Rollin'

What a fun weekend! We had another New Moms (and Dads and Babies) get together! Emily & Dave were nice enough to host us all again and MOST of us were in attendance except for Donna (and family) and Kara (and family) because they had other plans (they were of course missed)!

All the babies played and cooed! We had some good food and a lot of laughs! After Chase had a melt-down because I made him do tummy time, we remembered the trick Dr. Vincent recommended...lay him down on paper! Emily promptly got some shiny silver paper and the babies had a blast! Chase amazed us by rolling over 6 times in a row and then he and Will (his birth day buddy) had a great time kicking and crinkling the paper!

I can't wait to get ALL the babies together and see how much everyone has grown and changed. And to FINALLY get a picture of ALL the babies together! They've known each other basically since birth and we don't have one picture of the whole group! That MUST be corrected at the next get together!

A rough couple of weeks...

After an exhausting couple of weeks, Chase has finally made a full recovery and will be returning to daycare tomorrow. Our little man was "suffering" from RSV, although you would never have known by looking at him! RSV is the #1 cause for hospitalization of babies under 6 months of age and can be quite serious. RSV is a respiratory virus which effects the baby's ability to oxygenate themselves.

I took Chase in to the doctor on 1/22 because he had a wet sounding cough and a little wheezing...he had no fever, runny nose, etc. He just didn't sound quite right. Sure enough, they tested him and he came back positive for RSV. He was a little trooper though, who was totally unfazed by the whole situation. The first few days he was NOT a big fan of us waking him up in the middle of the night for nebulizer treatments, but eventually he even slept through most of those.

Papa was the real super-star of the situation...going to work at 4:00 in the morning, coming home around 9:30/10 so I could go to work for most of the day, and then he would go BACK to work for another few hours at night. You might think he'd be able to "rest" during the day, but let's remember...Chase doesn't nap at home for us! UGH!
Chase was cleared to go back to daycare on Friday 2/1, at what had been scheduled as his 4 month check-up! In addition to be cleared for daycare, he also got his next round of shots and weighed in at 14 lbs (and measured 27"!!!!).

Auntie Caca and Uncle Michael came over for pizza night on that Friday and got to see Chase NOT being the best baby ever...he was a little out of sorts from his shots, but he did manage to settle down nicely before the weekend was out.

Sorry about the lack of updates!

So I realized that I have been REALLY bad about updating Baby D's site so I figured I would give one BIG update and cover all sorts of topics..

Changes in Chase:
He is smiling like a maniac! He smiled early but he would do it at anything! While that was great to see, it could not compare to when he smiled AT ME the first time! We (Papa & I) try desperately to avoid "Louie the Lip" as Jason likes to call it, which is the pout he gives just before going into melt-down mode. I will have to add a picture of the pout, it's classic.

Chase has started laughing too! We're not sure what he finds amusing since he normally does it on the changing table, seemingly for no reason! We haven't gotten to hear it too many times yet, but we are hoping it is a sound we will hear more often.

If angry enough, he can roll over - from front to back AND back to front. He is not the biggest fan of tummy time OR having his face washed so he can (and has) rolled to get away from both of them!

He eats like a champ and took to a bottle easily which is good now that I've gone back to work.

He "dances" like a mad man, he moves and grooves to almost any music (and even when there is none playing at all). His favorite tunes to dance to are Monkey Boy by Reel Big Fish (which we play for him, because his Papa calls him "Monkey") and Give up the Funk by Parliment (which is usually played when he has a "funky" diaper!).

He is working on holding his head up although he isn't quiet there yet. It will be a great relief when he can do it consistently, but a little sad too because it's another sign of him "growing up". It is hard to believe how much these little guys change in 3 1/2 months, but I guess it's not even as impressive as the fact that in 40 weeks they go from nothing to a minature person ready to come out into the world!

