Baby Sigh

Aiden makes the cutest sighing noise when he drinks his bottle. He also makes a loud sucking noise, so it's hard to hear the sighing over that in this video.

Dinner time with Aiden from Nicolette Ward on Vimeo.

We've been having some problems with his serious sucking. It's been painful for me while breastfeeding from the beginning. I had to take a two day break to heal and now I use a nipple shield as protection for myself. He is a voracious eater and there's nothing I can do about it! The problem now is that he eats so aggressively that it's causing him to choke at every feeding.

I talked to the doctor about this choking problem yesterday on the phone and he recommended pacing him. Basically that means I have to take the food away from him periodically to force him to slow down and finish what's in his mouth. What's amazing is that he is able to choke when I'm nursing him AND when he's using the slow-flow nipple on his bottle. We can't slow this down for him anymore than we already are. Now we just need for him to catch up with himself.

Aiden: 4 Weeks

Another week has passed. =( It is going by way too fast!! I have two weeks left of maternity leave. I worked it out with my boss that I will have a three-day week my first week back. I think that will make the transition a little easier. I am so excited to get back to my life outside this house, but I am also super sad about all the time I will be losing with Aiden. I've been pretty good about keeping myself busy so that it doesn't get monotonous. He changes so much every week. I hate that I might miss things because he is at the babysitter's. I guess this is a step that every working mother has to take. UGH.

This past Thursday I met a bunch of people from work for lunch. I found out that my friend Linsey had her baby boy. They named him Luke. Linsey looked awesome immediately following the delivery. It's amazing. I looked like pure poop.

Friday was a big day for visitors. Rachel and her parents came over in the morning. Sara came by in the afternoon. Alexa and Blair came over right before dinner and Kai came over with his two kids after dinner. By the end of the day I realized how many people Aiden and I had seen that day. Big day for the little guy!

Travis worked Saturday. Aiden and I bought groceries for the first time, just the two of us. I could believe that we were successful! Aiden just stared at the ceiling as I pushed him around in his carrier in the cart. Our limiting factor was space. Since the little man and his carrier were in the cart, we had to place the items around him. I think we did pretty good. After that I ran home, put away the groceries and grabbed an outfit for Travis. We met him in Galveston before heading over to our friends Jerry and Allison's place for a BBQ. I think that was our first real social outting. I think we were pretty successful. Since it was so late, Aiden slept through most of it.

Sunday Travis did some electrical work. He's working on putting recessed under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen. For dinner Travis grilled steaks for the two of us.

Every morning Aiden and I have been going outside for 10-15 minutes. Sadly, that had to stop. We had a bunch of ran in the last week which means the mosquitos are back. I bought mosquito netting for Aiden yesterday, but I will still be attacked, so I don't know how often we'll be going out there. The idea of coating myself in bug spray is not all that appealing.

The best time with Aiden is first thing in the morning. He is so smiley and he's starting to talk to me. I'm sad that Travis doesn't get to see that because he is at work. I feel like I'm getting insight into what it will be like when I go back to work. Maybe this weekend he will get to see the smiley man.

Here's our past week in photos:

(I cannot for the life of me get this picture to rotate properly. So cute though!)

Last Wednesday my mom and I took the ferry over to Bolivar Peninsula so my mom could see what it looks like after Hurricane Ike. It looks like the rebuilding is going smoothly, but there is a lot to demolish still. The ferry ride over was a little rough for us. You have to turn off your vehicle for the ride over, which means no AC. No way were we going to sit in the car for that, so I took Aiden out of his car seat (an impossibly long process in itself), put on his hat and watched the dolphins swim in the wake of the ferry. Hot, but fun!

Tummy time on a mat we got from Jenn and Billy. (Thanks guys!)


I think the mini-Boppy pillow support really helps him enjoy this, as opposed to having his face on the ground. He gets mad after about three minutes of that. (Check out my DMB tee. I fit it now!)


Sagira stole Callaway's bed! And he let's her sleep on it. So funny.

Trying to catch my little man smiling. So close!

Aiden: 3 Weeks

So, what have I been up to lately? Aiden. That's about it. Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I've been trying to get out of the house several times a week. I wish, wish, wish that the weather was nicer so that I could go for a walk everyday. Unfortunately, temperatures have been in the 90's, with the humidity putting the heat index into the 100's. That means not a whole lot of daylight for us. Every morning I take Aiden outside for about 10-15 minutes and we sit in the hammock to absorb our vitamin D for the day.

