One week: Check.

Somehow we survived 1 week with a newborn! There were a few rough patches in there, but I think we are all making it through and even managing to have a little fun!

For me, not only am I having to adjust to a baby, I'm also having to recover from being pregnant and delivering a baby! Good news is that seems to be going well. So far I have lost half of the weight I gained which is about as much as I can hope for. My Mom was nice enough to tell me she walked out of the hospital wearing her regular clothes. Thanks Mom. I think I gained another 10 lbs in the hospital, I came out more swollen than I ever was. All other healing is also going well, I'm sure you were wondering, but I know I'm not ready to take another trip to Target for awhile.

We haven't gotten into any real routines yet. It's basically eat, sleep, poop. Kasper is an ok feeder. He's what can be classified as an "excited ineffective" nurser. He gets himself so worked up trying to get on there and then frustrated to have to wait for food. It's getting better, but it was pretty difficult for awhile. We are dealing with some choking and spit up issues, but those are also getting better. At the pediatrician last Friday, the boy was back up to his discharge weight. We still need to get up to his birth weight before we can stop waking him every 2-3 hours to feed. The man sleeps so much, I don't know if he'll ever wake up on his own.



Besides trying to get some sleep when we can, we are enjoying Kasper's company very much. He is a sweet baby. He's very serene and spends a good amount of awake time just looking around. He doesn't fuss much - yet.

Hopefully we are able to spend week 2 doing more of the same. Rob goes back to work next Monday and I will miss him terribly. We were lucky he got to be home 2 weeks.

Now for some pictures...

Laying down on the job



Swaddled baby



Tummy time! Or "I'm just going to eat my arm until you come over here and get me."





Baby wearing!



I don't know if you can tell that there's a baby in there or not. I am really liking the Moby wrap! It's nice to have him close but have both arms free. He's nice and snug and I think he likes it!

Family



There you have it! Week one is over and everyone is still living and maybe even thriving a bit. Week 2 brings another pediatrician visit for a weight check and lots of baby snuggling.

Kasper Quinlin

Wow - I really suck at blogging! Kasper Quinlin Williams was born on January 1 at 10:07 pm. He weighed 7 lbs 8 ozs and was 21.5 inches long. Labor was no joke! I was induced at 39 weeks because of my hypertension. We got to the hospital at 7:45 am on New Years Day. I was fully expecting to be there awhile since inductions usually end up taking a couple days. They started me on Cytotec to "ripen" my cervix. Usually they have to give 2-3 doses of the Cytotec to start to see any changes on a closed cervix. After 4 hours, I had dilated a centimeter so they started pitocin around 3 pm.



I had a nice time in the hospital. I was able to finish the book I was reading, we laid around and watched some movies, very relaxing. Around 7 I moved to a rocking chair to play some iPad Monopoly with Rob while the contractions were now becoming more noticeable and regular.



Around 8 pm I was asking my nurse if I could just eat a little something because I was sooo hungry. Contractions got stronger, so I decided to lay in bed around 8:45. The contractions went from noticeable to very painful in probably 5 minutes. I had to start panting through them around 9 when I was deemed a 2-3 cm dilation. I was begging for an epidural at 9:15. They called the anesthesiologist so he was on his way. I was able to talk in between contractions but not through them. My Dr. had been in at 9:15 and was telling me they would probably break my water in a little bit to get things really moving. I decided to try to hit the bathroom before things got really rough around 9:30. I tried to stand up (with help of course) and was hit with another contraction, so I laid back down. As I laid back down with this contraction, I noticed that I had to push. The nurse checked me and I was already at 10 cm. At this point, things are a little blurry. Some time between 9:30 and 10:07, my water broke on its own, my Dr had to rush to the room, I pushed 3 times and the baby was born just in time for my Dr to get 1 glove on. It was the talk of the floor for the rest of the night. I think because I didn't push but for 6 minutes, the baby has a perfectly round head. Bonus! I never did get that epidural...

New baby!



He had these red raccoon eyes for awhile after he was born.





