4 Months...

Well Parks is 4 months now and more fun then ever!  

Stats are:

height- 24  1/2 inches 50%

                                                           weight- 14.7 lbs  25-50%

                                                                          head- 75%

Parks tried "human" food for the first time this month.  Lets say he pretty much loves everything but rice cereal!  Spits it out every time!  He actually would probably prefer baby food over formula any day... Can't really blame him...that stuff is awful!  

He sits very good in his Bumbo now...especially while watching Bubble Guppies (surprise, surprise)!  Hates tummy time with a passion.  We practice every morning though, and he screams the entire time with his hands and feet off the ground.  I'm pretty convinced he will never crawl.

He is sleeping very well now, giving mom 8 hours!  That deserves a big hallelujah in itself.  

At the end of May Christian drove to St. Louis, where we would be the remainder of the summer doing pest control summer sales door to door.  It was a hard adjustment not having our dad home, but me and Parks managed.  I am a total baby so Parks and I moved in with my parents until I ended school, when we would fly put to meet him.  It was awesome having so much help at my moms!  Don't know what I would do with out her!

To be continued.........

3 Months...Not an Infant Anymore

My baby is 3 months old, I can't believe it!

This month was very different because I was back to work.  I only went back part time, my hours are 7:30-12:00, can't really complain!  Luckily Christain doesn't have school till 1 on Monday and Wednesday so he gets that time to spend with Parks and I think it's really good for them.  On Tuesday Jaycee watches him and Thursday my mom watches him.  Friday Christian doesn't have school so he watches him then as well.  I feel extremely blessed to still be able to work and not have to worry that my baby is at a day care.  I almost actually feel that that time away from him makes me appreciate him that much more.  And I only have about two months before summer break!

This month we also went to Arizona for Parks cousin Gwen's blessing.  It was so fun to see everyone and Gwen's blessing was beautiful!  Everything went great until I got really sick.  I seem to always get very sick when I am there!  I am convinced there is something in their backyard that bothers me??  It was also Easter weekend so we had Easter dinner and then headed out.  Parks did great on the drive again slept most the way!

3 Months

1. Sat in Bumbo for the first time

2. Still hates tummy time

3. Sleeping about 7-8 hours a night

4. Still cat naps 

5. Trying to hold things

6. Loves his binky

My New Favorite Job...

I have been a mom now for 2 months and it truly has become my new favorite job!  They are going to have to drag me back to work by my feet.  My morning routine is finally settling in and has probably actually become my favorite time of day.  Parks is so happy in the morning... After his bottle!  Me and Christian learned early on to never go get him from his crib until I am fully ready to nurse, guard on, Boppy in place, burp rag in sight.  Christian is great at going to get Parks and bring him to me in the middle of the night, he then would usually change him and take him back to his crib.  At about 5 weeks we put Parks in his own room, it was very hard for mom, I may have stared at the video monitor all night long??  But so much better in the end because I could not hear his every grunt, snort and moan.

One morning I was giving Parks a bath, I laid him on the bathroom counter like always to lotion up and get him dressed for the day when he let out the cutest little cough you have ever heard.  He was about 6 weeks old now, and a couple hours later I thought about it and realized I don't think I have ever heard an infant cough like that.  As the day went on I heard that little cough many more times.  That night it got pretty bad and I knew I needed to take him to the pediatrician the next morning.  I had heard of many children getting RSV during this time of year, and i had a hunch thats what my baby had.  I could not get into my pediatrician so I saw his PA.  She took a look at him and told me it was just allergies, and unfortunately it may develop into asthma later on in his life.  Not only that, I also needed to get rid of every detergent, lotion, oil, powder anything that had been on the babies body had to go, and I needed to buy all unscented/sensitive new items.  What a fiasco right?  Two days went by with all new products and he still was not getting any better, actually getting much worse.  Being a nervous new mom I took him right back into the pediatricians office 2 days later.  I walked in, told him his conditions and he immediately ran a RSV test.  Sure enough mothers intuition... POSITIVE!  My poor baby... I literally wanted to cry.  The pediatrician continued to tell us that because of his you age we need to keep a close watch on him, and if it gets worse immediately take him to the ER.  I hate the ER more than anything in the world.  They gave us a nebulizer, showed us how to work it and sent us on our way.  Lets say the next two weeks were awful, heart wrenching, and a real growing experience.  Every six hours Parks had to have a nebulizer treatment for 10 minutes...saddest thing i have ever seen.  In the end Parks did recover back to his happy self....thank goodness!

During his second month he also went on his first road trip!  He did amazing...almost slept the entire time there and back.  We drove to Utah with my whole family for spring break.  Oh forgot to mention my hilarious dad rented a 12 seater van for the trek...dream come true.

