Week One

Well it's been a long few nites at the May household. The first nite home Aaron and I only slept about 2 hours each. The second nite, Camron and I stayed up until about 1am and then it was off and on. Saturday nite, up until 1 am again, but then Camron only woke up twice after that. As a matter of fact, I woke him up Sunday morning because he had been asleep so long I was worried! But we made it through the weekend.

The breastfeeding is the hardest part. I am the only one that can really answer those midnite, 2 am, 3 am, 4am cries because unfortunately Daddy doesn't have what I have. Brings a totally new meaning to "Got Milk?" But it's going ok for now. I just can't wait until I have enough milk, and time, to pump some into bottles so that other people can help feed Camron!

On Sunday we went to Grandma's house. We had lunch with my Mom, Bill, Jake and Elizabeth and visited for a while. Everyone had to get their fill of Camron :)

Afterwards we went back to the old stomping grounds....yes, Hamot Hospital. Aaron's sister, Jennette, had her baby on Sunday at 1:16am. So our boys are one week apart and future partners in crime. They named him Lucky. He's a cute little baby, but not as cute as Camron was :)

Today is my first day home alone.....Camron's daddy went back to work, so it's just Mommy and baby. I did good at keeping him awake this morning, but now he's taking a little cat-nap. Maybe later we will play again so we can get to bed at a decent time. Plus I needed some time to catch up on a few things.....laundry, writing out bills, blogging....

The hospital stay....

So we left off on Sunday, the day Camron was born. He was in the NICU because he stopped breathing 3 times before they were going to bring him to my room. They did a spinal tap to check for meningitis, drew blood to check for bacterial infections and did a CAT scan to check for brain damage. Everything seemed ok, but his doctor in the NICU, Dr. Balsan, said that the CAT scan showed some bleeding in his head between the skull and brain, a subdural hematoma. It was where they had the suction attached to his head when they scooped him out. It wasn't anything to worry about and would go away on it's own, but it was right over the part of his brain that prompted him to breath. So they wanted to keep him in the NICU to monitor him.



On Monday morning after they removed my catheter, I was up and out of bed so I could go to the NICU to see him. I started off in a wheelchair, but when I got back to my room I tried to walk around as much as I could without over-doing it. I visited him 2 or 3 times that morning and held him for the first time! We had lots of visitors that day, including my Dad and Lisa, Aaron's Mom and Jim, Aaron's Dad, Diane, Aaron's Grandma, my Mom, my Grandma, Jake and Elizabeth, Jillian and Shane, Gary and Cathy.....of course Daddy and Jaron were there...I'm probably missing some.... but we were able to take everyone down to the NICU to see him.



On Tuesday, I went down to the NICU early to see him after my routine check that I got every 3 hours or so by the nurse.....blood pressure, temperature, looking at the incision...I was told that I could start breastfeeding him today. So the lactation consultants helped me try to get Camron latched on and it was successful, after many tries. I didn't really have any milk yet, but we at least had to try so he knew what to do. He was still being supplemented formula. His nurse, Mindy, was wonderful. She made me feel so much better to know that someone was taking such good care of him when I wasn't there. Daddy came to see him after work, and spent a few hours with us before he went home to get Jaron. I spent another night, hopeful that tomorrow we could go home.



Wednesday, my legs and feet were still pretty swollen. It seemed to be moving into my thighs too, so I brought it to one of my nurses attention. They had me prop my feet up 6 pillows high and they also put me on blood pressure medication since that was a little high too....apparently they have something to do with each other. In spite of that, I still went down to the NICU at least every 3 hours to feed Camron. Still not very much milk in, but he was grasping the concept very well. They had my try to pump in between feedings but I never got anything out except on the first try. By the afternoon, they decided to take me to Radiology for a Doppler test, basically an ultrasound on my legs, to check for blood clots. Since the results wouldn't be in until late that night or early the next day, I would be staying the night again, but Camron was released from NICU to my room. He would be spending his first night with Mommy! And what a long night it was. He was hungry, restless, wanted to cuddle, and I was very tired the next day :)



Thursday my doctor, Dr. Vemulapalli came in to check my staples/incision, my legs....and the results came back negative for blood clots so she said we could go home that day! YAY! It's been a long stay! I called the family doctors office to let them know so Dr. Harrington could come check Camron out and we could go home. I loved my nurses, they were all very helpful and so caring! But we were ready to go home. Daddy and Jaron came to pick us up after Jaron got out of school and home we went :) Right after driving by the digital billboard compliments of Lamar Advertising!

New Arrival !

He's here! Camron Aaron May made his debut last Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 2:07 pm.

It started on Valentine's Day. We were getting ready to go out for dinner and I was putting on my sock....then I felt a litttle pop and a little gush, and I ran to the bathroom to sit on the toilet. I was thinking my water just broke. I called Aaron up to the bathroom and after calling his sister to question her on water breaking, I called my doctor. They had me wait for a half hour to see if I had anymore leaking or contractions. I didn't, so we left for dinner....must have been a false alarm. But then an hour later we were up on Peach St. looking for a place not too too busy to eat dinner....and I was thinking McDonald's was sounding better and better, because I thought I was starting to have a couple contractions. So then Aaron, Jaron and I ended up having dinner at McD's and we left in a hurry because I needed to get to the hospital. We went to drop Jaron off and the story begins......

