Miles comes home and the cats surive

I was in the hospital for a total of 7 days. I went in on 12/26/12 and was released on 1/1/13. (aka i was admitted LAST YEAR and just got out!) Thats a lot of time to be stuck on the 5th floor of a hospital. I wasn't allowed to leave the floor, even to go to the cafeteria! So needless to say I woke up at 5 am ready to rock and roll!!

The most annoying part of our day was the fact that we couldn't leave until Miles was circumcised. Miles was born on FRIDAY. Its TUESDAY. Why are we doing this TODAY? We had Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to get it done! UGH! So we didn't get discharged until 11:00 and we were discharged with a very unhappy baby who is going to rupture vocal cord when we change his diaper. Oh well- I was going home no matter what they did to that baby today!

We got home, and introduced the cats to Miles. This was a *highly* anticipated moment for Matt and myself! I put the carseat on the floor and held my breath. I waited and waited- but none of them cared. Truthfully- they wanted to see me and Matt- eat their fancy feast cans, and have their head scratched. Then they scurried off and did their own thing. They come up and watch him, or sniff the top of his head, but then walk away. Baby cat gets anxious and upset when Miles cries and he begins to pace. Tonight Deuce is laying on Matts legs and Miles is laying on Matts chest. We don't even think Deuce knows Miles is there. (Deuce is a tough read). Scully comes into the room, looks, and then leaves and hides in the closet. Skeeter is the bravest and sniffs him, but then just runs off. So- there you have it. It might be O.K. in our house after all!

Our first day home with Miles was uneventful. We did a lot of laundry (everything that was in the hospital needed to be boiled- just had to make sure no germs came home with us) and Matt went to the pharmacy to get my much needed pain pills, and then to Target to pick up a few odds and ends of stuff we needed. We folded laundry, tended to Miles every need, watched football bowl games, had dinner, and now we are waiting for Miles 10:00 feeding so we can all go to bed. (fingers crossed it goes well!)

Miles seems to enjoy our house so far. He looks around his room a lot- and his favorite thing is his swing! Seriously- this boy LOVES this swing and I'm so happy we have it! You almost forget we have a baby when hes in it! Hes quiet- sometimes asleep, and sometimes wide awake just looking around, chewing on his hands. This is the swing http://www.fisher-price.com/en_US/products/45667 if you are looking for an awesome baby gift for someone. Because this swing ROCKS! (pun intended- no sleep and percocet make me *think* I'm really funny)

I am still sore beyond words. I keep telling myself it was surgery, but, holy guacamole! Night is the worst time for me. I do great in mornings, alright in afternoon, and night is just a lost cause. All in all morale is high in the Shearer house, the only thing we are anxious about is my milk coming in. It still hasn't so I got one of these awesome devices http://www.momandbabyshop.com/medela-starter-sns-80ml-collection-container-sterile-0097003s.html?utm_source=googlepepla&utm_medium=adwords&id=24706946984&utm_content=pla to trick him into continuing to feed. Matt has been in charge of holding it while I feed, and tonight, he got me a ball cap to clip it to so he doesn't have to sit there and hold it. Its pretty funny- and pretty effective, but using this device, feeding Miles is at least a 30 minute event and overly complicated. When he eats every 2 hours to 90 minutes and it takes 30 minutes to feed him, not counting set up or clean up time, well, it really sucks. But, we are plunging on ahead!

So Miles- cats- and Matt- congratulations on surviving our first day as a family of 3 without hourly nursing care and assistance! Time for that last feeding- and lets hope the night goes as well as the day does! :)

Leaving with Miles hospital shoot photos. :) Because hes so cute and I have to put a photo up of his precious face! (this week our wedding photographers are coming and we are so pumped to see what they can do with him if this is what the hospital photographr could do!)

I still can't get over this boys HAIR! I imagined him 1,000,000 times in the past 9 months. I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined him with strawberry blonde hair. The first thing I asked Matt about him was "does he have any hair?" and when matt said "its blondish red" I think I peed in my cathater! I really hope it stays like this. I'm madly in love with it. If it does get darker, thats OK. Matt and I both have dark hair so it would be expected. But- this hair is AMAZING and I can't stop stroking his head and admiring it. I love it.

Living the dream....... literally!

Matt was the one to write the birth story, because he was there way more clear headed and remembers more then I do. It may have been 36 hours, but honestly it is one big hazy blur to me. By the time they rolled me into the OR they were asking me questions and I was just laying on the table wondering, are they talking to me? What was the question? When are they going to start this procedure and get it over with. Then I heard him cry! I had no idea they had even started yet! I could hardly keep my eyes open after I heard him cry, I was so relieved he was here, and so exhausted.

After Miles was born and we made it back to recovery, I literally crashed. I vaguely remember him getting his first bath, his hepatitis vaccination, and having a nurse walk me through nursing. I don't remember a word she said. At some point I posted on facebook that he was here, and then I literally was asleep or dozing until 3pm. When I finally came around and was somewhat clear headed I felt horrible about being so out of it for the first moments of my sons life. My parents had come to visit and I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to carry on a conversation. I also say I had literally missed 20 some odd text messages, so if I didn't respond to you, I am very sorry. But most of all, I was upset that I hadn't even really gotten to hold my own son yet. I woke up with this incrediable urge to see his face. 

