Week in Review 10/17-10/23

The kids have been sick with colds this week and I have tried relentlessly to keep Kyle away from them-much to their chagrin.  Cayden stayed home from school on Monday and then seemed better on Tuesday but woke up with the croup on Wednesday.  He missed Monday and Wednesday at school and was late on Thursday so that we could see how he was.

Don went to California for some meetings on Wednesday and was gone until Friday.  I pretty much am a hermit, staying in with the baby.  Connor stayed the nights that Don was gone at Grandma Dottie's and then she got him to school.  She also came over and got Cayden one of the mornings to go and feed the chickens at Dena's house.  Caleb stayed after school alot to work on missing work and get ready for his play.

I totally forgot about Cayden's scouts on Tuesday and would not have remembered about Caleb and mutual had he not reminded me.  Connor went to Mesquite like he always does with Grandma and Grandpa.  He does such good up there by going to the care center and talking and entertaining the seniors there.   He also gets to go to Bella's Pizza with Grandma and Grandpa. 

Saturday was a lovely lazy day after a few chores and laundry.  We try and catch up on our sleep from the week that we are missing staying up with the baby.  I am pretty sure that there was football involved.

Sunday was only the second time Kyle had been to church and we probably would not have taken him except that it was Cayden's Primary program.  Cayden actually sat on the stage, stood up with the kids when it was time to sing and actually sang the songs.  He would not do his part but he was atleast up there.  He did not want us looking at him so we had to steal covert glances at him and pretend that we weren't watching him when he was looking our direction.  We also could not tell him he did a good job or that we were proud of him when he came down after it was over.  Kyle sat with my friend Wendy who wanted to hold him.  He was so good for her.  I wanted to run out of there screaming and cover myself and my new baby in Lysol because of the cacophony of coughing that was incessant!  It was mostly adults too!  STAY HOME PEOPLE!!  I don't know if we will take him back until his blessing in a few weeks.

A Few More Pics From Kyle's First Few Weeks

Cookies and a new baby brother.

Ready for our first trip to town.

Oldest and youngest.

Making receiving blankets with grandma.

Cayden is not jealous at all. 

Carne Asada

Man-jamas

Kyle's Firsts

First Visitors-Ashley Schwartz, Darbie Adams and Justine Beard were at the hospital right after he was born.

 First ride in the car-On the way home from the hospital September 13, 2011.

First sponge bath-September 15, 2011
First Doctor Appointment-September 15, 2011-Doctor Nakamura

At his first doctor appointment with his pediatrician, September 15, 2011, he had actually lost 7 ounces and weighed 6lbs 12oz, but had grown about about a quarter inch to 18 1/4 inches.

The following week at his appointment, September 22,2011, he was back up to 7lbs 8oz and had grown and 3/4 inch to 19inches.  That was the day of the dreaded circumcision-the absolute worse day ever for a mommy with a new baby boy.

His first time in his swing-September 16, 2011. 

His imbilical cord fell off on Monday, September 19, 2011

The first time he really started to be more alert after eating was Tuesday, September 20, 2011.  He stayed awake for about a half hour that day. 

His first bath in the sink-where all the boys had their first bath-was on October 1, 2011.

First bath in his tubby-October 7, 2011.

 First tummy time-October 7, 2011

First trip to church-October 16, 2011

Caleb's Baby

The week after Kyle was born Caleb started a flour sack baby project for his Health class.  He printed off a picture of Kyle and taped it to the flour sack.  Then he put some baby clothes on the "baby".  He named the baby Kyle Jr. and called him KJ.  He made a birth certificate and put that the mother was Megan Fox and that the baby was born in the back of an SUV.  There had been a story on the news just the night before of that happening.  He did really well the first 2 days but when he had to haul the baby all around school all day long it got a little old.  He had to take care of the baby for a week and if he could not do it he had to ask someone else to do it.  One of the days he took the baby to school in a backpack carrier.  Luckily he did not get twins like one of the girls in his class did. 

