Landon: 1 Month

Where did this month go?!? We sure have enjoyed the last few weeks of sweet snuggles and sleepy smiles, but boy, has it gone by quickly!

Landon, you have already brought so much joy to our home in your short month of life. We think you were just the perfect addition to our family! Here's what you're up to:

• You're a big boy! At your two week appointment you weighed 11 lb 11 oz (>95%), were 23" long (95%), and had a head circumference of 15.5" (90%).
• It's no wonder you're so big; you're a breastfeeding champ! I was really nervous because Avery did not do well in this area. You eat about every two-three hours, and you've even taken a pumped bottle a few times when I needed to go out (and once at the Rangers game). Yay!
• You sleep pretty well, even at night. You sleep most of the night in your Fisher Price Rock 'N Play or in your Pack 'n Play bassinet. Usually you'll have your last feeding around 11pm and then sleep about 4-5 hours before you're hungry again. (One night you slept for 6 hours!) Most nights you go back to sleep right after you eat, so I'm getting more rest than anticipated. Thanks for that. :) I also love when you fall asleep on my chest (or on Daddy) because you just look so peaceful and sweet.

• You're already filling out 0-3 month clothes (you wore NB sizes for all of one week), so I'm changing your attire multiple times a day so you we can get some use out of all of these cute clothes! Thank goodness for Carter's long onesies; you actually still have some room to grow in those! 
• You seem to have a pretty chill personality so far. You don't cry much unless you're hungry or needing a diaper change (or if I eat barbeque sauce, dangit). You've become much more alert, and we love seeing those gorgeous eyes when you're wide awake! You also make the cutest little old man/turtle face when you stretch out. Oh, and those cheeks! I just want to squish them! :) 

• We're getting used to being a family of four. It just takes us a little more time to get out the door these days! While we miss the double-team, it is nice that Daddy and I can still implement a man-to-man defense. Avery loves you, too; she will come right up to your face and either say, "Hi, Landon, hi" and run away or she gives you the sweetest hugs and kisses on the cheek. I think y'all are going to be pals (you know, once you do more than just eat, sleep, and poop). 

• We know you're going to grow up way faster than you should, so we're trying to take everything one day at a time and enjoy all of the fun (and the not-so-fun!) that comes along with having a newborn in the house. So feel free to be your snuggly self as long as you want because all too soon you'll be telling me not to kiss your sweet face when I drop you off at school.

We love you, sweet boy!

Mommy and Daddy

p.s. Just for fun, here's Avery's one month picture.

Week One.

Here are a few snapshots of our first week at home with our newest addition.

We stayed two nights at the hospital, and we had the best nurses. Our first nurse (night shift on Tuesday) was Deborah, then Wednesday we had Brianne (who we had met while walking laps the day before and she specifically scheduled herself to be our nurse), and Deborah was our nurse again on Wednesday night. The Thursday nurse wasn't as cool, but since we were discharged in the morning it didn't really matter.

Avery's gift from Landon. She's on a little Tinkerbell kick lately.

Kendra and Allison brought Avery to the hospital to see us on Wednesday, but she made us so sad when they needed to leave! She kept crying, "Mommy, come with us! Daddy, come with us!" Needless to say, I cried too.

Matt's impression of Landon's sleepy face

Matt actually went home around midnight on Wednesday night to stay with Avery since my mom needed to go back to work on Thursday. He took Avery to a friend's house (thanks, Whitney!) on Thursday morning and came back to the hospital in time for us to be discharged.

The hospital stay got a little boring (I'm so glad we didn't have to stay as long as we did with Avery), but we got lots of good snuggle time with Landon, and we really appreciated having visitors.

Muncle Vernon!

Kendra

Kari

Beverly is actually a nurse at our hospital, but she wasn't working while we were there, so she stopped by to visit anyway. :)

Chelsie (Stephanie stopped by later, but I forgot to snap a picture!)

Avery's done pretty well with the transition to being an older sibling as opposed to an only child. She loves to hold Landon (we have the pictures to prove it!), and she's always trying to get in the middle of the action (even helping with diaper changes). She even wants to read her "big sister book" before every nap and bedtime. She's definitely had more meltdowns than normal since we've been home, but I can't say I blame her. We've really made an effort to make sure she gets lots of individual attention, but things are still, well, different. I think with some more time (and lots of patience and understanding on our part!), she'll be just fine.

We've been so blessed by sweet friends who have brought us some fantastic dinners. Our church's Helps Ministry provides three meals for a family after a baby is born, and one of our neighbors brought over a delicious chicken pot pie when we got home on Thursday. I even have a few freezer meals that I made last month, so I'm extremely thankful to not have to cook right now. I'm doing good to just get a shower. And I'm not even getting those every day. Yes, I just admitted that.

I have the best husband in the world. Matt is a huge help around the house; he's worked really hard to help keep the kitchen clean, he changes his fair share of diapers (without complaining), and he's taken the initiative to get every meal ready so I don't have to. I'm SO thankful for him!

