How does he sleep?

On of the questions that Trina and I have been answering a lot lately has been, "How does Grayson sleep?" Last night, Trina read to me that babies can change there sleep pattern every two or three days. That's been about what we've noticed with Grayson.

After taking Grayson home from the hospital, we decided that he would sleep in his pack-and-play. This was set up in our room so we can hear him if he needs us for any reason. The first few days, Grayson would sleep for about 10 or 15 minutes before we would have to comfort him. Once in a great while, he would make it an hour. Trina and I struggled to sleep those first couple of nights.

The next couple of days were better. Grayson could sleep for almost an hour at a time. But he would need to feed and have his diaper changed each time he woke up. If I held him in bed with me, he would calm down and I could try to put him back in the pack-and-play. If he noticed what I was doing, we had to start all over.

Trina remembered that Autumn had a co-sleeper for her bed. I called Autumn and asked if we could us it. The first couple of days that Grayson slept in it, he began to sleep much longer. Last night, Grayson did so well that I think he only woke up three times (11:15, 2:00, 5:00) before I got out of bed for the day.

Then there were the nights that Grayson wanted to feed all night long. I guess that's typical at the two week mark. It was a surprise to us.

Since then, Graysons is back to sleeping a few hours at a time. I hope that continues as I went back to work today.

Bringing Home Baby

We didn't post many details about what had happened on Saturday or what has been happening since Saturday. I hope this gives you a better picture of what we have been experiencing.



Timeline:

12:00, Trina goes to work.

2:15, Trina comes home from work.

4:15, While creating a grocery list, Trina's water breaks in the kitchen.

5:00, We arrive at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids.

5:30, While being examined, Trina says that she thinks she her first contraction. The doctor nurse tells her that she has had four since she has been hooked up to that particular machine.

6:00, Trina is 3.5 cm dilated. We found out that her water did break. Made a few phone calls to our parents.

6:30, We walk the halls at the hospital. Contractions are becoming more difficult to stand through.

7:15, Trina tries to use the birthing ball to help with contractions. This didn't help a lot.

7:30, Trina gets into the whirlpool bathtub to help with contractions. These contractions seem to be much stronger than before.

8:15, We ask when they are going to check her again, they tell us in thirty minutes or so. They don't seem concerned about anything.

8:30, Trina gets out of the tub and asks to be checked again. They find that she is 9.5 cm dilated. The tone of the room changes completely. The nurses call for Dr. Sterling who is not at the hospital at the time. Trina gets into the birthing position. She is told that she shouldn't push because the baby might get here before the doctor.

8:31, Trina asks for her epidural pain medication. The nurses tell her that it's too late. Trina asks for other types of pain medication and gets a similar response. She realizes that this is going to happen naturally without pain medication.

9:00, Dr. Sterling arrives and Trina starts to push.

10:01, Trina delivers a beautiful baby. The umbilical cord broke really close to the baby.

10:02, The baby's legs are moved out of the way and I announced that Trina delivered a baby boy! Trina was the first to say his name. Grayson Bradley Roos.


At this point, we lost track of time and still don't know what time it is.


Grayson was taken away from us for a little while. He needed oxygen for about 45 minutes. His color wasn't very good and he had a low temperature. When they thought he was pretty stable, they gave Trina her baby. It was beautiful to see her hold him for the first time.

Grayson got to spend the first night in our room. We knew that he struggled to keep his oxygen level at the right spot; so when they let him stay with us, I thought everything must be okay. The next morning, things changed. His oxygen level wasn't a problem anymore. The big concern was that he wasn't able to keep a body temperature at safe level. At some point during the morning, Grayson was placed under a heat lamp. This seemed to be inconvenient because we had a lot of family show up to meet him. It wasn't until almost 3:00 that anyone besides Trina and I got to pick him up. Nana Juilfs was the first relative to hold Grayson. Even though it was for a very limited amount of time, I could tell that she was very excited.

Trina and I both were very large babies. I weighed over 9 pounds, and Trina weighed over 10 pounds. Neither of us ever thought that we would have a baby the weighed under 8 pounds. When we found out that Grayson weighed 6 pounds and 3 ounces, we were shocked. We were even more surprised when we started putting 0-3 month clothing on him. NOTHING FIT! If you are around Grayson much before he starts to grow, you may notice his wardrobe is very small (no pun intended).

When we got him home, we gave him a bath. It is clear to us that he prefers to have clothing on. We also took him to Wal-mart to pick up a few things to make our life a little easier. He did really good. I don't think the opened his eyes once during the trip. We found that the car seat didn't fit as well as we thought it would in the shopping cart. When it locked, it tilted him backwards so his feet were above his head. If there's a trick to solve this problem, let us know.

Grayson Bradley Roos

Trina and I want to introduce you to our new baby. His name is Grayson Bradley Roos. He was born Saturday, February 13th at 10:01 PM. He weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces. He was 21 inches long.

Here are a few pictures that we took over the past few days.

If you would like to see the professional photos taken by Read Photography, go to this web address.

www.mercynewborns.com

Click "my photos"

The password is... roos37050213

Trina and I will blog more when we have had time to settle in.

I bet you're counting the days!

That's what everyone keeps saying to me. And the truth is, yes, we are counting the days, but not in the way that people would expect. From what I've read and the people I know, this is the time when women are sick of being pregnant and are counting the days until the baby can just hurry up and come. I am completely opposite! If you didn't already know, we have a grand plan that if the baby comes Feb 26 or later, we would not have to get daycare until the end of August when Tanner goes back to school. Yes, there will still be 2 weeks in there that we are both at work, but I can adjust my schedule and he can take a couple days off to cover it. If the baby comes before Feb 26, we're going to have to figure out temporary daycare or something, which I REALLY don't want to do. And besides all of that, I feel pretty good and have no reason to rush things!

So yes, we are counting the days, but it with hopes that we can make it to Feb 26!

I had a doctors appointment yesterday and was "checked" for the first time. Much to my surprise (and even more a surprise to Tanner) I'm already making some progress. I'm 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. I knew last Monday that I had surely "dropped". In fact, I'm sure if we looked at my weekly pictures you'd agree. So it could be any day, or I could stay that way for weeks! Either way, we are now more excited than ever to welcome our baby boy or girl into our home, even if it doesn't fit into the grand plan.