That night Matts parents came by and met Miles and it was my first real moment as an observer to any aspect of Miles birthday. I can't tell you how it felt to see the look on Matts face when he introduced our son to them. Donna and Dale were very much in love with Miles (as were John and Kim) but to see my husband beaming as his parents cooed over our baby melted me like butter on movie poopcorn. I don't remember much of what Donna or Dale said, or even what my parents said that day. But I will never forget the look on Matt or the smile he had as introduced Miles to them. Later that night Kristen, the most amazing partner a pharmacist could ask for, came over to visit. I still didn't feel like it was real sitting there talking to her- watching her hold my son. It was like I was in a dream- a dream where both my cha cha and stomach hurt very badly- but a dream none the less.

It still feels like a dream now, even today, (day 3) but its a beautiful dream, and as tired and exhausted as I am, and as bad as my stomach throbs, I'm very thankful to have this adorable family. Last night Matt and I kept Miles in our hospital room instead of sending him to the nursery so I'm sure today will feel even more dream like and hazy. But this little face, with these little eyes, and this little nose, literally make every moment worth it. 

Miles Dale- you are a dream come true. Matthew Dale- I wouldn't want to live this dream with anyone but you. 

Miles to Go Before We Sleep

Well 2012 has been a whirlwind of craziness, we were married on February 18th of this year, found out we were pregnant in April of this year, found out we were having a baby boy in August of this year, and now we have a beautiful 7 pound, 20 inch baby boy named Miles Dale on December 28th of this year.

Miles

Miles was due on December 30th, however we opted to be induced on December 26th.  There were a couple drivers behind the decision, one being concern about his size as his last sonogram on December 3rd showed him weighing in around 6 and a half pounds and the second being that in terms of getting time off work, the last week of December and first week of January worked well for that.

Leading up to the 26th we were both incredibly anxious with both excitement for and fear of the inducement, as we counted down the days Christmas came and went.  Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were both wonderful but we both had our minds on the 26th.  We both expected the 26th to be an incredibly slow day as we did not have to be at the hospital until 8pm, however we were very wrong.  The day like most started early with us both getting up around 8am and then both going our separate ways to get ready for the evening.  Callie got herself a massage and her hair braided, while Matt packed and cleaned the house.  Late in the afternoon we finally managed to catch up with each in order to eat a big lunch.  We hit up the Pasta House in Edwardsville to carbo load and then took one final trip to the store for some last minute supplies.  By the time we were back from all of that it was nearly time to leave for the hospital, giving us just enough time to double check everything, load up the car and just after 7pm we were on our way to St. Lukes.

We arrived at St. Lukes right at 8pm and were quickly assigned a very nice room (5708) in the maternity ward and were off to the races.  Callie spent the next 2 hours getting hooked up to all the crazy machines and had the first round of medicine applied (Cervidil) to soften and ready her cervix while Matt reorganized the room and settled in. The plan was then for a solid 12 hours of rest while the Cervidil went to work.  Well it turned out that rest was not really a part of the plan as the nurses were checking in nearly hourly to see how things were going and checking the baby monitor as well, which seemed to be continually slipping out of place.  As we plodded into the next morning with barely any sleep we were both highly optimistic about Miles arriving soon.

Finally the first round of medicine had been completed around 9:30am on the 27th and Callie was switched from Cervidil to Pitocin, which is designed to increase contractions now that her cervix had been softened by the Pitocin.  Also thank you to John and Kim for bringing some breakfast for Matt (Bread Co.).  As you know we are both planners, so at this point our plan was to help encourage Miles to drop and further increase contractions naturally by walking.  However, that plan fell through as the Callie and Miles monitors would not work in the hallway.  As you can see our limited planning was not quite going as expected.  In regards to the monitors, at times we had trouble with them picking up a signal with Callie laying in the bed right next to them, so that was frustrating as well.  Now being limited to the room did provide some positives as it allowed us to continue watching The League (just starting season 4) and then also start re-watching Arrested Development for the 5th or 6th time, we love that show.  This also gave Matt a chance to try the hospital cafeteria which he felt was pretty meh, not terrible, but not really good either.  Also as a general note, Callie was not allowed any food through all of this, her last meal was the lunch at Pasta House on the 26th.  By 2pm Callie had finally dilated to 1cm which started to get our hopes up further for a delivery on the 27th.  Well as the day continued no further progress was being made. Also thank you to John and Kim for brining some dinner for Matt (Potbelly).  Finally our doctor, Dr. Wagner, was able to make it over from his office and normal appointment schedule, this was just after 7pm, and check the progress.  With no additional progress having been made despite Callies rather intense contractions, still at 1cm, the decision was made to go ahead and break Callies water to speed things up. This would now combine the bodies natural process with the Pitocin to further increase the contractions and dilation.  With the water broken around 7:30pm the countdown to delivery had now officially started with the doctor and nurses saying that Callie would ready to go within the next 12 hours.  Over the next three hours the contractions increased considerably in terms of both frequency and pain.  During this time Callies pain threshold was exhausted and she was finally allowed to be given an epidural.  Around 10:30pm on the 27th Callie could finally lie down without constant pain and after 30 hours of near sleeplessness this was greatly appreciated by all.  

