Stretch It Out

The neck stretches that we've been doing with Carter for the last week have helped out tremendously. He is already straightening up his head and I was even able to lay him down tonight with his head facing the other direction for once! I was kinda worried that he'd be stuck like this for a while, but it's looking like a speedy recovery. He was also having a serious problem with spitting up, but I switched him to Enfimil A.R. formula and his spitting up has gotten a lot less.

We got a jogging stroller from daddy for Christmas, so now it's time for mommy to get back in shape. So far I've gone on two walks with it. I'm not quite up to the jogging yet, but have been doing some serious power walking. It helps that I live in Tennessee and there is nothing but hills in my neighborhood, so I should be forming buns of steel soon.

Anyway, I'm making this quick because Carter man just went to bed (11:30) and I'm headed that way right now. Later.

Birth Trauma

Birth trauma has defined Carter's life ever since...well...birth. As you may already know, due to Carter's large size ( 9 lbs. 6 oz. ) his collar bone was broken as he was making his way into this world. As tramatizing as that was for me, he finally got better and I thought he could finally be a normal baby. Well I was wrong. I had noticed that he always slept with his head turned to the same side and when he was in his swing or car seat it was the same way. He was starting to develop a flat spot on the one side of his head, so I told the doctor about it at his 1 month check up today. He looked at him and determined he had Torticollis. This is a condition that is caused by the over tightening of his neck muscle and it pulls his head to one side. This was also a result of birth trauma. The doctor said it could be fixed by stretching his head to the opposite side everytime we change his diaper, but if that doesn't fix it then physical therapy may be necessary.

I'm usually not one to get too worked up about things like this, but it's really starting to wear on me. I just want my baby to be healthy and happy and I feel like he's been suffering his entire life so far. I just hope that the neck stretches will correct this problem, because I really don't want to have my newborn in physical therapy. He's already been through so much.

All I have to say about this situation is that if I know I'm going to have a large baby next time, I'm going to have a C-section. I'd rather have my belly cut open then have my baby injured. But we have to deal with what we were dealt right now and all I can do is pray for a speedy recovery. I just gotta have faith that God will take care of this child and he'll be okay eventually.

Fatsy Patsy

So ever since Carter came home from the hospital our dogs haven't gotten quite the same kind of attention that they used to get. Let's face it, they went from being our "babies" that got pushed around in strollers for entertainment to being just our dogs. So in their depression I have noticed that they had been eating a lot more than usual; especially Patsy. They went from sharing 2 1/2 scoops of food a day to eating about 4 -5 scoops of food a day. They would scarf the first 2 1/2 scoops down in the morning and then at night they would sit by the bowl and beg for more. How could I turn them down?

Well, I walked into my bedroom the other night to see Patsy laying on my nice pillows from my bed and I noticed that she looked a lot fatter than usual. She's a very tiny Pug and only weighed 14 lbs the last time she was at the Vet. This is very tiny compared to my first Pug, Otis, who weighed 32 lbs. Since I thought she looked bigger than usual, I decided to put her on our scale. It's a cheap scale and may not be that accurate, but none the less it said she weighed around 19 or 20 lbs!!!! Holy cow, dog! How did you gain 5 lbs?! Now that I pay more attention, she does look like a swollen sausage. I wish it wasn't so cold or I would take her on a walk, but I can't take the baby out in this.

So for now, she will be going by the alias Fatsy Patsy. So fitting.

Strong Baby

Carter seems to be pretty strong for a 3 week old. I don't know, you be the judge.

Carter on Camera

Here's a little clip of our baby in action.

Labor Pains

Warning: This blog will describe my labor in detail and unless you want to hear about fluids and cervixes, you may want to close it out right now.

I checked into the hospital on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 8:00 p.m. After getting me hooked up to an IV, blood pressure cuff, and 2 belly monitors, the nurse slipped a small pill into my vagina to help ripen my cervix. I must admit this pill felt like a football, but I'm sure it was much smaller. At that point I was 1 cm dialated and 70% effaced. She said she would be back in 4 hours to insert another pill and that I should try and get some sleep. What a joke! First off, as if the monitors on my belly weren't uncomfortable enough, the blood pressure cuff would squeeze my harm very tightly once every hour. Needless to say, 4 hours went by and I got no sleep at all. She inserted the 2nd pill at about 1 a.m. and at that point I was 2 cm dialated and 80% effaced. I once again tried to get some shut eye, but had no luck. At 2 a.m. my contractions started. I was watching the monitor and they were peaking out at the very top and I was astonished that they didn't hurt that bad. I could feel that my uterus was getting extremely tight, but the pain just wasn't that bad. I couldn't figure it out. Then at 3:00 a.m. I decided to call my mom, because I needed someone there that could understand what I was going through. I think she got there at about 4:30 a.m., just in time for my water to break at 4:45 a.m. I was attempting to get out of bed and move around a little bit before the pain got too bad and as I was doing that the flood gates burst. The doctor told me I had a lot of fluid in there and she wasn't lying. To my surprise the nurse acted a little upset about me messing up part of the bed as if something like this had never happened before.

Once my water broke I decided to get back in bed. At that point the nurse asked me if I wanted to get in line for my epidural, because the guy was there to do it and he had 2 ladies in front of me. I didn't really want to do it that early, but decided to get in line while I had the chance. Good thing I did. After my water broke, the pain set in. My contractions were only about half as strong as they were in the beginning but they hurt about 4 times as bad. You can never begin to understand the pain that goes along with labor contractions until you experience them. I've experienced a lot of pain in my life, but this was by far the worst. None of my menstrual cramps, broken bones, or tattoos could ever match the pain I felt with these contractions. Keep in mind I've had to take heavy pain killers for my cramps, I have a very large tattoo on my back (along with two other tattoos), and I've broken two fingers and my tailbone. This was a new kind of pain and that epidural couldn't come soon enough.

At about 6:00 or 6:30 a.m. I got my epidural and I was about 3 cms dialated if I remember correctly. I hated the guy that gave it to me because he was a major jerk and was yelling at me because my muscle would spasm when he put the needle in my back. I couldn't help it!! I had no control over what my muscle decided to do. He also told my husband how he was glad Notre Dame was doing poorly because he didn't like big colleges like that. Ass! Once he got the epidural set he asked me to tell him if I tasted metal in my mouth or had ringing in my ears. I was praying neither of these things would happen, but after a few seconds I could feel my heart rate jump through the roof and I heard it pounding in my ears. I hesitated to tell him, but thought I'd better go ahead because I didn't know what was going on. He then said in an angry tone that he was going to have to start all over because he had his a blood vessel. *Keep in mind this guy was very pessimistic and kept telling me the entire time how it may not work and he doesn't garauntee anything*. He started over and explained that he basically had no idea where he was placing it because he couldn't see inside my spine. The second time around I heard nothing and tasted nothing, so it seemed as though he had placed it correctly this time. I got back in bed and in about 15 to 20 mins my legs went numb. This made me very happy, but at the same time was a little unnerving. The epidural was so heavy that I couldn't move or control my left leg at all. It kept wanting to slip off the side of the bed and I couldn't do anything about it. Kinda weird.

The nurse checked me once again and I was at 4 cms. It was at this point that I finally felt like I could get some rest. Brett's mom and my dad were called and they both were planning on arriving at the hospital at about 11:00 or maybe a little later. At some point my epidural began to wear off on the left side and I was feeling some pretty terrible pain once again. I told the nurse and she hit the red button to give me a second dose and that seemed to make all the pain go away. I had a little more feeling in my legs this time around which I felt much better about.

Once 10:30 rolled around the nurse checked me again and I was at 9 1/2 cms. She couldn't believe I was already so far along and it was going to be time to push. She made a call to the doctor and began to get everything ready to get this baby out. My mom got on the phone with my dad, who was still at work, and told him to hurry up because the baby was on the way. At about 11:00 am or so the doctor checked me and said the baby had already moved down through the birth canal and his head was knocking at the door. She said my body had already done the hardest part and that all I had to do was finish pushing him out. So I began pushing and was making a little progress with every push. To make a long story a little shorter, they turned off my epidural so I could feel my contractions, the doctor gave me a shot of numbing agent towards the end so I couldn't feel the burning sensation down there, then she gave me a 2nd degree episiotomy, and Carter Joseph Mitchell entered this world at 11:45 a.m. on November 19, 2009. As he was making his grand entrance about 10 gallons of amniotic fluid shot across the room. It was like Niagra Falls in there. I felt a ton lighter, but they needed a mop to clean it up. Due to Carter's large size the doctor and another nurse had to tug on him pretty hard to get his shoulders out and he ended up with a broken collar bone. Poor baby. He weighed in at 9 lbs. 6 oz. and was 21 in. long.

It's been 12 days and we're adjusting to life with this new baby in it. I find the biggest struggle we have is getting his pacifier to stay in his mouth. Really, I've debated putting tape on it to keep it in. He fusses to have it, but then spits it out every 30 seconds. This has led to 2 sleepless nights, but the rest have been good. I didn't have any luck getting him to nurse, but have been able to pump and feed him with the bottle. It may be double the work, but it's totally worth it. He's the best early Christmas present God could have ever given me. Me and his daddy love him sooooooooo much. We look forward to watching him grow up and raising him in the ways of the Lord.