Rough First Week

We only stayed in the hospital just over 24 hours after Ben was born. I wanted to sleep in my own bed!! We had to stop by the store on the way home because we wanted to get some diaper rash cream and a few other little things. I didn't feel too bad for just having a baby.. however, the meds i was on probably helped a lot in that respect. We got home and introduced Ben to his new home. He pretty much slept when he wasn't eating so it wasn't a bad first afternoon.
The first night we kept him in our room in a bassinet. i didn't get much sleep because Ben is a noisy sleeper and i woke at every little whine and coo. (he now sleeps in his crib in his own room)
Saturday we noticed he was a little yellow so we took him outside to get some sun. When we left the hospital, we were told that his bilicount was a little high. Sunday morning i noticed that he was REALLY yellow and also that his eyes were yellowish. So we took him back to the hospital to get him checked out. We were gonna take him in for his 5 day check up but he was only 4 days old. We decided that even if we couldn't get his check up then we still wanted him checked for jaundice. We were admitted to the ER where they took his blood and check his biliruben count. It was a 22, where as 0-8 is the normal. Ben was then admitted to the hospital for aggressive phototherapy treatment to help his blood count come down. The put and IV in him and covered his little eyes with protective gauze that had to stay there the entire hospital stay so the ultraviolet light wouldn't hurt his eyes. he looked so helpless lying there. He had to lay in this light that looked like a tanning bed while this light paddle was placed on his stomach and covered so it wouldn't fall off. Thankfully, Ben was relatively calm and quiet; he slept most of the day. At night, however was a different story. he tried to sleep but was kind of wiggly. I gave him a pacifier but he couldn't hold it in his mouth for very long. Once he accidentally spit it out, he would cry! I wasn't allowed to hold him or take him out of the bassinet he was in; i couldn't even feed him, i had to pump so he could eat from a bottle and even then we had to supplement with formula because i wasn't producing enough.
Our friends came to visit us!! Seth and Katrina, Marcus and Haley, and Dave and Tavia came with their two kids, Brennan and Jr. It really helped boost my spirits!!
That night was the hardest because i couldn't hold him or comfort him except to hold his hand and put his pacifier back in. Basically, i was exhausted by 2 in the morning. toby took over comforting Ben while i tried to sleep in the recliner chair. When Ben wouldn't stay quiet, I went back over to help and almost collapsed trying to get up.. i was that tired and worn out. The nurse came in to check Ben's vitals and IV and offered to watch in the nursery. I didn't want to leave my baby, but Toby threatened to take me home if i didn't let the nurse watch him so i could get some sleep. (even though i still had to get up every few hours to pump for Ben.

The next day Ben was calmer and more relaxed. We didn't do much except eat and sleep. I watched some TV and mostly read. Toby went home to clean up the house because my mom was flying in to help out. She would be staying for a little over 2 weeks!!! Ben's bilicount was coming down nicely so the Dr. let us go around the time that mom was due to get into town. We were a little late picking her up because we were getting discharged form the hospital and the nurse was being a little slow.
In order to take Ben home again, we had to get what is called a biliblanket. It is the same paddle that was on Ben's stomach in the hospital. We had to keep it on his bare skin as much at possible, for the whole week!! It wasn't the funnest thing to deal with as the cord only reached about 3 feet, so it was hard to cart him around different places!!
Every morning we had to go to the hospital to get his blood drawn to make sure his count was returning to normal. He did not like having his foot pricked every morning and by Wednesday would start to whimper when we walked into the Lab room. It was really hard for me to listen to him cry all the time.. i thought that he would start to hate me for making go through all that pain.
Thursday brought great news when we learned that our best friends had their little baby that morning!! It was a BOY!! They named him Nathan James Johnson!! We had a good visit with them when we went to the hospital with Ben. Our sons are only a week apart, and Nathan was born on Ben's due date!!
The rest of the week was pretty much the same with feedings every 3 hours and sometimes more often when he hit a growth spurt and wanted to eat every hour. Everything was normal except for the fact that i got sick with bronchitis. Yeah, it was not fun recovering from giving birth, not getting any real sleep and dealing with a sickness that makes you tired and groggy and pretty much lousy 24/7. I could not have gotten through it without my momma. (I love you momma!!)

Labor and Delivery

I went into labor Wednesday, July 9th at about 1030 in the morning, but the contractions weren't intense enough or frequent enough to warrant going to the hospital. Later, when Toby got home from work we headed into the hospital. This was about 9 at night. I was examined and admitted because my contractions were about 5 minutes apart. I had extremely bad back labor and every contraction was terribly hard to bear through. All day it was about every 8-10 minutes that i would have a really bad contraction. The doctor said not to come in until the contractions were 5 minutes apart. I wanted to try it naturally but labor was progressing so slowly that i knew i'd never make it through the night without some kind of relief. (also because i'd been in labor for over 6 hours and was only 3 cm dilated) I decided to get an epidural.
And boy, was i right. I was in labor for over 26 hours with 2 1/2 hours of pushing. We went into the hospital at night so I tried to sleep, but i wasn't allowed to eat anything and all i got for drink were ice chips that made me throw up. It wasn't too hard to rest but i was so hungry that I couldn't really sleep. Even the smallest swig of water made me throw up too. I was so hungry and thirsty when it came time to push that i thought i'd never make it through. I just didn't have the energy. I even had the nurse have jello waiting just as soon as the baby was out; i was that hungry. (seriously)

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Benjamin Ammon Dossett was born at 2:53p on Thursday, July 10, 2008. He was one week early. He was 8 1/2 lbs and 1 oz. He was 21 in. long and came out with a full head of hair. He has gorgeous baby blue eyes that make me melt when i look into them. And he certainly has daddy wrapped around his finger.

Being Pregnant with Ben

We found out we were pregnant over Thanksgiving Break. I felt both excited and extremely scared. I immediately felt the physical effects of being pregnant. I was tired, cranky and felt.... well the only word I can think of is yucky. For the first part of my pregnancy, I felt sick almost all the time, no matter what I ate. Everything made me nauseous and nothing made me feel better. I wouldn’t exactly call it morning sickness, because I rarely threw up.. I just felt sick the entire time. It got to the point that I ate hardly anything. We went to the Dr. and he gave me some medication to take care of the nausea. It didn’t make it go completely away, but I was able to eat better after that.
The second half of the second trimester and into the third trimester brought terrible heartburn. Just like the sickness, everything I ate gave me really bad heartburn!! Even water made me miserable because it lubricated my throat and helped the acid reflux jump back up my throat. Milk helped a little my coating my throat but it also made my stomach sour. I felt like I couldn’t win!! Finally, at my next Dr. appointment, he told me that I could safely take Pepcid AC. I think I single handedly kept them in business! I had to take one with everything I ate, but at least I could make it through the day.
I didn’t really have any cravings, at least nothing significant. I did love to eat sweets a lot, but that’s nothing new. I couldn’t eat sour cream or strawberries without throwing up. But those were the only two things I couldn’t eat.
Feeling him move for the first time was incredible. I mean, i probably didn't realize it the first time but when i did, it was pretty cool. Eventually, when he was moving around all the time, it wasn't so much fun because he liked to stick his feet up into my ribs. That really hurt. He also got hiccups a lot which was really funny to feel in my abs.
At 20 weeks, we had our second ultrasound during which we found out the sex of our baby. I really wanted to know because i wanted to get things specifically for our baby. We both wanted a little boy SO bad... and we got our wish!! I just knew it was gonna be a boy!! (mother's instinct) i guess we'll find out if thats really what it is with the next kid.
Officially his due date was the 17 of July, but he came a week early!!