Father’s day 2016

Jun 20, 2016 /

…

It was Mike’s first father’s day this weekend!

We didn’t do much to celebrate because life with a newborn sorta limits that, but we did get to play a round of disc golf and I surprised Mike with a handful of small gifts and cards. We also enjoyed dinner with my family.

I of course didn’t take a single photo of Mike with his new son yesterday, but here is a precious one of them in the hospital.

The most fun gift from yesterday was three photo frames filled with these photos of Dwayne.

DAD Year 1

We are so so lucky to have Mike in this family. He blesses me beyond what I ever dreamed and I know it is the same for Dwayne. He works so hard to provide for us and take care of us with no complaining. I can’t imagine doing this “parenting” thing with anyone else.

Happy Day!

4 Weeks of Life: In Photos

May 30, 2016 /

Four weeks ago from this moment, my son was taking his first breath.

How it has already been four weeks? I’ll never know. On the one hand it feels like yesterday, but on the other, sleepier hand it feels like a decade ago.

There have been moments of bliss and sweetness and also quite a few moments of doubt and frustration. I had no idea how hard breastfeeding would be or how much of my time would be spent attempting to feed this little man. It has been a long road of supplementing, syringe feeding, pumping, bottling, using a nipple shield, and wanting to give up too many times to count. Thankfully, we have made it through the toughest part (I hope) and we are in greener pastures. I wouldn’t say we’ve mastered it, actually I wouldn’t even say we’re close, but he’s gaining and eating and sleeping so YAY!

Soaking up every little newborn snuggle has been so sweet and I remind myself that if we’re blessed with more children that it won’t be like this the second time around. We’ve loved getting to know Dwayne and can’t wait to see more of his personality come out.

So here is week one of Dwayne’s life in photos!

WEEK ONE - 12 - Version 3

Week one highlights: Dwayne made his first trip to Mike’s work to meet some new friends.
He had pretty bad jaundice so he spent most of his first week hooked up to a biliblanket and getting stuffed with food. He also had to be pricked quite a few times to make sure his levels were coming down.
I had to spend an afternoon in the ER to make sure I didn’t have a blood clot in my leg (thankfully I did not) and Dwayne got to spend that afternoon with his cousin Pierce! His first time away from Mom and Dad and he did great!

Week Two:

WEEK TWO - 10 WEEK TWO - 12

Week two highlights: Dwayne really woke up this week!
We spent lots of time with Aunt Maddie before she went away to camp for the month of June.
We went on our first family walk with Dwayne in the Ergobaby and Alfred really warmed up to the babe.

Week three:

WEEK 3 - 06

Week three highlights: We had our first family breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Dwayne did great and was awake the whole time just soaking it in.
He also went on his first road trip to Nebraska for a wedding. He did great for this too and even slept 6 hours the night in the hotel!

Week four:

WEEK 4 - 03 WEEK 4 - 16

Week four highlights: I went back to work one day this week and we spent all the other days focused on breastfeeding and not getting off the couch. Big cousin Pierce got baptized this week too – so we made our first appearance at church. Baby Dwayne was a hit and we aren’t taking for granted how great our little baby is.

That was a photo overload! Hopefully I won’t go 4 weeks without an update moving forward. We are excited for the next four weeks as Dwayne’s personality starts to shine through and he continues to grow.

Until then, I’ll be here, snuggling this little man and not feeling any guilt about all the things that need to get done that simply aren’t happening. 🙂

Jaderston Baby: The Birth Story {part two}

May 18, 2016 /

…

So if you haven’t caught up, HERE is the birth story {part one}. That one ended with the epidural and relief around 7:50 AM.

They checked me at 8:45 and I still hadn’t made any further progress… Whoa.

At 10:00 am they checked me again and finally I had dilated to a 6, but baby was still at -1 station.

Thankfully we were able to get some rest in between checks and it seemed that moving me around every 30 minutes or so really helped so we kept doing that.

At noon my doctor came and checked me (the on call doc had been checking me before). I was dilated to a 9 with an anterior lip on my cervix! My cervix finally moved into the correct position and he informed us that it would probably be before 5 that we’d meet our boy! He came around again at 1:15 and I was fully dilated and ready to push, but the baby still needed to move down a little bit more for really effective pushing so we continued to wait hoping that I would eventually feel some sort of pressure to help with the pushing.

At 2:00 we started to “practice push” and I was starting to feel a little bit of pressure with each contraction. During our wait we had been praying for me to feel just a little bit with no pain so that I could really assist in pushing him out instead of blindly hoping I was doing it right. Sure enough with each contraction I could feel it build up and peak but with very little pain.

At 2:15 my doctor arrived with lots of other nurses and support staff. The room was buzzing with excitement. We were about to meet our boy – we just couldn’t believe it. I spent most of the next 30 minutes in my head with my eyes closed just waiting for the next wave to come so that I could push. I had so much encouragement and support surrounding me and even though it wasn’t natural or how I had hoped it would happen, it was beautiful and peaceful.

Dwayne was born at 2:45 pm. We delayed the cutting of the cord and he was moved to my belly just briefly before the nurses and doctors realized something was wrong. They took Dwayne over to the warmer and many more doctors swarmed into the room. We spent the next 5 minutes waiting, crying, begging the Lord to breathe life into his lungs. I never took my eyes off Mike and he never took his eyes off Dwayne. You could feel the tension in the room as people waited for him to respond and at 5 and a half minutes when Dwayne made the tiniest little squeak the tension lifted and Mike was finally able to tell me (with confidence) that he was ok and I was able to look at Dwayne for the first time and watch him turn pink.

It was the longest 5 minutes of our lives.

After a few more minutes and some assessments from the doctors, Dwayne was put on my chest and Mike and I were able to look into his eyes for the first time. He was perfect. All 9 lbs 1 oz of him.

After an hour of skin to skin our families were able to come in a meet him. Thankfully my OB had filled them in on his traumatic entrance so we didn’t have to relive it quite yet.

Eventually we got moved up to recovery and we settled in for a few more nights.

Dwayne: Mike’s middle name and the name of his uncle who passed away just before Mike was born.
Henry: Dr. Henry Lederle (above picture) is Mike’s mentor and our dear friend whom we consider family. Everyone calls him DH. It turns out that Henry is also a family name for both of us!

Dwayne Henry Jaderston

Our journey to parenthood didn’t go exactly as we would have planned, but every bump in the road, pain of pregnancy, and change of plans made this little man all the more worth it.

I can’t believe he’s already two weeks old. He threw us a bunch of curve balls during those first 2 weeks but we are so grateful to be home with a healthy, breathing little boy.

Happy Day!