Camden's 1st Week

I can't believe it was just a little over a week ago that I had Camden - it feels like longer already! We came home on Saturday night and after putting Jackson to bed and eating dinner I had a second wind and stayed up way too late. We went to go to bed around 11 and Camden decided he was not ready to sleep. He was fed, changed and swaddled and would fall asleep in our arms but once we put him in the bassinet after about 10 min he would cry. This went on until almost 3am! I even tried feeding him during this time but he had no interest in eating. Finally after 3 he fell asleep and then I think he stayed asleep until 6 and after I fed him slept until 8 ish. He did basically the same thing the following night making me one tired mommy! The third night he slept in the rock and play swaddled tight and we turned the sound machine on heartbeat and he slept great! I made sure to go to bed right after his 9 pm feeding. He woke up about every 3 hours to nurse. The rest of the week he slept pretty good! We have been continuing with the rock and play and sound machine on at night. Some nights I had to wake him after 4 or 4 1/2 hours to feed him.

This time is so different than with Jackson. We are so happy and lucky to have Camden home with us. He is able to latch and nurse much better than Jackson could. He isn't a big eater though or maybe is just very efficient and fast! He is typically nursing every 3 hours or so.

He sleeps so much and makes the cutest squeaks and faces. We have had a low key week at home except for his outing to the pediatrician. Jackson has been so good with him always asking where baby Camden is and always wanting to hold and kiss on him. We have been working on getting him to just kiss on his feet or tummy/back.

Jimmy and I are trying to make sure to give Jackson some special alone time too since I spend so much time with Camden with feedings and such. So we have taken him to the park alone several times. We were lucky to have Nana at the house with us still so she could stay with Camden.

Camden is wearing preemie and newborn outfits and started with preemie diapers and by the end of the week we were running low on those and switched to newborn.

He was a little jaundiced so the pediatrician told us to put him in sunlight for a little bit to help

At the doctor for his 1st check up. He weighed 6 lb 6 oz. (11%), 20 in (58%) and head circumference is 13.5 in (35%)

Snuggles with mommy before bed

Yummy edible arrangement from Barry and Rae!

Nana with her boys. Jackson loves the balloons that came with the edible arrangement. Jackson doing his "surprise face!"

He loves to lay cuddled up on me :) 

My boys :)

Getting a few minutes of sunlight

 He was not wild about his first sponge bath!

It's a Boy!

Last Thursday afternoon we had scheduled maternity photos with my friend Caroline. When I was pregnant with Jackson we had maternity photos scheduled and I wound up having contractions and going to the hospital the night before our photos. I wanted to try and get some this time around. Caroline came to the house, which was so convenient for us and Jackson! Jackson loved being in the photos and was a complete ham! For weeks I had been having this intense amount of pressure and some tightness. Towards the end of the photos I realized I was in a little more pain. She left around 5:45 and we came inside the house for dinner.

Once I sat down I realized that the pain was starting and stopping... I was definitely contracting. I started timing them and they were 2-3 min apart and lasting anywhere from 30-60 seconds. I drank about 64 oz of water and continued to time them for the next hour while we ate dinner then called the OB. I sat in the tub of lukewarm water for the next hour and they were still every 2-3 min lasting 30-60 seconds each. Luckily, I had recently decided to pack some hospital bags for us. We got ready, kissed Jackson goodbye (thankfully Nana was here to stay with him!) and headed to the hospital.

We got checked in around 9 pm and headed to room B4 in L&D. The doctor probably came by around 10:30 or 11pm. I was already dilated 2-3 cm and was about 70% effaced. Since I was less than 37 weeks she wanted to give me one shot of terbutaline to see if it would slow or stop my contractions.  It did space them out by a couple of minutes but they were getting stronger. I continued to be monitored and was hooked up to an IV for fluids. The nurses checked me again a couple hours later and I was about a 4 or 5. Around 1am I decided it was time for my epidural. I had to wait until I had had one more bag of fluid and then the doctor came in to do the epidural. Why is it that anesthesiologists are always super fast?! He was done within minutes. I waited to feel a little relief but it was taking a long time. I was still feeling every contraction and they had gotten pretty strong and intense by this point. They gave me something else to help and soon I was able to relax and get some rest. The doctor decided to break my water around 4am. I was around 7 cm. Around 5am I was fully dilated. I started pushing at 5:15am and at 5:42am on September 13, 2013 Camden James Gosma was born! He weighed 6 lb 11 oz and was 19 inches long. I was very lucky this time to only have to push through 5 or 6 contractions. Last time I pushed for well over an hour and a half. Since I was less than 37 weeks they automatically bring in the NICU team for once the baby arrives. They laid him on my tummy and Jimmy cut the cord while they started cleaning him off. Then they took him over to the heated bed and checked his APGAR score. He got a 9! They continued to clean him up while checking vitals, reflexes and everything. His crying was great. I'm so thankful for a healthy set of lungs. I was so thankful that he didn't have to go to the NICU like Jackson did. I tried to nurse but he wasn't too interested yet so I just did skin to skin instead.

After a while the nurses came in to give him a bath and do his footprints and such. I was exhausted and found myself constantly dozing off. When I woke up I felt nauseous and vomited and at the same time realized I was bleeding. We called the nurse and turns out I started hemorrhaging pretty badly. They started a bag of pitocin to make my uterus contract more and constrict the blood vessels. We had to stay down in L&D for another couple of hours until they were sure everything was ok. After that we moved to our postpartum room #188. It was about 10:30 am at this point. It was so wonderful to be able to have Camden in the room with us. We tried nursing some more and then got to just doze off and rest. Since he was 36 weeks they started checking his blood sugar after he was born to make sure it stayed above 40. It started at 59 then 53 then dropped to 36 and then had dropped more even though he had nursed a little. They checked it every 4 hours. At one point they had to give him a little bit of formula to bring it up and thankfully we were able to keep it up after that with him just nursing.

Nana came to visit while Jackson was at school that morning and then Stephanie came to visit. We had a break and then Gigi and Aunt Gretchen came with Nana, Papa and big brother Jackson coming right after. Jackson was so excited and couldn't wait to see us and the baby. I had made a special big brother bag for him to open at the hospital. It had sticker books, big brother books, his own camera, snacks, coloring books and more in it. He was so excited and began taking pictures right away! I haven't taken them off the card yet so I don't even know how they turned out yet.

We had a nice quiet evening and Camden slept great! We woke up every few hours to nurse and the nurses came in as well to check vitals, blood sugar and give me my pain meds. Saturday morning Dr. Bergman came early to do his initial check on Camden. He is a healthy boy! He was circumcised and also had his frenulum clipped so that he could have more movement with his tongue to improve nursing. Thankfully it is a painless procedure with minimal bleeding. He said I should notice a big difference during feedings afterwards. Camden was very sleepy for a while from the Tylenol and big mid afternoon we decided to go ahead and head home. He had to so a car seat test since he was under 37 weeks where they check his oxygen saturation and make sure that it stays within a normal range while they are sitting in the angled car seat. We had to do this with Jackson too. He passed with flying colors. Around 6:30 everything was in order and we headed home! Jackson was so excited to see us and baby Camden when we got home!