So, first i would like to apologize to every other new mom that i know for continuously begging for information, updates, and photos right after their baby was born. I now know exactly why it always took everyone so long to get online and post pictures and blogposts. Because life is just too good to pause and get on the computer for more than a few seconds at a time. As a matter of fact I couldn't sit here and write all of this in one sitting, i wrote bits and pieces of this post over the course of three days!
I already know this post is going to be long, because I have so much to catch up on. But I will stick mostly to the details and just add a few personal thoughts in between to keep this from being a novel...
labor and delivery:
We went to the hospital on Saturday, August 15th at about 2:45pm. I think that day we were more anxious than ANY other time in our life. We originally had a plan to go in and be induced that day since Russ was home from work all weekend (he works an hour away, and i was really nervous about actually going into labor without him close by), and the doctor i wanted to deliver my baby was on call at the hospital.
I was only dilated to a 1, but was having semi-regular contractions already and i didn't even know it. So they went ahead and admitted me about an hour and a half later, and let me have contractions on my own until about 6:30 pm when they gave me a pitocin drip to help move things along. I then started having contractions too close together, so they dropped my pitocin down to a very minimal amount and i stayed that way until about 3:30 in the morning when my water broke on it's own. I had only dilated to a 3 or so when my water broke, so i just stayed on some pain medicine and then got my epidural about 2 1/2 hours later, then just a short time later i had dilated to a 9 almost 10, and they started bringing everything in for delivery, we just had to wait for the doctor. Finally, around 11 am i started pushing, and she was born at 11:34 and 56 seconds on Sunday, August 16th. She weighed 7 lbs, 11.8 oz, 19 inches long, and more beautiful than any baby i have ever seen. Seeing her for the first time, hearing her cry, and then holding her in my arms was a moment in time that I will absolutely never ever forget, I think I was too exhausted to cry as much as i wanted to, but there were definitely tears of joy from both me and russ. I am crying more right now thinking about it all again. My heart is so full.
in the hospital:
There were so many people there to visit us after Caedmon was born. She is very loved, by so many people. We got to see everyone briefly about an hour or so after she was born in the labor and delivery room, and then they brought me a tray of food (i was so happy about this) and i got to sleep for a little bit before they moved me into a "real room."
While there, from Sunday afternoon till Tuesday afternoon, we had so many visitors, but those moments in between visitors, and later in the evenings, the moments that just me and russ and caedmon were alone together will forever stay with me. Monday night was the first time that it really hit me that we had a daughter. I cried for quite awhile just holding her, and telling russ everything that i loved about having our own family. He just sat and listened to me, and i loved him so much for just letting me go on and on and on. Geez, i am crying so much right now going over all this in my mind and heart again... it is all so indescribable, so i won't even try to describe how i felt in that moment, or how i feel right now. God is just so good.
I'll keep going now.
On Monday morning Caedmon's pediatrician, Dr. Timberlake, came in to examine her for the first time, and then came in our room to discuss everything about her examination with us. Everything was just perfect, except that she had heard a slightly abnormal heart murmur when checking caedmon's heart. Russ and I were absolutely scared to death. She couldn't really tell us more, but she did let us know that an echocardiologist was coming later that day to look further into the situation and give her an echocardiogram? i don't really remember exactly what they did, or how they did it, because all i could think about was how worried i was, so i apologize for not having concrete information about that whole conversation... Anyways, we had to wait until her heart doctor, Dr. Donner, came to the hospital to review the test results before we would know anything else. That whole morning/afternoon was very cloudy cause i was just trying not to think about it, but couldn't help it, cause i was just so concerned for our little girl. Finally, he came in to talk to us about what they found, and basically this is the final diagnosis:
All babies are born with a heart murmur (a teeny tiny hole) in the top two chambers of the heart. They all have to have this little hole in order to survive in the womb. Caedmon has a tiny hole in the top two chambers just like she is supposed to, but she also has a tiny hole in between the bottom two chambers, and they diagnose this as VSD, Ventricular Septal Defect. I won't try to explain exactly what this means, cause i won't do it right, but here is a link on what exactly VSD is. (I hope you all feel a little smarter after reading about this medical stuff, cause I sure did...) The doctor wasn't concerned about the size of the hole, but would like to regularly monitor her in hopes that the hole will eventually heal itself. So the bad news, became a little better after finally knowing what the situation was, and knowing that we wouldn't have to do anything like take medication, or treat her any differently than a regular newborn. We were relieved at
We got to leave the hospital around 2 or 3 on Tuesday afternoon, and headed home for the first time as a family of three.
life at home:
So far Caedmon has been so wonderful. She is breast feeding so well, sleeping so well, and peeing/pooping so well. that is basically all she does so far... haha, but spending time with her all day long is so incredible. We continue to have lots of visitors at home, bringing us dinner, and just giving us some good company. I love having people over, and showing her off, I have never been so proud of anything my whole life. Getting my driver's license, graduating high school or college, getting any job I have ever had, owning a home, absolutely nothing can compare. I love being a mom, and figuring out how to live with her at home. Just feeding her, sleeping with her, giving her a bath, changing her diaper (russ has become a master at changing her too!) doing housework while she sleeps, taking short walks around the neighborhood with her, all the normal day-to-day adjustments have been so great, and I wouldn't like to spend my day doing anything besides being a mom. I like to consider all this new mom stuff as playing "house."