This past weekend, Travis worked Saturday and went to play disc golf in the afternoon. Sunday, he watched Aiden for the first time by himself while I went grocery shopping sans baby in the morning and then to see a movie in the afternoon. Last weekend, we attempted to go grocery shopping with Aiden and it was too hard. He got fussy at the beginning of the shopping trip and Travis ended up holding him the entire time, while also pushing the shopping cart. I had to push the stroller. Too hard. This weekend I left the baby at home with Travis to make things a little more efficient.

That afternoon I went to see the new Harry Potter film with my mom, Ariel and Robert. I loved it. I got a little stressed part way through when I thought about Travis at home alone with Aiden. But it was unnecessary stress on myself. I told Travis I would leave my cell phone on vibrate so he could reach me if he needed to. He never did. I could tell he was a little irritated when I got home, but nothing horrible.

I met Alexa, Chrissy and Kim (all moms) yesterday for lunch at Cheddar's. It was nice to get out and see other moms. Plus, it was nice to just get out. We're hoping to meet up again next week too.

The worst problem we seem to have with Aiden is how much he eats. Which isn't really a problem, just something that I worry about in the back of my head. Thankfully, his problem is eating "too much". I know every infant is different, so I can't go by the books 100%. The books say he should be eating 3 ounces every 2-3 hours. Aiden eats 3-5 ounces every three hours. At his doctor visit this Monday, the doc said he is in the 75th percentile. That basically means that he is larger than 75% of the babies out there. But since he's larger in both the weight and length category, they didn't seemed concerned at all. We are just going to keep doing what we are doing until the doc says enough is enough.

Aiden is a GREAT sleeper. He gets up once in the middle of the night at 2am. I have to supplement breastfeeding with 2 ounces of formula at each feeding, so it takes me about an hour to feed Aiden. We get up when Travis gets up for work for his breakfast, and then I try to go back to sleep. Aiden usually tries to wake up before his next feeding, but I'll take what I can get! I like the breastfeeding, but I think I am just going to make it to his 2-month vaccines and then stop. I am really not looking forward to pumping at work! I think that switching to formula all the time will keep me sane.

Getting my Aiden love

Robert takes his turn

Aiden and Kate hanging out in the AC. Nadya and Alexey's AC broke, so they bought a portable unit for their bedroom. You CANNOT go without air conditioning in south Texas summers.


Auntie Ariel loves her nephew. She said he's her favorite nephew (never mind that he's her only nephew...)

Aiden checking out Callaway

Daddy time - a regular appointment every evening (Check out Travis' toes. It trips me out that Aiden has his daddy's feet. Exact miniature replicas.)

Footprints

Here's a video that Travis took of Aiden right after he was born. There are more on my Vimeo page if you are interested. I have lots more to load, but it'll take me some time.

Footprints from Nicolette Ward on Vimeo.

Aiden's Friend Kate

Nadya and Alexey's daughter Kate, who is just five days older than Aiden, came over to visit this past weekend. She is just too cute!! I am planning to visit them this week, since I can drive again now!! Kate was a little fussy for a little while, and Nadya's method of soothing was this hold and bounce move. Kate's face got a little squashed in the process, but she honestly didn't seem to mind.

It was so strange to see another little being that is just like Aiden, but not. I couldn't believe that I was able to tell the difference between the two, just by their weight. And they are probably only about a pound apart from each other.

Kate looks JUST LIKE her mom. It's amazing. Nadya and I agree that we deserve to have children who look just like us. I mean, we are the ones who had to grow the darn kids for nine months. Then we had to go through the process of delivering them into the world. We deserve it, right? =D

A Shout Out

I'd like to do a thank you shout out to Alexa and Sara for making Travis and I dinner. We have enough leftovers from Alexa that I haven't had to make lunch for days! Speaking of, I need to go heat up something for lunch before the wee one awakes...

9 Days

Reverse Stretch

First lunch out! Texas Roadhouse has the best butter ever.


My little elf can hold his head up so well!

1 Week

One week ago...

Ah, labor. It was hard, but not has horrible as I thought it would be. Ha! I was scheduled for induction Tuesday (June 30) at 7AM and I had to go into the hospital the day before for blood work. When I was leaving after the blood work, the nurse told me to call in the morning to make sure they had room for me. !!! I guess that between the already busy summer months and nine months after the power went out for weeks during hurricane Ike, June is turning out to be a busy month in Labor and Delivery.

I called first thing when I woke up Tuesday morning at 5AM and called right away. We planned to leave the house at 6:15 and were packing the car at 6 when I got a call from the hospital. The nurse said they just had an emergency arrive and I would need to call back at 8AM to see if they had room then. I hung up the phone, sat down on the couch and started crying. I was so ready for this! What if it didn't happen soon? This baby was only going to get bigger! I told Travis and my mom what they had said and we settled for watching some TV to take our minds off the looming possibility.

