Alexander - 2 Months Old

I'm beginning to realize that every post is going to start out the same way from here on out . . . I can't believe how quickly the first 2 months of your life have flown by!  A lot has happened in this last month.  You are growing by leaps and bounds.  At your 6 week doctor appointment you weighed 11 lbs 13.5 oz and were 22.75" long.  You have grown quite a bit more since then too weighing in at 13 lbs 3 oz on your 2 month birthday!  We took a picture of you recently in the same outfit you wore home from the hospital.  Needless to say, I don't think you will be wearing that outfit much longer!

You continue to get very strong.  We have been doing tummy time with you and at 6 weeks, you rolled over for the first time!  You are also pushing down on your legs and you really don't need much help at all with your head anymore.

You have been extremely social lately.  You smile ALL THE TIME and you "talk" to me quite a bit too.  Your little coos have taken on a mimicking sound.  When you wake up in the morning, more times than not I am greeted by your little toothless grin and what sounds like, "Hi!"  Just the other day I was feeding you and you heard daddy's voice.  You stopped eating, looked straight up at daddy and smiled so big!  You made it especially hard that day for daddy to go to work.

We have visited some other babies that are exactly your age.  First we went over to visit your cousin Harrison.  You two didn't have much to say to each other just yet, but I know you are going to be best friends growing up. 

You also met your Gram's best friend's grandson, Connor.  Gram had a great time showing you off to her friend Jan and Jan had a great time showing off her grand baby, Connor.  We will be doing much more with these guys as you grow up.

Your Great Grandpa Herm hasn't been feeling very well lately so we took you by the nursing home to see him.  Boy oh boy did you cheer him up!  He couldn't get enough of holding you and kissing you!

Dad and I have been continuing to take you all over the place with us.  The weather was especially nice one day and we went with Gram and Poppy to a winery.  It was a nice day and you really seemed to enjoy being outside.

You are such an active baby!  You are constantly moving your arms, legs and head.  You still love your baths, and you show your appreciation by splashing your mommy as she cleans you off.  Mama loves it though!  Your Grandma Gerry bought you a mobile that you absolutely LOVE!  You squeal and kick and coo while it is on. 

Mommy loves how active and alert you are.  Which leads us to the difficult part of your second month.  One day you were not so alert and active, so mommy called your doctor.  As a precaution he decided to send us to the ER for some blood work.  To make a very long and complicated story short . . . after a very LONG 2 days in the ER we found out that you were just fine.  You must have just had a sleepy day.  It was the scariest thing your mommy has ever had to go through, but I'm just so happy you are okay! 

We also discovered that you have a heart murmur in all this fiasco so you needed to have an echocardiogram.  Everything turned out great from that exam as well. 

All I can say is that it was a very difficult time, so if you can just stay your normal and active self from now on I'd really appreciate it.  I love you so much Alex!  Here's what you look like at 2 months old:

This second month has been amazing!  I'm REALLY not looking forward to going back to work soon, but we have some wonderful people lined up to play with you while I work.  We still have one week left though, so let's make the most of it!

I love you!

Love,

Mom

Alexander - One Month Old

Okay, so I'm a little late on this post.  How dare me actually spend time with my baby instead of writing about him!  This first month has just flown by.  I feel like if I blink Alex will be off to college. 

To my sweet baby boy, Alex:

Wow, this first month with you has flown!  We have both gone through a major adjustment and I'm happy to say that after a month we are really starting to get things down. 

We were in the hospital for a couple days and you had many visitors.  Everyone was so excited to meet you!  Your daddy even got you your first birthday cake and some champagne to celebrate your arrival with all our friends and family.

We brought you home from the hospital on July 23rd.  We dressed you up in the special outfit your Gram brought for you.  You could tell your dad and I were first time parents because we had to call in the nurse to help us learn how to get you into your car seat!  When we finally got you to the car, your daddy drove so slow.  We got stuck in traffic for a few minutes and you didn't like that at all.  You really like to be in motion.

