It's march madness baby!

The madness started with Uncle Pat teaching Luke how to use the remote control to watch ESPN. He wanted to do some research before filling out his bracket.


Then, like all athletes he had a dress up day before actual game day. He was prepping for the UK game (see his pacifier.)


Then he had to decide what his uniform would be for the game. First we tried a hat:


That didn't really work for him.


Luckily we had his Uncle Pat's old sweatshirt as a backup.




Luke is not only a Kentucky fan, but also a Purdue fan. (Don't ask who he'll route for if they have to play each other. It will be a game time decision.)


Boiler up! Technically this sweatshirt is for a 12 month old, but he made it work. :)

And we can't leave out IU. The picture is terrible but hopefully next year there will be some opportunities to cheer on the Hoosiers.

All smiles

Mardi gras beads are fun!

One month old!

I can't believe that my baby is a month old! (Ok, so 1 month and 2 days today if you want to get technical.)


Time is just flying by - it's so crazy! It's also crazy how different he is now than 4 weeks ago. He's so much more alert and it's obvious that he knows his mommy and daddy. He loves to lay on his back under the gym and watch the lights. He tolerates tummy time, especially if there is a mirror next to him that he can look at. He loves when we have dance parties in his room - especially if it's to some Michael Buble music. I'm convinced that he already has better dance moves than his mama.

And my favorite development - he can smile! He's been doing that smiling thing while sleeping, which has been so fun to watch, but we don't count as real smiles. (And actually, he sometimes giggles when he sleeps! Belly shaking giggling - it's so cute.) This past week though as Jason and I make funny faces and noises and loud kissing sounds he's come closer and closer to smiling. And finally he did! It's not all the time, but he definitely will now smile at something we're doing - not just some internal stimuli (gas?) that happens.

His 1 month checkup isn't until next week, but I weighed him on the baby scale at home and he was 10 lbs, 15 oz. He is a growing boy! I'm curious to see how much he's grown in length. He is going about 3-4 hours between eating - although sometimes after an hour he tells us he's hungry.

Just when I think we have things figured out he goes and changes something - he likes to keep it interesting and keep us on our toes!

And for fun - some other pictures from that day.

"Really mom? Another photo shoot?!?"








Then I thought he should dress up for the occasion.


"I'm so over this! And seriously, the hat again?!?"

Spring is here!

The weather has been so nice lately! It's been great to get out of the house and go on walks. We went over to my mom's house on March 8th and went on our very first walk. He slept the whole time but I like to think that he enjoyed being outside.




Then on March 10 when Jason got home from work we went up to Hamilton Towne Center and ate outside at Qdoba.


Luke was a little upset that we were eating dinner and he wasn't, so we took care of that for him.


That same day we brought his new swing out onto the front porch. I think he liked the breeze.


On March 16 he got to help his daddy work on the jeep for the very first time.




And who can forget the cute sunglasses from St. Patty's Day?!?


We took a walk this evening and I think he was pretty excited about it. It was also the first time that Jason got to walk with us.

Splish splash, I was taking a bath ....

Luke has had so many types of baths, and thought we should review them. He thought that other babies might benefit from it. :)

Bath #1 - sponge bath by the nurse at the hospital when he was a day old. They kept him under the warmer initially so that helped. Otherwise, he wasn't so much a fan - although he loved when she poured the water over his head.


Bath #2 - sponge bath at home by mommy and daddy. Not a fan. In hindsight, the bathroom was probably too cold. We tried to keep him covered up as much as possible with the towel, but he still wasn't happy. Again though, he loved the water being poured over his head. (I have high hopes that this will mean good things for when he is baptized.)


Bath #3 - his umbilical cord fell off of March 2nd, when he was about a week and a half old - so he got to use the baby bath! This went better, but he was mad if you weren't continuously pouring water over him. Lesson learned - he loves to be in the water. Out of the water does not equal a happy baby.


Bath #4 - the amazing Baby Washpod. My mom found this several months ago and had been dying to buy it. When we realized how much he loved to be IN the water, Grandma made the amazon.com purchase. It's like a glorified bucket, but oh man, when you put him in it, he's in heaven. It's supposed to make them feel like they're back in the womb. The first time I felt like he gave this big sigh of relief and was like "Oh thank goodness. I'm back where I belong. The last 2 weeks were just a bad nightmare." It's a little difficult now because he can't hold his head up, so I can't wait until that day happens.

It's also a little hard to actually wash him, so we do the soapy part while he's on a baby bath sponge in the bathtub. We get that warm first (and use a heater in the bathroom to keep it warm) and he does ok. He gets a little fussy but when we put him into the pod to "rinse" he calms right down. It might be more work for us, but I love seeing how calm he gets!




This video is sideways, but you can see how calm he is!


He gets a little fussy at the end of this, but I think it's just because the water was cooling.

Our little glowbaby

When Luke was 2 days old we found out that he was jaundice. His bilirubin level was at 12.9. Something I read online said that over 5 the face has a yellowish tint. Over 15 has the tint down to the mid abodomen. Over 20 is down to the feet. Because of this he had to go on something called a bililight, which turned our little baby into a glow worm. :) We had to take the light home with us and keep him on it as much as possible, and then had several follow up pediatrician visits until he got back to normal.







This picture was on Sunday at our first dr. visit. He looked like a little peanut on the table! We hadn't really noticed that he looked orange until we went outside that day. Turns out his number had gone up to 15.9, which made him more orange/yellow. At that point we had to start supplementing with formula to get him to eat more, then pee/poop more, which helps get rid of it. If his number went up anymore then we were going to have to take him in to go on a light at the hospital.


Poor little guy had a hard time getting comfortable attached to a cord!


Finally by Wednesday (almost a week old) his number was back down and his weight was back up, so we got to take him off that awful light.

His weight and levels during the whole thing were:
Birth: 9 lbs 3 oz
Discharge (Saturday am): 8 lbs 12 oz - Bili #12.9
1st appt (Sunday 4:15pm): 8 lbs 5 oz - Bili #15.9
2nd appt (Monday 9am): 8 lbs 8 oz - Bili #14.4
3rd appt (Wednesday 9:40am): 8 lbs 14 oz - Bili #10.9

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I can't believe that my little boy turns a month old tomorrow! I also can't believe that in the last month I have done zero blog posts about him. I'm to the point that I don't really even know how to go back and catch up. I'll probably do a few posts, but really - you can see all of the pictures by clicking the Picasa link over on the right.

So now I'm just going to try to do better from here on out!

Today was Luke's first Saint Patrick's Day and he was all ready to celebrate!




He got a little tired of the photo shoot


My mom and brother came over and then we went out to eat lunch at Moe's Irish Pub. Before we left, Pat gave Luke his first piano lesson.


It was sunny when we got outside (beautiful weather!) so we had to break out the aviators. (Courtesy of Aunt Karen and a build-a-bear bear.)


There was a wait at Moe's so we went to Old Navy to kill time. While we were there we found a hat that Luke had to have. Grandma bought it for him. :)



Luke slept through most of lunch (although he got tons of compliments!)


Meanwhile the rest of us had some green beer. :)




And for fun, a little animation for you:

Luke's birth story

This will probably be long - I just want to try to remember as much as possible. It probably also will fall under "too much information." You can't say I didn't warn you!

Wednesday, February 17th started out like a normal day. I was having some crampy feelings that morning but they weren't anything unusual. Just before 4pm, my water broke. I was at work and had gone to the bathroom and then it seemed like I just kept going and going. By the time I got over to the hospital (just a few minutes away and one of my coworkers drove me) my pants were pretty soaked. Jason got there a few minutes after me and then Dr. Box came in and checked me - I was still just at 1cm dilated (where I was the day before at my 39 week appt.) I wasn't having any contractions but because my water broke they admitted me. And a side note on water breaking - I thought it would be a one time thing - um, no. Once it broke, it kept coming and coming .... pretty much all through the night!

My mom, sister, and aunt showed up shortly
after we were admitted and kept us company. By 8pm or so, contractions were about every 5-6 minutes or so and while painful, weren't excruciating - at that point felt like really intense menstrual cramps. They brought me the ball to sit on - it was more comfortable and I guess can help things open up.







Sometime shortly after that we started to walk the halls to see if that would help things move along. The first time we went out wasn't too bad. We went back a while later and it was awful. We had to stop several times so I could clutch the wall and Jason would rub my back during a contraction.

During the next several hours the contractions picked up, and I started progressing, although slowly. By 9:20pm (my next check) I was 2 cm dilated. It wasn't much, but I was so happy that things were changing.

Jason's parents got there (from Bloomington) and then later his brother got there from Chicago. My brother and his girlfriend were in town for the Pacers game and came after that was over. (A funny side note - he had actually texted me that morning telling me that it would be a good day to have a baby, since he'd be in town. Turns out he was right!)

I mentioned that my Aunt Sandy was there also -and she gives amazing foot rubs! I highly recommend this as a way to help get through the contractions. :)

Around midnight the contracts were more frequent and pretty dang painful. I was still only 3cm dilated so they were planning to start the pitocen to help. At this point I opted for the epidural. I was so so happy that I did that.

I was incredibly nervous about the process, but it wasn't bad at all. I sat on the edge of the bed, sort of hugging my nurse, while a small needle was inserted in my back. That inserted a numbing drug, and then he used a larger needle to go deeper and do the same thing. At that point I was having another contraction and he asked if I wanted him to continue or wait. I don't really remember answering, but I must have said to go ahead - I was so focused on breathing through the contraction that I didn't even really know when/what they were doing back behind me. Next thing I knew he said he was done! By the second contraction after I got it, I couldn't feel anything at all. Heaven. Especially because I've heard that pitocen contractions are so much worse.

Those seemed to actually help things move. By 1:15am I was 4cm dilated and 90% effaced. They kept trying to tell me to try and sleep but I just couldn't do it.

Dr. Box came in at 2:45 and at that point I was only 4.5cm - only .5 cm?!? Really? I was pretty disappointed.

At 3:30am I was up to 5cm. They increased the pitocin and started having me lay different ways to try and open things up. 20 minutes on one side, 20 minutes sitting up, 20 minutes on the other side, etc. (As I already had the epidural I couldn't get out of bed anymore.) I was also put on oxygen - at one point Luke wasn't too happy with it all. (It's ok and wasn't a big deal at all, the oxygen just helps.)

At 5am, I was 6.5cm dilated, 0 station, and the nurse felt hair! Contractions were about a minute and a half apart. Jason and I were finally able to get some sleep (Jason more than me - even with the epidural I just couldn't get comfortable!)

By 8am I was somewhere between 7-8cm dilated, 0+ station, and contractions were a minute apart. I still couldn't feel the contractions, but was having awful awful pressure. Later while I was pushing they asked me if I was having pain or pressure. If it was pain we could up the epidural. If it was pressure I had to deal with it. Let me just say that while you're in the thick of it, it's near impossible to decide if you're feeling pain or pressure.

9:15am - 9.75cm dilated. .75 - really??? I just wanted to start pushing! Finally around 10:10 we were given the go ahead to start.

At that point it was just Jason and my nurse Jean in the room. I was still on the oxygen and was doing 3 10-count pushes per contraction. Jason was my rock during it all. He did the counting (although at one point I told him he was counting too fast - slower counting equaled more time pushing which I figured meant the baby would come out sooner) and also made sure I had my ice chips between each time.

This sounds bizzare - but does anyone remember the popples? I kept picturing pushing Luke out, much like you do the popples. Strange, but it's honestly what I thought of during the pushing.

I just kept thinking with each push that that would be the one - he would be coming out. We even added a 4th 10 count push during the contractions - anything to make it go faster. At one point they were trying to make me feel better and said that most first time labors can take 2-3 hours. That didn't help - that seemed SO long!


There was one point that I'm pretty sure I told Jason and Jean that I was done - I was giving up. They talked me out of that. :) In my defense, at that point I had a fever which made me feel even worse. They had to then give me an antibiotic and a Tylenol suppository to bring the temp down.

There was also a point in there when they couldn't tell if Luke was facing up or down. Jean had another nurse come in to check, and then Dr. Box came in. Final decision was that he was face down - yay!

