4 Weeks Old!

Christopher is 4 weeks and 1 day old today! He'll be 1 month this Sunday (Jan. 15)! In my last post, I mentioned that time has gone by pretty slowly, but the last 2 weeks have actually gone by quickly. I can't believe it's already been a month since he was born!

Since I've been able to drive, I've started getting out of the house a lot more, which helps TREMENDOUSLY! I'm now working Wednesday and Sunday evenings in the nursery at church. I can't bring Christopher yet, so Shad stays home with him for me. I've also gotten out and met some friends for lunch, stopped by my office to visit with co-workers and run errands any chance I can get in the evenings. Shad and I even had a date night last Saturday night! His dad, Richard, came and baby-sat Christopher for us while we went to dinner and a movie. We ended up seeing "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." We still have movie coupons to use, so we'll get another date night sometime soon!

Nighttimes are still a bit hard on me. Christopher wakes up on his own like clockwork every 3 hours. Sometimes after eating and getting his diaper changed, he goes right back to sleep. However, other times, it takes approximately 1 - 1.5 hours from the time I get up until the time I get back into bed. It's not too bad if he would just go right back to sleep. I'm hoping that we can get on a good schedule sometime soon and that he'll start sleeping through the night. I'm really hoping that happens by the time I go back to work on February 9! It's going to make for some very long days otherwise!

I've been worried about how little Christopher's been eating. For the last 1-2 weeks, he only eats for a total of 5 minutes. Not 5 minutes on each side, but 5 minutes TOTAL! I keep hearing about how babies should be eating for 15 minutes on each side. Therefore, we visited the lactation consultant (LC) today for a preimposed weight check. In the 5 minutes that he ate at that time, he took in 3 and 1/3 ounces of milk! The LC said that I have a very efficient baby and very efficient breasts! LOL!! He now weighs 9 lbs 10.6 ounces. When we visited last on December 26, he weighed 8 lbs 5.3 ounces. He's been gaining approximately 8 ounces per week or a little over 1 ounce per day. We have a very hearty eater on our hands!

We're going to attempt to go to church this Sunday. Since he's too young for the nursery and hasn't had his shots yet, we're going to keep Christopher with us. I think we'll first try our Sunday School class and see how that goes. If all goes well, we'll attempt the service. I just hope he stays content and doesn't get fussy!

All in all, Christopher is a typical, but EXCELLENT baby! We couldn't ask for anything better!

2 weeks 5 days old

Christopher is now 2 weeks and 5 days old. I wish that I could say that time has passed by quickly. In a way, it has. However, most of the time seems to be dragging by so slowly. It's mainly because of the lack of sleep I've been getting. I'm sure that it's also because I'm home all day and bored most of the time. I can't wait until we can start taking him out in public. I mainly can't wait to get back to church, but we can't do that until he's AT LEAST 6 weeks old. We probably need to wait longer than that due to flu season. We'll see what the pediatrician says at our next appointment...his 1 month visit...at the end of January. He's already been to the pediatrician once...the day after he was released from the hospital. It was just a check-up, though, and no shots were involved.

He's been doing excellent since being home. We're continuing to breastfeed, which is still going well. We followed up with the Lactation Consultant twice since getting home. At the last visit, he weighed 8 lbs 8 oz, which is up from the 8 lbs 2.5 oz he weighed when he left the hospital 5 days earlier.

Here are some recent pictures of him:


First Day Home - 6 days old - December 21, 2005


Christmas Day - 1 week 3 days old


Christmas Day with Brinkley


December 29, 2005 @ 2 weeks old

Christopher Shad, Jr. Has Arrived!

Christopher's Birth Story:

I was scheduled for a c-section for Thursday, December 15 and had to be at the hospital by 8:00 a.m. We arrived on time, but just sat around in my assigned Labor and Delivery room for a couple of hours before anything happened since I was the 3rd c-section that morning.

At about 11:00, the nurses came into my room to get me ready. By 11:30, I was in the operating room and by 11:40 Christopher was born! He weighed in at 8 lbs. 2 oz and was 19.5 inches long. Not the estimated 9 lbs 2 oz, but still big! In addition, he was face-up when he should've been face down for delivery. Therefore, the doctor was saying that it was a good thing we did a c-section just for that reason alone!

It was SUCH an AMAZING experience! I just couldn't believe that it was really happening! Both Shad and I bawled when the doctor pulled Christopher out! I don't think I've ever been so happy in my life! As soon as they got him out and started cleaning him up, I was given morphine and don't remember much after that. The whole rest of Thursday was pretty much gone for me! I do remember bits and pieces, but was so tired that I would fall asleep in the middle of a conversation! Friday was a better day, though.

Everything was just fine with me and Christopher until Saturday afternoon. I went and brought him back to my room from the nursery to visit with his Granddaddy for a little bit. While he was sleeping, we noticed that he was having little seizure-like tremors. Shad got a nurse, who in turn, took Christopher back to the nursery to have his vitals checked. Everything came back fine there, so they called the on-call pediatrician. She ordered a Head Ultrasound, but didn't get over to look at him until late that evening. The ultrasound came back normal, but the Pediatrician and the Neonatologist were still suspicious, so they put Christopher in NICU to be monitored for 48 hours. They also ordered other tests to be run. All those tests came back normal, though, and the tremors stopped a day or two later. They later determined that it was dehydration that was causing them. Since I was breastfeeing exclusively, he wasn't getting the water that he needed. After supplementing the breastfeeding with formula, all tremors stopped.

I was discharged from the hospital on Monday, December 19 and Christopher was discharged on Wednesday, December 21.


Thursday, December 15

Tuesday, December 20