As soon as we got home all I wanted to is snuggle with you.  After all commotion at the hospital, you were finally all mine. 

The next two weeks were a challenge for both of us as you adjusted to life on the outside and your dad and I adjusted to your nighttime feeding schedule.  But after those first two weeks we finally started to get into a bit of a routine.  One thing that got me through the difficulty of so little sleep is the cute way you eat.  You get so excited and start shaking your head with your mouth wide open.  When you finally latch on you put your right hand right next to your face and your left hand behind your ear.  You are so focused and it makes me smile every time.  

You have really seemed to love your baths so far.  When you first came home we had to give you sponge baths:

 

But after your umbilical cord fell off at 3 weeks, we were finally able to give you your first submerged bath.  You really enjoyed the warm water and you had so much fun looking out the sunny window.

And just look at that belly!  You have really been growing and gaining weight!  I was so worried that my one breast wouldn't be enough for you, but it really looks like it's doing it's job.  We weighed you on Gram and Poppy's scale the other day and you were already up to 10.25 pounds!  We will be seeing your doctor in a couple weeks so we will get an official weigh in then.   

You have also started to smile more.  These started off as sleepy smiles only:

Then little smirks:

And finally full on laughs:

You are really starting to focus on things now and respond.  These bigger smiles were brought on by mommy and daddy.  Other things you really enjoy right now are fans, shadows and the lambs on your swing.  The sleepy smiles are usually in response to a clean diaper and a full belly.

Your neck control is also developing very well.  You never cease to amaze us with your strength.  Whenever Poppy holds you he is always surprised that a baby your age is able to hold his head up the way you do.

Your daddy and I have also been trying to take you out as much as possible.  You and I have gone for walks as long as the weather has not been too hot (you were born during a long heat wave where the temps were 100+ for a couple weeks).  You really like to be warm so it hasn't seemed to bother you too much.

We also took you to Adriana's and Cunettos for the first time since you have been on the outside.  Believe me though, you have had it plenty of times when you were on the inside and you will be having them both plenty when you get older.

I wanted to take you to El Maguey too, but I guess that is something that will have to wait till your next month of life.  We have also taken you to both of your grandparents houses, to the mall, to church, Our Lady of Snows, Affton ball fields to watch your daddy play and to the nursing home to meet your Great Grandpa Herm:

I promise we will be taking you many, many more places in the months and years to come. 

As I said before, this first month has just really flown by.  It feels like you just came into our lives and yet I can't really remember life without you.  All I know is that you have made me a very happy mama.  I love you!

Here's what you look like at 1 month old:

Love,

Mom

Alexander's Birth Story

Alexander Schulte Vogt came into the world on July 20, 2011 at 10:42pm.  He weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 20.5 inches long.  Here is Alex's birth story:

On Wednesday morning, July 20th, I was scheduled to be induced.  Matt and I arrived at St. Luke's at about 7:45 that morning.  I put on my hospital gown and got ready to answer a bunch of questions to get me all checked in. 

After answering all the questions and signing a bunch of forms, the pitocin drip was finally started at about 9:30am. 

My nurse, Anita, checked my cervix so we would know where we were starting out.  I was 80% effaced and dilated 1cm.  Not much happened in the next 2 hours.  Matt and I just made a few phone calls to let our families know what was going on and we watched a couple episodes of Arrested Development to help the time pass.  My parents showed up at around 10:30.  At 11:30 Dr. Bale showed up to break my water.  While he was in there he checked my cervix again and I was still at 1cm and 80% effaced.  He assured me that breaking my water would help things pick up a bit.  Anita increased the pitocin about every half hour.  My blood pressure had been pretty high since I was checked into the hospital so Dr. Bale asked Anita to draw some blood to check for preeclampsia.  Luckily that test came back negative.  By 12:30 I was finally starting to really feel the contractions and by 2:30 the contractions were staring to become a bit more intense.  At 3:45 Anita decided to check my cervix again.  I was between 2 and 3cm at this point.  Yes, after over 6 hours on the pitocin, I had only made it another centimeter and a half.  Anita suggested I get the epidural at this point.  I thought that I was supposed to be at least 4 centimeters along before getting the epidural and was worried about it slowing down my progress even more.  Anita explained that it will really only slow it down about 45 mins to an hour total which in the long run won't be any big deal.  She also told me that it will probably help with my blood pressure which remained high.  So I decided to go ahead and get the epidural.

