Tucker's Newborn Pics + an Update

I finally have a chance to share the sweet pictures of my precious boy. Our mornings have been kind of rough the last few days... and that's because our nights have been rough. We're back on a good schedule though so hopefully we have less and less rough nights.

Anywho, the real reason you are here... the pictures.  Tucker didn't love having his picture taken, so we couldn't get many different poses.  The kid hates to be naked.

 

That last one is my absolute favorite. I fall more and more in love with this precious little bundle every single day.

 

Now for an update. Last time I left off saying surgery may or may not be in my future. Went to my OB last Monday, so the 23rd, where I got an antibiotic, pain meds and a referral to the general surgeon. Monday night I took another Epsom salt bath and it started drawing out the infection and the cyst started draining. Exactly what I was after. Tuesday morning around 2am, my mom and Danny were picking me up off the bathroom floor after I passed out. This happened when I had the cyst in high school. I don't know if its from the pain or what, but it causes me to pass out. After crying hysterically then getting a little sleep, Danny took me to the ER where they lanced and drained the cyst the rest of the way. It hurt WAYYYY less than the surgery and I felt better almost immediately. I kept my appointment with the surgeon and he said I do not need surgery. Thank the lord! I kind of wanted to kiss him. The bad news of all this, my milk supply took a hit. I think the combination of the stress and just not nursing because I couldn't get comfortable no matter what I did caused it. I'm doing all I can to get my supply back.. oatmeal, fenugreek, mother's milk tea, water... all of it.

 

That is all for now. I'd share my resolutions/goals for 2014, but I have only thought of 2 so far.

 

Lets talk about the 2 moments where I've wanted to cry in public. Saturday Danny and I went on a date. His mom watched Tucker and we went to Outback. After we went to Kohls to get Tucker some more clothes so he didn't look like a bum all the time. I'm paying and the cashier asks WHEN I'M DUE! I cut her some slack because we were buying newborn stuff and when I told her the baby was actually 3 weeks old you could tell she felt like an asshole. We went grocery shopping yesterday and I'm not sure what brought this one on, but the bag boy said something along the lines of "wow you have one already and you've got another one on the way?" Are you freaking serious?! Its sweats and hoodies from now until I lose the rest of the weight.

 

Hope you all have a SAFE and happy new year! Its just Tucker and I tonight. Danny works tonight. I bet I'm asleep by 9.. and then up again as the ball is dropping. Ahhh, life with a newborn!

How things have been going

I'm back for a hot second. Depending on how my appointment at the doctor goes today.. I'll get to that in a minute.

Life with Tucker has been wonderful. I wouldn't say that we've settled into a routine or anything though, because our days and nights are exhausting still. Little man lost 20% of his birth weight, which is an absolute shit ton. We went back to the hospital for weight checks the Monday and Tuesday after he was born. The weight check on Tuesday resulted in a 3.2 oz gain.. and admittance to the peds floor for 2 nights for jaundice. This mama was an absolute mess due to exhaustion, hormones and just feeling bad. I couldn't help but feel like I was responsible for him feeling bad, but there wasn't really anything I could do. Plus the pediatrician that broke the news to me, over the phone during a rare nap, had about 0 tact when he did it.

After a night and half the next day on the bili-bed, Tucker's levels went down about as quickly as they went up and we were home Thursday afternoon. So, that was his first week of the outside world.

During the first weight check, the lactation consultant put us on a feeding schedule to help put the weight back on. Tucker eats every 2-3 hours. He was nursing for 10 minutes and no more than 10 to conserve calories then he would eat an ounce through a syringe. This require me to pump at every feeding, even the ones during the wee hours of the night. We even did this when he was on the bili-bed, without the 10 mins of nursing to maximize time under the lights. Now that he's gaining so well and has gotten up to 6 lbs again, we're nursing as long as he wants then giving him no less than 1.5 oz. I'm happy to say he is nursing like a champ and as of this past Saturday, he has 4.2 ounces to go until he reaches birth weight. I'm hoping at that point we can let him sleep during the night. The kid would sleep at least 4 or 5 hours if we let him. But we can't.

Tucker has been a champ during our outings. We've been to Lowe's, Target, and out to eat a couple of times. We even went to church Saturday evening and he maybe made one peep when his paci fell out of his mouth then again when he wanted his bottle. Other than that, perfect!

