Uncle Jace and Dylan

Dylan's blessing day--16th September, 2007

Having a bath with Grandma!

Such a serious little guy!

Dylan's big weigh in...

I took Dylan to the baby clinic at the Children's Centre on Wednesday for his weigh in. We also went to the breastfeeding support group, which was really good. The health visitor who weighed him was really impressed by how alert he was and how great his color is. She was also impressed by his weight. My little 9.5 lb. baby has grown--he now weighs a whopping 10 lbs. 11.5 oz. I was so pleased to hear that, especially since he was so slow to regain his birth weight. Well, he's caught up now and is getting a little more plump every day. I can hardly believe how big he's getting!

This morning the little guy actually rolled over onto his tummy all by himself. I was amazed! I turned around for just a second, turned back and he was on his belly. I'm pretty sure that 4 weeks old is really early to be doing that. I am thinking that maybe he'll reach all those baby milestones early. He's already started doing that social smiling thing.

In Martin news, he has decided to take the job at Winteringham Fields. He'll start there in two weeks. I'm not happy about it as it means we'll have even less time together than we already do, but we'll make it work. He's excited anyway. I'm not thrilled that I'll be spending 10-12 hours 5 days a week home alone with a newborn baby, but I'm sure I'll adjust.

Anyway, the little monkey just woke up and is wanting attention. I'll try to post a few pictures one handed. We'll see how that goes.

The Departure...

After two lovely weeks over in England, my parents and Jace flew back to the good ol' USA today. It has been great to have them, and I was sad to see them go. It was a little bit tough to have company that soon after my c-section, but it actually turned out to be a good thing as it forced me to push myself a little bit for a faster recovery. Plus, mom took Dylan a few times when he woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to play but I was too tired to cope.

So here's my post to say thank you to them for all they did for our little family while they were here. And I also need to say thank you to everyone who sent us lovely stuff for Dylan. We loved all of the stuff. Dylan is already an extremely spoiled little boy, and it's great.

Anyway, so now it's back to our routine (or back to trying to establish a routine). I'm taking Dylan in to the baby clinic tomorrow to get weighed, so I'll keep everyone posted there. Oh, and Martin has handed in his notice at The Place and has been offered a job at Winteringham Fields as well as been contacted about a management position at Costa Coffee in Hull. I'll keep everyone posted on that as well. Me, well, I'm a housewife now so all of my posts will probably be about Dylan and Martin--my two best boys!

Adjusting to life with Dylan...

Another really quick post--I just wanted everyone to know that we're doing really well. Mom and dad are here visiting (with Jace) and it's great to have them here. A little exhausting, but great. Mom is actually cooking dinner right now and Martin is holding Dylan (who has only slept for about 45 minutes today) giving me a little much needed free time.

I'm recovering well from the c-section. Every day gets a little better, though my body is still so tired that I struggle every day for the energy to do housework and cook meals. My incision is nearly healed now, and I might be able to drive again in about a week--depending.

We've had a few little scares with Dylan--we thought he'd had extreme weight loss, but it turned out that the midwives' scle was off. Plus he's been doing this weird twitching thing, and we had to take him in to the hospital for that. The pediatrician says it's benign Myoclonus, and he should grow out of it. At any rate, he still twitches but he has regained his birth weight plus now, and he is still a really good eater. Especially today. I think he must be going through a growth spurt.

Must run now--I feel guilty for not helping with dinner or the baby. He have some more cute pictures that I'll post soon!

Our happy little family!

Dylan and I enjoy a little cuddle that doesn't involve my breast being out--what a relief!!!

Martin cuddles Dylan after he's done feeding. It's the only time he gets to hold Dylan when he's not crying!

VERY quick post...

Martin, Dylan, and I are all doing really well. It's hard to believe that he's nearly 2 weeks old! Dylan is a brilliant baby--he only cries if he's hungry. Unfortunately, he's hungry right now and I can't type with one hand. I'm going to have to feed him soon. Please enjoy the pictures until I can write more.