At 4:00 the anaesthesiologist arrived and put the epidural in place.  It went very smoothly and didn't hurt at all!  About 10 minutes later I noticed it taking effect.  I, however, did still feel the contractions on the right side of my belly.  Anita explained to me that it is called a "window" and that sometimes there is a small section that the epidural doesn't take.  She called the anaesthesiologist to come back and fix the problem.  When the anaesthesiologist returned she had me lay down flat on my side while she adjusted the tube.  Apparently it was pointed toward my left side which is why I was still feeling contractions on my right side.  She straightened it up and then left.  After a couple minutes, I started to feel numbness going up into my chest.  I couldn't feel my left breast at all and my left cheek was feeling very tingly.  I panicked.  It really scared me!  I suddenly felt like I couldn't get any air.  Anita put my bed upright (apparently it was because I was laying flat that the epidural went up my spine. Once she put my bed up, it went back down).  I was gasping for air in a full on panic attack.  Anita sent everyone out of the room and helped talk me down.  She had me take deep breaths and assured me that my oxygen levels were fine (they were at 98%) and that I'm just having a panic attack.  She took some deep breaths with me until I calmed down.

That right there was the worst part of the day.  After that things really picked up.  By 6:30 Anita checked my cervix again and I was at 5cm and the baby was at 0 station.  She was having trouble seeing my contractions on the monitor.  She told me that sometimes on us "skinny girls" (yep, she called me skinny - again, no one ever called me skinny until I was pregnant, so I found that pretty funny) it is hard to keep the monitor in place.  Since she was having trouble monitoring my contractions on the external monitor she had a doctor come in to insert an internal monitor.  He felt my cervix and said, where did you say she was?  Anita said I was 5cm.  The doctor looked at me and said, make that 7.5!  That was only 20 minutes later!

Dr. Bale stopped by again around 8:00 and checked me.  I was 100% effaced and 8.5cm at that point.  The nursing staff changed at 7:00, so at this point I had a new nurse.  Her name was Kristin.  She was quite the energetic woman.  At this point she told me that we are looking for a lot of pressure.  She said because of the epidural I will not feel pain but a ton of pressure.  As soon as I felt the pressure I was to let her know so she could confirm that I was at a 10 and ready to push. 

Kristin stopped by the room at around 9:00 and asked if I was feeling the pressure yet.  I wasn't, so she said she would come back in about a half hour.  She came back at 9:30 and I still wasn't feeling any pressure.  So she sent everyone out of the room and decided to check anyway.  Upon putting her fingers in her face got extremely animated and she shouted, "Holy Shit!  The baby is at +2!!!  Don't move!"  She hurried to bring in all of the stuff into the room for delivery.  Then she pulled out the stirups and I started pushing.  In between pushes she told me not to tell anyone who has given birth vaginally that I didn't feel the pressure.  She told me they would hate me . . . haha!  We pushed on every contraction for about a half hour and then they called Dr. Bale.

Let me take this moment to talk about how awesome Matt was at this point in time.  He told me ahead of time that he plans on standing at my shoulder the entire time that I'm pushing and that he had no interest at all in watching the baby come out.  He also said that he didn't want to cut the umbilical cord.  Earlier that day, at the time when the nurse was inserting my IV, he freaked out.  At that point I knew that he was not going to do well with the birth.  He really shocked me.  As soon as the head was crowning, he went down to the end of the bed and took a look.  He grabbed my leg and helped  the nurses help me push. 

