Life Settling In

So today marks 2 weeks since Jayden's birth. While we're not on any set schedule, we're getting closer. At night he's sleeping in 3-5 hour blocks...if he can stay awake during his feedings we get more to the 5 hour.

Yesterday was the day of doctors. Jayden had his 2 week well check and got high marks from the doc. He's in the 75th percentile for weight & head size. He's in the 95th percentile for length. He weighed 9lbs 12 oz and measured in at 22 1/2 inches so he's gained 10 oz and 1 inch from birth.

At Kelli's post op check the incision was looking good and she lost 30 lbs from when she went into the hospital. That puts her now 2 lbs under her pre-pregnancy weight. For a while in the hospital she would look down at her legs and not recognize them because of all the IV fluid retention and swelling from pregnancy. Now her legs are getting back to normal and her hands are almost back to where she can wear her wedding ring again. YAY! She's missed that!

Today Jayden's umbilical cord fell off so tonight will be his first submersed bath. We'll see how he likes it. He's not a big fan of being naked so we don't have high hopes for his enjoyment. He does however like to have his head shampooed. After giving him sponge baths Kelli would wrap him in a towel and then wash his hair. He stayed quiet and alert for that and seemed to enjoy it. Hopefully he still will!

Overall, life is great! Jayden is growing, the business is growing, and everyday our love for the new baby grows by leaps and bounds! You can often times here us saying "he's just so darn cute!" Photos don't do him justice. He's just one you have to meet!

My bad...forgot the stats!

See, still working out some of the drugs that make you loopy! After that long last post, I didn't put his stats in! My bad!

Jayden Wyatt Van Pinxteren
Born: August 21, 2009, 10:48 am
Weight: 9lbs 2 oz
Length: 21 1/2 inches

FINALLY HOME!!!!!!

WHEW! This week has been an absolute blur! On Thursday, August 20th we got up to go to our weekly business networking meeting. Nothing was out of the norm. From there we were going to Kelli's doctor appt for what we were hoping was our final pre-baby appt. While there, Kelli told the doctor that the baby hadn't been moving as frequently and with as much conviction as he had been. The doctor decided it would be a good idea for all of our peace of minds to go over to the hospital for an out-patient stress test and to schedule an induction for Tuesday, August 25th in case the baby still hadn't come by his due date on Saturday.

So we drove across the street to Summerville Medical Center, checked in and Kelli was hooked up to monitors to monitor both her and her contractions and the baby's heartrate while having contractions. Now all along, Kelli had told her doctors she may not even know she's in labor because her pain receptors are a little screwy. At llam Kelli was hooked up to the monitors. Sure enough, the monitors were saying that Kelli was already contracting...once she knew what they were, she told her other doctor (Dr. Sutton-who was on call at the hospital that day) that she'd been having those for at least a month. Well, what was supposed to be a stress test for the baby turned out to be a test that Kelli failed. Her blood pressure was all over the board and through the roof. At one point it was 169/110. So they admitted her and told her she wasn't going home and they were inducing right away. They started the Pitocin drip at 12 noon. By 7:40 that evening she had not progressed more than a 3 so they broke her water. While contractions were still frequent and building in strength, by 1am there was still only .5 cm progression so Kelli asked for an epidural hoping that it would speed up the progress. That didn't happen. It was a very long night with very slow progress. At 9am another one of Kelli's doctors, Dr. Campbell came on shift and by then Kelli was finally at 9 1/2 cm and they decided to have her push. They took her off the epidural pump and she pushed for an hour.

Unfortunately, the baby was stuck behind the little tail bones and couldn't seem to find his way around. Meanwhile Jayden's heart rate was dropping lower with each contraction and Dr. Campbell said that she didn't think he was coming out that way and that it was dangerous for him to continue the distress. So at 10:15 am they decided to have her stop pushing and wheeled her in for a C-section. Fortunately the epidural catheter was still in so they just had to push the blocker medication. Unfortunately, it didn't take everywhere. The C-section went well, even though they ended up having to cut her more because Jayden was a little stuck in the birth canal and they couldn't get him with the smaller incision. But when the were cleaning Kelli up and putting things back where they were supposed to be, part of the spinal block hadn't taken and she could feel everything! Talk about uncomfortable! So the doped her up pretty good.

But ALL of it was worth it and from the moment they brought Jayden around the curtain so Kelli could kiss him she was HOOKED! There really are not words to describe it. Jeremy left the room with the baby to go to the nursery and watch his first bath. The anesthesiologist P.A. was talking to Kelli and told her that Jeremy was crying like a baby. He said it was really sweet to see dads like that get emotional with their babies. Makes me cry just thinking about it...wait, maybe that's the post-partum sneaking in! :)

Jayden was allowed to stay with us in our room that day but we decided to send him to the nursery late that night since Kelli hadn't gotten any sleep for almost 2 days by that point. The next morning Dr. Lowe came in (the pediatrician on call) and said that because Kelli had spiked fevers while in labor they were concerned that her uterus was infected and may have passed that infection on to Jayden before birth. He was going to have to stay in the nursery and they had sent the placenta out for testing but the results would take three days. Meanwhile, they had to put an IV in and started him on antibiotics. If the results came back negative, they would take him off the IV and he could go home. If the results came back positive they would have to do a spinal tap and depending on how far the infection had spread would have to keep him in the nursery for 7-10 days for IV antibiotics. Plus, they were monitoring his heart rate since he'd been in fetal tachicardia while during labor. That was bad enough. Then they said his jaundice had jumped quite high and had to put him under the lights. So not only could we not have him in our room, we now could not hold him.

