Happy One Month Max!!!

(Pictures of Max in the Hospital taken by Rebekah Strong of Rebekah Strong Photography)

It has been a month now, and time goes by so fast. It feels like yesterday that my water broke and my little boo bear was born. :*) Sometimes I just look at him and tears of joy run down my face and I am overjoyed with my accomplishment in life. 


In my last post I mentioned how hard parenthood is. It is hard, but its not necessarily being a parent that is the hard part, its being selfless and putting everything second to your child, that means Jordan's and my relationship too. I miss our relationship. I knew I would. I don't think there is anything wrong with that either. Parenthood is a wonderful journey, Jordan and I are experiencing this together, we just don't have much time to spend with each other, and it is kind of sad, but understandable. I am sure that once we have a schedule with Max and things have settled down a lot more, we will be able to spend more time together. I miss Jordan even though he sleeps next to me every night. 


Since Max has been here, I have been trying to get things ready for when I go back to work. With all of this "extra" time that is not really "extra" at all, I have gotten the finishing touches on my wedding dress, pretty much addressed and sent out all the save the date cards except for a couple friends and immediate family who don't necessarily need one, picked out bridesmaid dresses - all that should be done by June 8th - and well, that is pretty much it so.... I still have a lot more. My SIL, Lauren, has agreed to design our wedding invitations!!! I am so excited because they will be "custom" made and very very original. If you are reading this and you need a graphic designer for anything contact her Lauren Covington http://www.etsy.com/shop/charmandfig she has an "etsy" shop and a blog as well http://charmandconfetti.blogspot.com/She is amazing, I'm not biased at all! LOL, but really she is very good at what she does!


In the last month, Max and I have done so many fun things! We went to the beach (which really ended up being not a great idea because I couldn't get in the water and he couldn't be in the sun), he went swimming ... and hated it. This makes me sad because I am a swimmer and I LOVE it! I am sure as he gets older he will learn to love the pool. Here is a picture of Max doing "tummy time" which he hates as well. He is very good at picking his head up and looking around, especially in the wee hours of the night. 









Max looked super cute in his swimmin' suit!! I love the matching hat, he was so precious! He 
just did not like the water, at all. 

Happy First Month of Life Baby Max. Mommy and Daddy love you and could not be happier!!! Mommy just wishes she could make her blog look better. ;) I am not good at figuring out how to decorate my blog, not good at all. 

Just a note

Such a sweet little face, and not one single thing has changed except for the fact that you are chubbier and I love it. No one tells you about all the ugly and nitty, gritty stuff you go through after you have a baby. The extra skin that doesn't go back down and if it does its all lumpy, the bleeding, the breastfeeding or lack thereof, sleep deprivation, the raging hormones and mood swings that you have no explanation for, and the sudden need for a self esteem  booster. Yes, even I, the "I don't need you to build me up" girl, needs Jordan to say nice things a lot more than usual, which is not like me at all. 

Just a couple things to the new moms and moms-to-be out there:

• It is still ok to tell people that they don't need to solicit their advice

• Everyone has something to say, learn to tune them out

• Don't think for one second that you are a bad mother (unless you are doing crack) just because your baby is crying - I am 100% this person. I am constantly crying and beating myself up in private because Max cries and sometimes I can't console him

•  Don't give up on breastfeeding, and unless it is the DR telling you so, DON'T LET ANYONE TRY TO PERSUADE YOU INTO SWITCHING TO FORMULA!!! We formula feed and breastfeed Max and it is so hard to get him to nurse once he gets used to the bottle. In the beginning he WOULD NOT nurse so we chose to try formula. 

• It is ok to take up everyone on the help they are offering, especially if it means you get some "YOU" time, whether that be to nap, shower, or get a mani/pedi. You still need to do nice things for yourself because if you don't, that is when you start feeling down and blue. 

Pregnancy was the easy part. Everyone loved seeing you, now you are forgotten about, you and your husband are chopped liver, get used to it. Besides, being jealous of a baby is just ridiculous. :) 

Parenthood is hard, but it is WORTH IT!!! I love Max and wouldn't change any of it for the world, I just wish someone had warned me about how hard it is and how stressed out I was going to end up. 

Max's Birth Story

On Sunday, April 22nd, I started to have contractions around 5 am. I didn't wake Jordan up, instead I timed them and realized they were only 7 minutes apart, so not close enough to call the doctor. I headed to the couch and tried to get some sleep. At 7:45 Jordan woke up and started to get ready for work, I mentioned that I thought something was going to happen either today or tomorrow (sometime soon) and that he needed to be "on call" in case I had to go to the hospital. I packed all of our things and headed to work for about 3 hours ( I was taking pictures of some of the associates who work for Hollister so we could send them to our Home Office). Yes, during this whole time I was having contractions :) 

After work I drove over to my mom's house where I tried to relax as much as I could. Since I had a feeling Max was going to come, my mother and I ran some last minute baby errands, got dinner and waited for Jordan to get off work. My family spent our last day together as a family of 5 (Mom, Myke - step dad, Sean, Jordan and I) We had no idea we were about to welcome this precious little boy into the world! 

