Theo's Newborn Photos

A few of my favourites, by the talented Amy Parsons Photography located here in Charlottetown, PE. We met a few years ago at the yoga studio (she is an instructor) and hit it off. We feel very lucky to have a friend as talented as she is to do our photos :)

8 Weeks of Theo

Our chunky monkey is now in his 8th week of life. He is becoming more alert during the days and is sleeping like a trooper at night. He is smiling and interacting with us so much more the past week to ten days. He enjoys his playmat more and isn't needing to be held 24/7.

He has totally lost the newborn look, and resembles a 3 month baby now. He is huge! By huge i don't mean full of rolls, but he is solid and thickly built. We're in size 2 diapers now and he is already outgrown some of his 3 month summer rompers and sleepers. This boy is a tank!

 

He has been sleeping in his own crib

in his bedroom now for two weeks and he is doing SO well. I am feeling so much more rested myself without listening to his baby noises all night long, which has made for a happy mama. He goes down around 8pm after we get big brother asleep, with a dream feed around 10pm when I go to sleep, and some nights is only up once around 3 or 4am and then again at 6-7. Most days he will go back to sleep until 8-9am. Other nights he will be up at 2am and 530am. It just depends. Regardless I am loving the improvement in his sleep since we started the reflux meds.

His naps are pretty sporadic, ranging from Marathon naps of 3+ hours to cat naps of 10-30 mins. I have noticed that he will only nap for long periods at home when tightly swaddled. Even in the swing I need to swaddle him in the Miracle blanket. He sleeps almost instantaneously in the car, but tends to wake up when we bring him inside from the car.  He takes his wubbanub every now and again, mostly in the evening hours.

We take him everywhere with us and have been on the go basically every day. Most days it's for a walk and to the park, but he's also spent an entire day at the water park (and slept in the k'tan ALL day...such a superstar), has been in the speedboat at the cottage 3 times, spent his first overnight trip at the cottage, has been to the beach, and has gone to his first parade. I guess this is the perks of being (a) a summer baby, and (b) the second child. 

He really only cries when hungry. Still nursing on demand. During the day mostly every 2-3 hours, and at night we get 4-5 hour stretches. He sleeps tightly swaddled on an incline in his crib. When he wakes he normally doesn't fully wake up as I get him before he really screams. He is quick to feed (20 mins or so) and then goes right back down. He still occasionally gets gassy after the second am feeding (5-6am) as he normally has a large poop around this time. 

I haven't been pumping the past two weeks as we've been having a staycation with daddy home and Noah home from daycare but hope to start back up here soon to get a little stash going. Not a huge priority at the moment, totally giving myself a break on this one. 

His looks are totally starting to change. As a newborn he looked so much like his brother but he is looking like his own little person now. His face is longer, his forehead bigger and he is much stockier! Here is a little 6 week comparison of the two in the same Jammie's: 

He really is pretty chill and laid back. Second time parenting helps as well as we are much more laid back too. He is the perfect little addition to our busy little family! 

Theo's Birth Story

40 weeks 5 days, taken June 24th the day before I went into labour

June 25th started off like any other day that week. It was a Wednesday, the day after hubs birthday, I was 5 days overdue and still feeling great. If nothing happened today, but Doctor would be doing an induction the next day. Noah woke up and was chatting to himself on the monitor. Hubs was next to me waking up, and suddenly I felt a little bit of water trickle as I was lying in bed. It was just a tiny little bit, just enough to wet my underwear a bit and wonder if I had in fact just peed my pants. I got up without saying anything, and went to the washroom. As I peed I realized it was my water that had broken, as a slow trickle of fluid was coming out at the same time. I made my way back to bed and casually informed Tim that my water had broken. He didn't seem too phased. He got up and brought Noah into bed with us, like we had been doing most mornings since I had started my mat leave. We snuggled in bed for awhile, and then I got up again to go to the washroom and more fluid leaked on the floor and on my walk to the washroom. When I peed this time, there was much more fluid leaking.

Snuggling with my boy before heading to the hospital.

I got up with the boys, and got Noah ready for daycare. I told hubs to go into work since he was EXTREMELY busy (June 30th being the end of busy season for him) and I would call L&D and ask them what to do next. I figured (a) since I was GBS positive and (b) 5 days overdue, that they would likely want me to come in pretty soon. But I figured we could take our time first.

I called L&D after I got the boys out the door to tell them my water had broken. Normally they would give me 24 hours to go into labour on my own after my water broke, but since I was GBS positive they said I should come in and get checked out as soon as I could. Right after I got off the phone with them (8am-ish) my Mom messaged me to see how our night was. I called her back and told her my water had broken. She told me she could clear her schedule and come over and take me into L&D.

