Our first week

We are all alive!! For a week now, Kim, Gavin, Crash, myself, we're all alive! Maybe we can actually do this!

Everyday that goes by we're learning more about our little man and I think he's learning to trust us. "hey these people will change my diaper when I shit my pants" and "hey that lady gives me something delicious out of her boobies when I'm hungry". We're getting to know him as well; he follows a strict pattern we've learned. Wake up, get a diaper change, feed, burp, feed, go back to sleep, and begin cycle again. It just sucks because he'll go through the whole cycle about every 3 hours, day or night. I have composed a list of things that I would like to say thank you to. Things that if I didn't have them, I would not have survived this first week.

1. my husband. Its amazing how much they are capable of when they find the motivation to do it. We've been home from the hospital for a week, I've changed the diaper maybe once a day (usually the night time routine ones). Kim has been amazing these last couple days.

2. MAMS pacifier, don't leave home without it.

3.Boppy pillow-the stress it takes off your arm while feeding is quite remarkable. Plus, once Gavin falls asleep, I can just roll him off the breast and into the little crack between myself and the pillow. He'll sleep forever there, it really is a heaven sent item.

4. car seat-technically, its called an "infant carrier" which happens to snap into a base and can be used as a certified car seat. Since its 1 of the 2 places that Gavin will fall asleep in and REMAIN asleep in, we're more inclined to think of it as an "infant carrier". Then we don't feel so bad by letting him always sleep in his car seat.

5. my boobies-Thank you, thank you, thank you, for finally bringing the milk in and feeding the child who has a mouth like a sucking vortex of destruction.

6. Layette sets- we didn't have any of these upon Gavin being born. I thought they were kind of lame and didn't see the point in them. But they are the little outfits that have the built in mittens, or the ones that flip over the hands and protect baby from scratching his face off. Thank goodness for these, without them, I'd have a baby that looked like he was attacked on a jungle safari.

So yeah, those are my things of priceless value. I wouldn't know what to do without those items. New mommies out there, stock up on those before baby is born. Don't be like me and waiting til after baby is born to realize that you need all these things. Ok, that's all for now, we'll keep you posted as we spend our last couple of days in hawaii.

The first night home

What a horrible night. By far, the worst night of my life.

I couldn't make this boy happy. He screamed at me, he screamed at Kim, he screamed at Crash, he screamed! I have one thing to say about Tripler. Please don't send a family home, the day of a baby boy's circumcision. Parents don't know what the hell to do when he's screaming.

Kim and I didn't know our baby enough yet to know what he was screaming about. We came up with every plan, change his diaper, skin to skin contact, change of scenery. Eventually, he screamed for a good hour and a half, so I thought I should try to feed him again. Holy crap, that was a mistake. He would try to pull the colostrum out, but I guess it wasn't coming out as fast as he was demanding it.....a whole new screaming fest began. My milk wasn't in yet, and colostrum is thick and takes longer to get out. Gavin had no patience with it.

So then we go to another plan (we're desperate) we pull out pacifiers. We, no joke, went through 14 different pacifiers, none of them would take. This whole process took about an hour, yeah its approximately 2am now. So, what do we do?? We head to WalMart. There's got to be another thing we haven't thought about. And sure enough, behold........the golden pacifer!

Without this pacifer, I would have been gray haired by now. I was ready to call 9-1-1 and tell them, "I have no idea what do to with my baby, here, tell me what to do" until we came across this pacifer at Walmart. For those moms who haven't given birth yet, and are going to go through "the horrible first night" as we did, go to WalMart and get yourself the MAMS pacifer for 0+ months. If you get the 2+ month they are too big and cover his whole nose. (this was pacifer #9 in the fallen 14) So, hope this helps all you new mommys and daddys on your "night from hell".

More pics

Gavin's stats

Name: Gavin Roy Edward Hamilton

Birthday: April 18th, 2009

Weight: 8 pounds, 6 ounces

Length: 20.5 inches

Head: 13.5 inches

Blood Type: B positive

Features: Brown hair, (eyes yet to be determined)

Labor: 12 hours

A Labor and Delivery Story

FRIDAY, APRIL 17th
6:00am Liz wakes up and takes Crash for his morning walk

6:30am Liz hops in the shower, notices more and more mucus plug flying out

7:00am Kim wakes up, we start getting the house ready for movers coming at 8:30am

7:45am Liz doing her hair in the bathroom, when something starts trickeling down leg, run to
toliet and burst of water rushes out. Looks at Kim, "hun, I think my water broke"

7:46am-8:25am Kim and Liz fight over whether we should cancel movers and go to Tripler
or still do the movers and go to Tripler hospital later

8:30am Liz phones a friend, Amy, that takes her to the Tripler for exam if water broke. Kim
stays back to move with the movers.

11:00am Kim arrives at Tripler, Liz is admitted. Water broken, 3cm, 70% efface, unpatterned
contractions

11:10am Doctors inform us, they want to start Pitocin to get contractions and labor started. Liz gives them the finger and asks to get labor started naturally.

3:00 pm Liz is screaming every profanity and insult at Kim. Doctor comes in and says Liz is dilated to 5cm. Liz calls him "a fucking liar, he doesn"t know bullshit, and we want a second opinion. Kim says "liz, maybe we should talk about getting you an epidural"

4:00pm Liz agrees to epidural

6:30pm Liz gets epidural, dr says she's at 6cm, Liz accepts that

7:00pm-11:30pm Liz falls asleep

SATURDAY, APRIL 18th
12:00am Kim and Liz play some card games

12:30am Doctor says 10cm, 100% effaced, +1 station, time to have a baby

1:30am Time to push

3:00am Dr says "baby hasn't moved down. If Liz can't push him out in next hour, a c-section is needed. If Liz can get him to a +2 or +3 station, then maybe forceps or vacuum can finish the job. Liz stares at dr. in horror, and accepts the challenge.

3:41am Midwife delivery of Gavin Roy Edward Hamilton

Labor and Delivery Pictures

Introducing the newest pack member

We're all doing our part to get ready for the baby. Kim putting the car seat in.

Yeah for the baby coming soon!

Smiley faces

Well, the baby is not coming this week. I can promise you that. I have had no mucus plug; I have had no bloody show. The only thing that I have had, is a baby drop. I do have a dr.appt on Wednesday so we'll find out more from there. But the way it feels, as far as my "motherly instincts" go, there is no baby coming this week. Ok, keep your prayers coming. Much love.