1 Week Old

Some pics for you:

Bradley getting weighed, etc., just after birth, 5/18/07


Xon and Bradley just after birth, 5/18/07


Bradley and our Dr. just after birth, 5/18/07

Grandma Beryl, Xon, & Bradley in the hospital, 5/18/07


Bradley in the hospital, 5/19/07


Bradley and LaVonda in the hospital, 5/19/07


Katie and Bradley taking a nap after our first visit to the pediatrician, 5/22/07

Cousin Alex, 1 Week Old

Bradley, 1 Week Old


Bradley sound asleep in his "If I don't sleep...Nobody sleeps." outfit from Aunt Dawn and Uncle Erich :-)


One of Bradley's favorite sleeping positions

We're one week in, and I want 8 more to go along with Bradley. :-) Here are a few moments from the past week:

*Bradley's umbilical cord fell off today. Xon heard something drop on the floor and then saw Casey eat something. When we were giving Bradley a sponge bath later, we noticed his cord had fallen off. Xon realized that's what Casey had eaten. Yuck!
*Bradley screams like a stuck pig when he's hungry. It's a very hoarse, high-pitched squeal. So far, that's the only time he cries.
*He is a sleepy head! He would sleep all night if we let him, so sometimes I have to make him mad so he'll stay awake long enough to eat. I tickle his feet and his underarms and blow on his face.
*He LOVES to be swaddled.
*He learned how to suck on his hand this week, so sometimes I have to take his fist out of his mouth or he will try to suck on it while I'm feeding him.
*We gave him his first sponge bath on 5/22/07. He doesn't like to be naked. He does, however, LOVE to have his hair washed.
*My Dr. was holding him when we were still in the hospital. I started talking, and Bradley turned his head toward my voice. My Dr. said, "I am totally not doing that! He knows his mama's voice!" That was sweet. :-)
*He can sleep through anything at this point, so I love to rub his soft little head and play with his hands when he's asleep on my stomach. I also like when he grabs my hand and holds on tight.
*He says "ahhhh" a lot--like he just had something good to drink. Sometimes it sounds like he says "hey."
*Xon and I wonder when we will stop calling him Alex. Poor little guy isn't going to know his name!
*My dad taught Alex a trick. He says, "How do the people go?" Alex puts both arms above his head and says, "Yeah" in a southern voice. Bradley likes to sleep with his arms above his head like that, so we say he does his own version of "How do the people go." :-)
*Xon and I have both played a game with him where we put him in his crib. I'll stand on one side and say his name until he turns his head to look at me. Then I switch sides and say his name until he looks at me on that side. Helps him to learn how to follow sounds.
*Bradley had his first visit with the pediatrician on 5/22/07. My milk hadn't come in yet, so Bradley had lost a pound since birth. He was 8 lbs., 3 oz., when he was born, 7 lbs., 10 oz., when we left the hospital, and 7 lbs., 3 oz., when we went to the Dr. Colostrum is REALLY good for them, but it's very high in protein, so that's why he lost so much weight. From what I told the Dr., he was confident my milk was going to come in any second, so he didn't want me to start supplementing yet. Sure enough, pretty much by the time we got home from the appointment, I had started leaking. So hopefully he will gain weight quickly now. The Dr. was hoping he would be at 7 lbs., 4 oz., by 5/24/07. He was at 7 lbs., 3.9 oz., so that was close enough. Our goal is to feed him like crazy and get him to gain at least a 1/2 ounce a day. We will weigh him again on Tuesday. He was slightly jaundiced, too. That is supposed to get better now that my milk is in, and we can help things along by taking him out in the sun for 10 minutes a day. He is an excellent eater and everything else looked great at our first visit. My pediatrician and OB/GYN are truly the best!!!!!!!
*My final thought for the past week is that recovery from labor is hard!!!!!! I never knew there was so much "after" stuff to deal with, but things get better every day, and I would not trade my little guy for anything. It was love at first sight for me!

Some Pics

Kissing my little guy in the hospital, 5/19/07

Going home from the hospital, 5/20/07

Bradley wearing his "Hugs!" outfit from Aunt Joyce on our way home from the hospital, 5/20/07

Introducing...

Bradley Davin
5/18/07
6:11 p.m.
8 lbs. 3 oz.

Katie, Xon, and Bradley are all doing great!! I'll let them fill you in on more details in the days and weeks to come...

Love to all!
Aunt Dawn (Katie's Sis)

The Short Version

After a long visit with my Dr. this morning, we decided to go ahead and induce me tomorrow morning. I'm not thrilled about it (who really wants to be induced??), but I am at peace about it and feel good about everything we talked about. She thinks I will just need the tiniest kick in the butt, so she is going to give me an extremely low dose of Pitocin and then take it out as soon as my body starts reacting on its own. So looks like Bradley's birthday will be on my actual due date. Can't say that too often!

