Sleepless Nights

All nights & days are starting to run together...with some being better than others. Some nights we sleep, eat & go right back to sleep. Other nights are not so good. Aaron manages to sleep while Carter cries through the night. I spend different amounts of time holding him and letting him sleep on my chest. He has gotten more onto a schedule of waking up every 3 hours to eat...and some nights, he doesn't really sleep between feedings. All in all, I am surviving on these small increments of sleep somehow! :)

This is NOT a posed picture. I LOVE this picture. It just cracks me up. I hope this precious baby gets my sense of humor!!!

Carter enjoys sitting up!

and sleeping in any position!

Carter enjoying his swing

The dogs have really enjoyed having Carter around. There are nights when Jonah has sympathy cries when Carter cries. They like to just look at him and check on him when he is upset.

Carter enjoys sleeping with Aaron!

A happy family :)

Carter visiting his great-grandparents

My first...

Bath

Stroller Ride

Trip to Chickfila

Night at Youth Group

Lots of trips to the Pediatrician

The Sunday after we came home was Carter's first trip to the Pediatrician...yes, that's where I celebrated Mother's Day. :) I really like our Pediatrican and the fact that they have an office open on the weekends. We saw Dr. Landgon at the Raleigh office but she works at the Clayton one. Dr. Landgon was great. She seemed to really love Carter! Everything was good...Carter weighed 8 lb 5.5 oz. She wanted to see Carter again on Tuesday to check his weight. On Tuesday, he weighed 8 lb 8 oz. Since I am breastfeeding, the doctor wasn't happy with his weight gain so we went back on Thursday. He weighed 8 lb 7 oz. Still not good enough...so we had to go back the next Tuesday. Then he weighed 9 lb 5 oz! Over that weekend, we began feeding him with the bottle...and that put on the pounds! We go back to the doctor on June 9th...

2 week check up:
Weight: 9 lb 5 oz 70th percentile
Height: 22 inches 90th percentile
Head Circumference: 37.5cm 60th percentile
We are growing!

A Baby Story

I love my mommy!


PROUD DADDY!



My grandparents came from Charlotte! :)


Grandma


Grandpa

Here's a little recap of Carter's first day in the world...

We got to the hospital around 7:45 and had to wait to be checked in. By the time we got checked in, to labor & delivery, got changed and got the poticin started, it was about 9am or so. The night before, I couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight! Well, I absolutely LOVE ice water!!! And all day Wednesday, all I craved was ice water. But all I could have was ice chips..and lots of them! The day started off swell with the IV. Ok, that was actually painful but luckily I was watching Clay Aiken on Good Morning America while she put it in. The nurse started the poticin in very small increments so Aaron, my mom & I spent some the next few hours just hanging out. Around noon, Aaron went to grab some lunch. While he was out, Dr. Smith broke my water. That was very interesting to say the least. Aaron, mom & I played some Rummicube. I won everytime...Aaron tried to say they 'let' me win...whatever! The contractions were starting and weren't too too painful-more like cramps. About 4:30, my epidural arrived. Only one person could be in the room, so mom had to leave while Aaron had to sit in a chair in front of me. My nice and whitty nurse (we got along great!) told me it would feel like a bee sting. She lied! That thing felt like someone was drilling on my spine!!! After the epidural was in, it was time for the catheter. Ugh! At 4:30, I was at 4 cm. My grandparents came a little later and brought Aaron dinner. With the epidural, there were times when it didn't quite feel like it was working 100%. So I had to mash the button for more medicine. Since I had to continue to switch sides, when the button was behind me I had mom mashing the button for me. Yet there were times when I had used all the medicine so mashing the button did nothing! We were told that once I got to 5 cm, it would be 1 hour per cm and 2 hours to push. At this rate, I was thinking Carter was going to be born on Thursday. At 8:15, Dr Smith came in to check me before he performed a c-section. I was at 7cm. He came back at 10 and I was at 10cm. He said we were ready to push. Well, before we started pushing I began to feel sick (throw up!) and had a fever. We started to push around 10:20...and Carter somehow arrived at 11:08pm. I wasn't sure what my reaction was going to be when I saw him...but it was a feeling of relief! :) I had survived!!! Carter was really white when he was born and had a fever so after I held him for a few seconds, they sent him to the nursery to be checked by a NICU doctor. We got fixed up and packed up to head to our new room and then we finally got to spend some time with Carter about 1am. My mom, dad and brother came to the room and hung out for a while and left around 2am. Aaron and I finally got to bed around 2:30...We had Carter stay in the room with us since he was just born. I kept waking up to check on him so I didn't sleep really well. We had the nurse take him to the nursery from 5-7am so we could sleep a minute or two.