We've had some good visits with family and friends since we've been home.

Aunt Allison

Grandma

Nene and Pop Pop

Brittany and Uncle Nick

Amy

Breastfeeding is going so much better than it did with Avery. This was something I was pretty worried about because we just really can't afford to buy formula right now. Oh yeah, plus "breast is best" and all that jazz. I just remember being so overwhelmed and frustrated with every (forever long and painful) feeding when Avery was a baby, that it's been a pleasant shift that Landon seems to be a much better nurser. Maybe we'll make it longer than three months this time.

(Don't worry, I don't have any breastfeeding pictures for ya.)

Matt and I are sleeping about as well as can be expected. Landon is a sleeper, that's for sure. He's so chill and really only cries when he's hungry. He'll go for a 4-5 hour stretch between feedings at night, so that's been a decent chunk of sleep for me.

Things have been a little overwhelming this week while we try to adjust to our newest family member because Matt has had to be at tech training at school since Monday and I've been working at the church the last couple of days trying to get ready for VBS (which starts on Monday). As long as we can survive until VBS is over next week, I think we'll be golden for the rest of the summer. Until then, we'll try to enjoy the chaos, knowing that it's only temporary and babies grow up way too fast.

Landon's Birth Story

I've been trying to write this all week (starting at the hospital), not because I think you necessarily want to read all of the fun details about Landon's arrival, but because I am finding that I cannot remember anything anymore and that is a problem. So this is for me. :) 

I mentioned in my last pregnancy post that I was going to be induced on Tuesday, May 31, which was only one day past Landon's due date. Even though I chose that date, I was really second-guessing the decision once it looked like I wasn't actually going to go into labor on my own.

(Back story, I was induced at 41w2d with Avery, and it was not a pleasant experience. I was in labor for 19 hours, pushed for 2, had two epidurals, threw up a lot, was thisclose to having an emergency c-section but my doctor is awesome, had major tearing, and couldn't hold my baby right away because the NICU nurses took her because her heart rate was crazy low. She ended up being just fine, but it definitely wasn't the birth experience we were expecting.)

Back to Landon. My mom came and stayed at our house on Monday night (she was keeping Avery on Tuesday) since we had to leave so early, and we made it out the door to be at the hospital by 6:00 am. They took us back right away, and I filled out paperwork while they got me hooked up to the little contraction monitor thing and set up my IV (eek). I was already contracting quite a bit on my own, but they weren't as regular as they needed to be, and I was already dilated to 4 cm. I asked if, instead of starting the Pitocin right away, Dr. D could just break my water and see if that would help get things going. He was down, so after he broke my water at 8:30 (which, by the way, might be the grossest experience ever), Matt and I started walking laps around the postpartum wing. For the record, we made 14 laps and made friends with the postpartum nurses (which definitely came in handy!). We went back to the room to watch some Big Bang Theory and nap a little bit, but by 11:00 am there wasn't enough progress, so they started Pitocin at 11:15.

I got my epidural at noon. I'm not even ashamed. It was awesome.

I progressed pretty slowly, considering how dilated I was when we got there, so around 2ish Dr. D wanted to see if Landon was in occiput posterior (OP) position (aka "sunny side up") since that can make labor take much longer. (Avery was OP also.) Sure enough, he was. My (amazing) nurses decided to try to move me into different positions to try to get him to move on his own, but somewhere in the process, Landon got moved into a position that he did not like because his heart rate just plummeted. All of a sudden, I had an oxygen mask on, Landon had an internal fetal monitor, and the nurses and Dr. D looked really concerned. I overheard one of the nurses make mention about getting an OR ready just in case. After a scary few minutes that felt more like hours, we heard Landon's heart rate pick back up, and we breathed a sigh of relief. They turned off the Pitocin for awhile and kept me on oxygen to give Landon some time to recover.

I was super nauseous through the second half of labor (pretty sure it was because I was starving) and was finally able to throw up right before it was time to push. Aaahhhh. Lovely, right?

Anyway, after 25 minutes of pushing, I heard Dr. D chuckle as he said, "Well I was a little off; that's a big boy!" Landon was placed on my chest at 7:24 pm, and the scale proved that he was, in fact, a big boy at 10 lb 6 oz (as opposed to the 7.5 lb that Dr. D estimated)!

Landon got cleaned up and I got some food (Sonic burger and fries...mmm).

And Landon finally got to meet his big sister (who is just smitten with this little boy).

Landon's first hours of life were also spent with Grandma and Grandaddy, Uncle Aaron, Aunt Chelsea, and Aunt Allison (Uncle Nick was camping in Minnesota but assures Landon that he'll make it up to him).

We just love this precious baby boy and are so thankful for our family of four.

He's Here!

I'll post the birth story and all the other fun stuff later (along with more pictures!), but for now...

...meet Landon! All 10 lbs 6 oz and 21 inches of him! (Yikes.)

We're so in love with this little boy. To be continued...