Two-week checkup

This morning, we went to see our pediatrician again. We had an early appointment, but we are getting so much better in leaving the house. I guess just another sign of our own steep learning-curve. The pediatrician was totally happy with Andrin. He now weights 7 pounds 1 ounce (3220 Gramm) and already grew an inch (20.5 inches). She does not want to see him until his 2 month check-up. What great news!

Andrin home alone with Mami :)

Today was my first day at home alone with my Mami! What great fun we had and all the adventures. My Papi was really jealous and asked my Mami for a complete update when he returned from work. Over lunch break, my Papi was home, but I was so tired after nursing that I only opened up my eyes for a short peak. I think that my Papi was kind of disappointed that I was not awake. But in the evening, I spent a lot of time with my Papi and we had some fun. I even filled my diapers for him so that he was able to change me again.

But let me tell you about my day home alone with Mami. Last night, I went to sleep after being nursed around 10.00 pm (for some reason, my Mami started calling me "tiger" and reminding me not to bite off her breasts ...). I woke up for a while around 1.00 am, but then I went back to sleep until 3.00 pm. I guess I took my Mami by total surprise. She had to wake up my Papi and tell him to check the alarm clock to see himself how long I had slept. Funny enough, she was surprised when I woke up 1 1/2 hours later and needed some milk again. Did she think that I could just miss some of that delicious milk? So I got milk again at 4.30 am and 7.00 am. Papi and Mami had talked about getting into a routine and I think I helped them with it. Papi went to the lab at 9.00 am, but he could hardly leave. He was giving me all these kisses and it felt like he thought that he was going to be gone for ages. During the morning, I was quite awake and thus also was hungry all the time. But I still gave my Mami a break and we both took a nice nap. At one point, I just had to cry for about 15 minutes. Mami kept telling me that she could not nurse me when I would cry so hard, but I did not want to stop crying. But I guess she was right, since I got a yummy meal after I stopped crying. In the afternoon, I slept until about 3.00 pm and then my Mami nursed me and packed me up. We went together with Rachel and Loic down to Market of Choice to get some stuff from dinner (Papi had written Mami a grocery list since she knew that she would not remember everything that she needed to get). Mami packed me into the stroller again and it went a lot better since I can hold my head so much better. At the store, a lot of people were looking at me and asked how old I am (I am just two weeks now!) and complimented my Mami on my looks (well, they have not seen my eyes:) After dropping off the groceries at home, we went with Rachel and Yves for a stroll around the block. Rachel had to get back in time to teach her evening classes at the University. We had another beautiful fall day. Just in time, we went back home. I opened up my eyes for the last few feets and enjoyed the nice sunshine and the scenery.

At the moment, I am playing with Papi. I am wide awake and Papi is surprised how much I am moving around. Well, they called me monkey baby for a reason while I was still in Mami's womb!

Adventures while Papi is fishing

We had another wonderful day with our baby boy. Last night was actually good as well. Andrin is sleeping better and longer. At times, he just has a hard time falling asleep since there is just too much going on and to discover, even during the night.
Clemens went to fish the town-run today (even though he came home saying that it had not been worth it, since he last the sole to his wadding boot and did not catch any fish). Andrin and I stayed home. I promised Clemens that I would prepare dinner. I should have known it ... Andrin has been wanting to nurse every 1 1/2 hours when he is awake and every 2 1/2 hours when he sleeps and then wakes up. I started cooking, but then had to turn everything off because Andrin was hungry and he was clear about it! I love the moments of breast feeding him. He is so quiet, just happy and content. (He has been doing a lot better with latching on, even on his not so preferred right breast.) I went upstairs with him to sit in the rocking chair and nurse him. But first, I changed another wet diaper (at times, it feels like they are about 6 times heavier than normal :) Andrin was nursing beautifully from my right breast, when I heard this distinct noise ... He stopped nursing and looked at me. I talked with him and we decided to take care of the soiled diaper right then. I am getting better in making sure that we do not get everything dirty, but I was not prepared for his decision to start peeing at the same time that I was changing him. No, he did not pee on me, but he soaked himself. That meant that we had to change everything which did not make our little boy happy at all. But as soon as I put him on my breast again, he was happy and content.
Well, we did have a story to tell Papi when he came back from his (frustrating) fishing trip. Clemens was sad that he missed out on such an adventure ...