With the epidural now in place and the water broken everything started to speed up as expected.  Moving quickly to 2cms by midnight, 5cm by 3am, 7cms by 6am, 9cm by 7am and finally to 10cm at 8am.  Over the course of the night we continued to get very limited amounts of sleep as they checked on Callie hourly. A few of the hours were particularly non sleep-able due to the amount of activity in the room such as at 3am when they had to put in place an internal baby monitor.  With the magic number of 10 being hit the pushing could be started!  Dr. Wagner arrived around 8:30am on the 28th and we began pushing on a regular basis.  This was a very tiring, frustrating, and concerning time as every time Callie pushed Miles heart rate dropped quite a bit, thankfully it would recover but this was not a good thing.  Due to the heart rate dropping after about an hour pushing it had to be abandoned to ensure the his safety as well as Callies.  This lead to the decision to perform a C-section.  The primary drivers for this decision being that the pushing was very hard on Miles and that he was not descending which they speculated was the result of the cord being around his neck.

The decision to perform a C-section was not welcomed by either of us, but 37 hours after arriving at the hospital we were in no mood to argue and just ready to have him out.   This was a terribly nerve wracking experience for the both of us, as while c-sections are common, they are still pretty serious surgery.  Once the decision was made everything went very quickly by 10am we were in the operating room with Matt dressed in scrubs and Callie on the operation table.  With the last 38 hours wearing on us, Miles cry as he was delivered was an incredible feeling.  He had a plenty loud and continuous cry but calmed down and pinked up quickly once he was under the heat lamp.  Miles came out at 7 pounds and 20 inches and perfectly healthy, which we are both incredibly thankful for.  Callie while not overjoyed about being unable to use her ab muscles came out of the surgery just fine and is working on recovering.

With Miles here we have been kept as busy as ever.  After the C-section we had to move rooms (now 5551) since we will be staying two extra days to allow Callie additional recovery time.  A ton of family and friends have visited and a huge thank you to everyone who has visited/texted/called/emailed/facebooked/google plused to wish us congratulations.  And we have had to start adjusting to a baby in our midst at all times and needing fed every couple hours.  Thankfully we have managed to get more sleep than the previous days in the hospital, but having to wake up every few hours for feedings or vitals checking does not allow for the best sleep you have ever gotten.  Miles and Callie are both still doing very well and we are anxious to take Miles how are start adjusting to our new reality as a family.

And then there was Miles part 2

More Miles!

And then there was Miles

We will be posting more details later, but fo now we just wanted to get a few pictures out here for everyone to enjoy.

OK so the bunnymuffins suck at blogging. Lets not kidourselves, we all knew we would.

Something Matt and I are really into is Arrested Development. Its OK you can judge us! It ain't easy being white, as franklin would say! ;) So I'm getting super duper excited for the movie to come out, and in the back of my head, I'm planning our Arrested Development party! : ) EEK!!

Heres what I have so far:

Menu:

Frozen bananas on a stick with chocolate cost $10 for one banana

Also Cornballs! If only I could find a real life cornballer.........

 
Maybe food from the American place in little britain?    
Of course there will be a big supply of vodka! And maybe Oscars Lemonade? We'll see! :)

Entertainment:
I'd like to find a way to make the Aztec Tomb.....

And finally, the party favors? Rape horns for all!

So excited for this movie to come out! They should start filming already!!! Lets make this happen!

The next vacation......

So I promised myself I would write a trip report about our cruise. I only have one day written and saved, but I am going to write it if it KILLS me because I want to be able to look back on the fun times of the bunnymuffins on the high seas! Plus lets be honest- I am a trip report reader addict! Its time I pay back the trip report community!

I only get 2 weeks of Vacation a year. (GROAN) so this year, I am sneaking in a third. It will require me trading with other pharmacists and make for a few long weeks, but I think it will be worth it! I am taking Matt to DISNEY WORLD in September! Yes, I've been 10,000,000 times, but I'm still excited to be going back! We got the "Free dining" plan- and according to "TouringPlans.com" we will be in parks with crowd levels that are (on a scale of 1-10 1 is "less crowded and 10 is most crowded) on Day one: 2.6, Day two: 1.3, Day three 0.1, Day four 0.8, and day five 2.9   That is right. 0.1 !!! That is INSANE!! I will not say what park we are going to on what day in the PRE trip stuff, so that people buy touringplans.com, but it is the best $15 I think you could spend!!

I will indulge you with our dining information! : ) I was a little nervous about picking our dinning since we are booking only 100 days out (and dining can be made from 180 days out) but I was able to get us reservations at Moracco, Ohana, Tonys Town Square, and Tuttalio Italy. I may change a few of those around--- we'll see!! Moracco and Ohana are staying (I HATE moracco, matt picked it though and I'm trying to be a good sport).

In the mean time- watch for the cruise trip report! I promise myself its coming!

: )