I do miss my husband terribly during the day, (he started back to work this past monday) but I can't describe how thankful I am for that man. Every single day i wait for him to get home and be with us. I think I have thanked him 100 times for working so hard for us, so I get to stay home with her. Our financial situation isn't the most ideal with only one income in this terrible economy right now, but it works for us, and we wouldn't change it for anything. I love that I get to experience everything that goes with being a parent all day long, rather than having to adjust all over again if i had to go back to work...
Here are a few highlights from her first two weeks: (these are directed towards caedmon so she can read them one day when she is older, and know all the little things that happened to her when she was brand new...)
- Your first bath at home went SO well! (and i was so nervous about bathing you for some reason before you got here) you didn't cry one single tear, you were so awake and alert and just looked at your daddy the whole time. You did spit up a little in the bathtub, but you were already naked, so we just washed it right off. After your bath things got a little messier... We thought you looked so adorable in your little hooded towel and we wanted to take pictures of you, even though i was hurrying your daddy to get a diaper on you, I made him stop for "one more picture" and just as i said that you pooped right in the floor. Your dad called it a "rookie mistake" and we both laughed. And then you peed on the changing pad cover. It was quite a funny first experience for all of us...
- Once this past week, while you were breastfeeding, milk came out of your nose and it blew a big bubble out of your nostril. I got really nervous cause you didn't breathe for a second, but then i laughed at how funny it all was (after you started breathing again... of course.)
- You slept through the night before you were two weeks old! We stayed up late (around 1:45 or 2am) and then you slept till almost 9 am! We were very surprised, but unfortunately i woke up in the night checking on you several times and russ had to wake up at 5:30 for work, so we didn't get to sleep through the night, but at least you did!
- You had your first car accident before you were even a week old... oops! We took you to your first doctor's appointment the Friday after you were born, and on our way out of our parking spot, the car directly behind us backed into our car! It was very scary at first, but you were asleep and never even batted your eyelid... It was the first time I had ever been in any kind of car accident even just a tiny "fender bender" that I can remember (unless my mom and dad had an accident when i was little and in the car with them, but i am unaware of any...) so we shared that first together (i think.)
There is so much more to say, and i will try to update often, but like i said at the very beginning of the post, life is just too good spending lots of time with this newborn baby, that I can't promise a daily post... but i have started on a "Things I Love" list and will hopefully continue this list for the first year of her life. I am simply writing down a short thought (or two) every day about something that i love about caedmon, about being her mom, about her amazing dad, etc.
I will try my best to post those every week.
things i love: week one
#1
the way russ always holds you just a little longer and gives you several more kisses everytime i'm ready for him to hand you to me.
#2
the cute little breathing/throat sounds you make when I'm feeding you.
#3
when you are sleeping and I lay you on my stomach and your arms hang down my sides and it looks like you are hugging me.
#4
I absolutely love looking into your big beautiful blue? eyes when you are awake. you stare right at me and my heart just feels so happy right then.
#5
that everyone tells me your beautiful and I know they aren't just saying that. it makes me so proud to be your mom.
#6
the really long hair on your ears (but for your sake, I hope it eventually goes away...)
#7
the way my shirt and hands smell after I've been holding you.
stay tuned for things i love: week two coming tomorrow!
Now it's picture time!
Everyone meet my beautiful baby girl, Caedmon Clair Burnett:
I have so many pictures that i want to show everyone but instead of
uploading all one million of them individually, i made a slideshow. There are a little over 60 pictures, but i promise it will take less than four and a half minutes to get through all the pictures. (it is worth it to see how cute she is in all the pictures!)
(you can turn the captions on or off by scrolling over the box until the menu bar
appears at the bottom of the box and simply click captions.)
thanks so much for reading our blog. we are so ridiculously happy to be parents, and we love sharing our new experiences with everyone. we hope that everyone else will love our little girl almost as much as we do. (there is no way anyone else can love her more than me & russ, except Jesus.)
P.S. Russ told me I was a great mom today, it felt really good to hear that. I think he's an even better dad.