Our birth story

We were supported during the last weeks of our pregnancy, during labor, and in the days after Andrin was born by our wonderful doula, Julie. I wished we would have made the decision to work with her a lot sooner, but we still had the possibility of talking to her, verbalizing our ideas and expectations, and our questions. Clemens and I just realized toward the end of our pregnancy that we wanted Andrin's birth to be special and natural. We were taken back by accounts of nurses interfering, administering quickly medications, and felt that an emotional support person might be our best advocate. We could not have picked a more caring, loving, and wonderful person than Julie! Julie is so calm, but also determined and willing to fight for things that she believes in and that she knew were important to us. We feel blessed that she entered our life and feel like she is a part of our family already in sharing our birth with us. Julie never was invasive and when she asked to come for a postnatal visit, I had to repeat several times that she would always be welcome at our house. She really did not want to intrude.
Julie wrote for us Andrin's birth story that we would like to share with you. I cannot tell you how I felt when I first read it. Tears were streaming down my cheeks and I was just overwhelmed. As I am rereading the birth story, I am finding all these comments and things that I do not remember at all. Asking Clemens about it, he also does not really have a recollection of them. People have asked me if I had taken so much medication that I do not remember, but I think I was so focused and concentrated that I did not pay any attention to anything else than being in sync with my own body. I have been working on my version of the birth story, but life with a baby boy has been keeping me busy ... I hope that I will be able to publish it sometime.

But here is Julie's recollection of Andrin's birth:

On Saturday, September 27^th, two weeks prior to her predetermined due date, Femeke began experiencing contractions. They began suddenly at 10.30 pm, and neither Femeke nor Clemens was able to get to sleep.

Julie received a call on Sunday morning at 1.55 am from Clemens telling her that they had spoken with Dr. Stenshoel, who told them to come to the hospital for an exam. Femeke told Julie that her contractions were coming about every 3-5 minutes, but that she was still able to talk through them. She suggested that Julie wait at home until they were certain that she was in active labor. Julie, convinced that Femeke indeed was in active labor, began to prepare to follow them to the hospital.

Femeke and Clemens arrived at Riverbend at about 2.25 am. After they checked in and Femeke was monitored for the required 20-30 minutes, the nurse examined Femeke and found that she was 3 centimeters dilated. It was 2.45 am.

Julie arrived at 3.15 am and found Clemens and Femeke walking the room. Clemens supported Femeke each time a contraction came. Femeke seemed to be experiencing very intense contractions judging from her breathing and sounds. At 3.30 am, Femeke began to feel increased pressure and a slight urge to push. When the nurse examined her she was 8 centimeters dilated. Her cervix had dilated from 3 to 8 centimeters in only 30 minutes, which is extremely fast progress.

Femeke decided to get into the tub. Immersion in water made the intensity of her contractions much easier to get through. Discovering from Clemens that they had not had the time to print out their birth plan, Julie quickly listed for the nurse the most important requests that Femeke and Clemens had - spontaneous pushing, allowing the chord to cease pulsing before clamping and cutting, no suctioning unless indicated, and skin-to-skin contact with an hour of uninterrupted time before weighing, measuring, bathing, etc.

At 4 am, Dr. Stenshoel arrived and asked to examine Femeke. She did so with Femeke still in the tub, underwater, and from an awkward position. Tammy said, “The head is right there, let’s get out of the tub and have a baby”. Femeke was feeling the urge to push. Meanwhile Julie, knowing that Femeke wanted the freedom to push at her own pace and in a variety of positions, asked the nurse to please make the birthing bar available to that Femeke might be able to use it in a squatting position at the foot of the bed.

Femeke was very focused as she made her way from the tub to the bed. The nurses who had the privilege of attending Femeke were already quite impressed by the instinctive and focused way that Femeke was moving through her labor. They had been making comments throughout to Julie. Now, they stood quietly watching and a little in awe as they watched her push her baby out of her body and into the world. Femeke gripped the bar and began to push intensely at 4.05 am. At about 4.15 am, Tammy suggested that a different position might facilitate the baby’s descent, so Femeke lay back on the bed and grabbed her legs with her hands as Tammy instructed. Between contractions she lay back on pillows and rested. Tammy asked Femeke if she wanted to feel the baby’s head. Femeke reached down and touching her baby’s head said “oh my god”. At 4.26 am, three or four contractions later, Femeke and Clemens’ beautiful baby boy was born. His umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck (which is fairly common), and Tammy quickly unwrapped it. Since there was s mall amount of meconium in the amniotic fluid, the nurses gently but quickly suctioned fluids from the baby’s mouth and nose to prevent him from aspirating any of the fluid. Andrin was covered in a thick layer of vernix and had long fingernails. He cried right away, within seconds of emerging from Femeke’s body. He was scope dup onto Femeke’s chest and Tammy waited for the umbilical chord to cease pulsing. Then she clamped the chord and offered Clemens the scissors. Femeke and Clemens were in joy and amazement to see their beautiful baby boy. Femeke asked “is it really a boy, has anyone looked?” Femeke and Clemens unwrapped their baby so that Femeke could see for herself. Clemens grabbed the camera and Julie took some pictures. After a period of gazing and nuzzling with his mama talking to him and encouraging him, Andrin latched onto his mama’s breast and began to nurse. Julie asked to have the bright lights dimmed so that it would not be too bright for the baby to see his mother and father’s faces.

Andrin nursed and dozed for the next hour. Sometime during the last part of this hour Clemens took his son from Femeke and cuddled him to his chest. At 6.15 am Julie left the blissful couple to enjoy their new family.

Thank you so much, Julie!

Where can we order another night like this?

Wow ... I guess this is how it feels to get a decent night of sleep! I can hardly believe it myself. Andrin slept the entire night in his crib, and only woke up three times during the night. He slept from 9.30 pm until 1.45 am and then again from 4.45 am until 8.30 am. But he has a new routine that is a little bothersome. He will wake up himself, move in his crib, and then I get him changed (he has been a champion in soiling his diapers as well, I think I forgot to mention that before:). As soon as I put him down to be breastfeed, he will start turning his little head and does not want to drink at all. But at the same time, he seems to be getting really frustrated and then starts crying. It seems like there is nothing that I can do about avoiding his cries for 10 - 30 minutes. Then suddenly, he latches on and is content and happy to get his "milk-sandwich." I tried giving him more time to wake up, but it also does not seem to help. He was awake for quite some time this morning and I just had him lay in bed with us, but he still did have to cry before he would take the breast. Well, I am sure we will also figure out this one :)

Joy, bliss, and happiness

Andrin kept us awake for most of the night. He decided that he needed to be nursed every 90 minutes. Twice, he decided that it was not worth to even bother going to sleep and wanted to be entertained by his sleepy parents. Finally, he gave us a rest at 4.30 am! (I am typing one-handed, Andrin is teaching me patience every step on our way!)

Today was just a normal, relaxed, beautiful fall day. Clemens has been working on some figures at home. But he admitted that he is not really progressing - too many cuddle-times with Andrin! I myself checked into some business this morning ... I have to renew my working permit and it takes them about 3 months to process two pages of paperwork. Well, I discovered a slight problem: We cannot apply for a special paper until we know which funding resource will be paying for Clemens' further research. He applied for different grants, but we will not know until December how much money and who will it be from. This means that I cannot reapply for the working permit until then ... When I first realized that, I was worried ... but thinking about it twice, it does not sound too bad to be able to stay home longer :) I notified my work place about the situation and we will see what will happen. Right now, we just have to wait and see which grant Clemens will receive (he had to submit the last grant on October first, just after Andrin was born and I think that is good luck!).

Andrin has been more awake today (which I hope is a good sign that he will sleep more during the night, but maybe that is just wishful thinking). We went for a walk after lunch and Andrin loved being in the sling. We stopped to talk with a girl at the Eugene City Bakery. She was in some of our Natural Childbirth Classes and is due in two weeks. She shared that she was ready for their baby and of course wanted to hear everything about our experience at the hospital. In the late afternoon, I took a sleeping Andrin upstairs with me with the intention of taking a nap. Well, these plans were overruled by "our ruler of the house." Andrin spit up some of the wonderful milk that he had a little while ago and we decided to give him a bath since he was so sticky. Just as we were finished, Rachel and Loic came by our house (they are currently staying in a friend's house around the corner). Loic recognized his old bathtub and enjoyed it very much.
There was one other event that I would like to point out: Clemens was changing Andrin and then told me that he had a present for me. He handed me something that I could not even regognize in the beginning. Andrin lost his umbilical cord and now has a "normal" belly button!

My friend Owen Tucker ...

My Mami just told me that my friend, Owen Tucker was born October 6th to his proud parents, Dana and Paul. I can't wait to play with him. My Mami has been telling me that we will see them in Mommy-Baby Yoga. Owen's Mommy, Dana, was in prenatal yoga with me and his due date was also October 12th. There is only one more baby left to wait for ... Becky's!

Becky, Femeke, and Dana. Becky is still waiting, Andrin was born 9/28, and Owen was born 10/6!