How time flies

I cannot believe our little Cole is about to be one month old. How time flies when you are sleep deprived! And how things have changed so quickly in a month. It was wonderful to come home from the hospital with the support of Jason's parents and my mom. His parents (Granny and Grumps - their names for now) stayed for 5 days, while my mom (Gram) stayed 2 weeks. And since then my sister has visited, as well as our good friends Kate and Jeffrey. I would love to say that we have a routine, but really, we never know how the day (or night) is going to go.

After a struggle, I am still breastfeeding and very happy with the decision to stick with it. I am getting the hang of it and now am able to breastfeed in public (fully covered of course) if need be. Some days Cole will eat every hour on the hour, then go 3-5 hours with out eating. I am pumping at least a bottle per day so Jason can feed him at the 3 am feeding. He is a growing boy, by our best guess, weighing about 10 lbs already! He has also out grown his 0-3 month stuff and is quickly becoming too long for 3-6 month onesies! So, at least I know that my hours of breastfeeding are doing what they are supposed to.

After spending the first few weeks either in our bed or in his bassinet in our room, Cole is now loving his crib. I think we are all sleeping deeper now. Cole is finally getting the hang of using his nuk (pacifier) to get to sleep instead of always latching on to me (however I can only rarely stand to use it!). He is definitely seeing more of his surroundings these days, finally liking his little jungle gym. His woofers (what we call the dogs) have adjusted well to him. He doesn't hear them when they bark and they don't hear him when he cries (except Faith, who will check on him if he is in his crib).

In between naps, diapers, bottles, baths, and laundry, I will try to post some more pictures, as well as our online photo website. All in all, parenthood has exceeded our expectations. We are totally in love with our "monkey man" and can't wait for him to meet everyone!

Cole James

We can begin the story with me thinking that as soon as I got off of bedrest that he would make an appearance. With many times of me telling Jason "I think this is it", the actual time seems a little anticlimactic. It began on Sunday, when I thought I might be leaking fluid, but didn't want to be the girl that cried labor too many times. So we went to the doctor on Monday morning and they tested to fluid to be the outer amniotic fluid. We were so excited to hear that we would be having a baby-finally! My mom still laughs at how excited we were.

At 12:30pm the doctor broke my actual bag of water, which was very interesting to say the least. The real contractions started almost immediately. I did not need any medications to further my contractions. I dilated to 4cm by 4pm and unfortunately stayed at 4cm for quite some time. The contractions were painful and I was very interested in an epidural. Jason was a great coach, walking the halls with me and laughing along with me when every time I stood off the birthing ball, more amniotic fluid would gush out.

By around 7pm, I still hadn't advanced much, but my great nurse came on duty and helped me get going. At about 9pm I had finally moved to 7cm, but was in so much pain and was finally told the bad news. I would not be able to get an epidural because of my spina bifida and herniated disks. And I was informed that if I needed a C-section that I would have to be put completely under and would not be able to be awake. That at least was some motivation to continue on.

I was given some muscle relaxers, that took the edge off, but I sure could still feel contractions. Jason could probably tell you the many times that I said that I quit and didn't know how this baby was coming out. Jason was awesome and I couldn't have asked for a better husband to get me through. Finally at 12:15am on January 27th, I could start pushing. Cole was turned to his side, so it took a lot of maneuvering to get him facing the right way to come out. 2 hours later he was so close to being born, but needed the assistance of the vacuum, which also lead to an episiotomy for me. But, it was all worth it when he finally was put on my chest. I instantly said I would do it again.

Cole James was born on Jan 27, 2009 at 2:37am. At 37 weeks gestation, he weighed 8lbs 1oz and was 20.5 inches long. Cole is a name that Jason came up with and James is Jason's grandpa's first name. We have been blessed with a wonderful baby and can't believe we waited to so long to have one.

Here are some more pictures of him:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=276269432/a=80698619_80698619/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink