New Years in Seattle

Something crazy got into me and made me think it would be a good idea to fly alone with a baby across the country on December 26th. Whew. That's what you do when you miss your family!

The trip got off to a rough start when I ended up in the wrong place in the airport with a stroller and a big luggage cart and not enough hands to get myself in the right place. Thank goodness for a good Samaritan and a husband who turned around on the highway and came back to rescue me. The flight was full except for a family that missed their connection that happened to be sharing the row with me. Can't ask for a better situation than that!

Weston laying on our open seats

After I faced my flying--alone--with--baby--fears I was so happy to spend time with my family in Seattle. Weston was working hard on rolling. Over and over he would get his body alllmooostt over and then stop. We had the camera ready all week but it never happened. I think it's for the best because I don't think Jake would let me go on a trip without him again if he missed it.

My mom is not a big TV watcher, never has been. I on the other hand enjoy vegging out and getting into a good show. I was super excited when I found out my Mom was watching Downton abbey. We were hooked.Our British accents came out on more occasions than I'd care to admit. We also snuck in some crafting, shopping, and games... in between episodes, of course.

I was reunited with my BFF Nicia. She's living in Hawaii now days and the 7 hour time difference between us is super lame. Good thing our parents live 2 minutes apart. One night I was at her house playing a trivia game on the wii with her family. I was doing soooo bad. Everyone else had a lot of points and I still hadn't answered any questions right. Finally I answered a question right or did something to get a point and she started cheering for me, "yayy Caylie you are doing so good!" She seemed to actually believe it. This really cracked me up. That's exactly the kind of friend she is, cheer for you even when you suck. I'm still trying to convince Jake to move me to Hawaii...

Christmas With the Brocks

This year we got to spend Christmas with Jake's family.

One night we made a little gingerbread town. There were a few casualties along the way but it was fun nonetheless.

Christmas eve we ate a ton of food, did the annual gift exchange (I ended up with a juicer and Jake ended up with a router, which we were both quite pleased about), got our matching Christmas PJS, and played the Great Dalmuti. This game involves a lot of crazy hats, a king, a 'pee on,' and a lot of other positions in between. I would like it to go on record I ENDED AS THE KING. 

Jake's Mom got the cutest little Santa outfit for Weston. I have a thing for diaper bums.. I think they are cute and I want to squish them. A diaper bum in a Santa suit.. it doesn't get much better than that.

We had a great day opening gifts and spending time with family. 

Christmas Cheer

Yep. It's almost May and I've FINALLY decided this blog needs an update. I'm going to be pretty brief about it but here's to getting caught up on the last 5 months!

This is the first year we really had enough space for a Christmas tree. I'm all about the fresh yummy smell of the pine needles that fill the house and really make it feel like Christmas. So one lovely Saturday afternoon in December we went on the hunt for our first Christmas tree.

Christmas is my favorite holiday and it is that much more fun when you have a little one around to dress in candy cane stripes and the cutest little reindeer hat ever. The day I went shopping for Christmas tree decorations it was 74 degrees... Thank you Georgia!

(Clockwise) 1.baby W  2.Christmas treats from neighbors  3. Baby Rudolph 4. Our first Christmas cards 5.Our tree  

Food, Fat, and other first world problems

Anyone who has had a baby knows that doctors, nurses, and pretty much every book you ever read really encourages breastfeeding your baby for the added health benefits it provides over formula. Being the loving mother that I am (ha!) I naturally thought I better give it a try. I have since discovered that it is not always that simple and sometimes it just doesn't work out (no judging from this mom!). Weston's health problems made him a pretty fussy baby. The antibiotics did a number on his digestive system and he was not a happy camper for a while there. But after a while I began to suspect that there might be another cause to his excessive spit up and bad gas (oh the joys of babies!). We got him on reflux medicine and I cut dairy out of my diet. That really helped with the fussiness and gas but not the spit up.. we are still needing like 5 outfit changes a day (for both of us). Soo I decided once and for all to go on an elimination diet to see if he is sensitive to anything else that I may be eating. For the about 2 weeks I ate nothing but pears, ground turkey, brown rice, and potatoes. Ugh..someone give me some ice cream!

The bad news? Im getting realll sick of rice and potatoes . The good news? I'm back to my pre-Weston weight.. yayy! Yet somehow I still look 3 months pregnant..better than looking like I swallowed a beach ball I suppose?

Anyone have experience with reflux or food sensitivities in babies? I need all the help I can get over here..who said this mothering business is all intuitive?

Thanksgiving at the beach

 This year my parents were kind enough to meet us on the east coast so those with kids did not have to fly. Between Atlanta (where we live) and North Carolina (where my brother lives) there is a lovely little beach town called Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. We spent the week relaxing, riding bikes along the darling little bike paths, seeing a REAL alligator (ahh!), playing at the beach, Black Friday shopping at some pretty sweet outlets and of course stuffing ourselves with Turkey. It was perfect.

The Beach at sunset

1.Britt at the yummy thanksgiving buffet, 2. My first plate (couldn't eat dairy or butter this year so  I stuck with meat & fruit), 3. My mom at the dessert table

Seeing my first alligator in the "wild".. it's there if you squint ..

We had a view of the harbor during Thanksgiving dinner, we even got to see a dolphin swim in!

love our little turkey

Mom on the front porch with little Weston

First bike ride & first time in the swing for Mr. W

I just LOVE the holidays..

Sick baby

It’s safe to say that there has been a lot of changes for our little family in the past few months. We graduated from college, had a baby, moved across the country, bought a house, and Jake started a new  job all within a few months. Whew.. I feel tired just thinking about it.

After shipping all our stuff to Atlanta and living out of our suitcases in our apartment for a week with our new baby, we flew to Atlanta on a Wednesday afternoon. We spent the next couple days trying to get somewhat settled and doing some minor work on our house. I hadn’t spent a lot of time taking care of Weston on my own and I was a little anxious about Jake starting work that Monday.

When I picked up Weston in the middle of the night on Sunday I noticed he felt unusually warm. I stumbled around the house looking through boxes trying to find our baby thermometer. When I finally did it looked like he had a slight fever but nothing too bad so I went back to sleep. The next afternoon I noticed he seemed really hot, so I took his temperature again and saw it was 100.9, so I called the doctor and made an appointment right away. On my way to the doctor’s office I got a call from the nurse who told me to go straight to the emergency room because a fever that high in an infant is pretty serious. She asked if I was ok to get him to the ER, and asked if I was alone. It really hit me that after 2 years of marriage and spending about 20 hours a day together, Jake was now working full time and I was alone and so far away from home. Through my tears I assured her I was ok. So poor Jake on his first day of work gets a frantic call from me telling him I need him to come with me to the ER.

When we arrived at the ER Weston's temperature had risen to 102.1 and they admitted him right away. He spent the next 7 hours or so at the emergency room while they poked and prodded our poor little boy. It was the worst kind of torture for a new mom to see the nurses trying and trying to get blood samples while I was holding his tiny little hand as he screamed through the pain.

The doctors informed us that they would have to transfer Weston by ambulance to the children’s hospital in Atlanta.I had a younger sister who died as a baby and seeing him in the transfer unit brought me right back to that time. It was so hard to be away from him knowing that he was uncomfortable and in pain. Through some of the tests they found that he had a UTI and needed to be treated with antibiotics by IV every few hours. Unfortunately his spinal tap to test for meningitis got contaminated so they thought for a while that he might have meningitis and had to treat him with extremely strong antibiotics.

So hard having to follow the ambulance with our baby in it

It was so hard holding my sweet little baby while the antibiotics filled his system. He was so uncomfortable and in pain that at times he would scream and cry for hours and nothing could console him. We spent a week in a little hospital room and Jake would come after work and leave early in the morning back to work. On top of that Weston could never get a good sleep because we constantly had nurses coming in to do tests (I’m still confused why they needed to wake us up at 2 am to measure how long he is.. am I right??). I was sleep deprived, completely overwhelmed, flooded with post baby hormones, and sick of seeing my little baby in pain. It was truly one of the hardest things I've been through. Thankfully after a late night call to my Mom, she flew out from Seattle and kept me sane.. literally may have lost my mind if it wasn't for her.

A foot IV after another vein collapsed

Something that I've come to learn is that sometimes life is hard, but it is those hard times that help us learn.  We had such great support from family and friends that really got us through. I had countless people telling me that they were praying for us. For the first time in my life I could literally feel the strength of all these people’s prayers in my behalf and I knew that my Heavenly Father knew me and blessed me with the peace that I so desperately needed and  for that I am grateful for this life lesson. 

Bringing Home baby

We were SO happy to get out of the hospital! Both Weston and I had to get our vitals checked every few hours and that equals a lot of being woken up! We brought him home to our little one bedroom apartment that was mostly packed up for our move across the country. In those first days home there was lots of diapers, lots of loving on our new baby, and not a lot of sleep. We eventually figured out that many babies are born with their days and nights confused. Once we got that straightened out we  realized we would survive.. before that we  weren't so sure. I got sick a few days after we brought him home and just getting out of bed was exhausting. I was sure grateful for the help of my loving husband and family.

Jake really surprised me with his natural talent for taking care of a baby. I thought I was going to be the one teaching him but it turns out he was a natural born swaddling--diaper changing--baby burping extraordinaire. My Mom also kept me sane by coming over every morning in the wee hours to take over baby duty. Oh how we missed our morning baby sitter when  she left!

Weston in the hospital

Recovering from labor was harder than I thought it would be! I guess it makes sense when you realize what your body just went through.. pushing out a 9lb baby is tough stuff! The first night they took Weston to the nursery for some tests. Jake made sure to follow him everywhere he went.. no one was going to switch our baby! lol

Somehow I managed to get an IV machine that liked to sound its siren alarm every few hours in the night. Between waddling to the bathroom, feeding Weston, having nurses come check on me, and staring at W every 30 minutes to make sure he was still breathing I didn't get a lot of sleep.

But we did have a lot of great visitors who made our stay much more enjoyable and it's hard to complain when you have a sweet little baby to cuddle all day long.

Weston's Birth Story

I can't believe Weston is already a month old and I still haven't written down his birth story. I guess that tells you what life has been like since he was born. This is probably TMI for most people, but when I was pregnant I loved reading other people's birth stories AND I want to remember every detail of Weston's story so here it is...

In the beginning of my pregnancy the weeks seemed to fly by, but near the end I was starting to feel like I had been pregnant forever and I was ready to get that baby out! It didn't help that I convinced myself my true due date was actually a week earlier than my 'official' due date. So by the time my due date rolled around I was feeling overdue. I spent hours scouring the internet for 'natural ways to induce labor,' and 'signs that you are going into labor.'

Ready to pop, at 39 weeks

The week before my official due date I told my doctor I was loosing my mind and I was so ready to have this baby. She offered to strip my membranes (TMI?..sorry), a painful procedure that may or may not send you into labor. Suddenly, the possibility of going into labor seemed so real and I realized I wasn't as ready as I thought so I said no thanks... I spent the next week feeling okay about still being pregnant but by my next weekly appointment I was ready to try anything so I agreed to the procedure. Sadly, I waited around for the next 24 hours for the contractions to begin or my water to break but nothing happened.. not a thing.  Since I had made no progress in dilating for the past month my doctor wasn't too hopeful that I would go into labor on my own so we scheduled induction for a week after my due date.

The day before my due date Jake, my Mom, and Brittany went on a hike up Rock Canyon. Determined not to stop until I was in labor, I was so excited with every contraction I felt. However at some point we had to turn around and call it a night. The next morning my Mom and I tried to go hiking again with still no luck.

did you know whales can hike mountains?

I spent the next week with semi painful contractions at night and pretty much nothing during the day.

The day I was scheduled to go to the hospital was strange. I tried to think about other things but I was really getting nervous for the pain I knew was coming soon. I had Jake give me a blessing, and I immediately felt surrounded by peace. Jake and I packed up our stuff and drove to the hospital. It was night time when we arrived and the hospital was really quiet; it felt very surreal.

My doctor wanted to help prepare my body for labor before they started the induction with pitocin so she prescribed a medicine that helps with effacement. The nurses said I would start the medicine at 9pm and continue for 12 hours. In the morning I could shower and have breakfast and then they would induce me.

After starting the medicine Jake and I tried to get some sleep. Around 1 am I fell asleep only to wake up around 2am with painful contractions. Eventually I woke up Jake because I was so uncomfortable. He suggested we watch a movie so I joined him on his cot. I kept getting more contractions and just could not get comfortable. I finally realized there was no way I could sit and watch a movie with those contractions. I tried walking around my room, but would stop and hold onto something during each contraction. Around 3 am, I was starting to think this was NOT normal and I was going into labor. Jake got a nurse to check on me. Sure enough I was right on the brink of active labor.

Our nurse was joking with us and teaching us how to read the contraction monitor. As time went on I was in more and more pain. I started doing some deep breathing like I'd seen on tv.. regretting not signing up for a Lamaze class. The pain became super intense and I went in the zone. It was all I could do to get through the contractions. I remember thinking this was way worse than I thought it would be. The pain of each contraction took over my whole body.

By the time there was a nurse shift change I felt like death. I really felt like I could not go on any longer {I have a very low pain tolerance}. My new nurse was nothing like the first nurse. She was a pretty serious lady, which was fine with me because I was no longer in the mood for joking. When she came into my room she asked how I was feeling. I replied, "I feel like I'm dying." and she said, "well that's not good let's get you something for the pain." I was so surprised by her response. Somehow it hadn't occurred to me that I would be allowed to have medicine at this point. I was worried my epidural would run out if I got it too soon. She suggested some IV pain medicine and while I had previously thought that I didn't want to do that I was desperate for some relief. By this point I had been in labor for about 6 hours and was around 4 cm.

After I got the pain medicine I could still feel everything but it took the edge off a little bit. Jake had been sitting on a stool leaning over my bed to hold my hand for hours so my Mom came in for a bit to give him a break. I tried to sleep but I was still in pain so I didn't get any sleep. The medicine gave me about 30 minutes of relief but then my contractions came back painful as ever. Then my glorious nurse came back in and offered the epidural.. and I said YES!

At our prenatal class the teacher passed around an epidural needle and it looked more like a fondue skewer than a needle. So needless to say I was a little nervous about that thing going in my back. But at this point my entire body was shaking and I was throwing up from the pain. The doctor told me to curl up in the shape of a C while he gave me the epidural. Being curled up and holding completely still is about the last thing you want to do while you are having a contraction. To my surprise I didn't feel the needle at all. Instead I felt pretty immediate relief as the numbing sensation spread all the way to my toes.

After I got the epidural I was able to get some much needed rest. It was the greatest thing ever. People would tell me I was having a contraction but I couldn't feel it at all. I could talk and enjoy the experience. I was dilated to 4cm when I got the epidural, but I started progressing quicker once I had it. The epidural was THE BEST THING EVER.

It was around 10 am when I got the epidural and they told me I was ready to push around 5pm. My body was pretty exhausted by that point. Jake told them he wanted to stay near my head because he has a little passing out problem and lets be honest it's not something a lot of people want to see. The nurse said, "oh ya no problem we have lots of dads that do that! You can even sit over there in the corner in the chair if you want." He was pretty relieved that he would not have to do any leg holding like he had heard about, but I made sure he was close by to hold my hand.

Right when I started pushing, there was another nurse shift change and my fun joking nurse from the night before was back on. It was the perfect timing because I needed someone upbeat to keep me going! After about 15 or 20 minutes of pushing the nurse explained that they had a bunch of moms go into labor at once and they had to go help someone else... um, what?? lol She showed Jake how to read the monitor, how to count me down, and how to hold my leg and then she left us ALONE. So much for Jake being able to sit in the corner! haha It was so strange to be in this big delivery room just the two of us, not knowing how long it would take for the baby to come out. Jake did so good motivating me and counting for me. When the nurses would come in to check on us everyone kept commenting on how great he was doing.

When I first started pushing I remember thinking it was not as bad as I thought it would be, but after around 30 minutes I was so tired that I didn't even open my eyes. Between pushes I would drift into sleep only to be startled awake by Jake saying another contraction was coming. At some point I heard my epidural machine running low, as scared as it made me it worked out because it helped me push better. As time went on I was getting really out of it. I could hear voices around me, talking to me but I felt sort of disconnected from my body. It was such a strange feeling. The people around me kept saying how much hair he had, but I didn't really care I was just ready to be done.

After about 2.5 hours of pushing Weston was finally born. I heard him crying and then they laid him on my chest. It was the most amazing and surreal moment. He was crying so loud and seemed so upset I remember feeling like I wanted to help him calm down. I kept saying, "he's so sad I want to help him stop cring." But the nurses assured me that crying was a good thing. Then he peed on me. Welcome to the world baby Weston. He was 9 lbs and 21 inches.