Little Glow Worm

When MacKay was four days old, we took him to our pediatrician and had him tested for jaundice. I thought he looked very yellow but the doctor wasn't too concerned. The following morning they called us to tell us that MacKay needed to have another blood test as his levels were a bit too high. After taking him down to Children's Hospital and having his blood drawn again, the nurse said his levels were even higher and he would need to be put under the bili lights. I really like my kids' pediatrician. However, his nurse sort of drives me bananas. She told me that MacKay's bilirubin levels were dangerously high and if I didn't start giving him formula, then he would have to be hospitalized. I was told to pump my milk and wait to give it to him until his bilirubin levels lowered. Yikes. Needless to say, I was a wreck. My milk had just come in and I had plenty to spare. I also had come down with a terrible cold and wanted to make sure my little guy had the antibodies from my milk.

But MacKay was pretty lethargic and wouldn't even make those little newborn noises when he was sleeping. He wouldn't even wake up when he was being pricked with needles and having his blood drawn. It was very tiring for him to nurse so I did go ahead and pump. After doing some of my own research on the matter and talking to a different nurse, I went ahead and gave him my expressed milk when he was too tired to latch on. Little MacKay loved being wrapped up in the bili blanket. The machine made a little buzzing noise and produced heat. At night, Bart and I had to set our alarm to wake up MacKay every three hours to eat. He was our nightlight with the blue light wrapped around his belly. We were all pretty tired--- so tired that I fell asleep on our bedroom floor for three hours in the middle of the night.

All the feeding and bili lights worked because the following day, after his third blood draw, his levels were starting to lower. By Monday afternoon, MacKay was taken off of the lights and we could snuggle our little guy without him being attached to a big old machine.

Here's some pics of MacKay. He loved those little blue lights.

We are grateful he is feeling much better!!

Surgery

Whitney was born with a small skin tag on her left ear. On December 28, we woke up super early and took a drive down to Children's Hospital to have it removed. I was hesitant and nervous about this surgery because she would have to be put under general anesthesia for the ordeal. We didn't really talk to Whitney about the surgery before hand because we knew that she would be nervous about it. Whitney isn't fond of doctors and was just starting to be brave when she went in for her regular check-ups.

When we arrived to the in-patient surgery area, she played with some of the toys. I wanted to brush her hair before the surgery, but she was so tired, and she gets major bed-head which totally needs de-tangler. We weren't supposed to use any lotions or potions on her before the surgery, so I just let the wild hair go.

She was a very brave little girl and got a new little doll when she was waiting to be taken back. She even got to wear a darling little yellow outfit which I wanted to keep for dress up. Too bad they made us return it. We sat with Whitney while the anesthesiologist talked to us about what would take place. We weren't allowed to go back with her which was hard for me and Bart. When we asked Whitney what happened she said, "A man put the mask on my face and said "breathe". " Uhhhh... SCARY!!!

When she awoke from surgery she wanted popsicles and was pretty emotional. She wanted to be rocked and loved for a while and then we took her home. She was a sleepy little dolly and had a rough afternoon. By the next morning, you would have NO idea that she had anything done. (Minus the bandage.) She was her busy little self!

We are thankful that all went well.

The night before the surgery: (I was trying to get some good shots of the skin tag.)

Waiting in her yellow suit:

Not in the best mood.. but she loves her Mermaid Doll.

Catch UP Christmas

Christmas 2010 morning was so exciting. I'm not sure who was looking forward to it more, Whitney or us. Her reaction to all the gifts by the tree was priceless. Whitney was SO into the whole Santa Claus thing this year which made it so fun for us. She was so excited when she saw her RED BIKE and loved opening presents. This is a magical age, which I absolutely love.

After we opened presents in the morning, we had the Heatons over for dinner and then topped off the night with Whitney's first theater movie: Toy Story 3. (At the dollar theater, of course!) She did pretty well.

She loves her Wiggles nightgown, pink shoes and red bike.

Here's our family photo on Christmas night.