Thursday Morning
We had several visitors throughout the day so it wasn't quite a day of rest. Aaron's parents & brother Adam came in around lunch time...It was nice for Carter to meet them! :) Nothing too exciting happened on Thursday. We spent a little time with the lactation consultant but Carter was too tired to wake up and eat. He didn't eat all day long...We slept for a couple hours before midnight while Carter was in the nursery. When he came in at midnight, he was hungry and wouldn't eat. At about 2:30, Aaron went to take him to the nursery (bc he was SO fussy), and the nurse told him they would send him back if he was crying. At this point, I was pretty much out of it as Aaron worked with the nurse to feed Carter with a 5ML syringe. We didn't want to give him a bottle this early. After he was fed, he went to the nursery and we slept! On Thursday night, he weighed 8lb. 9oz.

Friday Morning
Carter spent the entire day with us as we were preparing to go home. We worked a lot with the lactation consultant and she was so helpful and gave us lots of resources. I had to get a shot for my RH negative blood type and my friend Sara got to give me the shot...in the butt! :) Carter got circumcised around 1:30 and we had to wait for him to be checked a few times before we could leave. Carter was weighed again before we left and he weighed 8lb. 5oz. We left the hospital around 5:30 on Friday. Mom came over to help & brought dinner, groceries and other necessities!

More of Carter’s first week to come later…I’m a little tired.

Welcome to the World Carter James Firebaugh

Carter James Firebaugh was born at 11:08pm on Wednesday, May 7th. He weighed 8 lbs 14 oz and was 22 inches long. He is doing great. He is such a precious baby!! :) I will update more...when I have "more time". ;)

Last day of "freedom"

I spent my last day of "freedom" doing some shopping!!! I know, I know...I was supposed to be on bedrest but I had things I needed to do before the possible trip to the hosptial tomorrow. I had a few things to return and a few things to pick up from Target. I ended up at the mall because I had to get my mom something for mother's day. I was also looking for a graduation present for my brother. He graduates from college on Sunday. I don't think I'll be making the trip with Carter to Greensboro so I had get his present before Sunday too.

Aaron is at a meeting right now, but when he gets home we are going out for a yummy dinner. I can't eat after midnight tonight...so I figured I'd better eat a big meal since it could be my last for a while! :)

Induce on Wednesday...

This morning I woke up with really high blood pressure...and it stayed high for the next hour. I called the doctor and we went in a few hours early. When we arrived, the power was out which made it difficult to do anything. I did manage to lose 6 pounds bc the swelling is down!!!! Dr. Smith wanted me to be induced asap...we wanted to schedule for Tuesday but WakeMed had 7 inductions scheduled. So, we are currently scheduled to be induced on Wednesday morning at 7:30. That can still change...Carter could come earlier or other people could take my spot on Wednesday. The plan is to just chill until Wednesday morning...
We left the doctor at 12...and they said they would call us to come back when the power came back on for a non-stress test. We did some shopping and lunch at North Hills and then did the NST for about 45 minutes back at the doctor. Everything was fine.

My last day of school!

I don't want to even type about what went on with one of my classes yesterday...
let's just say my blood pressure was out the roof and I am glad I am done with them! After school, I cleaned my cart and desk a little and then headed home for some offical bedrest. My blood pressure has remained lower, except when I got up to fix some dinner (No Aaron wasn't being a bad husband, he had a game). Heather stopped by (with DQ!) and let the dogs in and out and chilled for a while. So after about 15 hours with my feet up, they are starting to look better and my blood pressure has been ok. Mom is coming over soon to wash some baby clothes and do some stuff around the house. I plan to chill out! :D

A friendly little trip to the hospital

This past Tuesday we had a joint school baby shower with another girl in my department. This is a picture of me, Mrs. Everhart & Mrs. Boone (all teachers from my department).



I went to the doctor today...which ended in a 3 hour trip to the hosptial. My blood pressure was 140/94 and then again 120/92 with a trace of protein...so I was sent to the hosptial. Of course, Aaron wasn't with me. I called him at practice...he freaked a little but I reassured him that he did not need to rush. I then went on a hunt for some Subway prior to being admitted to the hospital. Aaron ended up beating me to the hospital! I wasn't sure if they would let me eat in Triage so I ate my sub on the wheelchair ride! :) When we arrived, there were no rooms available in Triage (out of 8!?!?!)...so we waited. We finally got a room about an hour later...and then I was hooked up to the blood pressure monitor and fetal heart rate monitor. Eventually my blood pressure started to go down along with my swelling. They took some blood and we just hung out for the next two hours. Dr. Bass was on call so he came in for a while and ordered some bed rest for me...but tomorrow's my last day anyway so I am going to attempt to make it through. I've really been looking forward to this last day, believe it or not?!? My sub came by a few times this past week, and she saw how completely overly organized my sub plans look. I told her once I leave, I don't want to mess with them again. It will be a blessing to pass them onto her. I will miss 2 of my 3 classes...and I will experience complete JOY tomorrow at 12:30 when my 3rd block is over! :D Well, I'm off to rest.