Who ever knew two weeks could go by so fast??

I can't believe Nicolas is already 2 weeks (or as of today...16 days) old!  This has gone by wayyyy too fast! It makes me so sad to think about time flying because it reminds me I will have to be returning to work soon and leaving this little guy all day long :(

For the last two weeks our lives have consisted of waking Nicolas up every three hours (8, 11, 2, 5 am and pm) to make sure he gained back all of the weight he lost at the hospital and with the tube feeding.  This schedule is quite challenging to maintain....typically feeding him takes anywhere from 45 minutes to just over an hour.  After feeding, he is usually awake for a bit and then falls asleep.  By the time he falls asleep its just an hour and a half until we wake him up again and start all over.

Enrique has been the absolute best dad, husband and best friend I could ever have dreamed of!  He stays up with me through the 11:00 feeding everyday so that puts him going to sleep around 1:00 am after Nicolas falls asleep and he is able to get himself ready for bed.  It is such a great feeling to watch Enrique as a dad....Nicolas is literally in his arms every minute that he is not nursing or being changed by me!  He does let me do the 2 am, 5 am, and 8 am feedings on my own....however most mornings when I come back into the bedroom after the 8 am feeding Enrique is sitting up in bed with his arms open just waiting for me to hand over Nicolas so he can say good morning.  I really could not be happier with these two men in my life.

Daddy and Nicolas hanging out

Today we had our two week check up and we could not be any more proud of Nicolas!  We have been (as previously mentioned) consumed with putting some weight on him and found out today we have been successful!  Here are his two week stats:

Weight: 7 lbs 11 ozs!!!  (up from his birth weight of 7 lbs 4 ozs)  This puts him at the 30th percentile.

Length: 21 inches (birth length was 19 1/4 inches) This puts him at the 75th percentile

We are overjoyed and truly blessed that our little man is growing at a healthy rate and packing on some pounds!  He is still very long and skinny....those long arms and legs are definitely courtesy of his daddy!

The pediatrician told us today to continue every three hour feedings during the day and at night to let Nicolas wake us up to feed him.  So our first trial of this will be tonight....this makes me extremely nervous!  Right now, it comforts me to know that even when I fall asleep, I'll be waking him up in just an hour (or hour and a half after an easy feeding) to know he is alright.  I suspect I will be staring at the monitor all night just waiting for him to wake!  Other instructions after our visit today are to keep him at home and not expose him to toddlers or school age children until after he has his shots at six weeks since we are right up on flu season and with school starting germs are everywhere!  We also get to try something new this week.....tummy time!  I'm sure I will have pictures of that soon :)

Wow....a much longer post than I had intended but I really could go on and on and on about Nicolas for as long as anyone would let me!  YES I have become one of those mom's that is obsessed over her kid and wants to talk about him all the time and I LOVE IT!!!!

And now what you probably are more interested in.....a few pics!

This is why I don't blog....I prefer to spend my time staring!

My daddy thought it would be funny to make it look like I'm meditating

Sleepy head

Sleeping on daddy's chest

The most precious little hand!

Waking up to be fed.....

Stretching!

I have some long and skinny arms and legs!

It's a .........

BOY!

Nicolas Alexander Rodriguez 

August 10, 2011

10:11 am

7 lbs 4 ozs

19 1/4 inches

Our first family photo

Nicolas Alexander Rodriguez

Our little man!

I can't begin to express how happy we are to introduce Nicolas to the world!  I know this blog is long over due, but how could I possibly take the time to sit in front of a computer when I have this little guy to give my attention to....this will be a long post followed by tons more pics!

We woke up Wednesday morning, August 10th and I was pretty nervous....Enrique in true form claims that he was not.  We checked in two hours before the c-section was scheduled and I thought those two hours would last forever, but it actually went by really fast.  Before we knew it, they were whisking me away into the OR.  The whole time I was in there while they were prepping I just kept turning my head back towards the door waiting for them to allow Enrique in.  By the time he came in, they were ready to deliver.  At 10:11 am they told Enrique he could stand up and look and the doctor let him announce "It's a boy!"  I think I held my breathe throughout the entire procedure until I finally heard little Nicolas cry.  I could never prepare for what I felt in that moment, I had not seen him yet but it was the most beautiful sound...yes the sound of him crying.  That meant he was out and safe to me and that is when the tears started rolling down.  Enrique stepped away from my side and went to the back of the room where they were cleaning Nicolas off.  They finally came back my way and I laid my eyes on him for the first time.  I know I sound extremely cliche' when I say this, but he was the most perfect person I had ever seen.  Looking at Nicolas and then back towards Enrique has been the most amazing moment in my life.  Enrique looked so proud and I could tell he was as in love with Nicolas as I was.....and I'm pretty sure we both fall more and more in love with him everyday.

