Friday, December 17, 2010

Diggy

He's starting to suck on things. His current favorites: his fist and my finger (and apparently Josh's nose)


Not the best picture to capture this, but he always tries to hold his bottle. It's the cutest thing... he just can't do it by himself quite yet.


We went to see the lights at Temple Square. This one is by the tree in the Joseph Smith Building.


He is a smiling machine. He laughs at the dumb things we say and the funny noises we make at him.


He loves tummy time. I've started putting him on the boppy too and he loves that. He has been holding his head up since like day 3. He rolls over too, which I have on film, but not in picture form.




Monday, December 6, 2010

Baby blessing

This weekend we were so lucky to have our family come out for Dane's blessing. Josh seriously did an amazing job. Here are some photos:












Saturday, November 27, 2010

Hospital Pics and Others

Bath Time


Preparing for him to throw up after eating (before the surgery)


At the hospital








First Thanksgiving




Friday, November 26, 2010

Pyloric Stenosis

It's been awhile since I last blogged because things have been pretty crazy over here. Let me give you a little idea of what our sweet baby has been through these past few weeks...

When Dane was born he was a great baby. Pretty much he would only cry if he were hungry, tired or had a dirty diaper. We thought we were really lucky to have such a great baby. Then at about 3 weeks old he started crying a ton while we would feed him. He would arch his back, he would cry and just wouldn't be comfortable. We thought it was because we switched up his formula, so we went between a few formulas to see if that would help. Then he started to throw up. We took him to the pediatrician to get checked out and he was diagnosed with reflux.

We ended up putting him on some medicine, which he would throw up after we would give it to him. So, after a couple of days of that not working and him still throwing up (about once a day), we went back to the doctor. They switched his meds and we were totally hopeful that this would work. Another couple days go by and still nothing was working. Then last Sunday night, he threw up blood in the middle of the night. We took him to the ER to get checked out.

They said the blood most likely came from a tear in his esophagus from throwing up so much and told us to see our doctor first thing that morning and to get a referral to get an ultrasound down on his stomach. I did some research before going to the ER and found a problem called Pyloric Stenosis. After reading all of the symptoms, it sounded like something he may have. I really did not want this to be the case because the only treatment was surgery. There was no way I wanted my little boy to have to go through something like that.

So, the next morning, we went to the pediatrician and he felt his stomach to try and feel for the pyloric stenosis and he couldn't feel anything but told us to get an ultrasound done to rule it out for sure. Especially because that day he had already thrown up 3 times, so whatever was going on, was getting worse.

Pyloric Stenosis is when the muscle between the stomach and the intestines is so thick and tight that food can't make it from the stomach down to the intestine, so he throws everything back up because he can't digest the food.

We took him to the hospital and he had the ultrasound. The radiologist came right in and confirmed that he did in fact have pyloric stenosis and we would need to go to Primary Children's Hospital right then to get him prepped for surgery :( I immediately started to cry. I was so devastated, but also relieved to know what was going on and that this could be fixed. They also assured me that this was actually more common than I thought and babies have this done frequently and to not worry.

We headed straight up to the hospital and were admitted immediately and taken to our room. Josh came right over from work and his mom is also in town and was able to be there with us. They put in Dane's IV and that was soooo hard to see. I couldn't watch. His sweet little hand had to be poked and he was crying so hard. The other thing they told us was that if he was going to go into surgery, we couldn't feed him, so he ate last at 11am that morning.

They wanted to check his electrolytes to make sure he could have the surgery that night and that he wasn't too dehydrated from throwing up. They took his blood, came back and told us we would have to wait until the following morning for the surgery because he wasn't hydrated enough :( More fasting for him... so Josh and I took turns all night (2 hour shifts) holding him and comforting him because he was so hungry all night. They had his IV in and he was getting fluids, so he was fine, but he didn't think he was fine, because he was starving. Poor baby. The next morning they were able to take him into surgery at 9am. I was so scared.  The surgeon again said everything would be fine and he does these procedures a lot. In fact, he did the same one the night before for another baby.

We took him down to surgery and it was only about 40 minutes later that he was done. The surgeon came in and let us know that it was definitely what they thought it was and they were able to fix it. They make 3 small incisions on his stomach and cut into that muscle to loosen it up. He said Dane did wonderfully and that we would just need to wait another 30 minutes before we could go see him. The bad news was he still had to wait another 8 hours after surgery to start eating. And when we could feed him, we had to start small at only 1/2 an oz (when he used to eat 3-4 oz).

