The World So Far

Age: 14 Days Old (A whole 2 Weeks)! Wow time flies.
Weight: 7lbs 6oz
Clothing Sizes: I was in Premie for the first little bit, mommy had to go buy me some smaller clothes, now I'm in my newborn stuff and some 0 - 3 month clothing, but alot of times that's big on me, but I look anyways.
Eye Colour: Getting darker by the day, almost a black right now, with a hint of brown sometimes. Looks like mommy isn't going to get her dark haired blue eyed boy she wanted. It's ok though she still thinks I'm precious.
Food: Well I really didn't like mommy's milk so she had to switch me to formula for her sanity, but it's ok the doctor approved and I'm healthy as a horse.
My Favorite Things to do: When I'm awake I love to stare at my mommy and daddy and whoever else is holding me. I also love to look around and check out my surroundings, and I really love my swing and my vibrating chair. I also have this amazing grip that holds mommy and daddies fingers and likes to pull on daddies chest hairs.
Mommies Favorite Things: The way I stare at her and the funny faces I make when I'm gassy, she also loves Grandma and Grandpa who have been able to help her out with taking care of me while she's been sick. Hopefully she feels better soon so she can hold me a little more.
Things I Really Don't Like: Getting my bum or clothing changed and taking a bath, basically anything that makes me cold.
My Favorite Place to Sleep: Well at Grandma and Grandpa's it's in the Wiesel bassinet (a family heirloom) and at mommy and daddies I prefer my car seat, but they're trying to get me into my Moses basket from my Aunt Rosie Rains. So far it hasn't been too bad, but since mommy and I spend a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpa's while daddy is working, that's where I sleep the most.
Adventures I've Been On: Yesterday Mommy took me to the Chiropractors to get the gas out of me (it really seems to be working) and today we're going back again. We've also been to see the Doctor who says I'm doing really well and we've done a little bit of shopping too. The world is huge and everyday I learn a little bit more, I can't wait to see what's going to happen in the days to come.

Eli 1 Week old and Hanging in his vibrating chair

 

Eli at 10 Days old, this is mommies favorite picture

2 weeks old

Breastfeeding.... Doesn't come so naturally

   It's now been 3 days (4th one being today) and 4 nights with our beautiful baby boy Eli and let me tell you, they've definitely been challenging and have had plenty of ups and downs. Now I did know this was going to happen and that there was going to be sleepless nights and a gassy/hungry crying baby, sadly just knowing about it though does not prepare you for it. 

Challenge #1 (and the hardest one so far)
Breastfeeding. I never would have thought this would be such a difficult and technical process, it should just come naturally right? Wrong! Getting him to latch was the first problem I had, but surprisingly he and I caught on fairly quickly... too quickly I think. On my second night with Eli (our first night home) he just would not stop eating. He latched really well and just kept going and going until I had nothing left to give him... I was dry. My milk hadn't come in yet. Apparently what the nurses fail to tell you at the hospital is that this is typical the second or third night to bring your breast milk in. Well unfortunately my milk didn't come in till yesterday day so on the third night I had to resort to giving him formula from a bottle. He ate lots and slept great, I had an awesome nights sleep but I screwed myself over because low and behold in that one night of bottle feeding he forgot how to latch. I've started the latching process all over again. We're starting to get it now so hopefully today will be a better day/night and both Eli and I will love spending those precious moments together, instead of me getting anxious and stressed just thinking about how long it's going to take me to feed him (sometimes 15-20 mins, other time about and hour to get a proper latch). I love him so much and I feel so guilty when I get upset in my tiredness at him (when i really can't, he's just a baby and just as upset as I am), and just want him to stop crying but there is nothing I'm doing that is working and so I just get more stressed. I'm working hard on staying calm, and Chris is doing everything he can to support me in this challenge by giving little pep talks and just telling me how much he loves me and this is just a little blip we have to get through and in a couple of weeks we'll be pros at this. Last night went a lot better and a lot less stressful for feeding but then challenge #2 started once again we were on to a screaming baby that mommy couldn't help.


Challenge #2
 Gas. My poor little guy gets so much gas and unfortunately it's not something that has a quick fix, so when he's screaming at 5:30 in the morning after a huge meal and you're absolutely exhausted and all you can do is burp and rock and bounce and burp and rock and bounce and repeat it becomes hard on me cause I can't take it away and I know how much gas can hurt and all I want to do is fix him. One thing we've tried which helps a bit, is giving him some oval when he eats so that his stomach can digest properly and it seems to help a bit, it's just when he gets his really bad spouts like this morning that nothing really helps. He was in pain with gas this morning from 5:30 till about 9:30, when he was finally able to burp and poop that he settled down and was able to sleep. Luckily for me, I did not have to stay up that whole time and I was able to sleep a bit to catch up from being up since 4 with the feeding, all thanks to Lifesaver #1!

Lifesaver #1
My Parents. I'm so glad for the family support I have in my life right now, if it weren't for Chris and my parents I don't know what I'd do (I couldn't imagine being a single parent at this time, and those who are you deserve all the respect in the world that you made it through on your own). I spent not last night but the night before at my parents place (the one that I had to use formula cause I had no milk) and it was wonderful because my mom was able to take a shift for me that night (seeing that we had to give him a bottle) and because of that I was able to get a full four hours sleep at one time (the night previous I didn't sleep at all, Eli cried all night long). Last night went a lot better feeding wise (he slept for a full 3.5hrs between feedings) and everything went well until the gas pain started, and then he was a wake from 4 till 6:30 when I put him in his car seat cause we had to bring daddy to work, and then we went to my parents where he slept till 7:30 and my mom took over and let me sleep since the only problem was his gas. I did end up needing to feed him around 8 again but only a little bit, so when that was over my mom and dad took Eli and with about an hour or so of fussing were able to get him to sleep, the sleep that he needed after being up with gas for so long, and I was able to get the sleep I needed as well. I'm definitely happy to have them in my life and willing to help because I know that it could be completely different and I could be doing this all on my own, but I'm blessed with a loving and willing parents (who are thankfully also not working lol so that really helps) to help Chris and I out whenever possible.


 Lifesaver #2
  A soother. A big no no for at least 6 weeks I know, but it was the only way to stop him from crying when all he wanted to do was suck on my breast but not eat anything, I had no choice otherwise he would scream for hours (litterally, it took me hours of his screaming to cave in and give it a try). Instantly Eli started sucking and falling asleep. As soon as he's asleep the soother fell out and he was fine, and he slept for a long time. I'm still using this when he absolutely needs it, but for the most part he doesn't and thankfully he pushes it away as soon as he doesn't need it anymore. I know it's probably making our feeding times that much harder as well, but I'm going to continue until hopefully he just doesn't need it, because if it gives him the comfort that he needs when I can't then I'm going to allow it.

  Even though these last few days have been incredibly challenging, they've also been rewarding in making me see what all I do have, like my families constant love and support (and not just from my parents, but from my cousins, aunt and uncle and my wonderful most amazing husband. And Last but definitely not least my beautiful, precious healthy baby boy.

My beautiful boy!

The Big Arrival!

Birthday:  January 3rd, 2012 (Same date as his Great Uncle John and Big Cousin David Hemple)
Name: Elijah (Eli for short) Jason Poitras
Time of Birth: 2:35am
Birth Weight: 7 lbs, 1 oz So happy he was a small one
Birth Length: 20.5" Long (he's so little I love him to bits)
Special Features: He has his mothers Bum Chin (which we both got from Grandpa Wiesel) and football shoulders. He also has incredibly long feet and fingers I can't wait to see how he grows into all of it.
The Labour: Started early labour on New Years Eve, on New years day Morning I had spotting and still mild contractions, I went to church and celebrated the day with the family eating delicious prime rib. By 1am the next day (Jan. 2nd) the contractions were getting worse but were only 7mins apart and I could still sleep so that's what I did, by 3am they were getting closer together and more painful (still not bad compared to later on that day) so I informed Chris (who was working nights and wouldn't be home till 7am, that maybe he should see about coming home a little earlier. His boss sent him home right away so at 4am I was awake and ready to go. Instead of going straight to the hospital though, (cause although they were 5mins apart now) I decided our house was messy and needed to be cleaned before we left. 2 hours later we head down to the hospital. When I get there I was only .5 cm dilated so they were debating on sending me home, but instead they said to go walk around for an hour, come back and we'll check you again. By the time I came back I was at 1.5 almost 2 cm so they admitted me into the hospital for delivery. Things were slow moving, so at 4pm they broke my water, quickly after that the contractions became much worse and alot more frequent (sadly causing me to get sick all over the floor). After awhile I got some Demerol for the pain (which does nothing but make you sleepy and hate your life even  more), and waited about maybe an hour before begging for the epidural, which i was determined not to get (only cause I'm scared of big scary needles, not because I was trying to do it without drugs). Then 1 simple word to describe the next part of labour HEAVEN. No pain at all we just hung out in the room and chatted with the nurses having a good time, then the end came... the contractions were getting worse again and closer together (I could feel them now even with the epidural), and the one nurse said it was time to start pushing.... sadly she was mistaken.... apparently when checked by the other nurse I still had a little bit of cervix left, that if it didn't dilate I would require a c-section (after coming so far I wasn't about to give up now) so I try a different position, more breathing and check again. The nurse once again says the heads right there, we need to start pushing... Yeah... time to go.... nope not quite... still had a little bit of cervix in there.... so another repositioning another 15mins (seemed like MUCH longer then that) and we were FINALLY able to begin pushing. They gave me laughing gas to breath in during contractions so the pain wasn't so bad (apparently I got really high, almost passed out and woke up laughing historically saying "damn you Much Music". I remember going through this whole Music Video type scenario in my head and actually thought it had happened when I woke up (apparently it had not). I also thought that while I was all high that I had already had the baby and it was all over... that would have been too easy. Sadly to my dismay when I came out of the high.... it was time to do the ACTUAL pushing... 30mins of pushing and  (felt like I was taking the biggest dump of my life, and happily I did not take a dump which was a big fear of mine lol) our beautiful baby boy had finally arrived. My mom had the opportunity to cut the umbilical chord, (Chris can't really handle that stuff and gladly gave that honour to my mom) and Chris and I were proud as can be. I was so happy to have my mom in there with me along with my Husband, it was just a wonderful experience to have the 2 most supportive ppl in my life by my side during the most painful and beautiful moments of my life.

The First Day: Well seeing as we had him so early in the morning, I didn't get to go to sleep until 5am and was woken up periodically for feeding, holding (to keep his temperature up) visits from doctors and nurses. By 10 am Chris and I had fully woken up and were ready to start the day having TONS of visitors which we loved having and getting to share our little bundle of joy with all our family and friends. It was a very busy day but little Eli was calm all day being passed from arm to arm and just cuddling close to everyone with barely any fussing. By 9pm the last of the visitors (my parents and uncle Neil) had left and Chris and I just layed in my bed enjoying the quiet time with our little bundle.

Loving being held by daddy, and all 3 of us took a little cat nap on my little bed. BEST moment ever!!!

The first night: Well after our precious little family moment... the stress began. Being perfect all day made it IMPOSSIBLE to sleep at night. I had sent Chris home to sleep in our bed last night (he had been up for 36hrs without sleep when Eli was born so he needed an actual goodnights sleep and since he can't do much at night right now but listen to the cries, I sent him home, after bringing me some food of course :oP ) We gave him a bath before Chris left and I began feeding... but unfortunately he just didn't want to eat or sleep. So when 2 am rolled around and he still wouldn't sleep the nurses helped me and took him out of the room (i felt like a horrible mother but I was exauhsted and stressed and was barely coherent at this point, honestly the night was a blur) so i could get a couple hours of sleep before his next feeding. At 4:30, he was crying and ready to feed but unfortunately I could not get him to stop crying long enough to get him to eat long enough to feed properly. When he would fall asleep and I'd lay him down I had about 5 mins before he'd be crying again and I'd be starting all over trying to give him more food (cause he definitely hadn't eaten enough) at 6 am they came in to take his blood work and I never thought I'd say this, but he cried so much it actually tuckered him out and we both finally fell asleep (with him cuddled in my arms) till around 8 when the nurse came in to check on us both. I was then able to put him in bed and we both had a good sleep. Since then he's basically been sleeping (he woke up once for his first official GOOD feeding YAY and diaper changing) and I've been able to blog to you all about the events. We've also been discharged by the Doctor and are just patiently waiting and relaxing for his exhausted daddy to come pick us up. Where the continued adventure can begin at home. I'm terrified for tonight... but hopefully the feeding can continue like this morning and we can progress a little smoother. We'll see. In the meantime here our some more photos from our first day together including this morning as I write this.
Pictures:

New Years Eve, my second last night of pregnancy, the last belly photo.

After Delivery being held by my Great Aunt Iva, with Grandma in the background

After Delivery

After deliver being held by my big cousin Kennedy

After delivery being held by my Big Cousin Sam who had a slight cough but with a mask was happy to hold him.
 (The whole family stayed as late as they could and some until the he was actually born to meet the little guy, I'm so happy to have a loving and supportive family by my side)

My 2 favorite Boys

Snuggling with mommy

Cousin Kennedy just adoring me and loving the big grip he has on her finger

A big stretch before mommy had to change me. Day #2

All bundled up and back to sleep after the dreadful changing of the diaper, and mommy is back to typing. 

My little Visitor Theresa (one of my Sunday School kids)