Dylan John Gilbert's birth story...

Well, it’s been nearly a week since I went into labour, and I finally feel up to writing down the whole experience without crying like a baby myself!

Last Monday was a bank holiday, and Martin and I went to the Cleethorpes seafront with some friends for a picnic. We had a great time, though I was really tired and feeling VERY heavily pregnant. I was eight days over due at that point. But we did a lot of walking, and I played catch with Martin and ate about half a pineapple (you never know what’s going to work, right?).

That night I felt a little bit off. I just put it down to the very active day we’d just had. But then I got up for my nightly 4 am toilet run. On my way back from the bathroom I felt a warm gush. I knew I hadn’t peed myself because I had literally just peed one minute before. So that was it—my waters broke on the upstairs landing about 3:45 am on Tuesday the 28^th..

I woke Martin up, and we called the hospital. They paged the Barton team midwives, and we called my parents and his parents to let them know that things were starting. We were tired, but REALLY excited!

When the midwife arrived at 5:00 am, she did an internal exam. Having an exam in my own bedroom was so bizarre! I was still absolutely gushing amniotic fluid, and it had a greenish tinge to it, so she told us that we needed to get to the hospital fairly soon in case it was meconium even though I wasn’t having any contractions yet. So I got a shower and we made our way to the hospital.

We arrived just after 6 am, and by the time we got there I was having contractions every 5 minutes. They weren’t very painful, but they were definitely noticeable. We got booked in, but had to wait until noon to be seen by a doctor because there were two emergency c-sections being done that morning. So we went for a little walk, got some breakfast, bounced on the birthing ball, etc. My contractions kept getting more painful, but nothing I couldn’t manage.

I was finally seen at noon, and things went rapidly downhill from there. The doctor started me on Syntocin to increase the frequency of my contractions, and it worked a treat. Unfortunately, though I was contracting every 3 minutes or so, my cervix was not dilating. In fact, it never dilated to more than one cm. I tried gas and air, but it just made me sick and I spent the rest of my labour experience vomiting every 30 minutes or so. The pain became too much to bear at around 6 pm, so I asked for an epidural. Unfortunately, the anesthetist was assisting in yet another c-section, so I didn’t get the epidural until about 8:30 pm. Finally, after having regular contractions for around 20 hours (about 12 of those hours being hard contractions) the doctors decided to do an emergency c-section. I was so happy that I cried. I honestly don’t think I would have had the energy to give birth naturally at that point anyway, even if I could have!

I had a spinal block (the anesthetist said that my epidural was “patchy” and had probably only been working at about 30%) and it was so good to not be in pain any more. They started prepping me for surgery at about 12:30 am on Wednesday the 29^th of August, and Dylan John made his appearance at 1:00 am exactly.

It was hard for me to not be able to hold him right from the beginning. I just wanted to hold him close and kiss him. But Martin was great—he cut the cord and then held Dylan for me to see him the whole time they were stitching me up and I was in recovery being observed. I finally got to hold him at about 3 am, and it was more wonderful than I ever imagined.

We spent all day Wednesday and Thursday in the hospital and came home Friday evening at around 6 pm. They wanted me to stay another day, but I just wanted to get home. The staff were wonderful—especially the midwife who attended the birth and the one who helped me establish breast feeding on Wednesday morning. After months of worry and disgust with the NHS, they totally redeemed themselves in my eyes.

Dylan is absolutely perfect, and I have spent the last 6 days falling madly in love with him. It took a little while for me to realize that this perfect little boy is the baby I’ve been carrying all this time. I think it’s because I was so detached from the actual birth. But we have definitely bonded now, and even though he still scares me sometimes and I am completely overwhelmed by parenthood, I have never been so happy in my life. We waited over 5 years for this little guy, and he was worth all of it!