Coming home

The car ride home was almost surreal. Really, this is our baby! Here we go! His life is in our hands. He depends completely on us, to grow, to learn, to love. We're ready:-)
This is a picture of him in his carseat on the way home! (6.24.12)

My parents greeted us at home with food and my dear friend Quinn made a stop by before she headed back out of town. Croix was a good boy, we were ready to tackle night one at home.
We used a "mini" travel pack n' play we borrowed from Allison to have baby Croix sleep in next to me in bed.
The first couple nights were absolutely exhausting and trying. My milk had come in later on Sunday night/Monday, so I was pretty sore but no extreme engorgement. I was dependent on my Ibuprofen and Percocet (it was okay to take while breastfeeding) for the pain! It was pretty bad the first few days. It was hard to walk and sit. Croix continued to latch-on well, we watched to make sure he was healing properly from the circumcism and his umbilical cord was drying up to fall off. The cord fell off within the first couple weeks in three parts.

We went in just a couple days after being home for his regular doctor appointment. All was well! We did end up going to Urgent Care because his eye was watering pretty bad and yellow crusty's appearing. I called the Triage Nurse and she said because he was so young and it was the weekend to take him in and make sure no temperature. He did not have a temperature, thank goodness, this meant no infection. Turned out to just be a clogged tear duct, so we got some gel medication stuff to put in for the next week. Apparently this is pretty common for babies to get.

Oh boy, first time mommy worries. 

Here are a couple pictures of him in the first few days!

 

First few days

The first few days in the hospital went fast. I was extremely sore and tired, but so excited to finally have my baby boy. It was our 1 year wedding anniversary the day after Croix was born (6.23.12). What a wonderful gift we received! Our friends Allison and Adam and their son Zachary brought us flowers, cake, and some corona to celebrate! My mom also brought in some Emperor of China (our fav Chinese joint) to help us celebrate our year:-)
We also had a few other close friends and of course the proud grandparents visit in the hospital to help us welcome our sweet baby boy.
Croix latched on well, I was so lucky, though painful at first. He was circumcised on Sunday (24th) morning, the day we went home. He was a bit cranky after this (poor baby) and this made taking his first "official" photo pretty difficult (understandably).
                                        These are his first professional photos.

This is Nana so excited to meet her grandson!

 

After filling out the rest of necessary paperwork and signing discharge papers we packed to leave the comfort of the hospital. We went home around 7pm that night to begin our journey as new parents!

Everything going forward will be a journey of "firsts".

Labor and Delivery

So after my water broke and running around to get last minute items together, we arrived at the hospital around 9pm and I was already 4cm dilated. They hooked me up to some monitors to monitor the baby's heartbeat in response to contractions. My doctor visited around10:30pm that night and told me to get rest because I will need energy to push the baby out. I thought, "How am I going to get rest?" but I tried. Chaz too. The contractions began to get more intense as the night went on and it became evident that I would not be able to rest without an epidural. So as nervous as I was to get an epidural, I asked for one around 4am. It was not as bad as I thought and took my pain away. Thank goodness.
Around 7:30am I was at 8cm and then she came in at 9:30am and asked if I was ready to push.  Here we go folks!
I pushed for about 2 1/2 hours and at 11:54am on June 22, 2012 my baby BOY arrived.  He was 9lbs 3oz, 21 inches long and had a set of lungs.  He also came out sucking on his hand.  I loved him already.  Croix James Rodriguez, welcome to the world! I love you!

So it begins!

So since I never got around to creating a blog during my pregnancy as I had planned, here is my attempt to document my new journey through parenthood and anything else that comes up.

In short I had a great pregnancy! First trimester was filled with extreme tiredness, being hormonal, morning nauseousness (no throwing up thank goodness) and anxiety. The norm I think. Second trimester was great! I felt some energy come back and I was not that big yet! However, I did start to show of course.  Third trimester was pretty good as well.  Got bigger and bigger and only really felt uncomfortable for the last 6-8 weeks.  Here are a few progression pregnancy photos:

This above picture is on Mother's Day.  We took a short but sweet trip down to Chicago for one last "hurrah". 

Here are few high-lights from the pregnancy:

The day I/we found out: I had just come back from a weekend visiting my Goddaughters and found out I was pregnant. I took the test early Monday morning before work and there ya go, two lines, positive! I went through TONS of emotions and decided to wake Chaz. I cried a little while telling him because I was so in shock! He was happy and went out that night to by a digital test!  Needless to say the digital test read "Pregnant".

Ultrasound picture around 12-13 weeks: 12.5.11

Nursery: Chaz and I worked to put the nursery together best we could.  Out with the office/catchall room and in with the baby furniture and decorations. Here are a few pictures of the nursery before completely finished: (I will have to post finished pictures in a later post)

Baby Shower: Baby shower was May 5th, 2012.  It was hosted by my aunt Deb and my mom at my aunt Deb's house.  A few of my friends also helped out with food, yum! It was a ducky theme (Chaz and I did not find out the gender) and was filled with lots of family and friends, good food, and happy conversations.  We received lots of great gifts and felt so very lucky! A few pictures from the shower: (I was about 35 weeks I believe at my shower).

Past Due: Since I was past due my doctor put me through a stress test. (They hook you up to two monitors, one to track the baby's heartbeat and one to track contractions.   They test how the baby's heart responds to the contractions).  He also did an ultrasound to look at the four quadrants and check out the placenta to make sure there was enough fluid and no issues.  All was good, so we continued to wait.  We did schedule an induction for Monday, June 25th. Here is a not so flattering picture of me hooked up during the stress test (it was about 30 minutes long):

My water broke!: On June 21, 2012 I was on day past due number eight (my EDD was 6.13.12) and around 8pm that night as I sat on the couch to make a Target list my water broke!  "This is for real" I thought and called for Chaz.  I called the hospital and they said to come in within the hour. Here we go!!!