Jayden Alexander

Jayden Alexander

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

3 Months!


Little Jayden isn't so little anymore! He is getting so big! Especially tall! It's crazy! He is growing so much. Now he is giggling...not just smiling. It's wonderful! I love when I get him to laugh. He is totally engrossed in his hands right now. It's so cute. Sometimes it looks like he is praying. He loves watching Baby Einstein or anything that has vibrant colors. He is mesmerized by beautiful colors.


Jayden's first 4th of July ended up consisting of him sleeping most of the day. He slept right through the fireworks. It was GREAT that he slept so well, but I couldn't get a picture of him until almost midnight that night. Oh well, next year will be different.


He is an EXCELLENT sleeper! He is averaging 9 hours of sleep a night. He usually goes to bed between 7-8PM (usually closer to 7) and will not wake up until 4-5AM. It's awesome! He definitely takes after mommy and daddy and loves his sleep. Nap time is a little different. Sometimes he takes some really good naps (for 2 hours), but other times he will only nap for 45 minutes. Those are the days where he is totally out of sorts. If we end up going anywhere on those days he will just cry the whole time we are out. For example, we went to my brother and sister in-law's house on Sunday to celebrate my dad's birthday. He started crying the moment we got there (at around 3:30) and would NOT stop! He finally stopped when he fell asleep a little after 6PM. So my family really couldn't enjoy him at all. He cried the whole time then slept. I am sure they cannot wait to really spend time with him when he isn't a little cranky butt! Hopefully he will grow out of this phase soon!
Jayden has his first official vacation coming up soon! Every year we go to Sheboygan, Wisconsin with my in-laws. We have such a great time. This year will be interesting seeing we have our little guy with us. I am hoping he enjoys himself and settles into his new surroundings OK.
Ok...we'll he is up from his 40 minute nap! I have to go try to get him to go back to sleep!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Never Wake a Sleeping Baby!

Well we have learned that lesson, that's for sure! Here I was looking forward to the 1st Father's Day and unfortunately it turned out to be a horrible day for our little guy. It all started when we woke him up from his morning nap to go to my parent's house. HUGE MISTAKE! He seemed pretty ok at first, but slowly his mood began to change. Kinda like the Hulk when he's angry. I am actually surprised he didn't start turning green!! Anyway, after watching some Baby Einstein for a while he started crying for his bottle. So Nonna fed him and his crying wouldn't stop. Auntie Debbie finally got him to quiet down and brought him downstairs in the basement...the coolest part of the house. My mom had the air conditioner off so it was a little hot in the house...not a good thing for my little guy. Anyway, Auntie got him to fall asleep. Unfortunately, we couldn't let him sleep and make another HUGE mistake of waking him up (after about 10 minutes of napping) to go to my brother in-law's house. Well, from having nap #2 broken on top of nap #1 Jayden was not a happy camper! He ended up crying the majority of the time that we were there. We would take him for little walks which would calm him down briefly, but then he would start crying again. At one point he fell asleep for a little while, but woke up and started crying again. It finally got to the point where we decided it was best for us to go home. So we ended up leaving the party early. Uncle Scott and Auntie Debbi sent us home with some food - thank you so much! We got home, fed Jayden and he fell fast asleep and slept from about 9 until 5 am!! He was such a tired little boy! At least we learned something from this experience. We now know to definitely NOT wake up our little guy to do anything! LET HIM SLEEP!! From now on we base our days on HIS schedule. We will NEVER wake our little guy to do anything again!

I will have to say that was probably the worst we've had it with Jayden. He is actually a very good little boy. He is happy for the most part. Especially in the morning. He definitely takes after his daddy and he is 100% a morning person...nothing like his mommy! As far as his sleep schedule goes, he pretty much sleeps through the night. For example, he went to sleep at about 9 last night and didn't wake up until 4:30 this morning! Now he has been napping since 8:30 am and it is 1:00 pm!!! I guess that means he is a growing boy! I actually told Jeff that it looks like he did grow over night. He looks bigger to me and his hair looks longer and thicker. It's amazing!

Well, tomorrow we are supposed to spend the day with Sandy, Jake and Gina. Of course we will be following Jayden's schedule. I am praying that we have a good day!!!

Well...he's up! Time to go make that bottle. We don't want the Hulk to show up!!!