We had quite a rough hospital stay....after we were in recovery for about an hour and a half they took us up to the postpartum unit.  They took Nicolas to the nursery...Enrique stayed behind to watch his first bath so I actually was in the room all by myself for a bit.  My mind was racing the entire time, I had not been able to hold Nicolas for nearly as long as I wanted, I was wondering what was taking so long, where was my husband and child....is everything ok?  Enrique texted me that Nicolas had low blood sugar and they were going to have to give him formula....this would be the second time I started crying in the hospital...little did I know that crying would become second nature to me after giving birth!

They finally brought him up to the room and we were able to all three be together...plus a few visitors.

Nicolas was not latching on that first day and they assured me not to worry that he was adjusting to life outside the womb and he would be better the next day.  This was also the day that I had a bad reaction to the epidural and threw up while we had guests (sorry Tina, Maggie, Justin, Don and Holly!)  On day two, he still was not eating and this time I was told that it was due to his circumcision....he would do better the next day.  The third day he still was not eating and I began to get very concerned.  Nicolas was losing weight, he had gone two days without eating and it was time for a new plan.  After visiting with a lactation consultant we decided the best option for Nicolas was for me to pump to get as much colostrum out as possible and we would use a tube to feed Nicolas.  Every three hours for the next couple of days would consist of me pumping, then using a syringe to gather what I had produced while Enrique used his finger to open up Nicolas' mouth while I thread a small tube into his mouth and slowly squeezed the syringe down to get Nicolas to eat.  The method was working but it was sad to see and it took both Enrique and I to feed him every time.  Needless to say we really got no sleep while in the hospital between the tube feedings, visitors, constant interruption by nurses/doctors and the amount of worry we were both going through.  Nicolas got down to 6 lbs 7 ozs that night and when the nurse told us this I started balling....again.  He had lost 12% of his birth weight which is borderline for keeping him in the hospital.  The next day they asked us if we would like to go home and we said yes.  We went home still using the tube feeding method..........Nicolas seemed to be doing great using this method, we got home and didn't have as many interruptions and he was eating consistently every three hours.

Coming home was completely surreal.  I just kept staring at Nicolas that entire first day I think.  I couldn't believe we had a baby in our house and that this little guy had spent the last 9 months in my belly.  I was overcome with joy and the only thing I cared about anymore was getting Nicolas fed and getting his weight up.....hence the long awaited post and pictures!

Here is a slideshow that includes us Wednesday morning before we leave the hospital through us coming home.  For the sake of not going on and on....I will leave this posting at this point and will add more shortly...with lots more pictures of course!

Thank you to all of our friends and family for your support during our tough hospital stay.

Without further ado....more pics of the cutest little guy I have ever laid my eyes on!

Here are many many pictures...

Four days until the big debut!

Much to his or her mommy's dismay, Baby Rodriguez has not turned and remains in the breech position.  We have a c-section scheduled for August 10th which leaves us with just 4 days!  I can't even begin to explain what a roller coaster of emotions I'm feeling at this point.  Scared, excited, nervous, anxious, ready.....just to name a few.  I can't wait to meet this baby and find out what we have but at the same time....holy moly we are going to be parents!!!!!  YIKES!

We have had everything ready to go for sometime now so this last weekend we have the house to ourselves we are trying to take it easy.  This morning we had a couples massage which was fantastic!  I'm sure the days we spend in the hospital will fly by and before we know it we will be home with a new baby....still so crazy!

No pictures of the baby this time but I did take a short video of the nursery to share :)  We are leaving one wall blank to add the baby's name once we know whether its a boy or girl!  Enjoy.......

The next time I post we will be introducing baby Rodriguez to the world!