I already know this post is going to be long, because I have so much to catch up on. But I will stick mostly to the details and just add a few personal thoughts in between to keep this from being a novel...
labor and delivery:
We went to the hospital on Saturday, August 15th at about 2:45pm. I think that day we were more anxious than ANY other time in our life. We originally had a plan to go in and be induced that day since Russ was home from work all weekend (he works an hour away, and i was really nervous about actually going into labor without him close by), and the doctor i wanted to deliver my baby was on call at the hospital.
I was only dilated to a 1, but was having semi-regular contractions already and i didn't even know it. So they went ahead and admitted me about an hour and a half later, and let me have contractions on my own until about 6:30 pm when they gave me a pitocin drip to help move things along. I then started having contractions too close together, so they dropped my pitocin down to a very minimal amount and i stayed that way until about 3:30 in the morning when my water broke on it's own. I had only dilated to a 3 or so when my water broke, so i just stayed on some pain medicine and then got my epidural about 2 1/2 hours later, then just a short time later i had dilated to a 9 almost 10, and they started bringing everything in for delivery, we just had to wait for the doctor. Finally, around 11 am i started pushing, and she was born at 11:34 and 56 seconds on Sunday, August 16th. She weighed 7 lbs, 11.8 oz, 19 inches long, and more beautiful than any baby i have ever seen. Seeing her for the first time, hearing her cry, and then holding her in my arms was a moment in time that I will absolutely never ever forget, I think I was too exhausted to cry as much as i wanted to, but there were definitely tears of joy from both me and russ. I am crying more right now thinking about it all again. My heart is so full.
in the hospital:
There were so many people there to visit us after Caedmon was born. She is very loved, by so many people. We got to see everyone briefly about an hour or so after she was born in the labor and delivery room, and then they brought me a tray of food (i was so happy about this) and i got to sleep for a little bit before they moved me into a "real room."
While there, from Sunday afternoon till Tuesday afternoon, we had so many visitors, but those moments in between visitors, and later in the evenings, the moments that just me and russ and caedmon were alone together will forever stay with me. Monday night was the first time that it really hit me that we had a daughter. I cried for quite awhile just holding her, and telling russ everything that i loved about having our own family. He just sat and listened to me, and i loved him so much for just letting me go on and on and on. Geez, i am crying so much right now going over all this in my mind and heart again... it is all so indescribable, so i won't even try to describe how i felt in that moment, or how i feel right now. God is just so good.
I'll keep going now.
On Monday morning Caedmon's pediatrician, Dr. Timberlake, came in to examine her for the first time, and then came in our room to discuss everything about her examination with us. Everything was just perfect, except that she had heard a slightly abnormal heart murmur when checking caedmon's heart. Russ and I were absolutely scared to death. She couldn't really tell us more, but she did let us know that an echocardiologist was coming later that day to look further into the situation and give her an echocardiogram? i don't really remember exactly what they did, or how they did it, because all i could think about was how worried i was, so i apologize for not having concrete information about that whole conversation... Anyways, we had to wait until her heart doctor, Dr. Donner, came to the hospital to review the test results before we would know anything else. That whole morning/afternoon was very cloudy cause i was just trying not to think about it, but couldn't help it, cause i was just so concerned for our little girl. Finally, he came in to talk to us about what they found, and basically this is the final diagnosis:
All babies are born with a heart murmur (a teeny tiny hole) in the top two chambers of the heart. They all have to have this little hole in order to survive in the womb. Caedmon has a tiny hole in the top two chambers just like she is supposed to, but she also has a tiny hole in between the bottom two chambers, and they diagnose this as VSD, Ventricular Septal Defect. I won't try to explain exactly what this means, cause i won't do it right, but here is a link on what exactly VSD is. (I hope you all feel a little smarter after reading about this medical stuff, cause I sure did...) The doctor wasn't concerned about the size of the hole, but would like to regularly monitor her in hopes that the hole will eventually heal itself. So the bad news, became a little better after finally knowing what the situation was, and knowing that we wouldn't have to do anything like take medication, or treat her any differently than a regular newborn. We were relieved at
We got to leave the hospital around 2 or 3 on Tuesday afternoon, and headed home for the first time as a family of three.
life at home:
So far Caedmon has been so wonderful. She is breast feeding so well, sleeping so well, and peeing/pooping so well. that is basically all she does so far... haha, but spending time with her all day long is so incredible. We continue to have lots of visitors at home, bringing us dinner, and just giving us some good company. I love having people over, and showing her off, I have never been so proud of anything my whole life. Getting my driver's license, graduating high school or college, getting any job I have ever had, owning a home, absolutely nothing can compare. I love being a mom, and figuring out how to live with her at home. Just feeding her, sleeping with her, giving her a bath, changing her diaper (russ has become a master at changing her too!) doing housework while she sleeps, taking short walks around the neighborhood with her, all the normal day-to-day adjustments have been so great, and I wouldn't like to spend my day doing anything besides being a mom. I like to consider all this new mom stuff as playing "house."
