2 week appointment

Colson had his 2 week appointment yesterday ... it's his second appt. so far. His first one was at day four where they weighed him and checked on umbilical cord stump, circumcision ... After four days he was down 3.8 ounces from his original birthweight of 7lbs 14oz.

At his 2 week appt, Colson weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 3.8 oz! I am no longer worried about if he is getting enough to eat!

"Sleep when the baby sleeps ..."

Easier said than done ... but if I don't force myself to nap it makes for a long, tiresome night if Colson decides he wants to stay up and play!

Day 7, Monday March 16, 2009.

Ugh, today was a day I had been dreading -- the day my mom had to go back home :( she wasn't leaving until 7 that evening, but I was bummed the whole day. She was great though and cooked like 4 dishes so all the food was ready for us.

7pm actually came pretty quickly and before I knew it we were all in the car on the way to the airport. We dropped my mom off and asked when she was coming back!!

And then for the first time it was just the three of us: mom, dad, and baby ...

That evening was not too bad, but with some fussiness and we didn't all sleep in the bedroom through the night as planned ...

Day 6, March 15, 2009.

More of the same day time activities today ... eat, sleep, poo :) And still fussy at feedings ...

We had a great night though ... Nick stayed with him in the living room after the 9pm feeding, then i went into the bedroom for a little shut eye. When I came out from my nap, Nick went back to get ready for bed and I was prepping for the next feeding. Then after nursing and getting him to fall back asleep, mom and baby headed to the bedroom. I kept my fingers and my toes crossed as I lowered him into bassinet! And he didnt make a peep!! He slept soundly until stirring for his next feeding and he ate and fell asleep again and I was able to bring him to the bedroom without any problems!

By this day, I am used to and finally able to sleep through most of the little noises and grunts that he makes, knowing that he's ok and not waking everytime to check on him ...

Day 5, Saturday, March 14, 20098.

Our first weekend together! Dad was feeling a little better and fighting off getting sick pretty well ... we spent the day together hanging out and had a visit from Grandpa Bob, Grammy Lynda and Great Grandma GP.

I was still not feeling great about breastfeeding. Each session was long and frustrating for both of us and I was so happy just to get through one, only to dread the next feeding session ... and having some of the baby blues about feeling helpless and inadequate as a mother being able to feed her child. I mean this was my main job right? Just to feed him, and I just didn't feel like it had quite clicked ...

Fortunately, we didn't have another fussy, crying session quite like the night before, but he did have a couple of hours of some fussiness around 10 pm. He would be soothed by holding him and walking around though ... so Nick and I took our turns with him. I got him calmed down after a feeding and tried to put him down in the bassinet in our room beside our bed, but it didnt go quite as smoothly as I envisioned. I think was all slept together in our room for just a short couple of hours and I would take him out the to the living room to nurse. We spent most of this night out in the living room again.

Day Four, March 13, 2009.

Nick went back into work today, so it was me, Colson and my mom. Colson also had his day four check-up back at Kaiser this morning. We got in a good feeding and then loaded up the little guy for his second car ride and outing, actually it was my second time out too :)

Colson only lost 3.8 ounces! This was great and made me feel a lot better about how our feedings had been going. We were still struggling through feedings and he was taking a long time to latch on and to stay on ... so feedings were lasting anywhere from 30 min to an hour, then a couple hours later it would be time to start all over again ... so it was pretty exhausting. And I was having concerns about how much he was taking in? Was he getting enough to eat? So I was really happy to hear that his weight loss wasn't that dramatic and by no means any cause for concern.

He checked out ok for everything else and the Nurse practitioner who we had the appointment with was great! She gave me some really helpful tips about nursing and even helped us through a feeding. She pointed out a couple of things that I should do differently - and it was a huge help and really worked when I tried at home later. Funny that all those nurses and lactation consultants who tried to help during our hospital stay didn't mention any of these things that the nurse practitioner just told me ...

The rest of this day was more of the usual ... Colson fed, pooped and slept. We changed countless diapers! And still each nursing session was lasting half hour to an hour.

