hair.
At the 2 week weight check, he was just under 7 pounds ten ounces, so he's gaining more than an ounce a day.
Dash has also developed this breathing thing. You can hear him take in breaths; most often when he's working on something else (ex. a full diaper), but its very scary. I took him into the doctor and he basically said its a very typical newborn thing and harmless. We'll continue to keep an eye on it and watch out for a few specific indicators that it could be something deeper.
His umbilical stump fell off last Thursday.
We have scheduled his circumcision for August 25th. I'm dreading it, but hoping it won't be as bad as I'm making it out to be in my head.
Delaney continues to do well with Dash, but she is cutting her two bottom eye teeth (we know one for sure, but hopefully with all this grief we get a 2 for 1 deal) and she is miserable. We've always used Tylenol for teething but I asked the doctor this week if we could add Motrin and we have. It seems to be helping with her pain.
Off to bed. We're exhausted. I think we both forgot how long these nights are. But so very worth it.
He is still wearing newborn diapers, but we're probably getting close to moving to our size 1's. He continues to nurse every two hours (here and there an hour or an hour and a half). His nursing sessions are getting longer and longer. We may be working our way up to ten to twelve minutes.
At night, Dash still sleeps between me and Zap but we are slowly working our way to his sleeping in the bassinet next to our bed.
He still loves to be swaddled - tightly!
I would say that now he sleeps maybe 80-90% of his day. He was awake for a whole hour on Thursday morning.
He continues to smell delicious and he still has very deep blue eyes and straight dark hair.
At the 2 week weight check, he was just under 7 pounds ten ounces, so he's gaining more than an ounce a day.
Dash has also developed this breathing thing. You can hear him take in breaths; most often when he's working on something else (ex. a full diaper), but its very scary. I took him into the doctor and he basically said its a very typical newborn thing and harmless. We'll continue to keep an eye on it and watch out for a few specific indicators that it could be something deeper.
His umbilical stump fell off last Thursday.
We have scheduled his circumcision for August 25th. I'm dreading it, but hoping it won't be as bad as I'm making it out to be in my head.
Delaney continues to do well with Dash, but she is cutting her two bottom eye teeth (we know one for sure, but hopefully with all this grief we get a 2 for 1 deal) and she is miserable. We've always used Tylenol for teething but I asked the doctor this week if we could add Motrin and we have. It seems to be helping with her pain.
Off to bed. We're exhausted. I think we both forgot how long these nights are. But so very worth it.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
One week old!
Dash is one week old today (well at 1:26 am on Friday morning, but I know I won't have time tomorrow to write this) and I wanted to write a little note about where he is on these age milestones.
At one week, Dash has outgrown his preemie diapers and is now more comfortable in the newborn diapers.
He is eating every two hours and he is a wonderful nurser; we are frequently waking him up every two hours to remind him to nurse.
At night, he sleeps between me and Zap in his sleep positioner, we've been able to get him to sleep in his bassinet in the positioner for the first few hours of the night.
He enjoys being held mostly and loves to be swaddled tightly.
He sleeps probably 90% of his day at this point.
He smells delicious; that new baby smell is heaven.
He has straight, soft black hair and deep deep blue eyes.
At a weight check appointment today, Dash has weighed just slightly over 7 pounds, so he's nearly back up to his birth weight. His umbilical stump is about to fall off (which I'm glad for; we are having some newborn pictures of him taken tomorrow)
Delaney is doing very well with Dash. Today, I started thinking that maybe she thinks we brought him home for her. When she first sees him, she has to kiss him and pet his head. She's very gentle with him.
That's about it for now; off to cuddle on the couch with Zap while we take turns holding our little man.
At one week, Dash has outgrown his preemie diapers and is now more comfortable in the newborn diapers.
He is eating every two hours and he is a wonderful nurser; we are frequently waking him up every two hours to remind him to nurse.
At night, he sleeps between me and Zap in his sleep positioner, we've been able to get him to sleep in his bassinet in the positioner for the first few hours of the night.
He enjoys being held mostly and loves to be swaddled tightly.
He sleeps probably 90% of his day at this point.
He smells delicious; that new baby smell is heaven.
He has straight, soft black hair and deep deep blue eyes.
At a weight check appointment today, Dash has weighed just slightly over 7 pounds, so he's nearly back up to his birth weight. His umbilical stump is about to fall off (which I'm glad for; we are having some newborn pictures of him taken tomorrow)
Delaney is doing very well with Dash. Today, I started thinking that maybe she thinks we brought him home for her. When she first sees him, she has to kiss him and pet his head. She's very gentle with him.
