A Whole Week!

I'm finally getting around to posting about the little dude!

Chad and I have spent the past week holding Gryn almost non-stop- its horrible! We love watching him sleep but most especially watching him look around at his new world while he's awake! Needless to say, we are absolutely in love with this little guy! For two people who never thought they would ever want children, we are extremely satisfied with our decision to have this little baby join our life!

A bit about the babe:

He is incredibly chill! He hangs out wide awake now for hours, just looking around, taking everything in. He has some dark hair and we hope that it stays. He has blue-gray eyes and looks like his daddy. The only time he cries is if he is EXTREMELY hungry, otherwise, he is easy! We're still getting used to our days and nights, but he usually sleeps for about 5 hours after his second feeding. He couldn't be more perfect and we couldn't be more blessed to have him in our life!

The specs:

Gryn Titus Baker was born at 9:40 a.m. on Sept. 17, 2010. He weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

The story, short-ish version:

Words cannot describe the amazing beauty of the whole experience! We did have some scary moments, but the whole experience was wonderful. We had an appointment on Thursday the 16th with our midwife and my belly measured smaller than it had the previous week. We were sent to have an ultrasound to look for fluid around the baby. He was supposed to have 10 cm around him, the tech could only find 3 cm (as it turns out, when my water was "broken", there was actually NO fluid around the baby which made matters scary later on during the birth). We were sent to Labor and Delivery to be monitored, but with the info about fluid, our midwife wanted us to stay or come back at midnight to be induced. We decided to stay and get the process going.

I was given a mild induction med around 9 p.m. I didn't start feeling the contractions until about 11:00, at which point I was givena sleep med so that I could get some rest. I rested between the contractions, which were really mild. Around 3 a.m. I was given the second dose of meds, at which point the contractions became extremely painful and would only let up for about 5 seconds before the next would come. The worst part of it was that Gryn's heart rate would drop from 180 bpm (ish) to between 90-120 bpm each time there was a contraction. By 5 a.m. the contractions weren't letting up, I was exhausted, and Gryn wasn't doing well, so Laurie (our CNM) was called in. We opted to stop labor to give baby a rest. I was able to sleep for about an hour which made all the difference in the world.

The contractions started up again on their own at 6 a.m. and were surprisingly bearable! We breathed through the contractions until about 8:45 and began the process of pushing. Gryn was born @ 9:40 a.m. via a natural, unmedicated birth. Chad was with me the whole time as was so supportive and loving! He was absolutely fascinated by the whole process. He watched our baby be born and could hardly contain himself when we saw him for the first time. We had a plan for what we wanted to have happen with this birth and unfortunately we didn't have that happen. I do feel a little bit ripped off that I didn't get the experience of driving to the hospital in a panic while breathing through contractions, but am very glad that we were able to bring our baby into the world safely.

And finally, THE PICS!!:

Always Hungry- even just after birth:)

A very happy and proud daddy. I LOVE watching them together!!

A very UNHAPPY baby- this is the first time he was away from me after he was born. I was able to hold him for over an hour before they took him to be weighed and measured.

Again- eating his hands... hes an eater! It took him little time to catch on to breast feeding.

Eyes open- this is our favorite time- he's so aware of everything around him!

This was the setup that broke our hearts. Gryn was jaundiced and had to be under the lights for 24 hours. We could only hold him to feed him and burp him and he had to wear these goggles that covered his eyes. I will admit, I cried when they brought all of it in.

I would be laying in bed or sitting in the rocking chair and I'd look over and see his little feet sticking out of the plastic tub/bed. It was the only redeeming part of having him under the lights.

The day we came home from the hospital, all the UT cousins were able to come and meet Gryn. We were talking and looked over to find all the cousins crowded around the swing oogling over their new "baby Gryn."

I think this is precious, Chad and Gryn having a very pleasant conversation. We love that Gryn makes eye contact now and that he looks when we say his name.

This is a picture of the bili blanket we had to bring home with us. We opted for the blanket so that we could actually snuggle with him, rather than stare at him under lights, it was much more bearable.

This is what we refer to as "milk belly." We say it with a deep gravelly voice. He gets this look each time he eats.

This is my FAVORITE look. Just after he's eaten, we get about an hour or two of him wide awake. When he's back to falling asleep, his hands come up close to his face and he gets this look. It's absolutely precious!

This is just after his first sponge bath at home. He was not happy about being so naked.

So, after his bath, I was unable to get his diaper on quickly enough and the wet spot behind us on the couch is the pee stream- awesome. And no, I didn't learn my lesson, he has peed on the sheets and his pjs- twice. I'm getting much better at this diaper changing stuff!

We'll keep taking pictures and hopefully I'll have time to keep up on the posts, at least while I'm on maternity leave. We are totally in love and I can't help but hold him all day while Chad is at work.