That evening when Nick cam home from work, he was not feeling well at all. He also said that the guy who sits next to him had a cold/flu. Nick was popping vitamins and airborne and drinking fluids like crazy. He went to bed pretty early that evening and I told him to stay in the bedroom and try to get better. So it was mommy and Colson in the living room again.

Later that evening, at about 10 or 11, he began to fuss and cry even after feedings. I couldnt really get him to calm down even with walking around and singing and rocking him -- now for almost 3 hours straight he had been fussy and crying. I was at the end of my rope and still had only slept about 2-3 hours total since his birth! I had to go wake up my mom because I didnt know what to do ... she got up right away and took him. Then told me to lay down on the couch. I dont know how long she stayed up with Colson, but I was so exhausted at that point that even his crying didnt keep me up. By the time I got up for the next feeding, he was sound asleep in the bassinet next to me and my mom was back in bed.

Day Three with Colson, March 12, 2009.

Nick stayed home from work again today and we were getting to know our little guy. We had pretty good feedings the night before, but I had checked his diaper a couple times throughout and he was clean and dry. I wondered if I should be concerned, but the instructions from the hospital said not to worry unless he hasn't urinated in 24 hours ... at this point it had been about 14/16 hours and he had not gone to the bathroom yet ... just as we were checking his diaper again, he sprayed all over! I didn't even care :) We were all laughing and happy that his pee pee was working ;)

The rest of the day was more bonding and getting to know each other ... my mom was amazing, she cooked all our meals and helped hold him when he was fussy, and told me to go sleep when I was wanting to stay up or do things around the house.


PS - -I had my first shower this day after returning from the hospital ... let me tell you how wonderful that first hot shower is! Something so simple, but it felt great!

Colson Day 2, March 11, 2009.

Colson was scheduled for a circumcision at 8:00 am this morning. The nurses had told us that they wanted him to have at least a couple of good feedings prior. I still felt that he wasn't ready ... our feeding sessions were short and frustrating. Mother and child still figuring each other out -- not to mention we were both exhausted after a lengthy delivery. He was very sleepy for the first couple of days and that made for difficult nursing. We decided to postpone the circumcision until 4pm that afternoon to give us some more time to establish a good feeding routine ...

Well 4:00 was approaching and I was still uneasy about the circumcision ... It didn't help that the nurse on duty was leaning towards having us stay another night and performing the procedure the next morning. Nick was confident that Colson would be fine ... and my mom (she takes every precaution ever) also thought it would be better to continue working on nursing at home where we'd be more comfortable.

Reluctantly, I agreed. They only needed one parent to accompany Colson for the circumcision, so we had already discusses and agreed beforehand that Nick would go.

About 4:30 Nick and Colson were back in our room and Colson was perfectly calm and sleeping. The nurses still wanted to see (actually witness) a successful feeding session before discharging us ... so we had another couple of tries and he did pretty well, so they let us go home :)

Nick loaded up the car with all the bags first, then brought the infant carrier to our room. We put him in the carseat for his first car ride and his ride home!! It was exciting and a little scary all at the same time! We were leaving the hospital ... what were we going to do at home all alone with this little person?!

Fortunately my mom was able to stay with us for about a week -- she was a lifesaver! We were all ready to go and loaded up in the car ... then on our way home!

We got home around 8:00 pm that night and I was focused on working on nursing and trying to learn how to take care of this little person :)

Colson's First Day of Life! March 10, 2009



After the delivery, we were moved into a postpartum room, about 4pm. We were getting to know our little guy and trying to get the hang of breastfeeding ... we needed to get a few good feedings in him to get him ready for his scheduled circumcision the next morning.

These first hours all seemed to go by so fast! All of a sudden it was late in the evening and it was just mom, dad, and baby going through our first night together. I was in the hospital bed and Nick was in a pull out sleeper chair and we had Colson in a hopsital bassinet in between us. I didn't sleep a wink! I was still getting used to all his murmurs, grunts and whimpers ... listening to see if he was going to cry or needed our help. Three times in the middle of the night, we did have to act quick in getting up to turn him on his side because he was coughing up amniotic fluid that had been swallowed before birth and during delivery. That was scary!

