2 months 18 days

Today was little mans 2 month appointment!  I'm not going to lie... I was so nervous about these shots! He woke up so happy this morning... little did he know the impending doom that was coming his way.. poor guy. He was quite the happy guy until the doctor came in the room... and instantly he knew something was up. He did give Dr. Cook a good idea of how good his lungs are though ;)    Our once big guy isn't so big anymore! He's going to be a little man.... no baby fat here!  Today he weighed 11lbs 2 oz  (17th percentile), was 23 inches long (27th percentile), and his head circumference was 15.75 inches (30th percentile).  Our laugh of the day came from realizing that his head is growing faster than the rest of his body lol... he gets that big head from his daddy :)  .   It kind of worried me him being so little but Dr. Cook didn't seem too worried so I guess I'll have to find comfort in that.   And on a side rant... the percentiles are based of formula fed babies?! Really?? Why not be based on breastfed babies since that's what is promoted by doctors... or better yet... why not have two separte charts... whatever :)   The shots themselves weren't so bad. I hated seeing him flinch and here him cry because it hurt... but it only lasted a few seconds and he was done. Now I have one happy, very sleepy baby snoozing in his crib.
Speaking of crib... we've still had Dax in his bassinet next to our bed at night time. He doesn't wake up during the night to eat, but he does wake up pretty often and just needs his paci back or for us to put our hand on his belly to let him know we're there. Well... this week he has started scooting around in the bassinet so we've decided that it's time to move him to the crib. EEKKKK  I'm so nervous about this! We have a video monitor so I'll be able to see him whenever I want  during the night so that's comforting... but I'm really nervous on how the transition will go for him and if we'll be having to make several trips to his room during the night. Any tips would be GREATLY appreciated :) We're going to do it next week over Thanksgiving break. Daniel and I both have Thursday and Friday off so that will give us a good 4 days to really work on it... and time to sleep during the day if the transition isn't going so well :) Prayers for an easy transition for him and us would be great!

Back Off Teacher Mom!

So I've decided that I'm going to make Dax a shirt that says this, "Back Off Teacher Mom" as a constant reminder to myself. Maybe you other "teacher moms" that are reading this can relate... or maybe not... but I have really been struggling with this! I guess I realized that I was doing it a couple weeks ago.. but since then, it's been an ongoing battle with myself. Here's what I'm suffering from, what I'll call, "Teachermomitis"...

So I'm sure yall have heard people say that knowing too much can sometimes be a bad thing... well this is it for me. After spending five years in college studying the ins and outs of whats going on inside of little ones heads I feel pretty confident in my knowledge about a childs development and ways to facilitate that development. With that said... I'm CONSTANTLY thinking about Dax and his development and what I'm doing/could be doing to better help him reach is fullest potential. I'm being exactly what the title of this post says... a teacher-mom.  Not that wanting to support your childs development is a bad thing... but really, thinking about this ALL the time is not necessary. Yeah, it's great to stimulate him... but I have to remind myself that it's good for him to just sit and look at the lights or the wall (I have still yet to decide whats so fascinating about it). Yeah, it's awesome to talk to your child and doing so will greatly affect his language development.... but I have to remind myself that it's equally as great for him to sit and just listen to the sounds around him. It's okay for me to lay him down for 20 minutes and let him look around while I eat or get a load of laundry in... that 20 minutes isn't going to give him a  guaranteed ticket to after school tutoring. If Dax could talk I feel like he would say this to me.....
"Hey teacher mom, there is a such thing as over-stimulation! As much as I like listening to you talk to me about your day, and as much as I like watching you make crazy faces that only a baby could love, I also really like just hanging out on the couch, staring at the mirror and listening to the dogs play and the sound of the dishwasher. It's ok.... take a step back and chill out... I'll turn out just fine"

Life With Dax...

