When I first met Liam

I have finally broken myself away from Liam to catch up on a little blogging myself--If I am not nursing him, I find that I am holding him while he sleeps. I tried to have a bit of a break today and managed to put him in the pack and play for a total of 45 minutes before he asked to be picked up again. I will be more strict about it later on, but for now I like that he likes being held and I like holding him.

I wanted to share the video of the first time I met Liam. Babies know basically nothing when they are first born: they know how to suckle, pee, poop and as this video shows, they recognize the sound of their mother's voice.

A note from Mom

Up until now, Steve has really been the only author to this blog and it is time the new mom contributed some thoughts and feelings:
To tell everyone the truth, I was concerned about how I would feel about my new role as mama. Steve has been such wonderful anticipating father that I thought there was no way I could match his love and devotion. I was worried about me being too selfish and wouldn't want to do all the typical mom duties. Boy, was I wrong. I can't say it was the instant I laid eyes on him (I was pretty doped up at the time), but shortly after holding him to my chest, I knew I would love this guy for a lifetime and would sacrifice anything for him. (I tear up just thinking about it). I am surprised at how much I like nursing him: I feel like I can provide for him and make him happy. I am surprised at how protective I am of him: I couldn't let him go to nursery at night even though I could get some better sleep if I did. I am surprised that I can stare at him for hours while he sleeps in my arms.
So far, being a mom is great and I already want to keep him this small and hold him forever.

Homeward Bound

Today we said goodbye to the awesome nurses and our room at the hospital. Although we were happy to head home and introduce the pets to Liam, we wished we could keep the conveniences of the hospital (someone else did Liam's laundry, we just called for room service, a maid cleaned the room each day, and nurses came in to check on Annika and Liam all the time and took him at night if Annika wanted to get some rest).
For the first night, I stayed at the hospital on this bed. However, the last couple nights I went home for some real sleep while I still could. Now we need to decide where to set up shop while Annika continues her recovery. I might also need to go buy a cranberry juice machine to replicate the cran-waters on the rocks that Annika loved so much at the hospital!
Before we left the hospital, they removed Liam's LoJack device from his ankle. This prevented anyone from walking out of the hospital with Liam before he was officially discharged.
We got Liam all dressed up in a one-piece that his Aunt Michelle gave him and a hat that Annika's Aunt Laurie made for him. He was quite upset about being in his infant carrier at first and had a good cry. I took the harness off and rocked him in the carrier for a while on the floor until he calmed down, and then I slowly snuck the harness back on. By the time we got to the car, he was fast asleep and stayed that way as we arrived back at the house.
Our lovely neighbors had decorated our front door with balloons, banners and a sign announcing Liam's birth. It was really nice of them.
Once we got inside, and settled in, I went to the store to pick up Annika's pain medication. So far, her pain has been kept under control. Once I got back, we introduced Makoto to Liam. It was hilarious to watch him sniff Liam all over. He was really excited to meet Liam and has been following him around all day as we carry Liam from room to room. I think they're going to get along famously and we're both happy that Makoto reacted this way.

St. Patty's Day

Liam got dressed up in green for his first St. Patty's Day. The day went well except for a short choking scare. It seems that Liam sometimes gets so upset that he forgets to breathe for a little bit and starts turning blue. Of course, this scared Annika half to death and she rushed out for help from the nurses. Fortunately, Liam remembered that he should breathe and started to on his own before the nurses had a chance to do anything anyway. After this harrowing episode, Liam promptly feel asleep without a care in the world.
Meanwhile, I continue my "calm Liam down" duties and get a kick out of Liam's funny faces. Here we are after a little burping session and a tour of the hospital room.

Got Milk?

Liam is a voracious nurser. Fortunately, Annika loves the process as well so they're both happy. The nurses tell us that he and Annika are progressing very well and there haven't been any major bumps in the road yet. Liam is very funny when he is going to cry because he scrunches his face up and gets all red and opens his mouth up in a silent cry. He makes the funniest faces I've ever seen - he gets a look on his face like he just ate a lemon and he's not too sure this whole "outside the womb" thing is all its cracked up to be. Sometimes his cry sounds a bit like a giggle and that always gets me going. Of course, after a nursing, swaddling and burping, he's lovin' life again :)

Now that Liam is getting milk instead of colostrum, he needs to be burped so I now have one more way to participate in the process. My favorite part of this has been swaddling Liam after a nursing and burping him. Swaddling is a wonderful concept, it really calms him down and is pretty easy to do after a couple times of practice. I'm glad I watched all those videos on changing diapers, burping, and soothing babies on youtube - a lot of the techniques work quite well. We've both been happy to have the nursing staff around to help us and answer our myriad questions. That's why we've decided to extend our stay by one day.

