Smiley Face

Yesterday I ventured out of the house alone for the first time with both kids.  We went to Target to get a few grocery items and some art supplies for Brooke.  Luke rode in the stroller and slept for the whole trip, and Brooke walked beside me very well.  One or two times she wanted to sit on the front of the stroller, but otherwise everything went smoothly and is a good plan as long as we only need a few items.  Everyone else I know purchased a double stroller when the second child came along, but I am really hoping to avoid the purchase since Brooke has not had any interest in being confined to a stroller for over a year.

Luke was two weeks old on Tuesday, and Wednesday was his first appointment with the pediatrician.  Dr. Pettit said that Luke is looking healthy and is growing well.  Luke gained a pound and grew 1 1/4 inches in his first two weeks.  No wonder he is so hungry!  Luke goes back to Dr. Pettit in two weeks for a second Hep-B shot.

Luke now has waking periods of around 2 hours.  One is mid-morning and the other is around dinnertime.  He is eating anywhere from 1-3 ounces every 2-3 hours.  His eating schedule is pretty erratic depending on his needs.  We know he is hungry because he tries to eat my arm due to the rooting reflex.  It is pretty funny to watch.  Sleep can also be pretty unpredictable.  Luke usually has a long afternoon nap after lunch because he is worn out from his morning alert period.  Nights are another story.  Just about every night he has some period where he is gassy and fussy.  It’s just a question of when this is going to happen.  During these times we try our best to remain patient and calm and to realize this is not going to last forever even though it seems there is no end in sight during the wee hours of the morning (or like last night where I got cumulative sleep of 1 hour from 1:30-6 am).  Mostly I try to remind myself to savor those special moments we have in the quiet of the night where everyone else is sleeping and I am rocking and feeding Luke.  I know those times are exhausting but special and that one day I will yearn to hold him in my arms and try to remember how tiny and new he is.

Diaper changes got a whole lot easier around here two days ago.  First, Luke’s circumcision is completely healed, so we don’t have to be bothered with the enormous amounts of vaseline on him and his diaper.  Second, his umbilical cord stump fell off.  I have to say that I was very surprised to find that it had fallen off after just a week.  They say 1-2 weeks, but the fact that Brooke’s stayed on for a month made me skeptical.

Luke is one week old today.  For the past week he has pretty much just woken to eat and then gone right back to sleep (well, other than between the hours of 8 pm and 1 am as mentioned in the previous post).  Scott’s mother has been here visiting Luke for the past couple of days, so today is really the first day we have started settling into our new routine.  Luke is starting to wake up a little more during the day, which should be fun in the coming weeks.  I realized that I have hardly taken any pictures of him at all and felt guilty, but then I saw that I didn’t start taking massive amounts of Brooke pictures until she was about 2 weeks old.  So, I guess I have another week to get my act together.

Most of the time, if you come to our house you will find that Luke is wonderfully well-natured and a relatively easy baby. This, however, all changes between the hours of 8 pm and 1 am. During these hours, Luke is extremely fussy, wants to eat all the time, and generally causes distress and chaos for his parents. Let’s hope this is a stage he outgrows soon. Mommy and Daddy are having a hard time remaining patient when they are so exhausted.

The news of my pregnancy with Luke came as a surprise, but everything else about the pregnancy went just as scheduled right up until his arrival on the morning of May 9, 2006. My parents arrived in Tuscaloosa on May 7 to help watch Brooke while I was in the hospital, and for months leading up to this date we were worried about my going into labor earlier than my c-section date. Luke, however, stayed put inside without any difficulties. Scott and I woke up at 4:45 am on May 9 to shower and get out the door to the hospital by 5:30 am. We arrived at the hospital and were shown to our room, where I got changed and started the remaining paperwork and surgery preparations. We finished everything around 6:30 am and then were left to wait. Scott went and got some breakfast in the cafeteria, and Dr. Rosenstiel came in to check on me around 7. By 7:30 am we were moved into the OR. I was very nervous. It was cold, but I was shivering and shaking from nerves more than the temperature in the room. As much as I tried to calm myself down, it didn’t seem to do much good. How exactly are you supposed to be cool, calm, and collected knowing you are about to be sliced open to give birth? As routine as it is here in the United States, it is still a scary proposition!

I received a spinal block, and they started the surgery. They pulled out Luke’s head, and I remember waiting nervously for an eternity while another doctor jumped on top of my belly trying to push Luke out (Scott reports that this part of the surgery was rather disturbing). Finally he was out, and I heard him crying. I started breathing again and waited to see him. I heard Dr. Rosenstiel say that Luke had the longest umbilical cord he had ever seen, and I thought that was pretty funny.  In the meantime, I received a sedative in my IV to calm the nervous shakes and started to feel much better. Seeing Luke for the first time was a miracle. I was surprised to see how much he resembled Brooke as well as how small he was. I know Brooke was even smaller, but I guess we had forgotten how little they really can be. At the same time, I was thinking, “How on earth did that little person fit inside me?”
Luke went to the nursery while they finished my surgery. Because I had been feeling so sick and nervous, Scott stayed with me. A few minutes later, I was back in my room recovering. Luke joined us a few hours later after he had been checked out and spent some time on the warming bed. I was really out of it for most of the day, and it was several hours before I felt like I could sit up and hold Luke. The first time they placed him in my arms, it was like he had always been in my arms and in my heart.