She arrived around 8:30, I was puttering around the house cleaning up and packing the last few things into my hospital bag. I then hopped in the shower and took my merry old time in there, I figured it could be my last nice long hot shower for awhile. While I was in there my Mom kept poking her head in trying to hurry me along. She was more anxious then I was, as i was pretty carefree at this point. I got out, dressed and left my bag at the door and messaged hubs to tell him we were headed in.

We arrived and filled out the paper work at the admitting desk, and went to L&D arriving around 9:30ish (after running into 2 people we knew on the way). The nurse that greeted us gave me a gown, asked me to pee in a large container (to check to see if my water had in fact broken, which there was absolutely no question about as it was murky and white) put me in an observation room, and hooked me up to the heartbeat monitor and the contraction monitor. Around this time I started having mild contractions that were charting on the graph next to me. The OB on call that day was in surgery, so the nurse sat in with me and went through a gazillion questions. Turns out she was a nursing student of my mother's, so they were chatting and catching up while I laid there still in a  bit of denial that this was actually happening.

Around 10:30 the OB on call came in to see me. I had been having irregular contractions for about 30-45 mins at this point, anywhere from 6-9 minutes apart. My body was slowly doing its thing. She said since this was baby #2, and since I was GBS positive, she thought they would keep me and induce me right away. We were having this baby! I messaged my husband at work and said "this is it, you need to get here right away!". I told him to go home and change, grab our bag and camera and make his way in. Since this was my second baby, and since Noah was born so fast (4 hours after induction) they decided to wait to start the pictocin until after Tim arrived. But the nurse did get my IV going (after 2 failed attempts, 1 busted vein and many many bruises) and started the IV antibiotics for the Group B strep.

Tim arrived around 11:15, and they started the pictocin at 11:30....

Part 2 to come soon!!!

Theo's Birth Story : Part 2

When I left off in Part 1, Tim had just arrived in L&D with our bags and camera in tow. Totally chill. So different from our first labour experience with Noah a short 19 months ago (read his birth story here. 

While Mom and I were waiting for Tim to arrive we got to know my nurse Leah, and realized we knew so many people in common. Her husband was from my husband's small hometown and she was my Mother's student many years ago (as were most of the L&D nurses we had that day). When Tim finally walked in, I was so happy and relieved to see him so we could officially get things rolling. Although I had a pretty good feeling when he left for work that morning that we'd be having a baby today, I don't think it really hit me when I kissed him and sent him on his way to work. 

Next up, the pictocin drip was started and we were rolling. The first hour or so things were quite manageable but by 12:30 the contractions were getting pretty painful. Leah checked me at this point and I was at 1.5-2. Much improved over my zero dilation at my 40 week doctors appointment.

The next hour was awful, my mom was in and out of the room (keeping my family and MIL updated) and I was on my side clenching Tim's hand during each contraction which felt like they were on top of each other with almost no time to recover in between.

At 1:30 Leah checked me again and I was 3cm. I had no plan in terms of pain meds going in, I figured if things went fast like with Noah I would attempt an unmediated birth but if I needed them, I was getting them. When she said I was only 3cm, I knew I wanted an epidural. My mom tried to convince me otherwise reminding me how alert Noah was at birth, but I knew I couldn't keep it up. Leah our nurse said the doctor prefer you to be at least dilated to a 4 before you get an epidural but she was going to see what she could do. I gave her a look that must have tugged at her heart strings because when she returned she told me she had convinced the doctor to let me have it. Praise The Lord. I had my last pee while I still could and waddled back to the bed. 

She made the call and luckily for me, the anesthesiologist was there within 20 mins. These twenty minutes felt like the longest of my life. Every contraction I'd be watching the clock asking where he was and when would he be there. When he finally arrived the prep felt like it took an eternity. To make things worse, my husband and the anesthesiologist started chatting about engineering and roundabouts. Im so glad they were having such a great time at my expense. I felt like yelling 'focus here people!!'. 

Finally he was ready to get rolling. I sat on the edge of the bed with Tim sitting on a chair in front of me. They stressed the importance of my posture, if it wasn't perfect the epidural wouldn't be placed in the correct spot. I remember getting intense contractions and feeling like they were going to screw up the epidural but the anesthesiologist worked right through them. The first attempt failed. I was expecting the needle to really hurt but the local freezing he gave masked a lot of the pain. He tried the same spot a second time and he felt confident he got the placement right. They taped up my back and had me lie back down. He told me within 10 minutes I should start to feel tingly. Since this was a walking epidural I would still be able to move and feel my legs. At first i was skeptical that it was working, I could still feel each contraction like before and my legs felt completely normal. However, by the end of that ten minute mark I knew it was working as it should. I could still feel the tightening in my abdomen and I could still feel the pressure of the contraction but the pain was gone and it was glorious. I could still lift my legs and move them around. 

