Snow Day

Barrett's first snow day - too cold for him to be outside for long without being bundled up so I went outside and made a miniature snowman then took him out for a brief photo.

First Valentine's Day

I received this adorable outfit for him as a gift at my 2nd shower, hosted here in College Station. He was not in the mood for pics - therefore we had to keep the paci in place.

He was pooped and did not wake up at all for these pics -

Going Home

Just a few cute pics of the day we brought Barrett home from the NICU. It was such a wonderful day for us to finally be able to hold our baby boy in our arms in the comfort of our home.

all strapped in -


finally getting to sleep peacefully at home in his crib (without the voices, noises, sounds and beeps of the NICU) -

26 days in the NICU

Let me just start by saying the doctors, nurses and staff at CS Medical Center NICU are wonderful! Barrett, being born 7 weeks early, was not ready to eat on his own. You will see the feeding tube in his pictures below. During his 26 day stay, he also overcame jaundice and a horrible, horrible diaper rash that required his rear to be "on oxygen" and a prescription diaper rash cream. He was gavaged (tube fed) every 3 hours. Daddy went back to work to save his vacation for Barrett's homecoming and I immediately started my maternity leave. I was only in the hospital for 4 days and 3 nights but had a week and a half of hard recovery after his birth. I was not able to drive and stayed medicated on pain killers for a week. I toyed with the idea of going back to work and starting maternity leave once B came home, but I wasn't ready. So, for the next 26 days I was at the NICU at least twice a day for feedings and to bond with my newborn child and Daddy visited on his days off. While in NICU he lost weight and got down to 4lbs 13ozs however they told us this was normal for all babies. The weird thing about it was he was still the biggest baby in the NICU. My heart ached for some that were 1, 2 and 3 pounds - so, so tiny! He slowly started to gain weight, usually anwhere from an ounce to two ounces per day. Not supposed to be born yet, he slept most days and nights only waking for a few minutes at a time. This made learning to eat very difficult for him. The nurses kept telling us that in a blink of an eye, he would start eating and we would be heading home with him. They were absolutely right. Somewhere around day 15, we started trying to bottle feed him. Sometimes he had no interest and other times he would either take part or all of the bottle. All we needed for him to do was take all 8 bottles in a 24 hour period of time without gavaging. This part was very frustrating because we would think, oh this is awesome...then he would get lazy and be right back at what seemed square one. Day 20 came around and he took an entire bottle for me at both of the feedings where I visited, so the NP asked me to stay for a third feeding to see if he would take the bottle - and guess what, he did! I was so happy I started crying. The other parents and nurses in the room were so excited for us. Over the next couple of days they slowly started increasing the number of bottle feed attempts. We went from twice a day, to every other one, to every third one until day 23 when he took all the bottles on his own. Day 24 - feeding tube removed...then Day 25 - still took all bottles on his own...then Day 26 - we finally brought him home :) The NICU has a policy that during cold/flu/H1N1 season that only parents and grandparents are allowed to see the babies and it was limited to 1 guest at a time with a parent being in their at all times with a guest. This was hard for alot of family since they didn't get to meet him til he was almost 4 weeks old. Some did get to see him through the window. So, needless to say, everyone including us was so happy to have him home.

Here are a few more pics...

with my Dad; born on his birthday - with my Mom (my stepdad never came in the NICU) -
with my mother-in-law -

He was discharged from the NICU weighing a wonderful 6lbs, 3ozs. We were told he needed to see his pediatrican in 2-3 days so being discharged on a Friday we made that appointment for the following Monday at which he weighed 6lbs, 9oz and was 19.75 inches long. Growing good! To be continued...

Introducing...

our son, Barrett, born at 33 weeks, 1 day on 12/28/2009 at 6:22pm weighing 5lbs, 3ozs measuring 18.5 inches long. He is such a blessing and we are so thrilled to have him in our life.

just a few hours old -

1 day old through the window of the NICU -

with Mommy just after birth -

with Daddy just after birth -

the proud and exhausted parents -

Born almost 2 months too early, he was whisked away to the NICU to be checked out and monitored and Thank God, he was healthy and did not have any breathing issues (thanks to my 2 steroid shots prior to delivery). To be continued...