I do miss my husband terribly during the day, (he started back to work this past monday) but I can't describe how thankful I am for that man. Every single day i wait for him to get home and be with us. I think I have thanked him 100 times for working so hard for us, so I get to stay home with her. Our financial situation isn't the most ideal with only one income in this terrible economy right now, but it works for us, and we wouldn't change it for anything. I love that I get to experience everything that goes with being a parent all day long, rather than having to adjust all over again if i had to go back to work...
Here are a few highlights from her first two weeks: (these are directed towards caedmon so she can read them one day when she is older, and know all the little things that happened to her when she was brand new...)
- Your first bath at home went SO well! (and i was so nervous about bathing you for some reason before you got here) you didn't cry one single tear, you were so awake and alert and just looked at your daddy the whole time. You did spit up a little in the bathtub, but you were already naked, so we just washed it right off. After your bath things got a little messier... We thought you looked so adorable in your little hooded towel and we wanted to take pictures of you, even though i was hurrying your daddy to get a diaper on you, I made him stop for "one more picture" and just as i said that you pooped right in the floor. Your dad called it a "rookie mistake" and we both laughed. And then you peed on the changing pad cover. It was quite a funny first experience for all of us...
- Once this past week, while you were breastfeeding, milk came out of your nose and it blew a big bubble out of your nostril. I got really nervous cause you didn't breathe for a second, but then i laughed at how funny it all was (after you started breathing again... of course.)
- You slept through the night before you were two weeks old! We stayed up late (around 1:45 or 2am) and then you slept till almost 9 am! We were very surprised, but unfortunately i woke up in the night checking on you several times and russ had to wake up at 5:30 for work, so we didn't get to sleep through the night, but at least you did!
- You had your first car accident before you were even a week old... oops! We took you to your first doctor's appointment the Friday after you were born, and on our way out of our parking spot, the car directly behind us backed into our car! It was very scary at first, but you were asleep and never even batted your eyelid... It was the first time I had ever been in any kind of car accident even just a tiny "fender bender" that I can remember (unless my mom and dad had an accident when i was little and in the car with them, but i am unaware of any...) so we shared that first together (i think.)
There is so much more to say, and i will try to update often, but like i said at the very beginning of the post, life is just too good spending lots of time with this newborn baby, that I can't promise a daily post... but i have started on a "Things I Love" list and will hopefully continue this list for the first year of her life. I am simply writing down a short thought (or two) every day about something that i love about caedmon, about being her mom, about her amazing dad, etc.
I will try my best to post those every week.
things i love: week one
#1
the way russ always holds you just a little longer and gives you several more kisses everytime i'm ready for him to hand you to me.
#2
the cute little breathing/throat sounds you make when I'm feeding you.
#3
when you are sleeping and I lay you on my stomach and your arms hang down my sides and it looks like you are hugging me.
#4
I absolutely love looking into your big beautiful blue? eyes when you are awake. you stare right at me and my heart just feels so happy right then.
#5
that everyone tells me your beautiful and I know they aren't just saying that. it makes me so proud to be your mom.
#6
the really long hair on your ears (but for your sake, I hope it eventually goes away...)
#7
the way my shirt and hands smell after I've been holding you.
stay tuned for things i love: week two coming tomorrow!
Now it's picture time!
Everyone meet my beautiful baby girl, Caedmon Clair Burnett:
I have so many pictures that i want to show everyone but instead of
uploading all one million of them individually, i made a slideshow. There are a little over 60 pictures, but i promise it will take less than four and a half minutes to get through all the pictures. (it is worth it to see how cute she is in all the pictures!)
(you can turn the captions on or off by scrolling over the box until the menu bar
appears at the bottom of the box and simply click captions.)
thanks so much for reading our blog. we are so ridiculously happy to be parents, and we love sharing our new experiences with everyone. we hope that everyone else will love our little girl almost as much as we do. (there is no way anyone else can love her more than me & russ, except Jesus.)
P.S. Russ told me I was a great mom today, it felt really good to hear that. I think he's an even better dad.
2 comments:
I honestly got teary just reading this! Being a mom is such a precious gift from the Lord. I promise you will fall more in love each day and think they are cuter each day. She is just perfect! Soak it all up - they really do grow so fast.
Love reading this Diki! She is so precious. I knew ya'll would be amazing parents...I said it your whole pregnancy! Thank you for sharing Caedmon with all of us. Can't wait to hold her again. Love you guys!
Jennifer Morgan
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