We have a TV in our room so we watched the mediocre movie Bagger Vance today while Liam slept. We found that it is as easy to follow while muted (or even while napping) as it is normally. Its an incredibly slow and predictable movie, but it was nice to have something running in the background. If Liam continues these nice 3-4 hour naps, I have a feeling we might be watching a lot of movies. Of course, they might go more like Cast Away did last night, which we turned off during the opening credits because we were too tired to keep going :)

One of the things we've enjoyed to watch is when Liam looks around. He first opened his eyes in the operating room after delivery, and he's opened them more than I thought we would. He likes to look around and will stare up at us out of the corner of his eyes while we hold him and talk to him. I think he does it because he's so curious about what's going on and I think we're in store for a lot of "but why" questions from him in a couple of years!

Mental note: Liam prefers the flash to be off when he's trying to sleep:

	Flash on - looks like an upset Popeye.
	Flash off 2 seconds later - looks like a peaceful baby

Dos Dias

Liam has been a wonderful baby. We're told that this is not a guarantee of future good behavior, but we've loving it while we can and who knows, maybe this trend will continue! So far, he's a big eater and a sound sleeper. I had to wake him up tonight after three hours of sleeping so he could get some more milk.

The nurses at the hospital continue to impress us and we're quite happy with the hospital. Annie gets her meals through room service and gets to choose from a nice menu of food, drinks and desserts. We're also frequent visitors to the nearby drink and cracker room. Well, I'm a frequent visitor on Annika's behalf :)

Annika got up and walking today and took two walks around the maternal care unit with Liam in a bassinet. She's still handling everything extremely well and continues to impress the doctors and nurses with her progress.

First Night

I spent the night at the hospital with Annika last night because they couldn't leave Liam in there alone with her, and we didn't want him to be in the nursery all night. I slept on the luxurious chair that pulls out into a lumpy cot and had the jobs of changing, swaddling and transporting (from bassinet to Annika and back) Liam, while Annika nursed him. He was very well behaved through the night and only cried for a change or food. He is a pretty quiet baby so far, and we hope it stays that way :)


Liam continues to nurse well and has really been great! We did have him stay in the nursery for 2 hours last night so we could get a nice solid 2 hours of sleep (my sleeping expectations have changed when I think 2 solid hours is "nice"). I'm getting much better at changing him now and we're both learning a lot form the nurses at the hospital. They tend to come in about once an hour to check on things like Annika's pain level, Liam's nursing, etc. They've all been very nice and expressed excitement about our new family member (even though they see this all day every day) so that's been nice.

Annika is now up and walking on her own and is starting to feel better. Being mobile has given her a psychological boost as well. The pediatrician visited this morning and said Liam is in good health and has no problems. Another OB from Annika's group came by and was happy with her progress so far too. Everything is going smoothly and we're both thrilled about it all. Even Liam's cries make me smile.

Mariah has been a big help by taking care of our pets while I stayed at the hospital and taking a shift at the hospital to enable me to come home and update this blog!

Delivery

Today, Annika and I woke up like it was Christmas morning. We anxiously got ready and went to the hospital for a 9:30 check-in. We got a room and started getting ready for the sonogram and probable C-section. Over the next two hours, Annika was prepared for surgery as we waited for the doctor to do the sonogram and find out if the surgery would be necessary. Annika's sister Mariah came to the hospital around this time and provided support and company as we got closer to the time. At about 11:30, the doctor arrived and did the sonogram and found out that Liam was still in the breech position, so the C-section would proceed as planned.


I got into scrubs and Annika was whisked to the operating room where she was given her anaesthesia. After about 15 minutes, I was let into the room to witness the delivery, comfort Annika, meet the baby and document it as much as possible on camera. The surgery went smoothly and Annika didn't feel much. She talked to me and the anesthesiologist for most of the operation. The nurse asked Annika to recite her name, birth date and why she was there - which she did. But I thought that was too easy, so I asked her the square root of 81, which she also got right away :)


At 12:34 (pretty cool time eh?) Liam was delivered by C-section and brought around for Annika to see. After a quick hello, he was shuttled to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) station in the operating room. This is standard procedure for a C-section. Soon, he was crying on the NICU table and I was able to video tape again. I then got to go visit Liam on the NICU table and let him grip my finger in his hand, talk to him, and get a better look. He currently has dark blue eyes and light brown hair. I also got to cut the remainder of the umbilical cord and put on his first diaper.


The nurse weighed him in at 8 pounds, 6.4 ounces and 20 inches. This makes Kitty the winner of the baby pool with a guess of 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 inches! Congrats Kitty!


Now, they brought Liam up to Annika for a real introduction. She gave him a kiss on the head and asked if he recognized her voice. He stopped crying when she spoke, so I guess he did! Soon after, I escorted Liam as he was rolled to the nursery for a bath and some quick tests. He is perfectly healthy so far :) Unlike many breech babies, he doesn't even grab his ankles, but just lies flat. As I walked out of the nursery, I saw my parents and Annika's dad as they were just arriving. They came with me to Annika's room where we all visited with her while Mariah took a turn looking at Liam in the nursery.

Liam had no trouble nursing and has been doing fine all around. Annika and I will be at the hospital this weekend as she continues to recover. She's doing about as well as can be expected for just having surgery so I'm hopeful about her recovery.

So far, everything has gone really well and, as long as Annika recovers well, there's nothing more we could ask for. He's a cute little guy and we love him already :)