Luke was a champ during all of the pushing. I remember that on the monitor his heart would go up to about 200 which freaked me out, but as I breathed the oxygen in between and tried to slowly breath it would go down.

After about an hour of pushing Dr. Box came back in. After being in there through several contractions they said that his head just wasn't getting past the bone. She gave us the option of using the forceps to help guide his head out. We trust Dr. B and decided to go for it. She got everything ready and on the second push of the next contraction (at 11:42 if we want to be specific!) his head popped out! I never had to push again, as the rest of his body just sort of followed. Everyone in the room kind of went "woah! No wonder you were having problems!" He was a big boy. :)


Jason cut the umbilical cord and then they placed Luke skin to skin on me. At some point while he was skin to skin with me, I delivered the placenta (which I didn't really feel at all - I was busy gazing at the most beautiful little boy!) and then the repair work started. Due to his size, and the use of the forceps, I ended up with 4th degree tearing- ouch! It took quite a while for the repair (it was basically surgery) and at point they wanted to actually take me back so they could knock me out to make it easier. I wasn't having any of that - I didn't want to leave my boys!

A few minutes later they took him off (after he pooped all over me though!) to weigh and measure him. 9 lbs, 3 oz and 22 1/4" long. Wow! Jason put his first diaper on him - it was one of the sweetest things I'd ever seen!

So finally, almost 3 years after we started down this road, our little miracle arrived and our family was complete!

You can see more pictures from that day by clicking on the link below, or you can see all the pictures we've taken so far by clicking on the Luke's Pictures link on the right side of the screen.

Luke's Birthday

Hello!

I can't believe that I have a son who is almost 3 weeks old! I've been so behind on updating this blog, but look for some posts over the next few days!

UPDATE

9 pounds 3 ounces, 22.25 inches long

"A new baby is like the beginning of all things..wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities. "

Happy Birthday, Lucas Kenneth Fletcher!

11:42, 8+ pounds



Mother and Baby are doing fine. Pictures to come.

9:15 AM

9.75cm dilated! hoping to start pushing by 10!

8:00AM

Laura's between 7-8cm, 0+ station, contractions are 1 minute apart. Hoping to start pushing in two hours.

5am update

As of 5am, Laura is 6.5cm dilated, 0 station, and the nurse felt hair! Contractions are about a minute and a half apart. She and Jason are finally getting a little bit of much needed rest. Jason looks quite cozy in his man cave.

3:30am

She's up to 5cm now. They've increased the pitocin and have her laying different ways to try and help. She's on oxygen right now just because at one point Luke wasn't too happy with it all. (It's ok and wasn't a big deal at all, the oxygen just helps.) Right now they've got her sitting straight up and so far this seems to be Luke's favorite position. She'll be like that for about 20 more minutes and then will be laying back down on her side again.

2:45 AM

The Dr. just came by and Laura is 4.5 cm dilated. The Dr.'s best guess is 6-7 more hours. The little guy needs to hurry up!

1:15am

Laura just got the epidural and started pitocin to help move things along. She's 4cm dilated and 90% effaced. She's much happier now. :)

Midnight Update

Things are moving along!

Laura is 3cm dilated, contractions are becoming more frequent, and she'll be getting an epidural any minute.

9:20 Update

Hey everyone! It's Karen, Laura's sister. Seeing as Laura and Jason are a little preoccupied, I've volunteered to update everyone on Baby Luke's arrival! :)

Laura was just checked and is 2 cm dilated. Contractions have picked up to 2 minutes apart, so things are progressing!

It's go time!

My water broke about 4pm or so. I was at work and had gone to the bathroom and then it seemed like I just kept going and going. :) By the time I got over to the hospital (just a few minutes away and one of my coworkers drove me) my pants were pretty soaked. At last check I was still only 1cm dilated. Contractions are about every 5-6 minutes or so and while painful, aren't excrutiating Right now they feel like really intense menstrual cramps. I'm sitting on a ball right now - it's more comfortable and I guess can help things open up. We're going to start walking the halls in a little bit too to see if that helps things go along.

Jason will probably be updating here if you want to check back!