Cody and Calley Meet Kyle

Friday September 16 Cody and Calley came down to visit.  Calley got the special privilege of changing Kyle's bum and Cody got the privilege of putting together Kyle's new baby swing from Aunt Dena and her family.  Cody spent alot of his weekend holding Kyle on his chest and both of them sleeping on the couch.

Kyle's First Outing

One of the very few pictures Grandma Penny took where I don't look AWFUL! This is at the first doctor appointment.

Dad and Kyle after a SUPER long day in Vegas.

On Thursday September 15 we went to the doctor in Vegas as Kyle's first outing.  It took my mom and me and Don to be able to accomplish this feat with a new baby.  We had a rough 2 nights with Kyle waking up every 2-2.5 hours and Don and I were so totally out of our element and could not get a system going so even after Kyle was changed, fed, I had pumped and Kyle was back asleep, it took us another half our to get it together enough to go back to sleep.  Of course part of the problem was my lack of mobility and the great deal of pain I was still in and even getting in and out of bed took forever.  Even though I got up at 7:30 it was not early enough and I had forgotten how long it takes to get ready with an infant.  Our appointment was at 10:40 and we did not even make it out the door until 10:00.  I called the office on the way in and told them we were going to be late and they almost made us reschedule but after talking to the office manager and telling her that we were coming from an hour a way and that the baby was only 5 days old and I had had a c-section she told us just to get there as quickly as we could.  Don drove like the wind-while obeying the speed limit- and we were only 10 minutes late.  We ended up having to wait almost an hour anyway but oh well.  This doctor was a pediatric pulmonologist who our pediatrician referred us to because of Kyle's small chin and jaw.  He referred us just as a precaution because some babies with small chins/jaws actually have a hard time breathing and have apnea and poor oxygenation.  Our pediatrician was not overly concerned because while Kyle was under the bili-lights his oxygen sats were monitored the whole time and he never once had a problem or even dropped a tiny bit.  This doctor we had seen before with Connor and Cayden and possibly Cody.  His name is Dr. Nakamura.  He recommended an overnight oximetry test and gave us a referral to a cranio-facial doctor to look at his chin.  We have not as of yet had either appointment partly because of my laziness partly because we have not been contacted by the oximetry people. 

After that appointment we a had just enough time to run to Wendy's before our next appointment.  The second appointment was with Kyle's pediatrician.  After another hour long wait, Kyle got a weight and height check and a quick once over. He had actually lost 7 ounces but grew a quarter of an inch.  He was hungry at the time and we had just changed his diaper so if we would have fed him first he probably would have weighed 2 ounces more atleast.  After a very exhausting day we just headed home because we were all tired and my feet we swelling more and more and were getting very painful.  Kyle did pretty good and liked sleeping in his carseat.  I sat in the back with him surrounded by multiple pillows and trying my best to prop up my feet so they would not hurt so bad. 

Kyle Brandt Adams-The Saga Part 2

That first night in the hospital was not too terrible since I was still so numb.  Don got the honor of the first diaper change since I could still hardly move!  On Sunday after the kids left me, Ashley and DJ came to visit for a while.  Then Dena and the girls came by to see us too. We saw our pediatrician Sunday too.  He is a new doctor for us who Dr. Abberman recommended since we did not specify anyone in particular.  We told him about the trouble I was having getting Kyle to nurse and that I thought it was because he had such a tiny chin and jaw.  He was not overly concerned about it but did check him out to make sure there was nothing else going on-which there wasn't.  He said that it was not such a big deal to get him to nurse but just to eat.  We really like Dr. Zilberman and he is pretty thorough and explains things to us alot more than other doctors we have had.

I had been trying to nurse Kyle since they brought him to me after I was taken to my room but he would not cooperate very well.  He has a tiny chin and small jaw and it just seemed that he could not get his mouth open wide enough to nurse.  I got him to do it once on one side but not really enough.  After he was about 20 hours old and I had been trying to nurse every 2 hours they started checking his blood sugars.  They were pretty low and kept getting lower which made him more tired and less able and willing to nurse.  I asked for the lactation consultant but she was not there on the weekends and she was not going to be there on Monday either so I just had my nurses who tried to help us but we were having very little success.  It seemed like if he did start to suck it got less and less.  Finally Sunday night the nursery decided that he needed to eat so that he could get his blood sugar up so they gave him a bottle.  I did try to nurse for about 10 minutes to no avail and then we gave him the bottle. 