By this point it was approx 2:15. For the next hour or so I labored comfortably. My mom came back in the room, we chatted with our nurse Leah, I felt like a completely different person. I could carry on a conversation and was laughing and joking around. Leah checked me again shortly after and I was dilated to a 5. I felt like things were going slow and wondered if this baby would be born before the nurse change-over at 7pm and Leah assured me we would have a baby by then. 

By 3:30 I was starting to feel some major pressure and I knew this was the transition stage. Baby was moving down.

I told Leah that I was feeling more and more pressure as the minutes ticked by but she had just checked me and I was a 5. She said she wanted me to labour down a little longer so that baby would move down on his/her own and save me pushing. Finally, I said I really feel like I need to push, I couldn't hold off anymore. She checked me again and I was a 9.5. Just a tiny lip left. 

Leah left to go find the doctor and came back with some not so great news. Dr Castle was in the OR and it wasn't looking like she'd be out in time to deliver this baby. She placed a call right away to the OB-GYN office to the doctor on call, and came back to tell me that Dr Coolen was on her way. I said she better be getting in her car immediately because this baby was coming!! 

Leah prepped the room and her and my mom kept trying to get me not to push which at this point felt torturous. It was near impossible with the pressure I was feeling. 

A few minutes later, Around 4pm, to my surprise Dr Castle poked her head in the room. Supposedly there had been a communication problem, she had in fact been finishing up in the OR and she was able to deliver this baby. Thank the heavens!

Next thing I knew....

To be continued in Part 3 :)

6 Weeks of Theo

Well Theo is officially 6 weeks today. I feel like even though it's summer and we are on the move...A LOT, that we are into a pretty good rhythm. By no means a schedule as I totally feed on demand and every day for us in the summer months is different, but it's getting more and more predictable. I remember this happening around the same time with Noah too.

Chunky Monkey

In many ways I feel like Theo has been a part of our lives forever. When people ask me how our 'boys' are, it makes me smile to think I am a mama to two beautiful, healthy boys.

Since going on medication for his reflux his sleeping has gotten so much better. In fact it's going so well that he spent his first night in his crib Monday, August 4th. Prior to that he'd been in our room in the pack n play but I am such a light sleeper that I really wasn't sleeping very well with all his baby noises. We are all sleeping so much better in our own rooms with our video monitoring scanning between the two baby rooms. He has never given us more than 5 hours at a time, and that only happened one time, but that's to be expected. 

Theo's nighttime schedule looks like this:

9pm - bedtime feed in rocking chair, give his medication, then swaddle in Miracle Blanket, white noise and into crib by 9:30.

9:30-1:30/2 - sleep, then wake up for a feed. Normally I change his bum in the middle of the feed to keep him awake.

2:30- 5/530 - sleep and wake for a feeding, change bum in middle. I find him hard to get back to sleep after this feeding maybe because his meds are wearing off and he always seems extremely gassy at this time as every morning between 5-7 he has one very LARGE BM. Like every morning, it's clockwork. His swing is in his room so often I swaddle him and put him in swing for an extra few hours sleep if he is hard to get down. 

7/730 -awake for the day. I normally get hubs to get up with him so I can catch a few extra zzz's until he's starving around 7:45/8am.

The daytime we are on the go most days so often that means car seat naps which he LOVES. When we are home I've been swaddling and putting in crib and/or the swing. 

7:30- 930/10 - awake time

10-11 - nap

11am - feeding 

12:30 -2 - naptime (this nap is crucial for me as this is when big brother also naps!! I love when they are both asleep at the same time, gives me time to shower and do things around the house).

2pm- feeding ( I normally wake him from this nap to feed so that we can get to our afternoon plans.) 

2:30-430 - naptime as we are usually on the go in the car which puts him to sleep.

5pm- feed and wake time

6:30 - nap

8pm - bath and bedtime 

He is wearing 3 month clothing  and is filling it out totally, and I packed all his newborn clothes away. He's in size 1 diapers but the next box we buy will be size 2 as 1's are getting small. He'll be in 5's like big brother before we know it at this rate!! Actually, big brother better be potty trained before that happens HA!

It's been quite the 6 weeks, but we are loving every minute of being a family of 4. Summer babies are so great!