At midnight going into Monday morning my contractions started to become unbearable. They were very close together and so painful. I tried to look past them but after being so uncomfortable for so long, I decided to get up and walk around and at 1:30 my water broke. I was on my way to the bathroom and I swear I thought I peed myself. I called the on-call doctor, explained my situation. They asked me all these questions and then told me they would have my doctor call me back. I immediately woke Jordan up and said "Babe, get up! We have to go to the hospital! My water broke!" To which his reply was "what? really? Do you remember how to get there?" (He was joking, I was furious! :) ) 

We were told to wait about an hour or so before arriving at the hospital so that the doctor could call and let them know I was on the way. During this time it was as if there was a party at my house! My sister and mom were both awake and so excited!! Jordan went to the gas station to grab some much needed energy,  (redbull) as if adrenaline wasn't enough. I tried relaxing like the doctor asked me to, I took a shower, laid down for a while with my sister and just tried to game plan how the day was going to go. 

About 2 minutes away from arriving at the hospital, Jordan realized he forgot to pack his tennis shoes (closed toe shoes are needed if we had to have a last minute C-section, and good thing we turned around because we ended up needing one, but that is much later in the story.) We ended up getting to the Hospital around 3:45 am and it was deserted! No valet parking attendant, no security officer up front, my water was continuously gushing out, my pants were soaked. Jordan had to phone upstairs and ask how to get to where we needed to be and what to do with the car. When we finally got to labor and delivery, the nurses station asked "what bring you in tonight?"

SERIOUSLY..... DO WE HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT?

We were put in a room and I was given some narcotics for the pain. Our nurse, Darcie, was sooooooo sweet! She took care of us and was very compassionate and helpful! Jordan watched as laid there on the delivery bed in absolute pain from the contractions. I was already 2 cm dilated and 90% effaced from my last doctors appointment a week ago. Darcie started my IV for Pitcocin and soon enough my contractions started to get worse. When they reached 2 minutes apart I decided to get my epidural because I couldn't take it anymore. I would have a contraction and try to catch my breath but before I could it would roll into the next contraction. I had horrible back pain along with them, and I am so thankful we were able to manage the pain. Jordan was in shock at how uncomfortable I was. When he saw the effects of the epidural he said I was a different woman! 

Originally I was against the epidural, since there are a lot of health risks when getting one, but.... I am so glad I did. 

I sat there in that hospital bed from 4:30 am to 2:00 pm waiting, and waiting for progress. At first I was doing well, each time the doctor came into check me I was at least 2 cm more. Until about noon where I was 8 cm and then again at 1:00 pm. Needless to say, at 2:00pm when she checked me again and I was stuck at 8 cm she told me there are 3 possible reasons this could be happening: 

1. My contractions were not strong enough ( but I was on 34 mg of Pitocin and the max is 36 mg, so she didn't think that was it)

2. My cervix and pelvis was too small

3. Max was too big (she was estimating him to be between 7.5 - 8 lbs.)

Any guesses which it could be?

Moving on... we decided to investigate, we did a couple practice pushes to see what was going on in there. She told me my cervix was swollen and that he wasn't going to make it passed it, so in order to get him out we would need to preform a C-section. I immediately said I needed to talk to Jordan about it, and when I did the tears just flooded out. This was not what I was prepared for. Jordan calmed me down and told me I could do this... that I need not to be scared. I was terrified! 

Around 2:15 pm they took me back into the operating room and started prepping me for the surgery. I was violently shaking and they chalked that up to the epidural but I could tell something else was wrong. I was having some major anxiety over this procedure and I was very upset that I hadn't been able to see any of my family before going under the knife. 

I swear they started cutting me open before they let Jordan in the room, which was not how they told me all this was going to happen. During my surgery Jordan held my hand and talked to me because I was so nervous. I was on the verge of crying the whole time. I could feel the blood running down my body and the doctors tugging on stomach and moving my organs around, it was NOT painful at all, but it was very uncomfortable. They told us that Max was out and showed him to us over the curtain and Jordan and I just started balling!!!! He was/is beautiful! He weighed 8 lbs. and 6 oz. a fatty baby, which was way more than the doctor predicted in the first place. 

Jordan was on the other side of the room with Max getting his footprints put on his birth certificate and Jordan's scrubs when all the sudden I started to feel sick. I ended up violently throwing up while they were stitching me up. This continued into the Recovery room where for some odd reason my heart rate got up to 175 bpm. Not good!!!! Jordan was very nervous and worried for me, he was also very supportive and helped me calm down in order to lower my heart rate. 

While I was in recovery, Jordan wheeled Max out in his little cart to see our family. Apparently Jordan walked down the hall, stopped and said "He is chunky!" then started to cry!!! I love my sweet man!

Our family, including one set of Max's Great Grandparents!!!! 

After recovery I was finally able to hold my sweet baby boy!!! We stayed in the hospital for 3 days and were luckily released on the third day ( we were suppose to stay one extra day, but we begged our doctor to let us go because I was fine!) Jordan and I are so happy and so in love with each other and our sweet little family. We could not have asked for anything better! Max is such a blessing!