At 6:40AM I got another call back from the hospital. The nurse said to come in! We immediately jumped in the car, in hopes that if we were standing at the check in desk they would be less likely to turn me away. I was 41 weeks pregnant for gosh sakes! As soon as we walked in the doors, a nurse showed me to my delivery room. Lucky number 13! I was in a gown, hooked up to a Pitocin drip at 8:40AM and ready to wait.

It took about 12 hours for me to finally start feeling discomfort with my contractions. Family was in and out all day, so that helped keep us busy. Because of my hypoglycemia, they eventually put me on a dextrose drip to manage my blood sugar. The evening is where I start to get a little fuzzy. Everyone left in the evening so I could focus on the contractions. After about an hour, I decided to ask the nurse if I could start some sort of pain control. Unfortunately I was not dilated enough to get an epidural, so they gave me an IV drug called Stadol to hold me over and let me rest. IT WAS HORRIBLE. I never want that stuff again. I guess it did give me the ability to sleep. But waking up every couple of minutes to a contraction did not make for the most restful of sleep.

A little over an hour later (which felt like a lifetime in my drug-induced state), I asked if they could check me again. I wanted that epidural dammit! Thankfully, I was ready. Once I got that, I slept for several more hours. The Stadol was still in my system and I could finally sleep through the contractions.

Shortly after 2 in the morning, I was dilated enough to start pushing. They waited a little while for the doctor to get there and for the baby to drop a little more, but eventually I couldn't wait anymore. I started pushing at about 3. It was the toughest thing I have probably done to this point in my life. I had the epidural, but they only gave me enough medicine to take the edge off. I still felt every contraction and had use of my legs. By 5 I was exhausted and asking them to get the forceps because I didn't know how much longer I could go on. They gave me an oxygen mask so I could catch my breath easier between contractions.

At 6:07AM, Aiden was born! It was awesome. I was exhausted and ready to sleep immediately, but wanted to see my son first. I attempted to feed him, but he wasn't very interested. The doctor said he was probably worn out from the long labor (What?! He was worn out?!) and it turned out he had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck twice the whole time. Poor little guy! Because of that, Travis was unable to cut the cord. That made me sad, but the experience was still awesome for the both of us.

Family came in to say hi and they left us to rest. I attempted to feed Aiden once more before they took him to the nursery for his check up. He fed whole-heartily that time. They brought me breakfast, I pigged out and then Travis and I passed out. We didn't wake up until the baby nurse brought Aiden back at lunch time.

That afternoon they had a recovery room open up. I got lucky and got a single suite, which meant no sharing space! The rest of my stay at the hospital was nice. Everyone was so great to me there. They fed me in bed, brought the baby to me when he needed to be fed and we visited with friends and family.

My only hiccup was getting bit by a fire ant three times in my hospital bed. Don't ask me how that happened. I have no idea. I didn't actually see the ant, but I know how my body reacts to fire ant bites. Because I didn't have enough discomfort already. I felt like I had run a marathon - half on my legs, half on my arms. I'm still sore, but I think it's different now. I'm constantly having to correct my posture because I stoop over to do everything with Aiden: changing diapers, feeding, picking him up, burping him. I'm getting better about it though.

I feel pretty good considering what my body has gone through. It is amazing what the human body can do. I didn't know how to grow a baby, but my body did. I didn't know how to push out a baby, but my body did. It's just amazing. I'm happy to say I have ankles again!! And to date, I have lost 28 pounds (out of 41). I'm pretty sure that's at least 10 pounds in each foot! ;)

Well, off to care for the little one!

Definitely My Son

Wow. Sorry I've been so bad at blogging lately! I really haven't had the time or energy to keep up with it, as much as I would like to. I hope to get to it soon, so bear with me. In the meantime, check out these comparison photos. I'd say Aiden looks like me. What do you think?

Aiden

Me

Aiden

Me

The title of this post cracks me up, but I can't come up with anything better. Thing is, I was there for the delivery, so there is no question that he is mine. I just can't get over how much he looks like me when I was a baby. The nurse said he probably has my skin tone too. Poor kid. I was hoping he'd get his Daddy's tan skin. I see lots of sunscreen in his future...

Aiden's Arrival

Introducing Lil Wodie:

Aiden Gregory Ward
Born July 1, 2009
7 lbs, 12 oz
20 inches

Fresh out

Hanging out with Daddy right after his birth


Getting dressed for his hospital photos

Life is rough

Aiden and I

The Ward Family


Ready to go home from the hospital - so tiny!