That's about it for now; off to cuddle on the couch with Zap while we take turns holding our little man.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Dash's birth story
So I was scheduled for an induction on July 31st at 8:30. I really wanted to go into labor myself, so I changed my OB appointment for that week for an earlier time and a different doctor. I knew I wanted them to strip my membranes to see if it would jump start labor. At that appointment, I was 3cm dilated with little cervical change. Apparently I saw the evil membrane stripper OB. It hurt pretty badly when she did it and all that day and night I had intense contractions and cramping.
Around 11:00 that evening, we decided that we were ready to go to the hospital. I was having really bad back pain and the contractions were three minutes apart, lasting for one minute, and had been going on for an hour. How could this not be labor?? Plus, I was in substantial pain.
We get to the hospital and this fabulous nurse, Anna, checks us in. I told her about my appointment from that day and she said, well, just so you know, the stripping may not have worked. Yeah, but as bad as all this is, let's hope it did.
So she checks me and nope..3 cm and no change. They let me stay another hour and when they rechecked me and I still had no change, they gave me a shot of morphine and phenegren (I know that's spelled wrongly) and sent me home.
To where I couldn't sleep because I was still having contractions and the medicine made me feel horrible. I ended up taking a bath and a unisom at 4am.
The next day, with my dad and my mom here, I slept. I continued to have uncomfortable cramping but I was able to deal with it. My mom took Delaney to swim class at 4:45 and around 5:00 I decided that I was tired of being in pain. I couldn't breathe through them anymore and I figured if I STILL hadn't made any progress then they could give me another shot and I'd go in the next morning and be induced.
Zap and I head to the hospital, hoping for change but not expecting it.
We got checked in and I got checked and TA-DA - 4 cm and thinning! I got the okay to stay!!
Dr. Burtner admitted me and my nurse came on shift. Her name is Tracy and she is from Australia. She got my IV fluids started and did the blood draw so that I could get ready for my epidural (I knew I wasn't that tough). She was really fun. She also gave us a lot of really useful advice on how to get through the contractions better and her advice helped us considerably.
So for the next few hours we hung out - we got admitted between 6 and 7pm on Thursday.
My epidural doctor came in and she was really nice. It went so easy, but after about fifteen minutes we realized I had only a left sided block. I was able to feel contractions and everything on my right side. However, the pain that I was in from the contractions was minimal.
I think they checked me at my epidural and I was up to 6cm. The anesthesiologist thought that I might labor so quickly that I wouldn't even need the right block. We spent a few hours debating whether to redo the epidural or not.
However, around 11:30 pm or so, the contractions got more intense and I got myself psyched up and worried about the pain level with pushing, etc. and asked for the epidural to be redone.
This time I had a complete block. I was really numb. I had a hard time moving my legs and getting into the positions I wanted to be in.
This was around 12pm or so and Zap and I decided to sleep.
I woke up about an hour later with a lot of pressure and thought "I should probably call Tracy and let her know"; so she comes in and I tell her I've got pressure and at this point my entire body begins shaking uncontrollably. This had happened earlier in the evening and they told me that it's the body responding to things going so quickly, so I knew we were very close.
Tracy goes to check me and she says "well no wonder you were feeling pressure; there's a head".
In rushes in all the nurses, the OB, the OB resident and they get suited up. A few minutes later I start to push. I was able to tell a little bit when I needed to push, but my epidural was very strong.
I pushed for three contractions and at 1:26 AM on July 31st, 2009, Dash was here! My first thoughts were that he was tiny!! Compared to how Delaney is now, I couldn't get over how little he seemed. I also thought that he looked a lot like Delaney when she was born. He's got the same dark hair and the same deep blue eyes. Now, five days later, I think he looks a LOT like Zap.
He's a very mellow baby so far. He sleeps a lot and he doesn't make too big of a fuss.
Our recovery has been great. Dash is a wonderful nurser with a great latch. He does have to be poked and prodded to go past five minutes or so, but he'll get better.
I feel wonderful. I had no tearing at all, which makes the recovery so much easier. The hardest part was the contractions that come with nursing, which are more intense the second time around.
I'm thrilled to be home and to be learning how this adjustment period is going to go. More on that later. For now, nursing and dinner while Delaney and Zap are away at swimming class.