We kept up the nurse first/ then bottle routine all night.  Don went home around 8pm after a long day. I really should have had him stay that night too but I had no idea how hard it was going to be getting in and out of bed and trying to get to the bathroom and also trying to get the baby out of his bed and me back into my bed.  That second night I had to buzz my nurse to come and help me every time I needed to get Kyle because I just could not do it.   It was a very long and hard night.  At one point I got up to go to the bathroom and had to call my nurse in come and help me get back to bed because I started shaking so bad.  That happened a few times and I just figured it was from shock, pain and overexertion.  It took a good 5 minutes to stop shaking and my husband did not like that at all.  It was very much like the shakes after delivery but I had never had them keep happening before

During the night the nurse said that she needed to check Kyle's bilirubin levels.  She had this head scanner thing that she ran across his forehead. She said the levels were high on that machine so she needed to have the lab draw some blood to check the blood levels.  The lab came in around 3 and by 9am they said the levels were too high and he would need to go under the lights in the nursery.  That made me very sad.  They took him about 9:30 and I thought it would just be for a few hours because they would check his levels again after 6 hours and see if they were going down.  While he was in the nursery I took a shower finally and had my nurses clean up my room.  I also started using the dreaded pump.  After I showered I went to the nursery to see Kyle and it was so sad to see him in the little plastic box with the little bandages over his eyes to protect them.  I was still in a lot of pain so I hobbled back to my room to wait the 3 hours it would take for them to bring him to me so that I could feed him.  I got lots of deliveries that day of flowers and cookies and that helped me feel better.  Plus Ashely came to visit for a while until Don could get there. Ashley brought me some fries and a milkshake to helped too.   My children did not want to go to school at all and Cayden was the most adamant that he was not going.  Caleb and Cayden stayed home from school and Don came in to see us around 2.  Dena brought Cayden in around 4 because he just had to see his new brother and he missed his mom too.   Kyle was in and out of the nursery all day and all night until about 6am Tuesday morning.  Don stayed until about 8 again and then went home to take care of the kids.  Since Kyle was in the nursery it was a good chance to get a little sleep.  I tried to but I woke up alot.  There was a big storm that night and I could see alot of lightning and rain. 

Tuesday morning around 6 I called the nursery and told them that I wanted Kyle brought back to me as soon as his next feeding was and they told me that his bilirubin levels had come down and that he could come out from under the lights.  Don came in around 11 that day and we waited the day to see if we could go home.  I had to be released by my doctor and Kyle had to be released by his doctor.  We found out by 2 that we could leave that day.  My mom was flying down and her flight got in around 5.  I thought we could be ready to go by 4:30 and just leave to get her and go home but that did not happen.  It took all afternoon to get out of there.  Don left around 4:30 to go and get my mom, get my prescription filled and pick up some flowers that his guys from GP had sent.  I took a shower and started getting packed.  I got a flu shot and a whooping cough shot plus all the discharge instructions from my nurse.  Don and my mom got back around 6:30 and we finally got out of there around 7.  It took Don 2 trips to the car and all of us carrying stuff to get everything out of the hospital.  We did not head straight home though because we had to stop at a ladies house to rent a pump and grab a bite to eat at Wendy's.  We finally got home around 9 and the boys were thrilled we were home.  It was a very long first night because Kyle was eating every 2.5 hours and since he was not nursing, I had to pump and after we changed burped him, changed him, rinsed the bottle and got settled it seemed like he would wake up 15 minutes later.  Our bedroom and bathroom  looked like a baby bomb went off because we had baby stuff and all our stuff from the hospital scattered for 3 days.  It was a good thing my mom was here because it took all 3 of us to manage this household.  I have never had so much pain in my life and would not want a c-section EVER again even if we were going to have more kids WHICH WE AREN'T!!!