Okay, so back to when Dr. Bale came into the room - I pushed through 2 contractions and he decided to do a small episiotomy.  This was the only part where Matt looked away for a bit.  When Dr. Bale had him look back, his face just changed.  I asked him what he saw.  He said in shock and disbelief, "The head!"  I asked, "Well what part of the head, how much of it?"  In even more disbelief he said, "The WHOLE head!!!"  Dr. Bale had me scoot up into a position where I could see everything.  He told me to just give one more gentle push.  I pushed and out he came.  I watched him come out of me - for as long as I live that will be an image I will NEVER forget - EVER!  As he was coming out, I saw the penis and shouted, "It's Alex!"  Dr. Bale put him on my belly and Matt cut the umbilical cord.  Then Dr. Bale went back to deliver the placent and stitch me up.  The nurses started cleaning him up a bit while I talked to him and then they took him to the warmer.

I couldn't take my eyes off him!  At one point in time Dr. Bale put a few of his instruments on my belly and said, "Those are mine, don't mess with them." (he's a bit of a jokster)  I looked at him for a second and said, "Oh, you're still here?"  HAHA!  I was just taking in my little boy.  Matt was such a proud dad video taping his son.  He was so caught up in the moment, he forgot that he still had to go out in the hall and tell everyone that it is Alexander and not Meara.  They were not pleased with him for that!

Oh man, I could really go on and on about how wonderful this whole experience has been, but I think I'd rather just stop this post here and cuddle with Alex.  All I know is I am one lucky mama to have such a beautiful and healthy son.  I'll update more later with some more pictures and stories from Alex's first few days of life.

41 Weeks

As I write this post, I am sitting in a hospital bed hooked up to pitocin.  Apparently we have a stubborn little baby in there that needs some help coming out!  Anyway I have made it to 41 weeks.  The emails I get from babycenter.com now speak of my 1 week old baby.  If that's not rubbing salt in the wound I don't know what is.  Anyway though I will be updating this blog again soon with the news of Meara or Alex's arrival which is super exciting!

We had a bit of a nerve racking weekend anticipating the baby's arrival.  There was a full moon on Friday morning so on Thursday night we went out to dinner hoping that it would be our last night out and that the full moon would kick me into labor.  No such luck!  We both woke up Friday morning and went to work like normal.  I was exhausted after work and took a nap and Matt got home late from work, so that night we just stayed in and watched Tropic Thunder.  Saturday was my official due date.  We had NO PLANS AT ALL!  I was so bored!  I wanted to do something, anything to get my mind off the fact that I was still pregnant.  Matt was in the basement downloading some songs for a party he would like to have in the future.  I went down there and was apparently bothering him because he said, "Why don't you go have a baby . , ."  After some laughter I started looking up some '90s songs that I would like added to his list (the party he wants to have soon is a '90s themed party - a "mixer") and we ended up laughing and reminiscing about high school.  It was nice and took our minds off the situation at hand.

Later that night we were supposed to go out to dinner with Elizabeth and Jason but that plan got cancelled so my parents took us out to Cunettos.  TMI alert, but I thought it would be worth mentioning -we just happened to sit at the same exact table as we sat the night the baby was made!  I (mistakenly) took that as a good sign.  Upon Frank Cunetto's suggestion I ordered something with a lot of garlic - not that it did anything to get this stubborn baby out!  After dinner we went to Ted Drewes and then went home and went to bed. 

We unfortunately got some bad news over the weekend.  Matt's grandpa had another stroke.  So on Sunday morning, we decided to stop by the nursing home to visit him.  His speech is even worse than before, but you could definitely see him light up when he saw Matt and me.  We told him we'd bring the baby by to see him as soon as we could.  After that we went to mass and then went home to watch the Women's World Cup Game.  It was a nice relaxing afternoon.  For Family Night, Matt, mom, dad and I just went to Steak 'n Shake and then we met Boris and his family at Ted Drewes.  Yes, we went 2 nights in a row.  I decided that as long as I'm overdue I would like to have a treat every night!  Speaking of treats, I have still been enjoying my hot fudge sundaes.  This is how I have been eating them lately (using my belly like a table):

Matt and I thought it would be fun to try to balance the ice cream on my belly standing up.  Yes, these are the crazy things we do these days - haha!  

