November 27, 2011

Truman's blessing day

We blessed Truman on Nov 6th. We had so many friends and family that came and helped make it such a special day. Judd's dad and his girlfriend Lynelle even flew out to be with us. And of course, they spoiled us while they were here. Judd gave Truman such a sweet blessing and I felt the spirit so strongly during it. He's such a great dad and is going to be a wonderful example to our sweet baby boy! Here are a bunch of pictures! I don't feel like labeling them all. :)

Mr. Best Friend

So it's been a little over a month since we celebrated our 5 year anniversary, but I just wanted to give a shout out to the man that I married those 5 years ago. I love love love that I am married to my very best friend. And it doesn't hurt that he's pretty dang hot as well. He's the most amazing husband and I've found out these past couple of months that he's also an incredible dad. I couldn't be married to someone more perfect. I'm so grateful that we found each other and even more grateful that we get to be together forever and ever. I'm a lucky girl!

October 23, 2011

1 month old!


Has it really been a month? My baby is growing so fast. It makes me sad and excited at the same time. I'm sad because I know he'll be walking before I know it and my baby won't be a baby anymore. Yet I'm excited to watch him grow and for him to be in a stage where he can interact with us a little more. He's such a good baby. He rarely cries and when he does, it's never a full out screaming fest. He is so content to just hang out wherever. We're so lucky! He's smiled at me once (where I think he meant to) and is starting to be a little more vocal, especially in the mornings. He's so happy in the morning.
He's doing pretty well at sleeping, although he has a pretty hard time putting himself to sleep. He will lie in his crib for over an hour and not go to sleep. Little poop. I'm not sure what to do to help him with that. I usually just make him stay in his crib for the whole time he's supposed to be in there. I will sometimes go in and give him his pacifier if he gets really upset, but usually he doesn't cry much, he just won't go to sleep. I'm hoping we can work it out. :) He kinda has set times during the day when he does it. After the morning feeding when I put him down around 9 or 10 and then again at night when I put him down around 8 or 9. Other than that, he sleeps pretty well. He's started going 4 or 5 hours during the night...can't wait til that's a little longer. :)
He gets the hiccups ALL OF THE TIME. Sometimes they keep him up when he's supposed to be sleeping. They're so frustrating! I feel so bad for him, although they probably bother me more than they bother him.
He's been pretty gassy the past week. I'm trying to figure out if it's something that I'm eating that's bothering his tummy, so I'm currently on a dairy fast to see if that will help. It is not easy. I didn't really realize how much dairy I eat in a day. He's worth it though.
Anyway...I can't believe it's already been a month and that it's almost time for me to go back to work. It's so sad! I wish I could get paid to stay home and take care of this little guy. He's the light of our lives! I love being his mom, I love taking care of him, and I love how he makes my heart happy with every little thing he does.

October 12, 2011

I really need to post about Florida still, but things are a little crazy these days, so I'm gonna post about our little man's birthday first. It was a little bit of a rollercoaster ride!
We went in at 7:00 on Tuesday morning (the 20th) to be induced since I was past my due date. I got all hooked up to the IV and such and the waiting began. My midwife came in and broke my water at about 9:30. My nurse told me I could get the epidural before my water was broken since the contractions would start getting strong fast. I decided I wanted to wait for a bit. So- contractions hurt way worse than I was expecting, and I lasted about an hour before asking the epidural. The epidural was amazing and it didn't hurt like I thought it would. I was a happy camper after it kicked in :)
Little Mr. had his head turned the wrong way the whole time so it was a little bit of a slow process. I didn't start pushing until 7:00. His heart rate was dropping at the end of the contractions so I had to have oxygen...

After pushing for 2 hours, they called the on call doctor in because our little man seemed to be a little stuck. His head was still not in the right position, his heart rate was dropping still and they were worried. The Dr. came in and they decided to use forceps to get him out. I was a little freaked out that it would hurt the baby. I pushed for another 30 minutes and the doc was finally able to yank him out (not much of an exaggeration).

From that point on, everything was like a whirlwind. The baby wasn't breathing, the cord had been wrapped around his neck, his color wasn't good...they didn't ask Judd to cut the cord, they didn't even show me the baby. Later they told me that his apgar was a 4 (out of 10). The nurses from the special care nursery were there and they took him straight over to the warmer and started him on with a respirator. Things were so scary and happening all at once, we didn't even take any pictures. They took him away to the nursery to start him on an IV about 10 minutes after he was born. Judd got to go in for a minute, but I still hadn't even really seen the baby at this point. It took a while to get all stitched up (pretty sure forceps were not meant to be put in that part of your body...I tore pretty badly). My family and Lindsey and Reed had waited the whole time all of this was going on, so they came in and said hi and then we were off to our room. It felt weird to be leaving the delivery room without a baby in my arms. This is how I felt about going to our room without the baby.

So it was 1:00 in the morning before they had the baby stabilized and ready for us to come in and see him. He was perfect! It was so sad to see him hooked up to all of those things. He had to stay in the special care nursery the hospital stay and we actually stayed one extra night to be with him.

I felt so much love for him the second I held him and it just got stronger every time I got to see him. The morning after he was born we finally decided on a name. We had been talking and talking and TALKING about this ever since I found out I was pregnant :). I was pretty sure I liked the name Bennett the best, and Judd liked Truman, so we had narrowed it down to those two names. When we were sitting there with him I decided that he really didn't look like Bennett to me, and we named him Truman Judson Westgate.
He was hooked up to oxygen and IVs most of the time he was there, so up until the last night of our stay he had to be in the nursery. So we made lots of trips from our room down to the SCN (Special Care Nursery). They called me every time he woke up and I'd waddle down to feed him.




















It was super exciting on the last night when he got to come to our room! And even more exciting when we got to go home! :)






It definitely wasn't an ideal situation, but I'm so grateful that there were such great people at the hospital to take care of him. It could've been a lot worse and I'm just so thankful that Truman is here and that he is healthy and strong now. We're settling into things...I feel like I'm getting the hang of most of it. I'm trying to get him on a schedule and that isn't really working out the way they say it will in the books I've read, but we just keep trying :). He's a really good baby-he's usually content to sit in the bouncer or just lay wherever we put him. He doesn't usually fuss unless he's gassy or hungry. He is already fighting going to sleep for naps, but is pretty good about sleeping at night, so I can't complain about that.
My hormones have had me a little out of whack and I don't like that feeling, but it seems to be on the up swing the past few days. I'm not usually an overly emotional person and it feels weird to cry at the drop of a hat. I also feel insanely lonely, especially when Judd has to stay at school or work late. I'm so used to being alone at night because of Judd's crazy schedule, so I hate that I can't handle it now. Hopefully my hormones will settle down soon! (Especially so that Truman can lose his man boobies! haha)

Aunt Biph (my friend Kathrin) came over and took some pictures of the little guy. Blogger is being really slow to upload pictures, so if you want to see a few of the pics, head on over to facebook. He slept the WHOLE day before she came and passed out right as she left, but of course was awake and a bit upset while she was here. Stubborn little baby :)

Anyway, we're so excited to start our family! We love this little peanut and are so grateful to have him in our lives! Can't believe we're parents!