Dax is 10 weeks old today! TEN! That is so crazy! Time has gone by so fast it's hard to believe. He goes Wednesday for his 2 month appointment and shots :(   I'm really sad about shots but looking forward to seeing how much he has grown! So since today is his 10 week birthday I thought it would be fitting to have this post be a run-down of the last 10 weeks. Here's how our life with Dax has been...
To be completely honest, the first month and a half of Dax's life was sort of a mess. He was quite the fussy little guy... if he wasn't eating or sleeping... he was crying. It was pretty rough on Daniel and I... the new adjustment to having a baby, Daniel being in school, a minor case of the baby blues, plus a fussy baby ment many nights of feeling helpless and questioning whether or not this being a mom thing was truly what I was ment to do (some people grow up knowing they're ment to be doctor, or ment to be a teacher.... I grew up knowing I was ment to be a mom). It took awhile for us to really realize that it wasn't something we were doing or not doing... that instead it was that Dax was hurting. We decided that he had silent reflux (he had all the classic symptoms) and had major gas on his little tummy. The two of these things equalled one very unhappy little man. We began using Gripe Water and like magic we had a new baby!
Starting at about 6 weeks life got much easier and happier in the Freno house. Dax starting feeling much better, baby blues were long gone, there were plenty of social smiles going on, feedings at night went from every 3 hours to every 5-6 hours.... needless to say, things were falling into place and the constant questioning and feeling helpless went away. Though it was a rough 6 weeks, I wouldnt trade it for the world. I feel that God used that as a slap in the face for me and Daniel... he wanted to bring us down to reality and realize that we didn't know everything about raising a baby. That no matter how much education I've had in early childhood and experience I've had with little ones... and no matter how much education Daniel has had... that being a parent isn't something you can be completely prepared for. You have to roll with the punches. It isn't by the books. We grew a lot as individuals, as a couple, and as a family during that 6 weeks and I'm so thankful for that blessing. I feel that we are now prepared for ANYTHING God throws at us.
After a crazy first 6 weeks... the last 4 have been just wonderful. He's been like a new baby and things are getting so fun. He's starting to talk and plays with his tongue a lot. It's hard work trying to figure out how to work that thing! In the last week he has really found his hand and has it in his mouth a lot... occassionally sucking away on that thumb! He's still breastfeeding which I'm so excited about and will now go 7-8 hours between feedings at night (with the occasional night being much longer than that). His little body is like clockwork! You can pretty much guarentee that after 1 1/2 hours he'll be ready to go back to sleep. He'll just play and talk for about an hour long at a time now which is really exciting. His absolute favorite thing in the world is this mirror that hangs above our couch... he'll break his neck to see it... and it can't be just any mirror, trust me, we've tried it.... it has to be that specific mirror. It drives Daddy and I nuts.  He also loves watching his OU mobile that hangs above his changing table. Dax's favorite thing to do though is be outside.. which is SO exciting to me! Daniel and I love being outside so we're glad he does too. He has been to the lake twice since he was born and is the happiest I've ever seen him when we're there... I think we have another lake baby on our hands :)
Well that's life with Dax... we've enjoyed it... I hope you did too :)

Well here goes nothing...

So after much convincing being done by my friends and family... I figured I would give this blog thing a try... we'll see how it goes... and how long it last :)

With the craziness that has been the last two months I haven't got to talk and share my birth story or any of that fun stuff with anyone so I figured I'd start with that.... I think that's like a requirement of new mommy blogs :)

