ALL ABOUT ZAYDEN...

Zayden is 6 weeks old this week, I haven't been able to update his site because he has kept us VERY busy! Right now he has his days and nights mixed up so he is keeping all of us up and busy. Hopefully he will switch his schedule soon so that we can all get some normal sleep hours. Right now I don't want to force him into any schedule, he is definitely sleeping good, just during the day :) So let us recap his past six weeks since we weren't able to update the blog...I'll post some pics too below of how he has changed so much!

First here is the story of how he came into the world, I never got to post it--so here is how it all went down:
Birth Story:
I started laboring on friday night and thought my water broke, so we headed off to labor and delivery to get checked out. I was alreday so tired, he was one day late at this point since he was due the 4th--so I was ready to have him out. Well turns out I wasn’t dilated enough yet and they sent me home to labor at home until I made more progress L That was a tough night---Zywx and I were up from midnight until 8 AM timing all my contractions, I had back labor and could not sit down and always felt like I had to go to the bathroom. I took a bunch of hot showers and walked around at home until I couldn’t take the pain anymore.

We went back to the hospital at 9 AM—I don’t know how I made the car ride there I was in so much pain. Terri, my nurse told me the good news that I was dilated to 3 cm and complete so I could get admitted to a room! By lunchtime we were in labor room 8, it was a huge room and very comfortable for all of the family to wait for Zayden to come. Terri started my IV, and drew my blood, and set me up on the monitors. She encouraged me to walk around but I couldn’t take the pain anymore and asked her for the medication as soon as I could get it!
I got my epidural set up by anesthesia and it wasn’t as scary as I thought and Terri did such a good job helping me relax during the procedure.

After the epidural was placed in I had to stay in bed, so Zywx, mom, dad, and Brian kept me company the whole time and they waited patiently for him to come. Nancy and Janine were my nurses for the rest of the night and Dr McCarthy was my OB MD for the delivery. I dilated thru the day from noon to about 10 PM—then I was finally complete and ready to push, but then, my cervix kept closing back a bit and I could not get comfortable, even with the epidural. So I got more medicine to help me through, but the baby would not like it when I would lie on my left side, his heart rate kept dropping. So I had to lay on my right side, and in the meantime everyone started coming in and out of the room getting equipment set up, and the Dr and Nurses were getting concerned about how low his heart rate kept dropping. I was really nervous and scared at this point and I started crying because I knew I would have to have a c-section to get him out safe. They allowed me to push about 3 times to see if I was able to push him out and possibly vaccum him out at that point, but it did not work. Soon after they all rushed and wheeled me into the operating room to do an emergency c-section. My nurse Janine is also one of my best friends since junior high school, she stayed with me the whole time and held my hand in the OR. Zywx could not come into the operating room because they had to put me to sleep for the operation. Everything happened so fast and they told me the baby was out within 10 minutes. I didn’t wake up until later on when they were ready to wheel me into recovery room, I saw my son for the first time on Brian’s digital camera—he was in the nursery, receiving IV fluids and medications. Zayden did really well according to all the nursery nurses and the pediatrician that was there. Zywx was able to come into the OR to see him quickly and everyone was able to see the baby in the nursery after he was stable. The time flew by so quickly that night, the next morning, I was in my room on the postpartum unit recovering and was able to finally meet Zayden in person the next morning when I was recovering and he was taken to and from our room to the nursery so they could give him medications. We stayed in the hospital for 4 days, and finally made it home on January 10th, it is much better to be at home and to recover at home with the baby. We were all sleep deprived in the hospital and it was so hard for me to eat, and sleep, and take care of baby there. I am so glad we are home.

Mommy, Daddy, and Baby are doing well now at home, we are getting more sleep thanks to Lola—she is our night nurse and helping us around the house to get rest. I am concentrating on getting rest, I am anemic after the surgery—so I am focusing on breastfeeding the baby and getting better. It is very hard to take care of the baby after having a c-section, but I am getting better day by day, thanks to GOD. I know that He has watched over me and our family and we are all here healthy and safe because of HIM and his guidance to all the medical staff that day who helped Zayden and I.

Week One-Mom and Dad took him to Newborn club at Kaiser Vallejo Clinic to be checked out by the RN, he was jaundiced at birth but the RN wasn't worried about it and said he looked fine. It was very cold out that day, but we all did great with our first outing and mom and dad had to get used to bringing the diaper bag, stroller, and all the baby gear. Dad ended up just carrying Zayden in the car seat into the clinic, but that will get difficult later on when he starts gaining more weight! At newborn club his weight was 8 pounds, 14 ounces.

Week Two-Mom and Dad took him to his pediatrician, Dr. Mills at the Napa Kaiser clinic. He was very nice and Zayden seemed to like him, he didn't cry when he examined him :) He said that Zayden looked good and that he probably would weigh 12 pounds at the next visit! His weight at the clinic was 9 pounds, 2 ounces.

Week Three-Mom and Dad took Zayden to the urologist to get checked out for the circumcision to be done at one month. We waited a long time for the doctor because he was running late, but Zayden slept thru most of it. When we had to pick him up and undress him for the exam, he spit up on the doctor :) His umbilical cord stump came off this week too. Mom also went in for her followup appt with her nurse practitioner, she took off Mom's steristrips and Mom got blood work drawn to check her blood count again.

Week Four-Zayden went in for his circumcision at the Napa clinic with Dr Mills. It was very sad for us to watch :( Dad stood by and mom sat in the corner trying not to cry. The doctor did a really good job, but you could tell Zayden was still in pain, he cried some real big tears :( But right after I held him and rocked him, and he breastfed for a few minutes and was feeling fine.
He was really fussy the next few days after and wanted to be held a lot. Oh! And he weighed in at 10 pounds 10 ounces! Big boy!

Week Five- Dad had surgery this week on his teeth so mommy had to be nurse to both baby and daddy :) Grandma helped out Mommy at home, especially at night so that we could get sleep. We are very glad we have Grandma :) She helped Mom get better, Mom's blood count is much better now that she is home and was able to rest!

Week Six-We are just going to start week six this Saturday, we went for our first walk the other day with Buddy and Dad. Mom and Zayden walked with the stroller and he slept the whole way! When we got home he took a big poop! Both Buddy and Zayden ;) Zayden is doing great, he does very good feeding and he can go back and forth to breast and bottlefeeding so Grandma and Daddy can feed him too. He likes to copy Grandma when she sticks her tongue out and he likes to listen to Dad and Grandpa's voices. He and mommy are nap buddies, he likes to take naps with mommy, but not at night :( Hopefully that will change soon! He is smiling and cooing more and more each day.