16 days young

Eric is now 16 days young. I have recently discovered that he doesn't like his crib and wants to be held all the time. He does manage to stay asleep in the crib but only if he's really tired. The first week, he seemed to sleep all the time. Now, he is much more alert and has been showing us his a little of what his personality is like.

I can't believe how alert and wiggly he is. It is very challenging to change his diaper and change his clothes. His little legs keep peddling like a bicyclist.

Yesterday, he had his 2 week check up at the pediatrician. The pediatrician was very happy with his progress and growth. He has gained 7 ounces since he was born.
David and I are very happy to hear that.

My parents are here visiting this week and last night we were all able to go to a wonderful chinese restaurant together. I was all worried about how crazy it would be to take a newborn out like that but he ended up being such a good baby. He is amazing. He hardly made a peep the entire time we were there, and he seems to love being in the car seat.



Right now, David and Eric are sleeping and I'd like to try to make some dinner while I get a chance. :-)

Feeding time

At the moment, Eric is sleeping and I am supposed to be too..... but it's hard to get into a routine. I guess it's going to take me awhile.
:-) For the last couple of days I've been on a strict pumping schedule. I've been talking to a lactation consultant because both Eric and I are having some trouble with breastfeeding. In the meantime I was told to give him formula to supplement to make sure he's getting enough to eat.

David and I had another night of interrupted sleep last night. Eric seemed to be hungry all night long. He just wasn't satisfied. Or maybe he just wasn't sleepy I'm not sure.

My husband has some details about the birth on his blog.

I can hardly believe that I gave birth to this little boy. It brings me to tears.

Here he is!!!!!!!

Eric Craig Zwicker was born on Wednesday, October 11th, 2006 at 11:27pm.
Weight: 7 pounds and 2 ounces

He's the most beautiful baby in the world and has the cutest cry I have ever heard!

I am going to attempt to feed him and then hopefully the 3 of us can take a nap. We'll see how it goes. :-)

Prayer requests

I have a few prayer requests. Please pray for David. My wonderful husband. He wasn't feeling to well yesterday either. He's sick and I think he has the flu.
Please pray that he would be healthly enough and strong enough for when I need to go to the hospital.

Also, my mom. She is sick too. I'm worried about this. But I am trying to realize that the Lord's timing is the best and he will work things out.
It's hard when people who are close to me are not doing well.

I wonder if Eric will be able "hold out" (so to speak) and wait for his family members to get well.

Thank you all!

I think I'm in for it

Last night (2am!) I went to the hospital because I've noticed something else. Some kind of stuff that didn't seem right. Over the course of a few days or so, I've been noticing this icky stuff and some cramps that have been quite frequent and anyway it alarmed me and I couldn't figure out what it was. None of my books gave me the answer that I was looking for. So I did the familiar routine and called the doctor and the doctor who was on call said to go to the hospital. I woke David up (poor David, I felt badly but I knew that I couldn't drive myself and I didn't know what was happening) and told him what the doctor had said.

We headed to the hospital and we decided to take the video camera and the digital camera just in case.
We got to the hospital and parked and a very nice security guy offered to give us a ride in his golf cart to the emergency room. It was a little walk and I didn't know if I was up for it, so it was very nice of this man to give us a ride.

In the labor and delivery room, the nurse hooked me up to the monitor. She determined that I was losing my mucous plug. That's what that icky stuff was. She said that some women lose it all at once and others lose it a little bit at a time. She also examined me and said that Eric is still high and that my cervix is just beginning to get ripe (barely 1 cm). She told me that things should be changing pretty quickly in the next few days. I had a few contractions that came up on the monitor and they felt pretty strong. She also said that the real contractions for active labor (later on) are awful and I won't be able to talk or walk when they happen. That really scares me because these contractions that I've been having lately haven't been fun.

The doctor at the hospital ended up sending me home after a while. David and I stopped for some very early breakfast and then went home and tried to go back to sleep.

I'm getting more excited that Eric will be here soon. I hope to be able to find out more tomorrow after we have a non-stress test and an ultrasound at the doctor appointment.

Here's a picture from very early this morning. I was smiling but that before I had those contractions that I talked about. I'm a wimp! I'm not even in active labor yet or transition. From what I hear transition is the hardest part of it.

He missed his "birthday"

The car seat and crib are all ready. His mom and dad are ready too. All ready and waiting for him.

40 weeks and counting

Well, the verdict from the doctor is that Eric isn't coming for a while. That's pretty much what we were expecting. Next week I have an appointment to do a stress test and to have an ultrasound. Hopefully, everything will be ok and I won't have to be induced. Maybe that's a good thing to be induced. I'm not sure.

I'm frustrated even though I was expecting Eric to come late. I just didn't expect to have to schedule a stress test to see if he's doing ok. I thought that he would just come a few days after the due date. I'm already really uncomfortable. And..... the doctor said the cervix still isn't ripe enough and he hasn't dropped yet.

So now I really need to do something to pass the time.

2 days!!!!!

Well I have 2 days until the so called due date. Last night I managed to paint my toe nails. Yippee! I kept a fan blowing near by so that it would blow the fumes away from me. (Don't worry, I was careful).
Did you know it's really challenging to paint your toe nails when you're really really really pregnant? I guess it would've been much easier to get them done at a salon but I'm trying to save money so I did it myself.
I figured at the time of labor, at least something will look pretty. Maybe I'll take a picture of my toes on that day (or have someone else do it since I'm suppose to be focusing on my breathing or something). Hmmmmmm.......

Not much else has been going on. Eric is moving around in a squirmy sort of way because he doesn't have much room to move now. I have become incredibly anxious about his arrival and glad that this pregnancy will soon be over.
Last night I was making dinner (another difficult chore these days) and ooh boy is it difficult to stand over the stove, even for a short period of time. But I was hungry and so was Eric. I'm glad that I found an easy recipe that David and I both like. My sister-in-law thought it up. It's basically chicken and spaghetti. It's yummy! It's made with chicken tenders (cut up into bite sized pieces, angel hair pasta or regular noodles and tomatoe and basil sauce). Oh and squash and zucchini for the vegetable.

I have a doctor appointment tomorrow (40 weeks). The doctor is supposed to check on me to see if there are any interesting developments going on (in other words, an exam to see how close labor should be..... ouch!).

Awake again

I can't sleep again. This time it's because of a back ache and a skin rash that doesn't want to go away. I don't know if I should bother to go to the doctor for this rash because my due date is Friday and I don't know that he could do anything about it, except for tell me that it will go away after I have the baby. At least that has been his response for just about every other symptom/problem that I've had.
I looked up some skin problems and conditions on Webmd and in a pregnancy book that I have. Both of them say that skin problems are very common in pregnancy and nothing to worry about. Apparently it has to do with some weird hormones.
My doctor did say that I could take Benadryl for things like this. I've tried that and it did seem to help but the drawback was that I slept pretty much all day because it made me sleepy. I could take it again now but I think it's a little late for me to take something that makes me sleep a lot (especially if it could affect Eric some how). I guess I'm a little paranoid about taking medicine when I'm pregnant.

I've decided to get out of bed because I wasn't sleeping at all so I might as well type a post and tell you all about my pregnancy woes. :-)
Ugh! These past few weeks have been difficult. I hope that I am able to do something that keeps me busy enough or at least helps me to take my mind off of these icky, annoying things.

I'm just done with this pregnancy thing. He can come out now. I'm ready for him.
I have 4 days (counting tomorrow which is actually Tuesday) until the due date.
Oh boy!