So we went in for my induction on August 30th at 12am.  Before heading to the hospital I loaded up on my last meal... a turkey sandwich and potato soup from McAlisters.. yum-o! Back to the hospital...  Well we got there at midnight where they got me all set up in a room and all hooked up to the machines. At about 1am the process started. They checked me and I was dilated to 1 1/2, 50% effaced, and apparently having contractions that I couldn't feel. They then started me on the pill that would thin my cervix... and told me to go to sleep to get some rest... UM HELLO?? I'm having a baby in less than 24 hours... do you really think I'll be getting any sleep??  Needless to say, I got a total of 1 hour of sleep that night.  Starting at about 4am I started having a pretty constant back ache but still nothing major... just enough to make me uncomfortable. The doctor came in at 7:30am... dilated to a 2, 80% effaced, and the baby's head was very very engaged and ready to go. She went ahead and broke my water and that's when the roller coaster began! Almost immediately I started having major contractions (even without pitocin!). They were pretty constant and strong.. ps... back labor SUCKS. From this point until the epidural set in it's really kind of a blur. I remember laying on my side, clinching Daniels arm so bad that I was sore the next day, getting a little sick, and getting really frustrated at any sort of noise in the room during contractions (apparently this included Daniel... who I told to be quiet multiple times).  I think it was at about 9:30am when I was dilated to 4/5 and got my epidural :)  From there on things were a breeze! I visited with family, ate some ice, rested a little, and chit chatted with the nurses. At 10:30am the nurse checked me and told me I was at 10 and ready to push! UM WHAT?? It's only been an hour since I was at a 5.... and 3 hours since I was at a 2... isn't this process suppose to take a lot longer?!  Well needless to say the process started and was nothing like I pictured it being from the many episodes of A Baby Story that I had watched. It was easy... no pain, really calm, not a million people running in and out of the room, no screaming... just me pushing and soaking it all in.  Well I pushed for an hour and during that entire hour Dax had the hiccups!!! It was the weirdest thing hearing them on the monitor and feeling them while I was pushing. Everyday for the last two months of my pregnancy he would get the hiccups at least once a day and now he had them while I was pushing. Needless to say we were all pretty entertained by them. My contractions began slowing down so they gave me a small bit of pitocin to get them going again (I almost made it the entire time without any!). The doctor had been in a Csection while I was pushing and got in there shortly before Dax was born... she didn't expect my labor to go so fast.  Well at 11:30am, 4 hours after the beginning of real labor, Daxton Ross Freno was born!! 8lbs, 19 inches, and lots and lots of dark hair! We, including the doctor, were all really surprised at how big he was. They immediately laid him on my chest and that was the best moment of my life! Seeing him for the first time was unlike any other feeling I've ever had. He looked great, scored a 9 on the APGAR and seemed to be a happy and healthy newborn. We let the family come in and say hello, but then the next hour was spent in the room with just us, me, Daniel, and Dax, our little family. That hour alone right after he was born was simply amazing and something I'll always treasure.
After that hour was over he went to the nursery to get a bath and do the other routine things. It was there that they realized he was having a hard time breathing and the test and observation began. He spent several hours in the nursery on oxygen while the doctors tried to figure out what was wrong. Late that evening the doctors decided that he needed more care than they could give in the nursery and moved him to the NICU. It was almost 24 hours before I got to see him again. For the first day he was fed through IV b/c of a tube they had in his mouth that drained fluid from his lungs. I finally got to feed him a bottle on his second day in the NICU and when he was 4 days old I was finally allowed to breastfeed him again. After lots of test the doctors decided that he had TTN, Transient Tachypnea of the Newborn, which is where there is fluid in the lungs and apparently only 1% of newborns get. There was also some sort of infection which they were never able to figure out exactly what it was but treated it with antibiotics thru IV's for 7 days.  So what caused all this trouble???  THOSE DANG HICCUPS WHILE I WAS PUSHING!  Those precious little things we were all laughing and giggling at for an hour caused all this trouble.  Well for the next week Daniel and I made the 20 minute drive to the hospital every 3 hours to feed Dax.  Our schedule was pretty much, drive 20 minutes to the hospital, feed him and cuddle him for an hour, drive back home another 20 minutes, be at home for an hour, and then it would be time to go back to the hospital. We would do this starting at 8am, and do the last feeding at 8pm. Needless to say, it was an absolutely exhausting and tiring 7 days. The night before he was released we got to "room in" at the hospital. They gave us a room to stay in with Dax at the hospital so our first night with him we wouldn't be alone. It was amazing and I def. didn't sleep much all night... instead I made up for some much missed cuddle time :)   Then, on September 6th, we finally got to bring our little man home and start are life together.