38 weeks

"Your baby has really plumped up. He weighs about 6.8 pounds and he's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek.) He has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold his hand for the first time! His organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.

Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If he's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If he's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time he's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after he's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)"

Sorry for the delay this week! Work has been pretty overwhelming and I've been exhausted by the time I get home. At least it's overtime pay, right?!?

I thought the paragraph above about the eye color was interesting. Jason has blue eyes and I have brown (although have blue in my family) so it's anybody's guess! I also wonder what color hair he's going to have. Looking at us, you'd think brown. But I just recently went through Jason's baby book and he had blond hair (WHITE blond hair!) until elementary school. So if Luke comes out with blond blond hair - that doesn't mean that he's the milkman's baby!

I've been starting to get pretty miserable. It's mostly my feet - I had no idea they could get this big and swollen. They look like elephant feet - I honestly don't recognize them. There are times in the day that it's so bad that I really don't think I can bend my toes. I try to keep them up and drink water, but geez!

And now for the appointment update (that was on Tuesday.) I'm measuring right on track and his heart rate is great. No dilation yet, but cervix is "as soft as can be." They don't really tend to check effacement, because it can be so subjective, but her best guess was about 50% effaced. His head is "as close to be engaged, without being engaged" as possible. So some progress - basically he could come tomorrow or he could wait until the induction on the 24th. I'm hoping for sometime before then. (Although if he wants to wait until after my 30th birthday, I'm happy with that!)

Lastly, please pray for my friend Maggie, her husband Chris, and their little boy Aidan. He was born at 28 weeks, and after fighting for 8 days, he passed away. They can use all of your thoughts and prayers.

37 weeks and the sick house

"Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away. Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz."

We hit 37 weeks yesterday and celebrated that by spending almost 6 hours in the hospital. Around midnight Sunday night/Monday morning I started having severe abdominal cramping, vomiting, and other fun stomach flu symptoms. By noon yesterday I still wasn't able to keep even ice chips down and was very dehydrated. They had me come in to triage at labor and delivery to get some fluids. They got the IV hooked up and also pushed through some Zofran for the nausea.

They also hooked up the monitors to watch Luke's heartrate and if I was having any contractions. The first thing they asked me was, "Are you feeling these contractions??" Um, no not really. I'd been feeling them off and on for a few days, but really nothing yesterday. And half of what I've been feeling lately I thought was just the baby balling up. Turns out (at that point) I was having a contraction every minute or so. Once the nausea started to subside I could actually feel them. They weren't painful, but I could tell when I was having one and they caught my breath.

Like I mentioned, I was pretty dehydrated and it took almost 2 bags of fluid, plus a glass of water, and 16 oz of sprite before I could even provide a urine sample for them. (A lot different from peeing every hour or two like normal!) That came back that I actually also had a bladder infection on top of the flu. That probably explains a lot of the lower pressure and frequent peeing I've had. (And here I thought it was all because Luke was lower!)

The fluid helped to slow down the contractions to about 5 minutes apart. (Dehydration can cause them.) Of course, this didn't keep them from coming in and asking all of the fun registration type questions - have you taken prenatal classes, do you plan to circumsize, do you plan to breastfeed, do you want the birth announcement in the paper? For awhile I thought they weren't going to let us leave!

They checked me to see if there was any other progress and I'm still not dilated at all. So they finally decided to let me go home - with another nausea med (phenegran) and an antibiotic for the infection (macrobid.) I was still feeling like crap when I came home and only attempted a popsicle. (I had tried jello at the hospital and that was a fail.) The phenegran knocked me out so I was able to get some sleep.

I woke up this morning still having some issues, but luckily have managed to mostly keep in 2 popsicles and saltine crackers today. I've also slept pretty much the entire day. And sadly, I'm pretty sure I could go to bed right now and not wake up until the morning.

Unfortunately Jason came home around 1:30 today with what seem to be the same problems. So if I were you, I'd avoid our sick house.

So anyways, that's our update. I'm starting to feel better and the contractions aren't all that often anymore.

Also, on a slightly different note - our induction is scheduled for February 24th. So he has 22 days to get here, or he's being evicted.