Welcoming Colson Ly Street

At 5:45 am on Tuesday morning March 10th I felt some abdominal cramping that woke me up, right after I felt a small trickle of fluid ... During the entire pregnancy, I had not felt anything quite like that cramping. My first thought: hmmm was that a contraction? Is that what they're supposed to feel like?? Is this the moment I have been anticipating for 38+ weeks??

After the trickle of fluid I felt the same cramping/pain two more times. I thought -- ok maybe it's a false alarm, but I called into Labor & Delivery anyway to see what they thought. They told me to lie down for 45 min to see if fluid continued to leak. During thoe 45 min I continued to have sporadic pains - some stronger than others. I had a feeling something was starting ...

By 6:45 I wasn't in any pain, but the cramping was coming at regular intervals. Nick was already ready for work and asked if I wanted him to stay or go. I told him to go to work, since everything we had read and learned in our childbirthing class said that first time mothers' labors are generally longer in duration - especially for the early labor hours. With that in mind, and since I wasnt in any pain, Nick left for work.

By this time, I didn't have any more liquid discharge, so I wasnt worried that my water had broken (which would have required us to go to the hospital right away). Although my water probably had not broken, I decided these crampy feelings were contractions and started to time them and write them down. Some of them were painful. But they varied in duration and intensity. One thing was for sure though, they say that when it's false labor, you can walk around and the contractions will go away -- well i was doing plenty of walking and they werent going away.

At about 8 that morning I called my friend and carpool buddy Crystal and told her that
I wasn't going to come into work today. She asked if I wasn labor and i told her that i wasnt sure if this was the real thing or not ...

Next I called my mom and dad who were on call to drive up to Sacramento at a moments' notice when I was going into labor. At this point I was still uncertain how far along I was and how much longer I had to go, so I told my dad "I think this is it, but I'll call you for sure later."

It's now about 8:30 am -- I had some toast and orange juice with the Today show on in the background (my usual am routine). Then my body surged into some kind of last-minute-super-nesting mode: I vaccumed, cleaned the stove, washed dishes and picked up around the house, just pausing in between to breathe through the contractions and writing down the time & duration.

At 9am the contractions (by now I had decided these were contractions) were consistently about 3-5 min apart and lasting a minute -- this was the protocol for calling into Labor & Delivery. I gave them a call and they asked the the routine questions: intensity & duration of contractions and if this was my first child. Based on my answers, the nurse told me to eat a light breakfast, take a shower and come in within the hour. I immediately called Nick and told him to head home, then called my parents and told them it was "time." I hopped in the shower and dressed, then put in a few last minute items into the hospital bag (which we had just packed 2 days before!).

Nick was home by about 9:20 and we were on our way ... I had a stress ball in my left hand and my right hand had a firm grip on the door handle. Nick was driving just a little erratically, but I told him I was ok and not in extreme pain.

On Mack Road, as we're just crossing Center Parkway I felt a huge gush of fluid! Well if there was any doubt as to whether or not my water had broken before, it had now! I actually turned to Nick and said "Oh my go, I'm so sorry but my water just broke all over the seat!" For those of you who don't know, Nick doesn't even allow food or drink in his cars :). If he was driving a little eratically before, he was all amped up now. We were at the last stoplight before turning into the hospital and he was going to run a red light, but I told him I was ok still.

We pulled into the hospital's main entrance and they brought a wheelchair out for me. We headed into Labor& Delivery and I gave my Kaiser card to the admissions clerk. The next few minutes were the most ridiculous waste of time: my Kaiser card says Nancy Pheng Street and the computer was showing Nancy Pheng. So she wanted to know which name I was going by. I told her it was the one on the card and that I had gotten married. I think she must have asked me the same question three times, and that the computer wasn't letting her change it ... seriously?? Did we really have to deal with this at this moment? I had 3 big contractions as we are dealing with this name thing ...

Finally I am admitted and they take me into a triage room, but they ask Nick to stay in the hall. Another few minutes of ridiculousness ensue: the nurse now asks me if I feel unsafe in my home, or am in an abusive relationship. My god! After saying no to all the questions (and I am standing there dripping amniotic fluid), they let Nick in and the obstretrician scehduled that day comes in (Dr. Do).