We stayed in the hospital all day Tuesday and we had to make sure he didn't throw up, and he never did! It was a miracle! I can't imagine a baby that doesn't throw up. Before, it was like I expected to be thrown up on, because it was so normal. Now, I'm still nervous it will happen, but it never does! Dane is doing amazing and he doesn't seem to be in any pain anymore. Our happy baby is back. He still cries of course, but nothing at all like before. I feel soooo blessed that everything went so smoothly and that he is now comfortable and we were able to find the problem quickly. We got to come home Wednesday afternoon.

I'm so thankful for all of my friends and family and their prayers for us. I'm so grateful for modern medicine and that this problem could be fixed. A long time ago, when doctor's didn't know what was wrong, babies with this condition would pass away because the muscle would just get tighter and tighter until food could no longer be digested. It makes me so happy to live at this time where he could get the help he needed and have this surgery, because his symptoms were getting worse and worse.

We are now home, happy and healthy. We are so blessed.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Nursing.... HELP!

Note: This post may be TMI, but I need help and advice.

No one ever told me before Dane came that nursing doesn't come naturally for everyone and it's not always easy. I just assumed it would happen and we wouldn't have any problems. Boy, was I wrong. Over the past 3 weeks I have just been having the hardest time and I don't know what to do. Supposedly, 90% of women have trouble breast feeding, so I know I'm not the only one. My problem is this...This sweet boy of mine loves his tongue (if you can't tell by the pictures) and he loves to suck on his tongue. Because of this he does not latch well at all and it hurts.

For the first few days in the hospital, we had a lactation consultant helping us get his latch right, which we never really succeeded in while I was there. It was painful, but everyone kept telling me that it gets better and to just keep at it and it would get better; however, since he wasn't latched right, it only got worse. It was so bad I would cringe and grab something every time he would latch on because it hurt so bad. It got to the point, that I started supplementing him with formula because I just couldn't do it until I healed some. So, I would just pump and feed him some milk from me and some formula until I felt better to start trying again.

I started going to a new lactation consultant since I've been home. She's been awesome and has helped me get him latched on correctly. The only problem is, she can do it, and I can't. Every time in her office she is able to get him on. She teaches me what to do, but for some reason, when I try it myself at home, we can't do it. I get soooo stressed out and I cry about it a lot because I feel like I'm failing. I also don't have a great milk supply, so if I try to pump, I don't get enough for me to just pump and feed, I have to supplement with formula for him to get enough to eat.

My dilemma... I want to continue trying sooo bad and get it right. I want him to have the health benefits of breast milk, I want to have that special bond with him, I want to do it because I always thought I would. Not to mention, it's convenient and free. But, it stresses me out so bad to the point that I dread him waking him because I know I'm going to have to feed him and it's going to hurt pretty bad. I just don't know what to do. I think I might still try for another week or two, but I feel like it might be better for my sanity to just give him a bottle of formula.

Does anyone have any advice or have been in this situation? I really need some help from someone who has been here before. If you prefer to email me instead of leave a comment, I would love that as well... tiffaustin88@gmail.com

Thanks for listening and for the support!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Happy 2 Weeks!



Here we are ... parents for two weeks now. I can't even tell you how I feel. There are so many emotions after you have a baby that there's no way you can ever be prepared :) The first week was hard. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but it was much different than I expected. I knew I would be exhausted, I knew I would worry about a lot of things, but I didn't know I would cry for no reason, or that I would get up to check on Dane any time I heard him make a weird noise to make sure he was still breathing. Before he came, I thought he'd sleep so much that I'd have time to do other things... no way. There's not time, haha. But obviously I would not change it for the world.

Dane is the sweetest, most precious little boy in the whole wide world. If I could I would just snuggle him all day. We love him so much. I thought I would be overwhelmed by emotion and love the minute he was born, but I didn't and I felt guilty that I didn't. Everyone always said that you feel a love you've never felt before when you see them for the first time, so I was expecting that. When it didn't happen, I cried and thought I wasn't a good mom.... but after 2 weeks I have that love that everyone was talking about. It just didn't come all at once like it does for others. 

I can't believe what a good baby he already is though. He really only cries when he needs to be changed or needs to eat. There have been a couple times that he has cried and we didn't know why, but I think he was a little gassy. He usually just falls asleep or wakes up content. He will just sit in our lap and look around. Last night, we got a couple of 3 hour stretches of sleep....so nice. :) He's so alert and he's been picking up his head since like day 2 or 3. It's crazy. Even the pediatrician was amazed. He told us that Dane is progressing really well. He is using his hands and grabbing everything and the dr. said they usually don't start doing that until around 2 months. Dane has gained more than his birth weight back and is actually tall for his age (about the 70th percentile). 
We have also had the help of soooo many people and we are so lucky. Especially from my mom and Josh's mom. To everyone else... thank you!

We got his newborn pictures done and I have added some of our favorites:





As you can tell he loves to stick his tongue out ALL the time... I just think it's absolutely adorable.