My Little Man

My biggest regret when Whitney was a baby was that I didn't get newborn photos taken of her. I didn't want little MacKay's newborn days to pass without some good pictures of my little man. Ally was so sweet to come over on such short notice and take some wonderful pictures of MacKay and our family. Thank you, Ally. We love them.

I thought that his newborn pics would be mostly him with little shut eyes all snuggly in pictures. Well, he didn't want to stop moving. MacKay has a strong little body and can hold up his head up when he's on his belly. This made it sort of difficult to put him in "any" pose we wanted. He was pretty much awake the entire time, but was a real trooper and didn't fuss or cry.

Here are some of our favorites:

Big Sister

Whitney is a great big sister. She has loved MacKay from the minute she understood there was a "Baby Brother" in my tummy. At the mall, she told Santa she wanted a "Baby Brother and a bike" for Christmas. Well, Santa came through.

I thought when she came to the hospital, she would just want to be my little friend, but she gave me one look and said, "Where's baby brother?"

Each morning she comes into my room wanting to make sure Baby Brother is there and gives him smootches, loves and kisses. Sometimes she'll lean over him and say, "I love you!"

She gets a high pitched voice and says comments like,

"Ooooh, look at him! You are so tiny! Look at your hands! He is so cute!"

She is a cute little mother, a big helper and has been SOOOOO good for me during such a transitional time. Like most Moms (I think?) feel, I miss being with my little Dolly like I was just last week. We were the best of pals. Newborns take a lot of time (and are worth it all).

Whitney now has a new friend, my Mom, or "Katy" as she calls her. They play together all day long and Whitney has the run of the house. I can't tell you how nice it feels to have help here. My Mom is a life-saver! I am so happy she could come out on such short notice.

Helping Daddy get MacKay ready at the hospital:

Eating ice cream with Daddy:

Loving this lounge chair that used to be hers but is now MacKay's (Yes, it's very pink.. and, yes, he loves it!):

Loving her new role as Sister:

Whitney's all-time favorite thing to do is play in the sink and "do dishes." Here she is doing dishes in my hospital room:

He's Here!

Presenting:

MacKay Carlisle Paxton

January 3, 2011

6 lbs 11 oz

19.5 inches

3:31 am

Birthing Story:

Saturday (January 1st) late in the evening, I started having some bad cramping and irregular contractions. Since I was exactly 38 weeks, and I didn't have Whitney until almost 41 weeks, I decided not to get my hopes up for an early delivery. The entire night I had weird cramping, and it led into the following day.

Sunday during church, I was uncomfortable to say the least. I kept thinking, "Man, I can't believe I'm going to feel this crummy for 2 more weeks!" I was getting super swollen, to the point where I must have been complaining a lot because Sunday after church, Whitney put on my ONLY pair of shoes that I could squeeze my feet into and said, "I'm SO swollen!" as she walked around the house.

Sunday afternoon, I really needed to get out of the house and go on a walk. Kendall joined me in freezing temperatures and it felt SO good to get out and walk. It was my only relief from pain. She kept saying, "Maybe you'll go early!" I still wasn't convinced.

Whitney took a super long nap that afternoon, and I went to lay next to her to sort of wake her up. Before I knew it we were both waking up around 5:30 pm. I guess I was really tired.

Because Whitney took such a late and long nap, I knew she wouldn't go to bed until around 10 pm. So I laid next to her in her bed as she and I read books and talked. When I "tried" getting out of bed, I honestly felt like the baby was just going to fall right out of me.

Then I started having some hard contractions.

I decided I better shower.

Around 10:30 pm, I used the restroom and I was bleeding. I was still having short (10-20 second) contractions but they hurt really bad. Bart and I were debating on what we should do. Around 11:30 pm we decided to call Kendall and Ryan to come stay with sleeping Whitney so we could go over to the hospital to get checked. I really thought that I would get checked and they would say, "Oh, everything is just fine. You're still at a 1-2 cm."

I am sure I gave Kendall a fright when I was trying to put on my jacket and I had to hunch over the staircase because I was in pain.

As we drove to Riverside Hospital, I am sure I was still in denial. Bart kept telling me that, YES, he did think I was in labor. For some reason, I just didn't. Shock, maybe?

We walked into the hospital and up to the labor and delivery area. I was sort of bugged because I didn't have on any makeup and my hair was wet. I didn't even get a "before delivery" picture to document how large my belly was. I just wanted to get some makeup on because if this was the real deal, I didn't want to look like a nightmare in all the pics. You may think that's vain, but I'm just being honest.

As I was waiting to be checked in triage, the nurses kept laughing at me trying to do my hair and makeup (without a mirror, mind you) in between contractions. Although I wasn't fully satisfied with my "do" I figured that was as good as it was going to get. The contractions were super hard and about 1-2 minutes apart.

Next, the nurse checked me and said, "Oh, you're almost a 6. You're having this baby tonight!"

Say what?

I was glad that bed had wheels on it because I just don' think I could have walked to the next area. I started making a lot of noise during contractions, which I am sure was embarrassing for Bart. But if you're going to have a baby, you might as well make it dramatic, right?

After using the restroom in the delivery room, I kept asking for my epidural. It was at this point I really felt like natural birth (no epidural) is insane.

Luckily, the anesthesiologist came in around 1:30 am to get me going on some drugs. THANK YOU!!!

I asked him, "Are you fast?"

I just didn't want to be in a contraction while he was shooting me up with drugs.

He said, "I'm efficient."

We had a very sweet L&D nurse who took good care of me. Bart's jokes didn't start to get funny until my epidural set in- but then I thought he was really funny. Yes, a working epidural is awesome.

I was rapidly progressing and quite comfortable. I kept saying, "THIS is what childbirth should feel like! It should be the reward after being uncomfortable for 9 months."

We were waiting for the resident to come and break my water. Soon I was at a 10 and my water broke on it's own. But there was a problem:

My water had a ton of dark wine-colored blood in it. I was bleeding and we needed to get our little guy out. They had already called the "on call" doctor, and he was on his way to the hospital. With each contraction, our baby's heart rate was dropping and it would take a while for it to return to normal. The resident told me that they might have to use the vacuum on him to get him out faster. I didn't want the vacuum, but I was very scared that he wouldn't get out fast enough.

It was time to push. We decided that we didn't want wait for the doctor, so the resident "suited up" in her space suit. Bart stood at my left side.

I felt the urge to push and gave it a bit of effort.

I don't remember this, but the resident said, "Okay, let's get the vacuum."

Bart remembers me saying, "Hold on, I've got it!"

I pushed one more time and out he came. Now, that was a lot easier than my first labor.

I saw his tiny, little wrinkly blue body.

He started crying after a few seconds. He needed to be checked immediately because of all my bleeding.

He looked great, and didn't seem to have problems. I then got to hold him for some skin to skin and he was a great little nurser. He kept looking up at me and was so snuggly and cute.

For about 5 hours after his birth I had to stay in the delivery room because I kept bleeding. I am so grateful for modern-day medicine and that I was able to have my baby in a hospital where trained doctors knew exactly what to do to help my baby and me. After getting a shot of medicine, I stopped the heavy bleeding. Luckily, I didn't loose enough blood to need a transfusion and I am fine.

I was then wheeled into my recovery room and they brought our little boy into see us. At this point I was beyond exhausted as was Bart.

We love our little boy, MacKay. I am grateful for guardian angels who made sure everything went well.

MacKay has a sweet disposition and is patient with me. He's been through a lot this first week. He now has jaundice and is under billi-ights 24 hours. The last two blood draws, he hasn't even made a peep or fussed. What a sweet boy. We love him so much.

MacKay's first photo:

Mommy & Baby Brother: (See what I mean about the hair? Oh, well. What can you do?)

Daddy & his boy:

So sweet:

Baby Brother & Whitney