Teething

So I've got lots to post about...we just got back from a trip to Houston and New Orleans and I'm going back to work this Sunday. I'll post pictures and recap our trip soon.

As for the teething... Gavin started to have a cough yesterday and it seemed to be worse today, so I took him to his pediatrician. As he was getting his temperature taken (rectally, of course), I was covering him from the top with a diaper in case he peed. Suddenly, the nurse jumps back and I hear and see him projectile poop all over the exam table, her hands and the thermometer. I quickly move the diaper to cover his butt and just as I do, he starts peeing! Needless to say, he was a mess and I was very glad that I always bring a change of clothes for him. The nurse was very sweet and just laughed about it.

Anyway, after a thorough exam, the pediatrician said that Gavin is not sick at all...he's just teething. At his 2 month well-baby visit a few weeks ago, the pediatrician had pointed out that he was beginning to teethe (the top 2 middle teeth). This time, he looked and showed me that they are even more visible under the gums now. It seems like no one completely agrees on what symptoms occur with teething or why they occur, but the following are often seen with teething: diarrhea, low grade fever, drooling, cough, runny nose....all of which Gavin has right now. So it could be a while (weeks to months) before the teeth actually pop through, but he's definitely teething, even though he's at the younger end of the spectrum.

Gavin and Family

Gavin is sound asleep on my chest right now and I'm tired of studying for the in-service exam (residents have to take this yearly), so I thought I'd post a few pics. Sorry Michael, Dad and Uncle Geoff...I'll get pictures of you guys up next :-)

Gavin is really losing his hair...it's at a such an awkward stage now. He's basically got a receding hairline on the sides and then a bald strip across the back of his head from where it rubs when he's in the carseat. I try to do a comb-over but it's not really working anymore. Here's our little baldy :-)

Playing

This is Gavin playing on his jungle mat. He bats at the hanging parts and giggles. You can also see that he his outgrowing his clothes--this outfit has been retired. He also recently started getting his hands into his mouth, turns his head back and forth and holds it up while on his stomach during tummy time, smiles in response to others smiling, and is losing his hair! We weighed him last week and he was 11.4 lbs...we'll get an official weight at his appointment next week, but he's gotta be pushing 12 pounds now.

Updates

Well, I have lots to talk about since I haven't posted in a while, so don't mind the randomness...

Gavin had his 1 month appointment last week and has gained 3 pounds, and about 2 inches in length since his first appointment. He's staying exactly the same on his growth curve--25th percentile for weight and 75th for length...so he's a long, skinny baby :-) He also got his 2nd Hep B shot and did very well.

At that appointment, I told the pediatrician about how Gavin gets really fussy after every meal...even screaming (seemingly in pain) unless he is held upright. He also hates to lay flat, but will sleep in his swing or car seat. I've thought since his first week of life that he might have acid reflux, so I even bought a little wedge for him to lay on, but I don't think it's enough of an incline. The pediatrician confirmed that, based on my history, he does have reflux. He suggested having him sleep in his car seat because of the incline, as well as giving him 1 ml of Maalox after eating. That has made a HUGE difference. He still gets gassy sometimes, but no more of the screaming in pain after every meal.

Poor guy got circumcised last week :-( We had wanted it done before he left the hospital after birth but they told us we had to do it as an outpatient and then we found out that due to insurance reasons, it had to be done within the first 7 days of birth...which we missed by a day. Anyway, long story short, we paid out of pocket to get it done before 1 year of age (which I think is way too late) but the first appointment we could get was for last week. As it turned out, it was done by a pediatric surgeon (which made Michael happy) and he's healing well. This surgeon used the Plasti-Bell, which I knew about from Braylon. We're still waiting for it to fall off, and he's pretty bruised and swollen, but it doesn't seem to bother him at all.

We got professional newborn pictures taken a few weeks ago. We ended up with some cute pictures, but it was a disaster of a photo shoot. Gavin is really not a fussy baby, except with the reflux that I mentioned above, but this was not a good day for him. He was sleeping for the first part of the pictures and then once he woke up, he was hungry so he started crying. Fortunately, the photographer had no other appointments after us, so she told me to nurse him and to take my time. So I nursed him, which made him fall asleep again. We got all dressed and started pictures again. Apparently, though, he had not finished eating and started crying again. So we nursed yet another time. I called her back in and we started pictures again. At this point, he freaked out because his reflux was bad (probably because I rushed through burping him). In addition to all of this, it was FREEZING in the studio and he was miserable...especially because we kept trying to get cute naked baby pics :-) We kept mentioning to the photographer that he was cold, but she didn't seem to catch on that we wanted her to make the studio warmer. Also, they don't give you digital copies of the pictures which is a pain. The pictures are cute, but some of them look like a different baby!

