Day 35: One Month

Yay! Mitchell turned one month old today. He can now join Maya in the monthly picture club. These are just some of the many shots taken during his photo shoot. I don't remember Maya ever being so fussy during one of her updates! We do seem to be going through a fussy stage with the baby boy.
I wish I started this a long time ago with Maya, but when each of the kids reach their monthly milestone I will be posting what they have been doing the month before. It's mostly so I can look at it later and remember when this time turns into one big blur like it did with Maya.

So, Mitchell's first month of life...
I'll start with his birth and my labor story (how fitting on Labor Day). Thursday, August 5th started out as just another day, even though I had to wake up super early for an ultrasound and Dr. appointment. I was 38 weeks and 2 days. Everything checked out great on the ultrasound. The technician said that he was doing a really good job practicing his breathing, so I joked that he should go ahead and come out already then. After my appointment I had to go to work for professional development. On my drive to work I was racing a thunderstorm so I didn't get caught walking into school in the rain. On our lunch break, my co-worker kept lecturing me on how I needed to have my hospital bag packed because her second child came 10 days early. I just kept saying he wasn't going to come early and would wait until the 16th, which is when my c-section had been scheduled for. After professional development I had about 2 hours at home before I had to go back to work for open house in the evening. I sat at a table writing out car rider tags for about two and a half hours. I got home around 8 and still had to eat dinner and put Maya to bed since it was my night. Once Maya was in bed, Arthur and I started watching TV. Arthur says we were watching NCIS, but I can't seem to remember anything on TV that night. I just remember being really tired from my 12 hour day.

Now for the exciting part. Around 10:15 pm Arthur got up and said he was going to get some ice cream. I got up to go to the bathroom, but as soon as I stood up I felt water trickling out, like I was peeing my pants, but I knew I wasn't. I was shocked and my first reaction was just "Uhhhh...." and Arthur froze and looked at me and said "WHAT?" I said "I think my water just broke!" I went to the bathroom and watched more water continue to come out so I called the Dr. She said to come on in and get checked. We were not prepared for this at all. We were running around the house packing the necessities and making phone calls. Kaycee came over to stay with Maya and we were on our way to the hospital by 11:15.

Once we got to the hospital and checked in, the nurse had to check if my water had actually broken. This was the most painful part of the entire experience! I was not dilated, effaced, or at all ready for labor, so that meant she had to check really far up with her really really fat fingers! Once she verified my water had broken, they started getting everything ready. We were going to continue with the c-section. I was so scared of the spinal and the recovery, so I was pretty worked up at this point. Once everything was ready, they rolled me to the operating room. The spinal was nothing. Slightly uncomfortable, but nothing to freak out about like I did. Once I was numb, the surgery started. It didn't seem to take very long and we heard Mitchell crying. He cried for a good 10 minutes straight until he was wrapped up and placed in Arthur's arms. It was all amazing and turned out perfectly. The worst part of the entire c-section was my reaction to the pain killers. I had horrible itching all over my entire body. It was miserable, but not anywhere near as bad as the pain I feared I would suffer.

As far as the whole past month goes, we are still trying to figure Mitchell out. Breastfeeding Mitchell is not easy. He takes forever and never seems satisfied. We started giving him breast milk in a bottle at one week. He seems to have a huge appetite, which worries me that I may even be overfeeding him.

Sleeping is another challenge. At one month, he still won't go longer than three hours at night without waking. Sometimes he is up every two hours. Even napping is difficult. When we first came home he would sleep anywhere almost all day long. As he gets older he is starting to resemble his daddy's sleep habits, or lack of sleep habits.

He has been rather cranky the past week too. We are suspecting painful gas and maybe even some reflux. He is often inconsolable after feedings. He has his one month appointment tomorrow and hopefully the doctor can help figure some things out.

I suspect there will be a lot of changes in month 2 and lots of updates next time!

Here is big sister testing out the photo shoot area: