sniderkin

Cavan’s issues with digestion still hadn’t worked themselves out, so we went to the pediatrician again to see what might be causing them.  The pediatrician prescribed a special formula for babies with a cow’s milk allergy (because I had a cow’s milk allergy when I was a baby and it’s likely that’s also Cavan’s issue), and two days later I’m happy to say that the new formula seems to be much easier for him to digest.  It looks like we found the culprit and from now on it shouldn’t be an issue.

Now that he’s on the new formula, he’s been sleeping better at night.  He eats about every 2-3 hours and we’re able to get a bit of sleep.  The new formula has also helped his gas issues, so he’s no longer screaming in pain all the time.  We’re all pretty happy now, even if the new formula is stinky!

This morning we read Puss in Boots, Cavan seemed to enjoy it and watched the pages with a lot of interest until he fell asleep half-way through.  He spends a lot of time wide awake and alert, so we’ve been trying to use that time for stories and other fun activities for him.  We also tried to take a mold of his hand with a kit a friend gave us - that didn’t turn out so well (absolute disaster pretty much sums it up).  I’m hoping to get a new blob of clay and try again since the hospital gave us footprints, but no handprints.

Cavan also likes to sit with Daddy and watch Daddy’s computer screen.  I suspect that when he gets better control over his hands he’s going to want to play too.  Right now his hand movements are mostly unintentional, though he has learned (for the most part) to put his hand over his pacifier to hold it in his mouth.  We can’t ask for much more from a 2 week old!

Last Thursday Cavan’s Aunties Amy and Kelly (my sisters) came to visit with his cousin Christian.  He slept through most of the visit but did wake up long enough to get a good look at Auntie Amy who was snapping pictures of him with her cell phone (which he found very interesting!)  Amy’s cell phone says “say cheese” before it snaps a picture, and when it did this Cavan whipped his head around and looked at it like “What was THAT!?”

We can’t wait for warm weather so we can take adventures outside!

Cavan hasn’t been feeling too well this week, he’s been very gassy and is just getting over being constipated.  It’s my fault really - we tried him on breast milk (which we had planned on doing since day one) but as it turns out, the dairy in my diet (a large portion of what I eat is dairy) resulted in lots of gas and then diarrhea, which then turned into constipation.  The only way to get him breast milk at this point without getting him sick would be to cut all dairy out of my diet, but being a vegetarian that would significantly cut back in the nutrients in my milk and kind of defeat the purpose.  So he’s now using Enfamil Gentlease formula for gas and fussiness, which is easier for him to digest.

The pediatrician recommended something for the constipation, which seems to be helping (I never thought I would be so excited to see a poopy diaper).  However, for gas the doctor would rather us just soothe him to help it pass - no mycolin drops or other “gas busters.”  It’s been a hard few days, but I think we’re finally (*fingers crossed*) getting things under control.

Here are two more photos of Cavan to appease the masses. Our internet service has been down all day, which is just as well because we had a late night last night and have been pretty tired. He’s pretty mild mannered, but a gassy baby makes a fussy baby. I’ll put some more photos up as soon as I have the camera handy when he is in his alert mode.

Cavan’s pediatrician appointment yesterday went very well. He’s doing perfectly! The pediatrician said there are two types of babies - the grazer and the barracuda - we definitely have a barracuda on our hands! When he’s hungry he does not like to wait to eat (who does?) and when the bottle comes near him he lunges his head forward and snaps his mouth around it. Maybe I am happy that we decided to pump and bottle feed rather than try to breastfeed… He does, however, have a habit of falling asleep while eating or eating so fast that he stops for a second to make the “old man after thanksgiving noise” otherwise known as “uuhhhhhhhhhhh.”

So - what does Cavan do when he’s awake? The chart we have says that he should be awake for 2 hours a day, but he didn’t get the memo and is often awake for longer periods of time in the evening when we’re downstairs relaxing. He can hold his head up by himself, he likes to suck his thumb, he’ll follow objects with his eyes if he deems them interesting enough, and last night we discovered that he really likes TV. I was sitting with him in my lap and noticed he was watching the TV (he can’t focus that far yet, so he must have been looking at it because of the flickering light), I kept shifting him from side to side and moving him around, but his little head would turn to find the TV each time. I even tried laying him back, but he just leaned forward and turned his head to find the TV again. He’s 5 days old and he’s already a TV junkie - uh oh!

He also hates having his hands swaddled.  No matter how tightly we swaddle him and tuck his arms down, he still manages to wriggle them out.    He also likes to turn onto his side when we put him down to sleep on his back.

We should have some more pictures up soon - that’s Daddy’s domain!

I’m doing really well, I’m still really bloated/swollen from 30 hours of fluids being pumped into me, my toes look like snausages and my face is still puffy - but that’s all painless.  My back aches where I got the epidural when I lean forward for too long (like when I’m changing a diaper, then he messes the new one, and I change it again, and he messes the new one…) and my stitches are a bit sore still, but other than the bits of soreness here and there I’m really happy with how fast things are getting back to normal.

Cavan had his first visitors last night!  Our friends Jen and Fred came over to see him, and Jen got to be the first person other than hospital staff and mommy and daddy to hold Cavan!

Today is Cavan’s first pediatrician appointment.  The pediatrician visited in the hospital to check him out a couple times and says he’s a very healthy baby and was pleased to say that Cavan is very alert and mild mannered.  I’m sure that will change with time!  So, today is just a follow up to answer any questions we have and to check Cavan again and make sure he’s on track.

Oh!  And Cavan loves the MSU t-shirts I sleep in.  They’re dark green with white, or white with dark green and he’ll sit and look at the writing on them until he falls asleep.  The high contrast catches his interest and he’s absolutely fascinated by them.

I just uploaded some more Cavan photographs showing off his rather interesting hair. It’s brown, but it has light highlights at the tips. I’ve also decided he definitely looks like a Snider.

We’re finally home, I’ve been itching to get out of the hospital since the morning after Cavan was born but we finally got the “ok to go” late Friday. They said I could stay until Saturday if I wanted, but since Cavan is doing well I just wanted to get home.

The delivery went well - here’s what we’ll call the mommy summary:

6:30 PM Feb 5, 2008 - arrived at hospital for scheduled induction and started oral Cytotec to help get my cervix ready for the induction. Cervix dilated to just under 2 cm.

12:00 Midnight - last meal before delivery, a delicious *sarcasm* blend of cafeteria style mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and mixed veggies.

7:00 Am Feb 6, 2008 - blood curdling screams start in the next room. It sounds like someone is ripping the woman apart limb for limb, it goes on for about 20 minutes. Yeah - that’ll scare anyone. Later we learn that she didn’t have time for pain medicine, she apparently came in and had the baby all within 20 minutes.

8:00 Am Feb 6, 2008 - Started Pitocin to get labor started. Dr. also broke my water to really get things going. Cervix dilated to 3.5 cm.

9:30 AM Feb 6, 2008 - Contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes. Was given a shot of Nubane for the pain since I wanted to hold off on the epidural. Nurses told me Nubane wouldn’t take away the pain, but would make me notice it less (it made me feel drunk) and said that the Nubane and Epidural could be given as close together as I wanted.

10:30 AM Feb 6, 2008 - Contractions were coming and pretty intense, nurses kept telling me not to wait for the epidural and “just let us know when…” I decided to go ahead and get it rather than wait, since it doesn’t wear off. The Epidural nurse comes in, tried 4 times to get a good spot, and finally gets the epidural in (she said my spine doesn’t have a lot of room, so she was having a hard time). I can still feel mild sensations on my right side, but good enough!

5:30 PM Feb 6, 2008 - Dilated to 7 cm.