We checked into the labor and delivery unit at Hamot Hospital at 7:30 pm on Valentine's Day 2009....Aaron, me, and mom. They set me up in my bed and got my antibiotic IV started. I was having contractions about 4 minutes apart, nothing too unbearable though. The nurse checked me and I was already dialated to 5 (on the scale to 10). At this point I thought we'd be having a Valentine's Day baby. As the contractions grew more painful and closer together, I made it to about 11:30 pm before they checked me again...only dialated to 6....not ready for the epidural but I got an IV with a pain medication called Nubain. It worked wonders on the pain, I felt wonderful. Unfortunately this narcotic made the baby fall asleep and he didn't wiggle around much anymore for about 3 hours. So we were at a standstill and into the next day....

Sunday around 5:00 am the contractions had picked up enough to get things going again. I was now dialated to a 7, and just about ready for the epidural. But the anesthsiologist wasn't available yet, so they wanted to give me some more Nubain to tide me over. I was weary because I didn't want to take another time-out. But they assured me that once the epidural got there, they'd hook up another IV called Pitocin, that would speed up contractions. Well, they lied, because I got the epidural and the Pitocin, and about 2 more hours went by with no activity. Subtotal 18 hours.

At 11:00 am, I was just about fully dialated and ready to start pushing. They called in my midwife, Peggy, and said by 11:30 we'd start. I had other ideas, it was 11:20 and I wanted to start now. So Aaron left the room, and I was there with his mom, his sister Jennette, and my mom. The rest is kind of a blur. For almost two hours, I breathed and pushed....they had me pushing the regular way and then they got this big bar and I had my feet up on it to push and then they put a towel around it and had me pulling myself up with feet on the bar. He wasn't coming out. The called in Dr. Vemulapalli to try to turn him, but she said my pelvis wasn't big enough, they were gonna need to do an emergency C-section. About 30 minutes in between pushing and C-section, Aaron came in to hold my hand. By the way, if someone tells you not to push when you need to push, it hurts....ALOT! They started me on a catheter and then the anesthsiologist finally got there to up my epidural meds and I was feeling great. Off to the surgery! Mom gowned up and came in with me, Aaron waited outside the door. Five minutes later, after cutting me open and suctioning the baby out, my mom saw him for the first time. I told her to go over and see him while they stitched me up. They cleaned him up and took him to see his Daddy, and to the nursery.

After an hour of recovery, I was wheeled to my new room and waited to see my baby boy. He was born at 2:07 pm and I didn't get to see him until almost 8:00 pm when everyone but Aaron had gone home after a long couple of days. He was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for a story I will have to tell about another day....but he was beautiful !

37 week check-up....big boy!

Today was the day of my 37 week check-up. I was ready for everything to be the same boring thing.....until I got on the scale and my eyes bulged out! I gained almost 7 more pounds this week!!!

Into the room I go, waiting for Stephanie, a mid-wife at the office. She greeted me with a smile and an "Oh my," as she noticed my swollen ankles and feet right away. Kinda hard to miss since I can't wear socks or shoes anymore. I wear my crocs. And those are tight. But as long as I'm not having headaches or blurred vision, I don't have to worry about preclampsia (which my mom had when she was pregnant with me). Then she measured my stomach and said, "I think we're gonna schedule a sonogram for next weeks appointment." Apparently, she thinks he might end up being over 9 pounds, and then they would like to schedule a C-section. Or it may be weight in fluid (which I am leaning more towards since I don't have enough room in my belly to eat much food anymore).

So maybe I'll have a Friday the 13th baby....or a Valentine's day baby....or maybe I'll be induced next weekend.... I hope my little guy knows that Mommy loves him, but it's time to come out!!!

36 week check-up....almost there!

It's been a rough week. Although my back has been feeling considerably better, I decided to discontinue use of the chiropractor for now. There's just too much going on to be there every other day.

Plus, my "cankles" and feet are comparable in size to an elephant's. I took a picture of my swollen foot, but it really does no justice to how it looks throughout the day or night....even when I put my feet up. I'm just retaining water, that's all.

At my check-up today, the mid-wife told me that everything looks good. I go in weekly now, which is also a little bit of a waste since all they do is weigh me and check my other measurements....did I mention I'm up to 198 lbs. now? I was hoping to stay under the 200 mark, doesn't look like that's gonna happen. I did really good during the first 8 months or so, but I'm really packin' em on now! Most of this week's weight gain is in my cankle to foot region :) But in two more weeks, they'll start checking me to see if I'm dialating yet. I got past the bed-rest this time, but who knows how long that will last. I have a feeling that these feet may not be movin' too fast for very much longer.

Baby's bag is packed, my bag is packed....the boys and I are going to "Sibling Preparation Class" tomorrow at Hamot so Jaron can learn what to expect when baby comes, and maybe figure out how to change a diaper!