ABOUT LUCAS

Lucas Jae was born on January 26th, a date that had signified great sadness for me in the past as it was just two years ago that I lost my dad on this very same date. I know that it is no coincidence that my son came into this world when he did and although I struggled with it at first, I thank my dad for bringing so much joy to this day. It will forever hold the most special place in my heart as a celebration of the life of my dad and the birth of my son.

Lucas was born 7 lbs 7 oz and 21 inches long. His height was in the 75th - 90th percentile and weight was in the 25th percentile. Surprise surprise - he was born tall and skinny. :) He has been extremely alert from day one and loves to look at you with his big wide eyes. :) He is generally a pretty happy baby but also has his angry moments as all babies do (we are getting better and better at minimizing the angry moments as the days go on as there is always a reason for the anger - it's just a matter of mom and dad figuring it out - but we are learning - thank God!). He LOVES to eat - more than anything in the world. He actually smiles sometimes while he's eating. He is also a SUPER noisy eater (almost snarling sounding - LOL) so I dread when I have to nurse him in public... :)  I only wish he loved to sleep as much as he loves to eat!!  He doesn't sleep for very long stretches during the day (maybe an hour here and there) and at night he typically sleeps in 2 hour blocks (VERY sad for mom).. BUT he has gone a couple nights where he has slept 5 and 4 hour blocks which was just so very awesome for me!!!  He LOVES LOVES LOVES having his hair washed and enjoys the rest of his bath too.. however, he doesn't like having his hair combed and HATES the booger sucker!!! It's amazing how much he grows every single day... he is getting very strong and continues to entertain us with his animation and "wildness" aka inability to stay still (he is always throwing punches or kicking his legs when he is awake).  Some nicknames he has picked up:  Luv Luv (compliments of Mommy), Thrasher (he got this one from the way he eats sometimes), Piglet (from the cute newborn snort), and the rest are prob too embarrassing to list so I will stop there. :) 

1 MONTH OLD!

PICTURES :)

Long overdue but here are a few pictures of our Lucas. :)

Hospital Pics

 (Lucas and Gramma)

 (leaving hospital)

 (we're home!!)

 (showing Lucas his room for the first time)

 (trying out his crib with Laker Bear)

(Lucas and Aunt Sienna)

 (arriving at hospital to have our baby!)

 (fresh out of mommy!)

First few weeks at home

 (Lucas and Granny)

 (1 week old!!) 

(Lucas and Baby Keira)

 (LOL - after my first bath!)



MY BIRTH STORY

Hi Everyone!!!!  Sorry it took me SO long to update!  Our precious Lucas Jae was born on 1/26/2011 at 10:17am. He weighed in at 7 lb 7 oz and measured 21 inches long.  I have a LOT I want to share including lots of pics of our sweet son but will start with the birth. 

I went in for my 40 week appointment on Tuesday 1/25/2011 (a day after my due date) and had an ultrasound done to check the size of Lucas and to see how much fluid was around him (as you go past your due date you run the risk of the fluid getting too low which can be very dangerous for the baby and in extreme cases can cause still birth).  The ultrasound estimated his weight to be 8 lb 4 oz but doc said this is give or take a pound. The ultrasound also showed that the fluid around him was in fact low :( which really scared me... doc asked if I was still feeling him move which I was - all the time. He has always been extremely active and that never changed.  He still wanted to hook me up to a monitor to track Lucas' movements for about a half hour.  As I suspected the monitor showed that I had a wild monkey inside me which was reassuring to both me and doc.  However, he didn't see any point in keeping Lucas in any longer since the more time he spent in my belly the more detrimental it would be for him.  When he said this I just wanted to get him out ASAP so my baby could be safe in my arms.  I had REALLY not wanted to be induced but more importantly I wanted my baby healthy so I was definitely not opposing the doc's recommendation to move forward with it. The hospital didn't have any beds available at the time but were going to call me as soon as one was free - so I called Doug at work and shared the news and told him he should probably come home since we were going to have our baby :).. I was so scared and nervous and spent some time crying just because this wasn't how I envisioned it all happening - but I tried to keep my eye on the prize and that was that our son would soon be here in our arms. By the time I got home and had a quick snack the hospital called and said they were ready for me.. so I quickly double checked my hospital bag and we were off..