As a new mother, still doped up on meds and having had the delivery experience that she told her doctors was her worst fear going into it all, you can imagine how Kelli's mental state was! She felt like she had rolled with everything quite well to that point but just couldn't take one more thing. Fortunately, a good friend from church said that she would have it announced that we couldn't have visitors or phone calls for a little while. We hated to be anti-social, but both of us were so exhausted and Kelli was doing all she could not to lose it and telling the story out loud was a straw she didn't want to take on.

By Sunday night, Kelli was thinking a little more clearly and insisted that Jayden receive a Priesthood blessing right then. It was time to call in the big guns from up above for some help. Since only 2 visitors could go in the nursery at a time, just Jeremy & Kelli's dad went in. Jeremy said that in the blessing Heavenly Father was aware of Jayden's situation and even though he was no longer with him in the spirit world, he was still by Jayden's side. He said he felt prompted to command Jayden's body to heal in the name of Christ, a prompting he doesn't get very often while giving blessings. That was enough for Kelli to relax.

Monday rolled around and Kelli was released. The placenta had tested negative, but Jayden's jaundice had improved significantly but was still a little high and they wanted to keep him one more night. So we went home empty handed, but with hearts full of gratitude that he was going to be okay. Tuesday was the longest day ever while we waited for the doctor to do the circumcision, get the final test results and give him release papers. Then when we got to the hospital Tuesday night the nursery was closed for shift change and they of course ran late. We felt like we were never going to get him home! Kelli half expected someone to chase them down in the parking lot and take him back!

He got a clean bill of health on Wednesday from the doctors. He is a little spell-caster. He is absolutely addicting and hooks anyone who comes in contact with him. We couldn't be more in love with him if we tried!

It was a rough start and one of the longest weeks EVER, but he is home. He is PERFECT. And his is all ours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One week, but it seems to be the longest!

So we've been patiently awaiting arriving at 39 weeks. The doctors had said that if Jayden was measuring big at the 36 week ultrasound they would induce or discuss C-section options at 39 weeks. Well, he was measuring big, with the potential to be anywhere from 10-12 lbs at birth. Now the doctors have taken a "wait and see" stance. So here we are, 39 weeks tomorrow and no closer to having an arrival date. Still waiting and seeing. And, after months of not gaining a pound, she has actually gained 2 more lbs since her last appt. Since all her clothes are still fitting the same everywhere but her belly, guess who's really gaining the weight...can we say Tonka Truck!

Kelli is waiting for that "I told you so" moment when he won't fit out the normal way and she has to have a C-section anyway. The picture was taken at 38 weeks. Same Sunday dress, little bit bigger on the tummy than a few weeks before.

We're just anxious to get him here to be done with the worry of whether or not he'll get stuck. Sooner would be better than later so he doesn't have as much opportunity to gain more weight but right now, healthy is what's most important. Hopefully we won't make it to our next appointment next week. Any prayers offered up to that affect would be great! :)

Quite the weekend!

Saturday, Kelli had a baby shower thrown for her and Jayden by their friend Patty Daniel. Kirk, Patty's husband, went golfing for the day. Even helped Jeremy improve his game!

The shower was great! When Patty does something, she does it up BEAUTIFUL! From the salads to the desserts, everything was wonderful! There was a great turnout and Jayden is one lucky little guy. He's going to be very well dressed!

After the shower, Jeremy and Kelli were going to to see Harry Potter for "date night". The car started acting up on the way there so they decided to turn around and go back home. Kelli was able to wash all the new clothes for Jayden and write out all the thank you cards from the shower. Jeremy cleaned a area rug for a client. Not a very romantic evening, but productive so that was good!

Sunday was great. Both Kelli & Jeremy slept in. Before they could get 2 feet in the chapel doors at church, there were 4 more people who brought gifts up to them. Jeremy ran them back out to the car before church started. Good thing, because during testimony meeting a thunderstorm broke out and the storm knocked the power out for a few seconds 3 separate times. It was kind of fun actually! The power was restored and the rest of the church day was business as usual.

After church it was off to take the Sacrament to a sister in the ward that can't leave home then home to change and off to the Van Pinxteren's (Grandma & Grandpa To Be) for family dinner. By the time we got home, Kelli was pooped! Even Jeremy was tired which is unusual since he seems to be like the energizer bunny...just keeps going and going.

What a great weekend though! And we're one step closer to being ready for Jayden's arrival!