     

Monday and Tuesday were a bit rough for me knowing that Wednesday was the day.  I was feeling very anxious the entire time.  Tuesday night we went out to dinner with Elizabeth and Jason at El Maguey.  It sounded like a good idea at the time, but in hindsight, going to a Mexican restaurant with 3 people drinking margaritas and feeling no pain was not the best choice for a girl who was anxiously awaiting an induction the next day.  We did end up having a nice evening, but I was definitely a little too uptight to really enjoy myself.  After dinner I was able to talk them into Cold Stone Creamery.  It was yummy!

That leads us to today.  I'll write it all up in a birth story at a later date.  Currently I'm just hanging out in the hospital on a pitocin drip.  Dr. Bale just stopped by and broke my water, so here we go!

Oh, and here are my last belly shots.  41 Weeks Pregnant:

So there we are.  This is my last pregnancy post.  The next one will include a picture of the baby!

40 Weeks UPDATED!!

Okay, I'm 40 weeks now . . . doesn't that mean I'm supposed to have a baby on the outside by now?  I will be seeing Dr. Bale this afternoon and I plan to update this post with any progress I have (or have not for that matter) made.  Last week he said I was effaced and the baby was low but there was no dilation.  We will see if that last part has changed.  There is a full moon over night tonight too so that may do something.  If not though, my official induction date has been set for July 21st (We have 3 guesses for the 21st in the baby pool so this bodes well for Cynthia, Uncle Darell and Bridget).   According to babycenter.com, it's hard to say for sure how big the baby will be at birth, but the average newborn weighs about 7 1/2 pounds (a small pumpkin) and is about 20 inches long.  There really isn't much to read about out there anymore - they pretty much say that the baby is fully formed and will be making its appearance any day now.  We knew that already.  So the waiting continues . . .

Matt and I have continued to stay busy over the past week.  Friday night our friend Anne came over.  We had a really nice night talking and she brought us the cutest little gifts - a baby book and some alphabet flash cards.  Thanks Anne!  Saturday morning we decided to go to Crown Candy.  It's a St. Louis landmark that Matt and I had never been to.  It is yet another place in St. Louis that was featured on The Food Network.  This one was on Man vs. Food.  Anyway we had talked to Erin about how we had never been there and she said she hadn't either so the three of us we down there.  It definitely lived up to the hype!

Saturday afternoon/night we went to Adam and Katie's 30th birthday party.  It was a lot of fun to catch up with so many people.  Matt and Adam had a lot of fun working on the keg.  We ended up staying until about 1am.  Unfortunately at that point Katie (also pregnant) and I were just too tired to keep the party going.  I realize that this will probably be the last time in a while that Matt will be able to sit up and drink with his buddy though, so I stayed as late as possible.  I'm glad they got that time together!

On Sunday, we had two birthday parties.  Grace turned 6 and Will turned 2!  My mom and I went to Grace's birthday party first then we headed over to Will's house.  His actual birthday was Wednesday the 13th, but we celebrated on Sunday.  It was so much fun to see him get so excited over all his gifts.  He really seemed to like us singing to him too!  It was a great day!

So that was last week.  We have not planned anything this week since we knew I was due this week.  Assuming I do not go into labor before the 21st, we will have to do what we can in order to stay busy and not go crazy!  Only time will tell now!

Here are my 40 week photos.  I'm hoping they are the last ones but there is a chance I will be posting some 41 week photos next week.  After I put on the weekly photo clothes I looked in the mirror and said to Matt, "I really thought I'd be bigger than this at 40 weeks . . ."  He looked at me and said, "Um, no offense, but I really thought you would too!"  Either way, here I am at 40 weeks:

If it's even possible, I think my belly is even lower than last week.  What do you think?  Anyway, I'm leaving for the doctor in about 2 hours and I will update with what he says as soon as I get home.  One week or less to go!

