Back at work...

Well, last week marked my first week back at work with out the boy... I had thought about it and tossed and turned over it for days, no weeks... if someone mentioned it or asked when I was coming back I immediately choked up and and teared up. So the day came, we had a run through with Granny Reid the week before and all went well... Sebastian did not bat an eye lid - and he is such an easy, happy baby all went well.

Up in the a.m. and over to Granny's - on the boobs so only one bottle would be required til lunchtime - in the car to the office. Dry eyes mostly - until I glanced in the rear-view and saw his empty car seat base and I blubbed. It had been he and I against the world for 8 weeks - the 2 of us toodling around town from appointments, family homes and to lunch dates... fabulous.

I got to the office and they had decorated my cube with signs and confetti and had tissues at the ready - so that got me a bit sniffly again. I spent the morning being overwhelmed by the amount of work already waiting and fighting the urge to call and see how he was - knowing I would get a call if things were not well...

At 12.30 I dashed out and drove to my Mum's - Seb was fine and hanging with Granny, Tia Jackie and cousin Jamie... I gave him each boob and had a french bread pizza made by Mum and then he and I hit the road. Mai met us as our house and took over and I headed back to work aware that it was so much harder for me than him... he knows his carers and they love him - what more can I ask?

I got home at 5.45 and he was with daddy chilling - we went with Chiron round the park and had dinner, a bath and then went to bed... easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Tuesday is another story - around lunch time I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach and by Tuesday night had stomach flu - I stayed home on Wednesday and Mum came round to watch Seb so I could rest. I felt a bit better Thursday a.m. though still had not eaten or kept the cup of soup or crackers in... I left work at 3 on Thursday and then stayed home Friday - what a crazy first week.

Come Saturday Mum was terribly ill with this and Jamie had suffered in the week too - bless him and poor Sarah as he was out both ends poor little mite.

So week 2 came - I got lots of rest this weekend which was lovely (also mastitis in the right boob from switching to more pumping less sucking), but got through that with hot compresses, hot showers, lots of massage and putting Seb on the boob - thanks Flex for all your support and making me stop and get in the hot shower when I needed it!

Seb is spending his mornings this week at Granny Fleener's doc practice - in the back with some of the gang there who are spoiling him rotten - his great granny goes over to help too so he is in his element - plus then I get to pass Starbucks en route back to the office... it is going well and we will be back to Granny Reid's next week when she has had some flu recovery time...

So there we are - back at work - crazy stuff going on and the baby is the most unphased of all... they truly are amazing - everything about them... just watching him process things and know in his head he too can do this... Alex and I were poking our tongues out at him the other night and he watched and then kept moving his mouth in the funniest ways - we just KNEW he was trying to copy... FANTASTIC!

8.5 weeks on

hello again all, sorry to have been absent, but i have not been on computers much... as my mother had a hip replacement 10 days after Sebastian was born i have spent a lot of time there with her... and as she is on dial up i have not used her computer.

my 8 weeks off work were fabulous and i would happily have stayed at home enjoying every moment of his development, but it is not to be. Happily my mum and a venezuelan friend will be splitting the days between them until Mum's hip is stronger in a month or so and can do full days. It is nice as i can get home to feed the baby at lunch and work is being great about me pumping so he can stay on mama's leche...

Sebastian is a lovely, mellow, happy baby - he smiles and laughs and is just a joy... he is awake most of the day with some scattered half hour naps... at around 8 one of us has a bath with him which he loves and then he chills until he gets his last feed around 10 and then he sleeps for around 5 hours... unfortunately after this 3 a.m. feed he does not settle and is up once or twice more - not sure what to do to combat this... will work out i am sure, but as i am back at work today am quite tired as up 3 times a total of 2 hours last night... no more going back to bed until 10 a.m. now.

he is growing like a weed - his doc appointments on Friday showed him as 91st percentile for weight, lenght and head - 13bs 1oz, 23 1/3 inches and 16 inches respectively... the size of a 4 month old... and wearing his 3-6 month clothes already.