One of the best things that happened this month was Parks blessing.  We had it on March 3rd in our home ward in Las Vegas.  many family and friends came, and we finally got to see Parks cousin Gwen who was born 3 days after him.  Christian could not have done a better job!  He was absolutely fabulous, brought a tear to my eye.  Parks miraculously did not cry... Hallelujah!

Bits I got from the Blessing:

Recognize the Spirit.

Guidance from Heavenly Father.

Discern from right and wrong.

Example to friends and family.

Protector to your family.

Receive Priesthood Blessings and exhort power.

Through the Power of the Priesthood be able to understand the Lords love for you.

Obey and love your parents and especially your mom.

Serve a full time mission. 

Learn attributes of Jesus Christ and learn from his patience.

Desire to be married and obey the covenants in the temple.

Be a servant to the Lord and a useful tool in our Heavenly Fathers plan.

 

2 Months:

1.Parks began smiling a lot this month...melted my heart. 

2.Became an excellent nurser.

  3.At his two month check up he weighed 10.8 lbs. being in the 50-75% overall. 

4. At 6 weeks he began his love of Bubble Guppies, literally obsessed and would

 smile every time the purple haired Molly came on the screen.

5. Still only waking up once at night to nurse.

6. Has multiple blow outs a week.

Nobody tells you about the 1st month...

Don't get me wrong, I was absolutely smitten by this new addition in my life.  I wanted to literally squeeze him till my mom would insist I let someone else hold him, not to mention he was the most beautiful baby I had ever laid eyes on (I may be a little bias).  But what I was in store for the next month was going to hit me like a ton of bricks!  Need to mention however I did have a c-section, which could have made my recovery a little more intense.  

I ended up staying in the hospital a total of 3 nights and 4 days, which for those of you that don't know that's kind of a long time and I was so ready to get out!  I don't think Christian would have slept on that little so called bed which was really a couch/bench one more night.  The first 12 hours after baby was born I still could not eat!  I was starving...like literally going to eat off my right arm if someone didn't bring me a huge Sonic diet coke with vanilla and "real" maraschino cherries, and a Cafe Rio pork salad.  Non the less I made it...barely.  I also was not aloud to walk for 24 hours, that wasn't so bad though, Hubs did everything!  They wrapped these awful things on my calves that shook all night long to make sure I didn't get blood clots because I was still numb from medication... But I'm pretty sure it was to make sure the elephantiasis did remain in my lower half!  People I looked like a huge amazon person, my feet were painful to look at!  One sharp object to them and they would have popped I'm sure.

Ps. Hospital food= cardboard doused in sauce.

                                    

                                             Finally on our way home from the hospital!

   

Parks was actually a pretty great sleeper right from the get go.  I would feed him around 11pm, he would sleep till about 4am then sleep till about 7:30...Not too shabby. 

Breast feeding was a whole other story.  I had previously told myself through my whole pregnancy that I was going to nurse.  This might have been the hardest part for me.  I absolutely loved the "bonding" time I got to spend with him, but the pain, diligence and discipline I had to go through was quite a learning experience.  I ended up getting a pretty bad breast infection, which ended in having to get a prescription to clear up.  My "Boppy" was a lifesaver, made the strain on my back much easier!  Something I would highly recommend, as well as Lanolin cream, breast pads, and a nursing bra.  The true must have for me however was the "nipple shield", I wouldn't have gotten through week 1 without it.

Another difficult task for me was not only getting one person ready and out the door, but now two!  How was I suppose to take a shower?  Who was going to do my laundry and fold it?  With out fail the moment I got in the shower or took out the laundry Mr. woke up.  A serious schedule was something that definitely helped me.  This was something I definitely had to get use to, but by the end if the first month I felt pretty good being able to get me and babes out the door at least not in our PJ's! 

Parks was the most alert infant.  His eyes were wide open when he was awake and even looked right at you as if he could tell you we're talking to him.  People would stop me in public just to tell me how alert he was at such a young age.  He was very bald except for a small patch of hair on the back of his head that almost looked red in the sunlight.  He was perfect in our eyes.  He had to be swaddled before he would ever go to sleep, Christian was a pro at wrapping him just right.  Friends and family called him a little burrito.  

After the first month I really felt like I was getting the hang of things and I still had one more month before I had to go back to school!

                       

                        

                        

                        

The amazing Heidi Lee took our newborn pictures, here are a few of my favs!

        

        

        

        

        

        

        

        

        

        

        

       

                                        

    

                                     

Since I've been gone...