New Friends
Our pediatrician's office offered a New Parenting course which I participated in. It was a group of 7 women (Katharine, Donna, Kara, Shannon, Emily, Luisa and myself) and our babies (Anna, Cole, Emerson, Millicent, Will, Jonathan and of course, Chase). We met every Tuesday for 4 weeks at lunch time to discuss our feeling, issues, concerns about being new moms - what a great support system!!! Anyway, the last class was a Dad's Night when dads and babies met and the moms went out for drinks - woohoo!!!! It seems as though all the dads enjoyed the class and more importantly the moms enjoyed the drinks! We are staying in touch via email and trying to get together somewhat regularly (with and without babies and dads)! Joining the group is one of the best things I have done as a new mom!

My Return to Work
Surprisingly my return to work has gone better than expected. I have yet to have a melt-down and Chase appears to be the Super-Star in his class at Tumble Bugs. All the teachers love him since he is "such a happy baby". Apparently he only fusses when hungry and he even naps like a champ (3+ hrs on occassion)! This is NOT the same baby we have at home, but I think the ease with which he has adjusted has made the whole situation easier for me! My first choice would be to be home with him (so if anyone has any tips for making millions, I'm all ears!) but if I can't be home with him, this isn't so bad! He still continues to sleep through the night at home so I am usually in pretty good shape for work. It's crazy and hectic, but we never thought this whole thing would be easy!

SLEEPING!

It would appear that our little man is sleeping through the night already! (Of course I probably jinxed it by putting it in writing.) This does of course mean that he sleeps less and wants to nurse constantly during the day...he has to get his calories in sometime! He has his last feeding usually around 10:30/11:00 and then sleeps until around 6:00 or so! If he can keep this routine going it will certainly be helpful when Mama goes back to work in January! But of course, it is all up to him so we will just go with the flow!

Chase's First Thanksgiving

For our first Thanksgiving, we went to Bobbi and Grampy's house! Lynne, Liz and Alice came down from MA and they did all the cooking (Bobbi did all the baking). It was a really nice day and the best part was that Chase got to meet his big cousin Alice. I think Alice is very excited about finally being someone's older cousin (even if he is a boy)!

Chase's First Bath In His Tub

Chase's Birth Story

I awoke Tuesday morning not feeling all that great and figured that I would just spend another day on the sofa instead of doing laundry or running errands. As the morning went on, I noticed a pain I hadn't experienced before and thought "hmm...I wonder if that's a contraction!" Jason went off to work but checked in around 10:30. I told him again that I THOUGHT they were contractions, but I wasn't really sure. He suggested that I call my sister since she'd done this before.

Sure enough, Lynne thought they were contractions as well and encouraged me to take a walk, etc to keep labor progressing. When Jason came home with a lunch of Swanky Franks (around noon) we decided that he would go back to the office to wrap up a few things and be home in a couple of hours. At that point we would go for a walk and see where we were at. We spoke around 2 and I was pretty uncomfortable, but not totally unbearable and he was planning to leave the office “shortly”.

When Jason still wasn't home at 2:45 I called again to ask where the “heck” he was, but I could barely get 2 words out in a row. He rushed home at that point to find me in a sports bra (and nothing else) fresh out of a bath that I thought would relax me (no luck). He decided that perhaps a call to the doctor was a good idea (since I hadn’t bothered to really tell anyone just how miserable I was feeling). He called and we waited for a call back. In the meantime we argued about going to the hospital. I was afraid I was just being a wienie and that they wouldn't be able to do anything for me and they were going to send me home. After all, the pains weren't fitting the 1-5-1 pattern we'd been told about.

After 5 or 10 minutes Jason decided to call the doctor again. Based on what he told Dr Goldberg about the timing of my pains (lasting 20 seconds, 45 seconds, 30 seconds) and that they were on top of each other, the doctor didn't think I was in labor either...that is until he heard me in the background! At that point he recommended we get to the hospital!

Jason tried to get me downstairs but I was a little slow going. He was following me around trying to hand me a pair of yellow pajama pants and a “Cool as a Moose” t-shirt, but I wasn’t having any part of it! For some reason I was totally focused on having to put a pair of underwear on (Why? They would only be coming off again as soon as we got to the hospital but at this point all logic had gone out the window)!