Onto this doctors appointment I talked about. I've been in serious pain for the last week. Not the post partum pain. But pilonidal cyst pain. Its basically a cyst in the tailbone region, you know, the part of your ass that you sit on... and that you sit on a lot when you have a kid attached to your boob every 2-3 hours every day. Sometimes these cysts get infected and they hurt. They hurt bad. I had one of these when I was a senior in high school and had is surgically removed and this is where this gets gross. When you have it surgically removed, the hole has to be left open and packed with gauze twice a day so it can heal from the inside out. Worst pain of my entire f'ing life. I'm talking I was on hydros, with a pain patch while that thing was being numbed with lidocaine. That bad.  My mom always said that after going through that, childbirth would be a breeze. She was right. Granted, I had an epidural, but I felt contractions at all 10 centimeters. I'm hoping and praying surgery isn't my only option. That would be a shitty Christmas, a shitty maternity leave, and likely no more breastfeeding since I'd have to be pretty doped up all day everyday. There are easier procedures that are still painful but not as invasive. I'm kinda just hoping the doc can give me some antibiotics to clear up the infection and we'll be good. I've been taking Epsom salt baths and they seem to be drawing the infection out. We'll see what happens. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I've literally been crying off and on since Thursday because that surgery scares me that bad. Anyone have any experience with these awful things? I need to hear about it.

That's how things have been going so far. I can't believe that Tucker will be 3 weeks old this week. Absolutely crazy! I'll get his newborn pics up sometime. We got them back on Friday and ooooh they are adorable. We couldn't get many because he wasn't loving being nakey, but we got enough :) here's a little preview

Hope you all have a merry, merry Christmas!
I'll keep you all updated on the cyst situation.

Tucker's Birth Story

Bessie has some time while she is being milked to type up a post about Tucker's arrival. Danny has called me Bessie the Cow since last Sunday when I started pumping. 

Let's start with Tuesdays doctors appt. shall we. My BP was still high but not high enough to warrant an induction, so my OB sent me to L&D for an NST and blood work. She also checked my cervix... Which was maybe a finger tip dialated but soft. NST and bloodwork were fine so we were sent along our merry way and I was to continue modified bed rest. This is when Danny said " you know that we'll be back tonight even though she said nothing's happening and you're fine right?" 

Wednesday at 3 am I get up to pee for th 2nd time. As I'm walking out of the bathroom, I feel a gush. I back to the toilet thinking I'm pissing myself, only to find that the gush won't stop! It donned on me that my water had broke and it was go time. I woke Danny up (who started fa-reaking out!), showered and headed to the hospital calling Danny's sister who is an OB nurse at the hospital (we'll call her Aunt D for this post). 

Once we got to the hospital, Danny calmed down and we got checked in. About 10 minutes later, one of my friends moms had her hand up my vag checking to see if I was dialated at all. Surprisingly not as awkward as one might think. When she couldn't find my cervix, Aunt D gave it a shot. Within 30 minutes of being in labor my sister-in-law and a friends mom had seen and felt my goods. All modesty was gone. I was maybe a 2-3 cm at 6 am. Aunt D came back around 8, still no change. We were told to start making laps in the hall and she would check again in a couple hours and if no progress had been made pitocin would need to be started at 11 since my water was already broke. 10 rolled around and no progress. The Pit was started and shit got real. 

Contractions got stronger and stronger and I was trying to wait as long as I could to get the epidural. Only 2 hours had gone by since the Pit was started so I didn't think I could have made much profess, but was in some serious pain. It was time for drugs and boy were they nice. After the epidural kicked in , Aunt D came into check me and starts laughing. I was fully dialated. "No wonder I was in so much f**king pain!" That's the kind of thing you can say when your sister-in-law is your nurse. She gave me the option to start pushing or take a quick 30 minute nap. I opted for the nap because I knew once pushing started I would need energy and the hours after that would be a blur. Well, about 10 minutes later she comes back and says "just kidding. She (my OB) wants you to push now" 

After an hour and 20 minutes of pushing and feeling like my head was going to explode at any given moment, I was close enough the dr needed to come over. It was really nice to be able to get through the hard part with my husband and his sister. Once the dr got there, I think I pushed twice and the next thing I knew this beautiful baby boy was laying on my chest. That part happened very fast. 