the dog and cat have been great and adjusted perfectly to him and act like he is not there - although if someone looks in or goes near him on walks Chiron gets on his hind legs and sticks his head in too to see what they are up to - and when we get home from somewhere and chiron comes out of his kennel he immediately looks in the carrier to check Seb is there and in one piece! :) Cleo just smells him occasionally and then goes about her business.

here are some pics from the last 2 weeks!

okay so seb is 18 days old... it is just flying by - crazy... he is asleep in the boppy and i am catching up with computer time. alex had wicked flu - so i have been a single mum in a house with a hubby quaratined to his office and sleeping on the futon in there.

this a.m. was flex's first day back at work - i have showered, had oatmeal and hot chocolate and made spaghetti sauce for dinner with italian sausage and eggplant... what a morning...

mum had her hip replacement op last week so i am just waiting to hear from big sis so we can pick her up from rehab and take her home and have seb visit with her...

been a crazy time...

while lizzi was here we took seb on his first whole foods shopping expedition and for his first outing to siesta beach - complete with anna's sandwiches... YUM!

seb and cleo daddy and seb

seb loving the Police poster seb and second cousin jamie

mama and seb

a bit of the birth story...

sorry it has taken so long to get on here and update the blog - life with baby is good - but Alex got flu and my best friend from UK showed up - as a surprise on Thursday Feb 26th, which was lovely - but we were out and about and adjusting to schedules and not blogging! it was a total surprise as she wasn't going to come and stay as she had planned in the end - she flew in thursday and my sis picked her up and she stayed there... they brought her round friday a.m. i was brushing my teeth and alex said all your family is here - i said well they have to wait for me to brush my teeth - so he came back in with the camera and said look at this great pic of seb... so i look at the display and its a pic of lizzi with seb - well it took a few secs for me to realize it meant she was here - so i start crying - then she comes in the loo crying then i hear mum crying and saying 'i knew she'd cry'... i am in a nursing bra and disposable knicks and a giant pad for all this...

anyhow - i wanted to get a bit of birth story info on here...

the birth went well - i went in for my stress test the a.m. of Wednesday Feb 18th, and my amneotic fluid had dropped from 10 to 5.2 in 3 days... so they had a ultrasound tech from my perinatologist come and do the fetal test thing... baby was fine, but my fluid was low so they wanted to keep me in and induce before it dropped more... they 'checked me into' L&D and broke my water... we had already agreed with my doc that i could eat drink and not have an IV - he was going to just break my waters to star with.... the nurses that admitted me argued that they were not going to let me eat or drink and i could go on ice chips - i said look - i've been here since 7 a.m. and have not eaten and doc Y (my jamaican doc X's partner) said i could - then they brought in the iv and i burst into tears and refused and they argued.. i said doc sullivan said just a hep-lock and no iv needed as i was allowed to eat and drink. i said why are you making me do these things - and they said - well its just what we do - exactly what they said... so flex said well you need to check with doc Y as we made a point of asking these things when he said i was being admitted... so they called him and he came down from triage and said - yes she can eat and drink as she is fine and baby is fine - alex go to the cafe and get her what she wants - and he said - she does not need an iv as she is going to drink through her labour...

round one achieved... we got our assigned nurse D - lovely - she read our birth plan and was fine with it and brought me in the birth ball and a rocking chair - despite the fact that every room was full we lucked out and got one of the 2 big rooms with a shower - score...

Doc Y broke my water and said he would be back in 4/5 hours... Flex went home to get my case, snacks and laptop... when he got back nothing was happening still... so doc Y came back - my nurse had to go help with someone pushing and at the end of labour so a nurse called nancy (evil nancy) came in - she was someone we had for one of our stress tests and i didn't like her then... oh god - she was AWFUL... had obvious disdain for our birth plan - when we said our doula was on the way she made a face... we had heard doc sullivan saying i only needed a low dose of pitocin - and to only take me from 2 to 6... well once he left she kept upping it... Laura our doula was here by now... and we all said to stop - i was having contractions by then - hard core... was swaying and breathing.. she kept saying i wasn't having contractions - they weren't showing on the monitor - i kept telling her she had the monitors on my fibroids and that was why - she argued and had me up to 14 pitocin... well i got on the birth ball and she came in and said - people fall off those and hurt themselves.... everything she said is negative... awful awful... anyhow - i was getting myself all upset, so Laura asked her if the shifts changed at 6 still and she said yes... it was 5.40 so we just let it go...