Anyway, that's the gist of what's happening. Y'all be thinkin' about me, ya hear? My Dr. did say she would do the labor dance for me tonight so I'll go into labor on my own tonight, so here's hoping. :-)

Latest Update

Went to the Dr. this morning and bought myself a few more days. She said she could possibly stretch me to 5 cm, but she wasn't sure because the bag of water was in the way. She said if she had long fingernails, she probably would have broken it, and she didn't understand why Bradley wasn't just falling out. :-)

His heart rate was good at 140. I'm holding steady at a 34 1/2-pound weight gain. My blood pressure was high when I first went in, but it went down a good bit after I sat there for a few minutes. It's still slightly elevated, but as long as I keep monitoring it and it stays at a good-moderate level, she will let me wait until Friday (my due date) to be induced. She said it is better to go into labor on my own, so if I can take it easy and keep the blood pressure at a decent level, she will give me a few more days. I go in on Thursday for another checkup. I'm not to go to work anymore, and the most strenuous thing I can do is fold laundry, she said. I told her I would not be folding any laundry. ;-)

I have had some strong contractions since Friday, so I'm hoping I'm super close. I couldn't have my prenatal massage on Saturday, so I'm going to reschedule it for asap. Hopefully that will totally relax me, and I'll go into labor right then. :-)

More to come...

39 Weeks

Yesterday was an interesting day. It started off with a 9 a.m. weekly checkup with my Dr. My blood pressure was high, and they found quite a bit of protein in my urine sample, so my Dr. suggested that I go to the hospital to be monitored for a few hours. She said if my tests there came back the same, I would have to be induced. If they came back normal, she would still prefer that I be induced since the risks of staying pregnant at this point outweigh the benefits (Bradley is full term, etc.). She didn't want to risk anything happening over the weekend since I am so close anyway. She said she wouldn't have to give me a very high dose of Pitocin since I'm 4 cm already. She was pretty adamant about it at that time, not totally convinced that she should let us even go home to get our bags. But since we lived close by, she said ok.

So Xon and I went home, thinking I would be induced in the next few hours, with none of my family here with us and having to use the Dr. on call instead of my regular Dr. Not only did I not want to be induced (I'm still a week from my due date, after all...), but I REALLY didn't want to be in labor without my family around or even my Dr. I was pretty upset and bawled all the way to the hospital. By the time we got there, I think I had resigned myself to the fact that maybe none of my plans were going to work out.

So we checked in, and they started a few tests. They monitored my blood pressure every 15 minutes, drew blood, and took a urine sample. They also monitored my contractions and Bradley's heart rate. Bradley was doing wonderfully, I was having contractions on my own every 2-4 minutes, and my blood pressure had come down, although it was still a little elevated. My blood work was fine, and they didn't find any protein in my urine.

My Dr. came to check on me after lunch. She still preferred that I be induced, but we finally made a compromise that I would stay for a few more hours to monitor my blood pressure. If it was ok, the Dr. on call would release me for the weekend, and I would see my regular Dr. first thing on Monday morning. That was a plan I could live with, since my family would be here by then and it would give me some time to think about this whole induction thing. Over the next few hours, my blood pressure was still a little elevated but not as high as before, so the Dr. on call released me and said I was to be on bed rest for the weekend and then see my regular Dr. on Monday.

Mom and Dawn and Alex changed their flights so they could get here earlier, and Dad immediately started driving from home. So after I was discharged, Xon and I went to the airport to pick them up. I was still having regular contractions, and they got fairly strong by the time we got home to meet Dad in the driveway. I took a shower, and the pressure went away, although I'm still having regular tightenings. I guess my body is getting ready for labor but isn't quite there yet.

I don't know if my Dr. will let me go into labor on my own (I'm so close!), but I understand that the only cure for elevated blood pressure is to get this little guy delivered. She said I definitely can't go past my due date, so Bradley's birthday will be sometime in the next week. The nurses didn't understand how I had gotten to 4 cm without any pain, because they said that's the hardest part. So maybe the Pitocin thing wouldn't be so bad. But hopefully I will just go into labor on my own this weekend. Bring on the contractions! :-)

I will keep you updated!

Latest Belly Shot

Here's Bradley at 38 weeks. Dad keeps joking and asking me "Are you taking Bradley with you" whenever I go somewhere. Also, my belly button is sticking out, so Dawn says I'm "done." :-)

38 Weeks

38 weeks along. 2 to go until my due date. Or 14 days!

Bradley should be anywhere from 6 to 7 1/2 pounds right now. I think he must be 7 1/2 because there doesn't seem to be much more room in there! He should also be about 19-20 inches long.

Had my latest Dr. appointment this morning. My mom got to go and hear Mr. Bradley's heartbeat, which was 139. I lost half a pound since last week, which is normal at the end of your pregnancy. That puts my total weight gain at 33 1/2 pounds. I am now 4 cm dilated and 75% effaced. Just 6 more cm to go! :-) I am totally digging this dilating before actually going into labor thing. WOO HOO! My mom, dad, sis, bro-in-law and nephew are all here, so we figure any day is just fine with us (though my Dr. isn't on call next weekend, so it has to be before or after that, I think!). :-) My nurse told me to walk a whole bunch today and maybe I can get the little guy to come on out this weekend. We'll see! :-)

Xon's mom came for lunch yesterday and brought the stroller/car seat combo that she and Autumn bought for us. Now I can get Bradley home from the hospital. Yay!!!!! :-)

I should be taking a picture today so y'all can see my big ol' belly. I don't feel uncomfortable at all, so that is just wonderful!