New family



We left the hospital Monday afternoon. I couldn't believe they just let us walk out of the hospital with a baby! It was a weird feeling.

In the car on the way home



It has been an adjustment to be sure. Lois was not sure about the baby that first night. It was a very long night. She was so upset that her tail even developed a droop! She's gotten a lot better which is a relief to us. It has been getting better each and every day as we get to know the little dude and his like and dislikes. We don't really have a routine yet, but that will come. We're just enjoying his company. He is such a sweet baby.



Bummer about the dry skin, Kasper!



With his parents





Seriously, is he not the cutest baby?



Ok! Now I'm up to date! Sorry it took so long. We only recently came up for air!

Movement + D-Day

As I was relaxing and watching some shows on the Food Network (what I've done every afternoon for the last 2 weeks), I decided to get out the video camera to capture some of the boy's movement in my belly. He was a little more active before I got up to get the camera, but you get the idea. I think the best wiggles are around 45 seconds or so. Some days it's almost painful the thrashing around he does!



I also wanted his movement inside me captured for looking back on in the not so distant future. Baby has been handed his eviction papers and if all goes well will be here in a matter of days. I really can't believe that in no time, we'll be bringing a baby home. That we get to keep!

The Nursery

I started my maternity leave Monday, so I've been scurrying around trying to get things "ready" for when the boy arrives though I'm not convinced you can ever be even close to ready. I know that the car seat is in the car, I have some things packed for the both of us for the hospital and the trip home and the child has a place to sleep.

For anyone who has ever been to our house knows space is at a premium and we only had one option for a nursery - the little 10' x 7' office on the main level. We managed to fit everything in and then some!

The view from the door:



The only configuration we could get to work with the layout of the room was to have the crib and changing table together. Oh well. I added some extra storage with the baskets and fabric pouches.



My Mom did basically all the sewing in the room - from the bedskirt to the pouches to the chair slipcover and even found the time to make these little fabric birds for a mobile! I saw the idea on a few different blogs, but it comes from Spool.



Slipcovered chair with bookshelves:



To keep the wall across from the crib as flat as possible, I ordered a little branch decal from Etsy.



The room is a little on the busy side, but it's a nursery and there were so many things that I wanted to include and not much space to include them in!

Lois likes it



So there you have it - where the new child will spend his time! Now we wait for said child...

Getting there...

I was thinking of renaming this blog "Jess's belly" but I'm hoping there will soon be something else to post about. Until then, here she is...



What should we notice about this belly?

1. It is about 3 days away from housing a full term baby boy.

2. I had to photoshop the crap out of the photo because it was so dark. Maybe someday we'll really learn how to use the nice camera we bought TWO years ago.

3. Keep looking at the belly so you don't notice the puffy face.

4. My belly button has started to poke out. I wasn't actually sure it would happen!

5. It is covered by a full panel jean. I didn't realize how weird it looks until I was going through the photos. Oh well, I can't handle the lower jeans - the elastic gets all folded over and annoys me.

But I digress...

Maternity sneak peek

Ok, ok everyone. I know you're all clamoring for more photographs of my pregnant belly. I'm happy to oblige.

We had maternity photos taken on Sunday with the fabulous, super fun, totally adorable Gina Zeidler. I got some sneak peeks today!







So great, right? I usually hate photos of myself, but I think these are pretty cute! We get the rest in a few weeks, so I'll be sure to share. If you are looking for a maternity photographer, I highly recommend Gina. She'll also be taking the boy's newborn photos and I can't wait to work with her again!

Evolution of a belly

Call it a loss of faculties (why else would I put this much flesh on the internet), but I thought I'd post a summary of my belly growth so far this pregnancy. I've been working on a baby album for the boy and already had these photos expertly and uniformly staged and cropped.


I don't feel that the belly has gotten very big yet, but looking at the photos it's clear that something is happening in there. In fact, we had a growth ultrasound this morning and the boy is already 3.5 lbs!! (Where are the other 25?) He looks perfect and is busy working on blinking and yawning and eating his arm. He is also very much still a boy and appears to have the genitalia of a grown man. (You're welcome, son.)