Around 11:00 that evening, we decided that we were ready to go to the hospital. I was having really bad back pain and the contractions were three minutes apart, lasting for one minute, and had been going on for an hour. How could this not be labor?? Plus, I was in substantial pain.
We get to the hospital and this fabulous nurse, Anna, checks us in. I told her about my appointment from that day and she said, well, just so you know, the stripping may not have worked. Yeah, but as bad as all this is, let's hope it did.
So she checks me and nope..3 cm and no change. They let me stay another hour and when they rechecked me and I still had no change, they gave me a shot of morphine and phenegren (I know that's spelled wrongly) and sent me home.
To where I couldn't sleep because I was still having contractions and the medicine made me feel horrible. I ended up taking a bath and a unisom at 4am.
The next day, with my dad and my mom here, I slept. I continued to have uncomfortable cramping but I was able to deal with it. My mom took Delaney to swim class at 4:45 and around 5:00 I decided that I was tired of being in pain. I couldn't breathe through them anymore and I figured if I STILL hadn't made any progress then they could give me another shot and I'd go in the next morning and be induced.
Zap and I head to the hospital, hoping for change but not expecting it.
We got checked in and I got checked and TA-DA - 4 cm and thinning! I got the okay to stay!!
Dr. Burtner admitted me and my nurse came on shift. Her name is Tracy and she is from Australia. She got my IV fluids started and did the blood draw so that I could get ready for my epidural (I knew I wasn't that tough). She was really fun. She also gave us a lot of really useful advice on how to get through the contractions better and her advice helped us considerably.
So for the next few hours we hung out - we got admitted between 6 and 7pm on Thursday.
My epidural doctor came in and she was really nice. It went so easy, but after about fifteen minutes we realized I had only a left sided block. I was able to feel contractions and everything on my right side. However, the pain that I was in from the contractions was minimal.
I think they checked me at my epidural and I was up to 6cm. The anesthesiologist thought that I might labor so quickly that I wouldn't even need the right block. We spent a few hours debating whether to redo the epidural or not.
However, around 11:30 pm or so, the contractions got more intense and I got myself psyched up and worried about the pain level with pushing, etc. and asked for the epidural to be redone.
This time I had a complete block. I was really numb. I had a hard time moving my legs and getting into the positions I wanted to be in.
This was around 12pm or so and Zap and I decided to sleep.
I woke up about an hour later with a lot of pressure and thought "I should probably call Tracy and let her know"; so she comes in and I tell her I've got pressure and at this point my entire body begins shaking uncontrollably. This had happened earlier in the evening and they told me that it's the body responding to things going so quickly, so I knew we were very close.
Tracy goes to check me and she says "well no wonder you were feeling pressure; there's a head".
In rushes in all the nurses, the OB, the OB resident and they get suited up. A few minutes later I start to push. I was able to tell a little bit when I needed to push, but my epidural was very strong.
I pushed for three contractions and at 1:26 AM on July 31st, 2009, Dash was here! My first thoughts were that he was tiny!! Compared to how Delaney is now, I couldn't get over how little he seemed. I also thought that he looked a lot like Delaney when she was born. He's got the same dark hair and the same deep blue eyes. Now, five days later, I think he looks a LOT like Zap.
He's a very mellow baby so far. He sleeps a lot and he doesn't make too big of a fuss.
Our recovery has been great. Dash is a wonderful nurser with a great latch. He does have to be poked and prodded to go past five minutes or so, but he'll get better.
I feel wonderful. I had no tearing at all, which makes the recovery so much easier. The hardest part was the contractions that come with nursing, which are more intense the second time around.
I'm thrilled to be home and to be learning how this adjustment period is going to go. More on that later. For now, nursing and dinner while Delaney and Zap are away at swimming class.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
a family of four!
Tried to post this from the hospital, but it wouldn't let me.
Dashel "Dash" William Riecken was born after a wonderful labor at 1:26 AM on Friday, July 31st, 2009. He weighed 7.3 pounds and is 19 inches long. He's got a full head of black hair and these deep blue eyes. He's such a cutie and he looks just like Daddy.
Dashel "Dash" William Riecken was born after a wonderful labor at 1:26 AM on Friday, July 31st, 2009. He weighed 7.3 pounds and is 19 inches long. He's got a full head of black hair and these deep blue eyes. He's such a cutie and he looks just like Daddy.
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