In the Hospital to Stay

As mentioned in the previous post, I was placed on bedrest Dec. 23rd and I did very well and followed doctor's orders. This was hard for me as I am the type of person who is always on the go and has something to do. I have a very hard time sitting still for any length of time. On Sunday Dec 27th shortly after my parents left from their weekend visit, I just wasn't feeling right and decided to call and speak with the on-call doctor. He decided I should come in and get checked out to make sure everything was okay. I checked into the hospital at 4:30pm and was placed in a birthing room and put on several monitors. They took a few fluid samples, started an IV and antibiotics (just in case I was starting to get an infection) and tried to keep me comfortable while waiting on test results. The nurse and doctor came in a few hours later and said all tests came back fine but they wanted to keep me overnight for observation. So, finally at 9:00pm they told hubby he could go get me something for dinner as I hadn't had anything to eat since our late breakfast. The nurse came back and administered some more antibiotics as well as a steroid shot (to boost baby's lungs) just in case he delivered early. Since part of the reason I was on bedrest was due to high blood pressure, they checked this every hour. I didn't sleep well at all that night for alot of different reasons. The next morning the nurse came in around 7:30am and said I didn't have any noticeable contractions and so they were going to release me to go back home and take it easy. This was Monday morning so my doctor was filled in on the happenings from the day/night before and came in to see me. Ric had gone into work at 6:00am with plans to come pick me up around noon. As I was awaiting discharge from the hospital, the nurse needed to move me out of the birthing room for a patient that was actually giving birth so around 11:00am she had me get up out of bed to walk down the hall to a post delivery room - and that is when everything changed! My water BROKE! I crawled back in bed and my doctor was notified immediately. They did go ahead and move me to the post delivery room since they still had another baby to deliver and shortly after getting settled my doctor came in to see me. By that time, it was shortly after noon and the contractions started - approx 6 minutes apart. My doctor said his hopes were the contractions would stop or stay slight and that we could delay delivery for up to a week...but he said I wasn't leaving the hospital pregnant. I was there to stay until delivery. At that point I was dilated to a 2 and they administered another steroid shot. As the day went on in what seemed liked minutes, the contractions were getting stronger and closer together. When I was dilated to a 3-4 they moved me back into a birthing room since it was obvious our son was not going to wait a week to make his entrance. The contractions continued to get stronger and closer together and by this point my parents had made it back to town and just in time. My contractions were then right on top of each other and I was dilated to a 6-7. Within what seemed like minutes, I received the epidural (although given later than what they planned b/c of a c-section happening in the next room, totally the way to go in my opinion) and was prepped for delivery. A short time later, our son was born.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I wanted his birth story to be shared (and believe it or not, this is the shortened version)

To be continued...

First Post - Christmas on Bedrest

My first official Monkey Tales post is short, just a few pics of me celebrating Christmas on bedrest. Wednesday, December 23rd at my 32 week appointment my doctor decided it was time for bedrest. I had gained 16 pounds in 4 weeks, was retaining way too much fluid with my entire body puffy and swollen (face, hands, ankles, feet, toes, fingers, you name it - it was puffy) and my blood pressure was high. My doctor's hopes was that the rest with my feet up would help these issues - so here I am (pictured with hubby) in the recliner where I stayed.
My mom and step-dad came to visit since I knew several months ago that I could not travel for the holidays, just didn't realize at that time my not traveling would include not going to work or grocery shopping, etc. This is a cute little onesie from the grandparents to be, Mima and Papa.

I will continue to post everyday or every other day in an attempt to get caught up to the current events. Thanks for visiting - stay tuned for more!

The Start of Something New

Welcome to my new blog - dedictated to posts on my family including the growth and activities of my newborn son. My first official post will be tomorrow so check back then :)