Well since I have a baby.... I decided it would only make sense to start blogging again!  Probably     should have started this when Parks was born.... But better late then never!  

 On the morning of Sunday January 27th I woke up to a very uncomfortable pain in my lower stomache.  I quickly woke up my zonked out husband next to me and told him, I THINK I AM FINALLY HAVING A CONTRACTION!!! I had asked everyone I knew what a contraction felt like... But no one seemed to be able to tell me exactly one felt like.  They continued to say "trust me you will know!" I now can truly say its true.

My mom (who I think knows all) had always told me never go to the hospital until your contractions are at the most 2 minutes apart for at least an hour.  So I continued on with my day stopping every 10-15 minutes to gasp for a breath, squeeze my eyes shut, and pause any conversation I was having at the moment.  Our very close family friends son was having his farewell this day, so I decided to put on the only dress/tarp that still fit and went on my way.  Maybe should have rethought this decision?  After church we went to my parents for dinner like always.  Around 5:00 my contractions were pretty consistent, 3 minutes apart and getting pretty intense...not to mention VERY uncomfortable!  I lasted till about 7:00pm then I grabbed Christian and said NOW...this baby has to come out!

Please bear with my horrid, swollen, very pregnant self.

 (For documentary purposes only!)

We got to the hospital where they checked me into triage, put me in a lovely hospital gown and laid me in a bed where I was to wait till the nurse came into check me.  Sooner than later she came in...I was dilated to a 4!!  Whoo hoo...everyone told me if I was at a 4 they would keep me.  She told me to wait for a hour, she would check me again and we would go from there.  1 hour later she came back... Guess who hadn't dilated?  Because of my stubborn body I was then instructed to walk around the hospital for another hour and we would check back in...is this a joke?  After the worst/longest hour and a half of my life(yes I went the extra, I was not going home!)they unfortunately told me I still had not moved... All she could do was give me a shot of morpheme and send me home.  I wanted to cry the hardest I have ever cried, but I bucked up and walked out the door.  Thank goodness I live directly across the street from the hospital, the morpheme they gave me intensified my contractions instead of making them more comfortable.  I lasted about an hour and I was back at the hospital.  It was now about midnight this time the nice nurse checked me right in to a room, the first thing i told her was "by the way I definitly want a epidural, ASAP" she laughed then imediatly called for the anesthesiologist. Around 2am the anesthesiologist finally arrived.  Now previosly in my pregnancy I was terrified of the horrible "epidural" at this point I was begging for it!  Ps. Not even bad at all... I would do that 10 times before going through even 2 intense contractions.  Besides the severe shakes that I got afterwards it wasn't too bad.  I finally was able to calm down and sleep... So I thought. 

 At 6am my doctor showed up to break my water hoping this would speed up my dilation, he also hooked me to a tube of pitocin.  The nurses continued to check me every hour but no dilation.  I was beginning to get very worried.  Not only was I not dilating but baby was more at a diagonal then straight down, which I could tell made the nurses a little hesitant.  Now about 3:00 in the afternoon a miracle happened, the nurse checked me and I had dilated to a 6(progress people) and with in two hours it was go time! I was so excited/exhausted/hungry/parched... I had now been in labor for 36 hours, had not eaten in almost 24 hours and they would not let me drink in case of a c-section, yet still very excited to meet this little one very soon now!

Yet another bump in the road... By now my 4th, yes 4th epidural had worn off, and after pushing for almost 2 hours with my husband and mom on both sides, I looked up at my doctor drenched in sweat, both legs in the assigned position and simply said "How much longer?" He then very nicely said "Hours, this baby does not want to come out." in the sweetest voice.  I then asked what I should do. You have two options:

1. Keep pushing for who knows how long
Or
2. Emergency C-section

I looked at my husband then my mom and I think they could tell by the look on my face I couldn't do this anymore.  I looked up and with a sigh of almost relief I said let's do a c-section.  Before I could blink people were swarming around me, they injected me with something and that's really all I remember.  My last image was my husband dressed in what looked like a bee keepers outfit holding my hand telling me everything was going to be ok.  They pushed me into the OR where the doctor told me I may feel a little pulling and tugging but nothing horrible.  It's true you can feel them pulling and tugging but not to painful, though that could have been because I was drugged up the wazoo.  Before I knew it the nurse was holding the baby right in front of me.  He was beautiful!  He made up for the recovery I would go through for the next 6 weeks... That's another story.

Therefore... On Monday January 28th at 5:36pm 

Parks J. Otteson was born.

Weight: 7lb. 11oz.

Height: 21in.

We were smitten...

He came out sucking like a champ...hungry as ever!

What I had waited my whole life for.