We finally made it downstairs and I noticed that now I was bleeding. I was still focused on the underwear though so I went into the laundry room to get a pair out of my laundry basket. At this point Jason had given up all hope of getting me into the car and called 911. As I rounded the corner out of the laundry room to head back to the bathroom, another contraction hit. I hit the floor and my water broke. One of the last things I REALLY clearly remember was Jason yelling our address out 4 or 5 times (he’d called from his cell phone since it was the first phone he could find) at which point I thought “I’m going to die”.

Now would be a good time to note that Jason called 911 at 3:54pm.

The first responder was a police officer. He came in and held my head and tried to comfort me, putting the kitchen chair seat pads under my head. Jason was trying to reign in the dogs who were freaking out about the sounds I was making AND the strangers in their house (he even had to lock Buca in the upstairs bath)! The next responder was the fire truck and at last the ambulance showed up. (By the way, we’re not talking one of those little vans either, we’re talking a big, full-fledged ambulance!) So now, there are 5 or 6 guys in our kitchen, each trying to do something for me. At one point I started asking for my epidural to which they responded “I’m sorry, but we can’t give you one”, I insisted that I really wanted one, but they still refused. So then I said, “But they’ll give me one at the hospital, right?” to which they said “I’m sorry ma’am, but it’s way too late for that!”.

After a quick assessment on whether they thought we would make it to the hospital or if I was going to give birth on the kitchen floor, they decided to go for it and we were off to the hospital. They carried me out of the house on a backboard, strapped me to a gurney and I was loaded into the ambulance! Once we were on the road, I asked again for my epidural but sadly, again, they told me no. At this point Jason called Uncle Michael to let him know he was “on call” for the dogs...not knowing how long we would be at the hospital before the baby arrived we wanted someone to come and let them out, feed them, etc. Well, Michael took his responsibilities VERY seriously; less than an hour after Jason called him Michael was at our house (all the way from his office New Haven).

The ambulance arrived at the ER and I got wheeled through the hospital since the ambulance bay is the furthest point from Labor & Delivery. We got onto an elevator and the next thing I knew I was being wheeled into a delivery room and there was Jason! Somehow he had beaten us there (probably because he was able drive right up to the maternity ward entrance while I had to go through half of the hospital). A midwife showed up along with the head of the department because Dr Goldberg hadn’t made it there yet. I only found out after the fact that the baby was in a little distress and the midwife said at one point “We need to get this baby out now”, but fortunately that didn’t really register with me at the time. All I remember is there being A LOT of people around me and them telling me to push! So after 5 or 6 pushes, a little tearing, a lot of screaming on my part (and yes, I did ask about my epidural AGAIN) Chase arrived at 4:34pm. (Let’s remember now what time Jason called 911— just 40 minutes earlier!!)

Moments after Chase’s arrival Dr Goldberg came into the room, apologizing for having not made it in time! He couldn’t believe that the baby had beaten him and frankly, neither could I! When they tried to show me my baby, I realized I didn’t have my glasses! I couldn’t see anything! When I asked Jason about them, he said he had taken them off me when I was writhing around on the kitchen floor and unfortunately he left them at home when he came to the hospital! I would have to wait until Uncle Michael and Auntie Erica were able to get to the hospital in order to REALLY see my baby.

After holding Chase for just a few minutes in the L&D room, they had to whisk him away because his color was off and they really wanted to check him out and make sure everything was OK. Fortunately, he was fine! Actually, he’s perfect!

Even though the circumstances of his arrival are FAR from what we had planned, we were thrilled to meet our little man and can’t wait for everyone to get to meet him in person! We may be a little biased, but we’re pretty sure he’s perfect!

Some funny side notes:
-Jason ended up going home to feed the dogs later that evening...no need for Uncle Michael to deal with it since the baby arrived before he even got to the house (and as pointed out, he was at the house less than an hour after Jason called him). -The kitchen chair pads ended up going all the way to the hospital AND through delivery with me! How weird is that?
-As close as we were to not making it to the hospital in time (even though we can see it from our back deck) there was another woman who delivered her baby in the parking lot on 10-10. I really don’t understand how she cut it so close though, it was her second child. You’d think she would have remembered contractions and labor pains from her first delivery!