Friday, June 13, 2008

2 Months Old!!!!


Well here we are at the 2 month mark as of June 11th! I can't believe how quickly time is flying! Our little boy is getting so big! He is smiling up a storm now too! He is on the verge of giggling! I love it! I keep trying to get that giggle out of him and I am getting so close. It's bound to happen very soon!
Parenthood has been quite an adjustment, but one that is WELL worth it! I must say that we have a good little boy. He is an awesome sleeper! Despite the bout of crying spells that we ran into for a few weeks, things are going very smoothly. Actually, we are over that hurdle! I am sure there's another one to come, but that's parenthood! :)
Jayden had his 2 month check up yesterday and he is weighing in at 12 lbs.! He is in the 95%ile for his height! Doc says he's a future basketball player! He definitely will be taking after his daddy...thank GOD! He would not like having my short genes!
Jayden spends his days napping, eating, watching Baby Einstein (which he absolutely LOVES!) and going on walks with mommy and daddy. We try to get him out for a walk everyday. He really enjoys the fresh air. It's perfect timing to have had him in April!
We are looking forward to Daddy's first Father's Day on Sunday!!!

Friday, April 11, 2008

He's here!!! Our Story...

Jayden’s Birth
On Thursday, April 10th, we had our 41 week Doctor appointment. We went there with hopes of being sent straight to the hospital. We had our bags packed in the car and ready to GO! My visit began with an ultrasound then I had to meet with the doctor. My doctor did her exam and discovered that I was dilated to 3 cm. The ultrasound showed that the baby was running low on amniotic fluid. The doctor was concerned about this, plus with being a week late, she decided to send us straight to the hospital to be induced. Our wish came true! Yay! So we headed to the hospital at around 1:30. We arrived at around 2:00 and got things rolling. My parents arrived at around 2:30 and my sister, brother in-law, nieces and nephew were on their way. Everyone was sooooooo excited! Anyway, sure enough the nurse had trouble giving me the IV...which I now still have a lovely bruise from, so I didn’t start getting my Pitocin until 3:00. I was hooked up on the monitors and having contractions. Nothing too crazy. They weren’t any worse than I had already been experiencing at home. So we just waited and waited. My contractions were progressively getting stronger. They finally got to the point where I requested my epidural. It was about 9:00 when the anaesthesiologist came to my room and administered the epidural (WHAT A MIRACLE!!!). However, it didn’t take on my right side. I tried to give it some time, but the contractions started to get worse and I could totally feel them increasing in intensity on my right hip. My left side was TOTALLY numb! So I told my nurse and she suggested that I lay on my right side to get the gravity to work and pull the medicine to that side of my body...DIDN’T WORK! The contractions were only getting stronger and I was really started to feel uncomfortable. So they sent up another anaesthesiologist who was AWESOME! He was so funny and had this strong Russian accent. He wore a Darth Vadar picture on his name card. It was cute. Anyway, he began with just trying to readjust the catheter to see if it would make a difference. Unfortunately, it didn’t. My next option was for him to redo the epidural. He explained to me that he could redo it, but there is a 10-15% chance that it still won’t take. I said I didn’t care...just try it and see what happens. Luckily, the second epidural took beautifully and I was completely numb! YAHOO! By this point of the night it was around midnight. We realized that we were not going to have the baby on April 10th. I was happy about this because it turned out that we would deliver the baby on my grandfather’s birthday (who passed away) which would make it even more special for me. So after epidural #2 it was time to wait and see if I had progressed any further. I can’t remember time wise, but I do know that I jumped rapidly from 4 cm to 9 cm. Once I reached 9 cm they decided to get me to start pushing. At this point it was 2:00 AM on April 11th. However, the baby was still pretty high up there. He was at station +1. Ideally, he needs to be at +3 in order for vaginal delivery to take place. Well, I pushed and pushed and pushed for 2 and ½ hours. My epidural was starting to wear off on my left side at this point so I was starting to really feel the pressure and some pain. I was getting SOOOOOOOOOOO tired! At one point I even asked the nurse if I could take a little nap in between pushing. My doctor came in and told me no and said I need to keep working at it. So that’s what we did. She kept checking to see where the baby was and he just wasn’t budging. After 2 and ½ hours of pushing he was still stuck at the +1 position. At this point my doctor recommended a cesarean section. She said my pelvis is not wide enough to accommodate him, he was a large baby, and after 2 hours of pushing he didn’t progress at all. She said the chances of him progressing were very slim due to the with of my pelvis. She said I could continue to push if I’d like, but she really didn’t think he would budge. Especially if he hadn’t moved one bit in the 2 and ½ hours I pushed. I took some time to think about this with Jeff. I was really ready to get the baby out and I was TIRED! However, I was scared to go though the operation. Finally, we realized that it was probably the best thing to do. So they prepped me for surgery, gave me more meds in my epidural and off we went to have our little baby. I couldn’t wait to find out what sex it was!!! The surgery was a piece of cake. I remember lying there on the table and not feeling a thing. I was so sleepy from not getting any rest and pushing so much but my adrenaline was pumping to find out what it was. Finally, I could hear this little cry...then the doctors said, "It’s a boy!" I just started bawling!!! I had a feeling it was a boy especially during this last trimester. I started the pregnancy thinking it was a girl, but as the pregnancy progressed feelings of a boy grew stronger and stronger. They brought him around the curtain and I finally got to see my precious little man. He was soooooo adorable!!!! I gave him a kiss and off he went with Daddy and the nurse to get weighed and cleaned up as I got stitched up and rolled to the recovery room. It was 2 hours until I got to finally see my little guy again and I was in heaven! I’ll never forget the feeling of finally holding him for the first time. It was such a wonderful feeling.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