then Christine my nurse for the rest of my labour came on -----and she was marvelous... they put her on the natural birth plan births... so it went on... my contractions were coming every minute and 20 secs thanks to the pitocin and a couple of times i thought i was going to have to take something - but then i would then think get through it and rest in the minute off - so i would. i spent most of the labour on my feet just rocking and doing gentle lunges...

apparently between 9 and 10 and i collapsed - all i remember is the lights going on - the call button being pushed to summon dr X - who was now on duty - and people running around - then lifting me into the bed and putting me on oxygen... both mine and the baby's heartrates had dropped... once they got the oxygen on we both came back up - the oxygen mask sent me into a panic attack though as i was trying to breath through a contraction and the mask was sucking onto my face... so i was trying to rip it off... anyhow - i then said i wanted my mum so flex ran off to call her.... my lovely big sis brought her in and she and sis stayed with me - i was half way through transition and had the need to push so they told me to go with my body and i did - then i told flex to go get his mum who was in the waiting room as it wasn't fair to have one granny and not the other - so i had mum and flex on the left leg, sis on the right and MIL putting cool cloths on my head... it was actually great to have them all there - although as mum had never been at a birth EVER (sis and i are adopted) she kept trying to have weird conversations with me or tell me jokes when i was contracting and pushing and sis had to keep telling her to shut up as i was in a zone and concentrating... looking back i remember it all, but at the time was focused inward... pushed for an hour and sebi came out - 8lbs 6 oz - god - i was horrifed - and ny va-j-j was traumatized... dr X sewed me up for almost an hour (he has a rep of doing plastic surgeon quality repair work) - turns out i tore slightly during the birth - but the little bugger grabbed hold of my perineum with his hand on the way out and tore it more... UGH...

he latched on to each boob for 15 mins and then they showered me off and washed him down - did it all in the L&D room - i drank 2 big bottles of gatorade to rehydrate. Meanwhile flex recovered as he cried and almost fainted after Seb came out - he got to announce the sex which was cool...

went up to mother and baby - all the nurses were so lovely and said it was exciting to have someone go for natural as no one did it anymore and people like us made them keep coming back to the job... was really nice...

stayed in hospital this night and the next and then home...all the neighbours have brought round gifts and had all the friends visit in hospital... family have been great and lots of people have brought meals... alex has been amazing and very hands on - taken over lots of the household duties and keeps the place organized so i don't get stressed out with mess...

he's arrived...

welcome to Sebastian Alistair Fleener, born naturally at 1.09 a.m. 2/19/2009, 8lbs 6 oz, 20 1/4 inches - mummy and baby (and daddy) are doing well... eating breakfast - YUM...

labour and delivery...

well here we are at labour and delivery.... came in for our stress test at 7.00 a.m. and the fluid had dropped from 10 on Saturday to 5 today and Dr. X had told me on Monday that if the fluid dropped below normal (8) then Teeny would have to be coerced... So far we just had the bag of waters broken - no pitocin or anything else... we are reassessing at 3.00 - it is 2.00 now... the nurses are awesome - totally cool with the birth plan and have me walking around... didn't make me do the IV when i said no... when i requested food they checked with Dr Y (Dr X's partner) and he said no reason not to so i had a fab veggie sandwich and apple and i am drinking water too...

they brought me a rocking chair and a birth ball so all ready with those and i keep talking to my doula every hour to see when i want her to come in.... the phone has run non-stop with the love of family and friends... am going to try and nap now before the 3.00 check...

only one negative - no cameras or video allowed during the birth - and I SOOO wanted to video it or at least photograph it and be able to see it myself later! :(

Alex is currently trying to hide the camera somewhere so he can sneakily turn it on when everything is happening... can you get thrown out of hospital - ha ha? :)