I'm on the exam table and he checks me internally ... The OB looks up at me and says in the calmest voice: "Well ... you're about 9 centimeters along. "

ME: "What?!? No ... what???"

OB: "You're options for pain medication at this point are intravenous, but that will just take the edge off and could make you and the baby drowsy ... "

He continued to say something about the epidural, but that it might not take effect in time. I look over at Nick and he reminded me that I wanted to try to go natural without the epidural from the start, so we decided to go for it ... I mean, I made it all this way and only had a cm to go right??

Then the OB made a phone call and there were a flurry of nurses and orders and talking: "She needs to get into a room now!"

They wheel me into a labor/delivery/recovery room and here we go! So all the materials I had read an our childbirth preparation class really focused on managing the pain of the contractions and getting to 10 cm (for those new to labor facts, after you are dilated 10 cm & 100% effaced, the first phase of labor is over and you transition into the second phase, pushing).

Well, it didn't take too long to get to 10 ... so then the nurse tells me to tell her when I feel the urge to push or bear down ... By now it's close to 11:00 am. I tell her I think I feel the urge to push. The nurse Ruth (who was a great coach and guided me through labor) said: "Well if I told you to not push, could you do it?" I tried and the urge wasn't so overwhelming that I couldn't stop. A few more contractions and I was able to manage it still ... meanwhile during the rest periods in between the contractions, Nick was great - giving me tons of ice water and ice chips.

Funny side note: also in our birthing class, we talked about what to pack in the hospital bag that would come in handy (again most of these items were for getting through contractions). Well we had a whole bag packed with a birthing ball and other relaxation items -- well this bag didn't even make it up to the room with us!

OK - back to labor, the transition phase. Some minutes after 11:00, when another contraction started, I felt the urge again and told Ruth ... she told me the same, ok try to hold off, try not to. This time my response was a frantic: "I can't! I can't stop it! I can't stop it!!" And she said, OK! Well let's push!

She had me holding my legs and Nick and her were also helping me hold them up. Every contraction thereafter was spent pushing. Nick's mom came in (maybe around noon?) and she helped with the other leg.

My family, meanwhile, is still on the road driving from LA. I realized that they were going to miss it all ...

I ended up pushing for almost 3 hours -- Colson was born at 1:59. The pushing took it's toll on me. I pushed on my back, then on my side for a couple contractions. At one point Ruth said she could see his head - -this was encouraging! Then she asked if I wanted a mirror -- -ummm , no thanks! Then we tried a squat bar, but it made the pushing more painful and to my dismay, Ruth actually said that were were making backwards progess --- what! I didn't know this was possible?!? I returned to my original back position and had to make back the progress that I had lost. I found myself saying a few times: "I can't do this!" When I've seen birthing on TV shows, I always thought, why do they say that? That's silly ... but now I understand. I was so exhausted and losing sight of this ever being over ...

When I was nearing the end and making some great progress, the nurse and midwife must have said at least a couple times: "OK, we're going to have a baby on the next push!" But no baby :( Then the OB, Dr. Do walks into the room and I knew something was up, because if everything is going smoothly, the midwife would have delivered me ...

So I hear some discusssion and Dr. Do watches me push through a contraction. Then more discussion ... he continues to tell me in a calm, even, low voice that baby's head is a little snug for my pelvic opening and that he's going to do an episiotomy ... they start to apply local anesthesia and I tell him to wait! Because I another contraction was starting!

The episiotomy was performed and a couple of contractions with pushing that was taking everything out of me our baby was welcomed into this world!! He was put immediately on my chest and staff was coming at all sides - cleaning him, suctioning the fluids out of his nose and mouth. And I watched Nick snip the umbilical cord ... then came some loud crying :)

We chose to do an hour of bonding with baby before they weighed, measured, bathed him (which they all did in the labor room with us there). Colson Ly (pronounced Lee) Street weighed in at 7lbs 14 oz and was 20 inches long.

Two hours later, we were all switched into a postpartum room. We were now family of three!! Labor, well really I should say delivery, was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life! But of course it was all worth it to meet our new son, Colson :) Labor was actually only 5 hours long, but I pushed for an exhasting 3 hours ...