Monthly Newsletter - #1

Dear Landon,

This has been quite the exciting month for you. First there was that whole being ripped from the coziness you’d been in for 9 months. And it’s been kind of weird ever since.

A lot of women on the web write birth stories and include all kinds of details that I’m sorry to say, I’m not going to be able to do for you. I remember Monday waiting and waiting and waiting for them to call us to come in to start the induction. I hadn’t eaten since noon on Monday – and they wouldn’t even let me have water or ice. They finally had us come in at 11pm.

When we got there and got settled in they finally let me have some ice chips. And I spent about 2 hours in pain when I asked the nurse (who I went to high school with) for either the sleeping pill or the pain meds. And I’m sorry to say – that that’s when it all gets fuzzy. I don’t know when a lot of stuff happened. I know both your aunts, and both sets of Grandparents showed up, as well as Shane. I know everyone came in to see me, right up until Clint decided it was too much for me and then banned everyone but your aunt Kathleen. I know that at 5:00 they decided that you weren’t coming and that they would do a C-section. I was really upset about it. I know that when they wheeled me into the OR I heard them counting sponges and instruments, and then they called for your daddy. I heard my Doctor say, “Oh, well, no wonder he wasn’t coming.” You had been head down for the last 3 months or so, but when you decided you couldn’t fit, you backed up and turned sideways. 9lbs and 9ozs. You were very blue when they showed you to me, and apparently they couldn’t get you breathing like they wanted you to. I was very sleepy but I was afraid to go to sleep or I’d miss getting to see you. They wheeled you by me and let me touch your hand. They took you off to the level II NICU. And that’s the last time I saw you until about 1am. Your Dad took each of the Grandparents in to see you.

You gave your Daddy quite a scare by not breathing like you were supposed to right out of the womb. Every time he looks at you he might as well have heart shaped pupils like in the cartoons.

I should have known you’d be a challenge when you started out by tricking the nursery nurses into bringing you to my room, saying you were hungry – but all you really wanted to do was cuddle.

Since being home you have done a lot of growing, although since I am with you 24/7 – I don’t see much of it. You’ve had a lot of visitors in the past month as well.

You had your first Dr. appointment; they examined you and pricked your heel again – which you absolutely did NOT care for. And neither did your father, so we’ll be going to those appointments by ourselves from here on out.

You had your first outing – we took you to pick up Daddy’s new car. You were unimpressed. And you don’t particularly care for the whole riding in cars thing to begin with.

You had your first bath after you FINALLY lost your umbilical cord.

You took your first bottle on Halloween night from your daddy. Up until that point I had been the one who tried to give you a bottle, and you were absolutely not having it. But for your daddy, you took it like a champ. Which is good news for me, because it means I can go back to work in a month and not having visit the Day Care a few times a day to nurse.

You refuse the pacifier. I mean, what’s the point anyway if nothing good is coming out of it? But you’ve decided to use your forearm instead and have successfully given yourself your first hickey.

You have decided that the swing is not as evil as the carrier and have allowed me to take exactly one shower and fix one dinner while you sat in it quietly. You have yet to sit in the carrier while awake quietly.

Your sisters have decided that you must be staying, and they’re tolerating you. Scarlett gets annoyed with the constant crying and leaves the room. Fiona tries to calm you by pressing her nose to your head. They both check on you constantly.

You have some kind of sensor that makes you poop within 5 minutes of a diaper change. I could probably spend my entire day changing your diaper. Everyone says you are very alert for such a young baby; you’re pretty good at holding your own head up.

And for my birthday you gave me 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep, it was probably the very best present you could have given me. So thank you very much for that.

Love,
Mom

PS - there's some kind of issue with the picture uploading - and I have placed a bunch of pictures on flickr (see sidebar for link) where I couldn't get some to upload. And then Flickr screwed up and I didn't get them all uploaded there either - but I will eventually.