FALSE ALARM! :(

Well yesterday was an eventful day. I woke up and was pretty out of it. I think it is just all getting to me. This waiting game was taking toll on me and my patience. I felt cooped up and told Jeff I need to really get out of the house. So we decided to go to the mall and do some walking. It was a perfect idea seeing there were some things I wanted to pick up with some store credit that I had coming to us. So, first we used a gift card and went to lunch at Chili's. It was pretty yummy. However, as soon as I stood up after eating I had a sharp pain right above my pelvic bone which made it very difficult for walking. We decided to call the nurse and see if this was normal...it really hurt. The nurse said it was normal but advised us to see if we could actually time the pain. So that's what we decided to do...we headed off to Woodfield and Stratford and walked, walked, walked. While walking the pain continued in about 5 minute intervals. I was having strong lower back pain and my stomach was tightening. Walking was still difficult. We were really thinking "This could be it!" So as soon as we got in the car we called the nurse back (this was about 2 hours since the 1st call) and explained what I had been feeling. She said, "Go on in!" So that was it...the words we wanted to hear so badly..."GO ON IN!" So we stopped home, grabbed our stuff and headed to the hospital. Sure enough on the way there, while sitting in the car, the contractions stopped. I started feeling foolish for even heading to the hospital now so decided to call the nurse once again. I explained to her that now that I was sitting I wasn't feeling any pains...she reassured me that I was still doing the right thing by going in the to hospital. She said, "You are post date. Don't worry about it. Still go in and see what they have to say. You never know." So that's what we did.

We got to the hospital and I changed into the "fancy" robe they give you and sat on the bed. The nurse had to put a heart rate monitor and a contraction monitor on my belly. The baby's heart rate was excellent! She was actually very impressed with it. She said that the baby looks GREAT! That was such a relief to hear. Unfortunately, I did not have 1 contraction while sitting there!!!! Nothing...nada...zilch! WHATEVER!!!! She did an internal exam to see if I dilated more and I was still only at 2 cm, however, now I am 90% effaced. So that's good! Basically, it's just a matter of time. The more of these contractions I get the more effaced I will get and the more I will dilate. So I guess I just need to keep active and keep moving around to keep getting these contractions...no matter how uncomfortable they might be. Anyway, then nurse called the doctor who was "on call" and she was told to send us home. That was fine...we expected it. Now we know that the next time I get these contractions from walking around we will sit and rest for at least a half an hour and see if they progress or diminish. Then we'll call the nurse/doctor instead of jumping the gun like we did yesterday. We learned! However, we do not regret the experience we had yesterday. At least we know our little baby is doing well and is not under any stress...even though his/her mommy and daddy are going nuts waiting for him/her to arrive!!!!!!!! :)

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Due Date...Where's the BABY???

Well, today's the official due date. We have NOTHING! Looks like Baby W. is going to be a late bloomer! Every night when I go to bed I think..."Tonight could be the night!!!" But no luck yet! I've tried to keep busy today. I did some yummy baking. I made some chocolate chip banana bread and chocolate chip cookies! YUM! I figured they will make good snacks for the hospital...if they last that long. We also went for another little walk. It's bound to happen at some point...WHEN? We just don't know! It's totally going to be a surprise...which makes it even more fun. I'm just getting impatient! It doesn't help that I have this pain to the left of my belly button. It feels as if my insides are splitting apart...OUCH! Not a pleasant feeling! It'll all be over soon enough! ;)

Of to go continue playing the waiting game! Hopefully we'll have an update soon!