Here are some random pictures:

Pictures...finally

Wow, I can't believe how fast time has flown since Gavin was born. I've been meaning to post pictures for the last 2 weeks, but somehow I seem to run out of time every day. I feel like he has changed so much in the last 2 and a half weeks...I think you can tell from the pictures above. Michael and I are starting to get to know him better, but it's still a constant learning experience. Some days, I feel like we are getting into a good routine with naps, nursing and "play". Other days, our schedules are off and I'm exhausted because he sleeps during the day and is up all night. Michael has been gone a lot lately because all of his call days were clustered together since he was on vacation the first week of this month and then he has Christmas off. It's tough on him to be away from Gavin and it's tiring for me not to have any help at night. Fortunately, my parents have been over every day to give me a little relief. All in all, Gavin really is a good baby and I'm loving being a mom. I love seeing him grow and can't wait to see what his personality is like.

Random thoughts on random topics:

Nursing--Gavin latched on really well from the beginning, but holy crap it hurt for the first week! I was also really nervous that he wasn't getting what he needed and that I wouldn't know if my milk came in or not. I definitely knew when it came in! I'm still figuring out when he is crying because he's hungry vs. wanting to nurse for comfort.

Poop--I never imagined that I would be so excited about poop. As I mentioned, I was really worried about my milk coming in and Gavin getting enough nutrition. When he had his first breast milk poop (textbook yellow, seedy), I almost cried because I was so relieved. That might have been when I realized that I was definitely a mom.

Sleep--I'm not nearly as exhausted as everyone says a new parent should be. Honestly, I think it's because I'm so used to sleep deprivation from these last months of being a pregnant intern. It is tough, though, when he has those nights where he wants to nurse and be held all night...and every time I put him down, he wakes up and cries...so I spend the entire night in that endless cycle. Hopefully we'll figure this out.

Gavin Miles Reader

Well, clearly the contractions I was having in that last post were the real thing...Gavin Miles Reader was born at 10:40 pm that night--7lbs 5 oz, 19 3/4 in long. After that post, I continued having contractions for the next 13 hours...they varied from 2-12 minutes apart and when they got to the point where they were pretty painful, my parents and Nancy and I headed in to the hospital (around 2 in the afternoon). We had been talking to Larry (who had flown back to Houston the day before) to decide if he should fly back or not and Michael was at the hospital working. By the time I was on the monitor in L&D triage, the contractions were even more painful. When they checked me, I was 90% effaced and 5 cm dilated. My OB said, "Yup, you'll be staying and having a baby today". It took about an hour to move me over to the L&D room where I would be delivering and a little more time to get me on the monitor and all set up. When the nurse came back to check me again, I was 6-7 cm. Everyone was surprised that I was progressing so quickly, so they got the OB to come check. At that point, I felt a small fluid leak and she was feeling the amniotic sac bulging, so she ruptured it (with my permission). I had been debating about getting an epidural, but was leaning towards it and was just waiting for anesthesia to come consent me. Tt turned out that they were in a c-section, so I had no choice but to wait. About an hour later, I was checked again and was complete and 8-9 cm. By this point, the contractions were incredibly painful and intense. Anesthesia still wasn't there and Michael was getting pretty nervous that they would be too late. They eventually came and I pretty much barely made the window for getting the epidural. As soon as they checked me after that, I was fully dilated and ready to push. Unfortunately, I had some trouble pushing because of the epidural and we had to wait for anesthesia to come back in to turn it down. At that point I was really frustrated because I just wanted to be able to push and meet my little boy! When he did turn it down, I felt my left leg and the contractions on the left, but was still really numb on the right side. Part of me wonders if I should have just held out on getting the epidural...I had already gone through most of the labor without meds and I wonder if I had just gotten through the "transition" phase of labor, which is supposedly the most intense pain, whether I would have been fine. As it was, I felt quite a bit of the delivery itself because we turned down the epidural. However, having the epidural probably relaxed me and helped get him out. After about 40 minutes of pushing, his head was out. The OB told me to stop pushing, which I thought was weird, and then I heard her say "nuchal", which means a cord around the neck. Michael told me later that the cord was wrapped around his neck twice. The nuchal cord might explain why there was meconium in the amniotic fluid, because that usually happens when the fetus is stressed and we weren't sure why he'd be stressed since his heart rate looked great throughout the whole labor. Because of the meconium, the pediatricians took him over to the warmer right after birth to suction him. Once they were done with their assessment, they gave him to Michael, who gave him to me to try to breastfeed. After all of that, we called the grandparents in to see him. They had about 15 minutes with him before he had to go to the nursery for his first bath and exam. The grandparents watched him the whole time in the nursery and my mom called me periodically with updates.

We are now home and doing great. He is just precious and gets cuter every day [I swear I'm not biased at all :-)]. I'll post pictures soon.

Deliver Me

I had been worried lately that I wouldn't know when I was having contractions...now I understand why people say "you'll know". I've been having contractions since yesterday, and I definitely know when I'm having them. At one point yesterday, we thought it might be the real thing, but as it turned out, there was some progress, but I'm not quite there. Then the contractions slowed down during the day. Argh. Now it's 1:30 am and I'm up again with contractions that are more painful than yesterday. Appropriately, I'm sitting here having contractions and watching "Deliver Me", a reality show on Discovery Health about....you guessed it....delivering babies. Unfortunately, I realize that I could have days of this, but we'll see.