Our lives changed forever in the second. My favorite part about all of it so far has been watching Danny with Tucker.  Listening to him try to calm or watching them snuggle are just a couple if things that make my heart melt.

 Diesel has been pretty funny with him too. Initially he was actually kind of afraid of Tucker. Now they kind of just coexist. Which is fine since Diesel could easily be rough with him and so far (knock on wood) that hasn't happened. 

 



 

Tucker arrived at 2:31pm, after 11.5 hours of labor (not bad for a rookie ;) ) weighing 6 pounds 6.8 ounces and 19.5 inches long.

 

 

Later this week I'll recap his first week of life, some of which was spent in the hospital. 

Tucker Paul is here!!

On Tuesday when I said if you don't hear from me it's because I'm having a baby, I really thought I was joking. Especially since hours after that my doctor said I wasn't dialated at all. 

Tucker had other plans and I went into labor 12 hours later. 

Christmas came early and Tucker Paul arrived Wednesday afternoon at 2:31 weighing 6lbs 7oz and 19.5 inches long. Although he is early, he is doing amazing! 

We are over the moon and so happy that he is here and healthy! Mommy and daddy are head over heels in love! 

I'm sure it's no surprise that I'll be a little absent over the next couple weeks as I enjoy this little bundle of joy. I'm sure I'll keep Instagram (erinshell10) updated with photos because I can't get enough of him. Make sure to follow along, until you get sick of baby pics, which I'm not sure how you could get tired of seeing that face. 

See you all in a week or so. :)

Thanksgiving Weekend Highlights

So I skipped out on blogging yesterday. Mondays are becoming rough, even more so when you're coming off a 4 day weekend where you're running yourself ragged one day then doing absolutely nothing the next. I'm one of those people that needs a steady flow of activity. I don't like running around like a chicken with my head cut off, but if I spend an entire day doing nothing but watching tv/playing on the computer, the next day is rough. It takes a while to get going. This was even true for not pregnant Erin.

So Thanksgiving. This is how this that marathon day went: Breakfast at Danny's moms at 9, got home around 11:15 to make dirt pudding and pecan poppers (they were like mini pecan pie muffins, delish!), lunch at Danny's dads at 1, make a 2 hour visit to Danny's bonus fam from 3:30-5:30ish, drive to Anderson to see Gram at the nursing home, leave there at 6:30 to make it back to our house to have dinner with my mom, brother and his girlfriend and eat at 8ish. Not even kidding, that was our day.

Friday I paid for it. My mom and I had plans to work on finishing Tucker's room, which is vital now since he could arrive sooner rather than later. Yeah... we didn't do that. We watched tv, I napped, my mom cleaned my kitchen, we visited Danny for a blood pressure check, ordered dinner and watched a movie. I wouldn't trade that whole day lounging with my mom for anything. Its been a long time since we've done that.

Saturday was Thanksgiving with my dad's family. We arrived 15 minutes late and everyone was waiting on us to eat. I felt bad for about a second. Its not my fault that their Thanksgiving meal depended on green bean casserole. It was a good time though and I was relieved because holidays with them can go one of 2 ways: really great or bad and since I am 9 months pregnant and can't drink I wasn't sure what to expect.

Saturday night was the Diaper Party for Danny/Egg Nog Extravaganza. My brother (with only a little bit of help) threw the diaper party for Danny and the Egg Nog Extravaganza is a party that we host every Christmas season. It was such a good time. A lot of our friends came, we got a great start on diapers and I even got to see my mother-in-law drunk. We are a lucky little family for sure!

I got my shirt at Motherhood Maternity. It says "All I want for Christmas is you Baby" Perfect for a Christmas party!

Sunday wasn't too busy. We had lunch with some friends and then we had Danny's grandpa's Christmas dinner. Afterwards we went and picked out our Christmas tree.  Danny helps the guy that sells them unload them every year, so we get ours for free. And it gets better... I got to pick out a wreath for our front door and that was free too. All we had to pay for was a grave pillow for my dad and the tree juice. Not too bad for a couple hours of Danny's time.

After all of THAT, its no wonder I was exhausted yesterday. Today its off to the doctor for a blood pressure check. If you don't hear from me, its because I'm off having a baby.