An update from the Doctor's Office.  I am dilated 1cm now.  Not much progress, but it is one less that I will have to get to during labor.  Come on full moon tonight!  HAHA!

Things I Will Miss About Pregnancy

Yes, you read that title right.  There are some things I will actually miss about pregnancy.  I know, I surprised myself with that one!  I always thought I would hate pregnancy.  The way it is described and the way it looks just seems absolutely miserable!  Now don't get me wrong - I would not say that I like being pregnant more than not being pregnant - but since most people only talk about the negative aspects of pregnancy I thought I would shed some light on some of the good things about being pregnant.

People are nicer to pregnant people.  Maybe this is just in my own experience, but I seriously feel this way.  Ever since I have been showing I have more people smile at me.  I have more people opening doors for me.  I have people letting me go in front of them in line.  In general people are just so much nicer.  I have noticed that once the baby is out, the way people treat you is based on how "good" your baby is.  If you have a little one that sleeps and coos all the time, the nice behavior keeps up.  But if you have a fussy one you get glared at.  I suppose we will see how this plays out when the baby arrives, but for now I'll just enjoy the kindness of people.
 
Body Confidence.  I have never been so comfortable in my own skin.  I think it's because when I gain weight, I typically gain it in my belly.  Being pregnant I am supposed to gain weight in my belly AND everyone thinks it's cute!  I have had people stop me and tell me that my legs are skinner now that I'm pregnant.  I tell them it's just in comparison to my huge belly, but they swear I have actually lost some weight in my legs - REALLY??  I also have people telling me all the time how good I look.  No one EVER did that when I was not pregnant.  I tell people how far along I am and they are like, "No way!"  I think this may go along with the people being nice to pregnant people, but I'll take it!

Food tastes better.  Seriously, I never knew about this!  I mean I have always loved to eat, but never so much as I have since I have been pregnant.  Now that my pregnancy is winding down I keep telling Matt that I want to get (fill in the blank with a food) one more time before I'm not pregnant anymore.  Only thing I can assume is that it has something to do with the heightened sense of smell during pregnancy. 
 
Kicks are cool.  I always thought I would HATE the feeling of a baby moving around inside me.  From what other people have said to me, it just always seemed like it would be more annoying than cool.  I had even heard that they hurt once you get to the third trimester.  Well, not only have I absolutely LOVED every time I have felt the baby kick, but the third trimester kicks are actually my favorites!  I do have to say that the baby has not woken me up from sleep with his/her kicks so that may have something to do with it (I'm a VERY deep sleeper) but I just think it is so cool to actually feel the little limbs inside of me. 

So as I anxiously await the end of this pregnancy I thought it would be good to remember the things that I actually liked about being pregnant.  Meara or Alex, it has been a (surprisingly) wonderful 9 months with you inside me.  I can't wait to meet you on the outside and see your beautiful face!  Not much longer now!

Nursery Pictures

I was FINALLY able to take some pictures of the nursery.  I regret that I do not have any good "before" photos of the room.  To be honest, the extra bedroom had turned into somewhat of a storage room (and by storage I mean we pretty much just dumped anything we didn't know what to do with in there) for a while and I didn't feel like cleaning up the room just to take some pictures.  I do have some pictures of people in there from a party I had a few years back so I will include them in here.  I also have a few pictures of how the room looked when I first moved in.  Either way, it looks like a COMPLETELY different room.

Here are the before before pictures:

Notice the color of the rocking chair here - It is the same as the one in the current nursery.

And here is a picture of the room as it looked right before we changed it into the nursery:

And here is what it looks like now (the first picture is from the same point of view as the picture above):

Okay, so that was the view from each of the four corners of the room.  Now here are pictures of each element close up:

Here is the rocking chair that my dad had to put 4 coats of paint on!

So that's the nursery for now.  We plan to put up some sort of artwork after the baby arrives.  We thought we'd wait on that so we can possibly add girl/boy elements to the room.  We'll see.  We are both very happy with how it turned out!  Can't wait to have a baby to put in there!