Once we got settled at the hospital they decided to give me a cervix ripener instead of starting me on the Pitocin in hopes that it would a) put me in labor on its own or b) make the process once they gave me the Pitocin much quicker and easier... well they gave it to me at around 2pm I believe (it was supposed to stay in for 12 hours) and by 9pm my water broke on its own (which I will say is the WIERDEST thing in the WORLD).. the instant my water broke I went into labor and started having horrifically painful contractions every few minutes.  At this point my mind was not made up on whether I would get an epidural or not as I wanted to see how things went.. well after a couple hours of laboring with no drugs I was beginning to contemplate hurling myself out the window and in front of a semi.. so this is when I requested to bring on the drugs!!!  Now I knew it wasn't certain whether an epidural would work for me because of my back (as most of you know my spine is fused from my scoliosis surgery) but the anesthesiologist was willing to give it a shot. All I could do was pray as I didn't think I would survive the process without it.. Doug was praying too!!!  When they were giving me the epi we almost lost Doug! LOL!  He had been doing SOO great but once he saw everything (he was holding me while they did it) he lost all coloring and was told to drink some juice and sit down. :)  I don't blame him though.. I'm sure it looked brutal and plus they had to go in a few different places with the needle to get it in a spot that would work, which ended up being much lower than where they usually go in due to the location of the rods in my back.. Once they finally got the epidural in I just waited and prayed for it to start working.. I would say within 10 minutes my legs were numb but unfortunately my abdomen was not.. after several hours of increasing the dosage again and again it FINALLY numbed my abdomen and contractions. The drugs had a really hard time traveling up to numb the appropriate place due to how low they had to go in and also the slight curvature that was still in my spine.. so once they finally got it working I had so much drugs in me that I felt like a paraplegic!  The nurse would come in to check on me and just laugh because I'd have one leg dangling off the bed and had no idea!  Definitely a bizarre feeling but it was better than those devilish contractions!!! So I continued to labor through the night and was able to doze off a bit thanks to the wonderful, life saving epidural.. but once I got closer to delivery they decided to take my epidural dose down to 50% so that I could slightly feel my contractions to push.. well by the time I was ready to push I could feel my contractions 100% and was still numb as ever in my legs.. not ideal but could have been worse! I ended up pushing for close to an hour and half and it was definitely brutal.. more so because with every push I would get nauseous and sick.. but Doug was by my side the entire time and was an amazing coach - he definitely gave me the strength and motivation that I so needed. Right before Lucas was born my mom came running in :) - she ran in saying "sorry, sorry, I just couldn't wait out there anymore and not know what is going on in here!" LOL.. I just told her that it was okay and to "STAND BY MY HEAD!" LOL.. she did and so both her and Doug got to witness our precious baby being born.  It was truly one of the most amazing and special moments I have ever experienced in my life.. there are no words.  When they placed Lucas Jae on my chest I was so in love with him I could barely comprehend it.. and his daddy's eyes were filled with so much love and amazement it was overwhelming. :)

39 WEEKS

and still pregnant...... :(  I had a rough day today at my doctor appointment.  The exam was so painful today that I almost cried... he reported that I am 2 cm dilated and 80-90% effaced and then we talked about what the next step would be if I'm STILL pregnant next week.. he decided that if I make it to my next appointment (next Tuesday, January 25th) he will do an ultrasound to check two things: baby's size to make sure he is not a giant and the fluid around Lucas to make sure it isn't too low.  If Lucas is a giant (very possible) OR if the fluid around him is low (very dangerous for baby) then he will likely induce labor right away. If all is normal and Lucas is a regular size and he has enough fluid around him then the doc will let me go another week or so before inducing labor.  I REALLY do not want to be induced so I'm hoping and praying with everything in me that he just comes this week. So back to the rough part... when I got to work and went to the bathroom I was bleeding a LOT.. this obviously worried me so I called the doctor and he recommended I go to the hospital to be checked.  My gut told me that everything was fine and originally I wasn't going to go because I knew it had to be from the super brutal exam today but then after a little while and talking to Doug and Jenn I decided to go to be checked out since it's better to just be safe in this case... so I spent about an hour at the hospital being monitored and had another super fun exam.  Good news is that all is well and they sent me home as I knew they would..  :)

So some exciting news is that Doug's mom came in from Virginia this past Saturday and will be staying with us until little Lucas shows up (which is hopefully SOON!!!!).  She is in town until February 3rd so he must must must come before then! In the meantime, she is just hanging out with us which is so great since we don't get to see her much.  Only bummer is that both Doug and I are still working (since I don't want to start my maternity leave until Lucas comes) so we aren't able to spend the days with her... just another reason why this boy needs to get his booty out! 

Hopefully I will have some exciting news soon!!!  I plan to post as soon as I go into labor and of course as soon as he arrives!! :)

38 WEEKS

2cm and still 75% effaced.. that was the news at today's appointment. I wasn't thrilled about my lack of progress but it doesn't mean anything anyway, right??  Doc still says baby can come at any time.. I just have a feeling he is going to make his mom wait.....  it is intentional that there is no space for a 40 week belly pic above! If the 24th rolls around and he's not here I will be the first to give my little boy a spankin! As much as I want him to come NOW I do also really want Doug's mom to get here first (she comes in from Virginia this Saturday and will be here for 3 weeks - yaay!).. AND I also want my mom to enjoy her special weekend she has planned this weekend (she and my sister will be driving out from California once I go into labor).. so Lucas.. if you're listening... mom would really like you to come on Monday the 17th... please and thank you. :)  I wish it was that easy! LOL.. yesterday I was kidding around and was pushing on my belly button telling Doug that I wished it was an eject button... mother nature isn't that kind.  He is the only one that knows when he will come out and he apparently is going to wait until he's good and ready. 

UPDATE

I'm overdue for an update so here goes... I started my weekly exams last week (at 36 weeks) and I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  Still feeling great and totally comfortable... Doc said that I will likely be pregnant for a little while longer and didn't think baby would come any time soon.  My 37 week exam was yesterday and doc reported that I am 1 - 1 1/2 cm dilated (I think he through in the half just to make me feel better.. hahaha) and now 75% effaced.  He could tell I was a little dissapointed that I wasn't more dilated and went on to tell me that even if I was 4 cm I could remain that way for weeks and that with where I'm at now, baby could essentially come at any time. So what does all this mean??? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  Yea, it's fun to know how I'm progressing but since it doesn't really mean anything it just seems a little pointless - and almost a little cruel.  Baby can come at any time. Period. I am super excited though that I finally started having Braxton Hicks contractions last week.  They are now in full force and seem to come like every 6 minutes or so.. I think they are getting a little stronger as some can be uncomfortable so that at least makes me feel like my body is starting to prepare for what's ahead.  Right now I just want to go into labor and meet our little Lucas.  I'm ready.  The waiting begins.................. In the meantime my plan of action: WALKING, FOOT MASSAGES and...

NURSERY PICS

MATERNITY PHOTOS