8:00 PM Feb 6, 2008 - Dilated to 10 cm. Waiting to start pushing because Dr. is doing a c-section. Dr. says waiting doesn’t hurt anything, just lets the baby work his way down on his own before I start pushing (so maybe less pushing).

10:00 PM Feb 6, 2008 - Dr. arrives and we start pushing. Pushing is pretty intense after no food since the night before and very little rest. After an hour or so of pushing I’m practically falling asleep between pushes. Cavan is progressing, but he’s turned which means he can’t get down past my pelvic bone. The Dr. manually turned him with her hands a couple times, but he’s stubborn and kept turning back before my next contraction and pushing came. Around 11:30 the doctor asks me if I want her to intervene - I ask her “what’s that all about?’ and she says she’ll use forceps to turn him and get him in the right position so it’d only be a few more pushes. Of course I want her to intervene! She gets the stuff ready, the anesthesiologist comes in and gives me 2 shots of something powerful into my epidural line to get things really numb (all but one spot, so I can safely say thank goodness for whatever that stuff was). Doctor uses the forceps to turn Cavan and a couple pushes later he’s out!

11:49 PM Feb 6, 2008 - Cavan is officially born! The placenta is delivered and I get stitched up but I’m too busy watching the nurse do her thing with Cavan to care what they were doing.

All in all, it wasn’t bad. Thank goodness for the epidural, my doctor kept telling me how great I did and I kept thinking “I just followed directions, the epidural is what did great!” Shannon didn’t pass out, he even watched the whole birth. He was awesome and did everything he could to make me more comfortable. He didn’t want to cut the cord though (I don’t blame him, I wouldn’t want to either after the description we got in our expectant parenting classes). It worked out well though, a med student who had asked me if she could be in the room during my delivery got to cut it and she was ecstatic - I suspect I may have been one of the first deliveries she had watched/participated in.

I’m doing just peachy - all the horror stories had me scared but I was up and about the morning after delivery without too much trouble. I’ll post a little more on “afterward” later. For now, I must find food before Cavan wakes up for his feeding.

As promised, I just uploaded seven more pictures of Cavan in the photographs section of the website. I’ve created a new gallery called Cavan under the Sniderkin section because it isn’t really about labor and delivery anymore. I’ll probably rearrange things anyhow when I get time to fiddle with it. I attached two photos to this post, but you should check out the gallery to see them all.

Today went well. Becky is getting better and feeling pretty good considering what she went through. She will post about that when she feels up to it and catches up on some more sleep. Cavan is doing very well and has started to eat regularly without throwing it all up. I’m still pretty tired since I didn’t sleep more than four or so hours last night, but I should get a good night tonight.

We should be home on Friday or Saturday so people can come visit and see Cavan, but we don’t know which day yet. Technically, Becky is only supposed to be in the Mother-Baby Center for two days, but since she actually got admitted at about 3am on Thursday morning, we don’t know when she will be sent home yet.

Thanks to everyone for the comments! We’ll post more updates soon.

Cavan Alan Snider, born at 11:49pm on February 6th, 2008. 20.5 inches, 8 pounds 3 ounces. More details and photos to come after mommy and daddy get some much needed sleep.

Becky got the second dose of medicine at about 3am last night and we tried to get some sleep, but I think we both ended up only getting about two hours at most.  She wasn’t having too much pain or discomfort, but the hospital bed (and chair) isn’t that comfortable.  Once we did get to sleep, we were woken up at about 7am or so by a woman in another room screaming.  Not really the best way to start the day.

The doctor came in at 8:30am and checked Becky, set her up on an IV drip, and broke her water.  So now things will really progress, but again not until about noon at the earliest, though she will be pretty uncomfortable from this point onward.  They had to redo the IV as well, since apparently it wasn’t flowing.

The animals made it through the night, though they were really happy to see me come and feed them this morning.  I’m going to shower, eat, and then head back to the hospital.  At least the freezing rain stopped and the roads are pretty clear.  I’ll be back later this evening, if all goes well, and will post an update then.