Growing Xander

We went to Alexander's first pediatrician appointment today. He is now 9 pounds 3 ounces! He gained 1 pound 12 oz since birth. He's also 20 1/2 inches long now. Growing like a cute little sprout.

He's sleeping on daddy's chest right now.

Young Alexander and His Hiccups

Young Alexander and His Hiccups
Originally uploaded by lauren buckland

Little human sounds coming from little humans are really cute.

Ready for my Closeup

Alexander is now two weeks and one day old. We're adjusting to baby time. It's amazing the difference between getting woken up ever hour versus getting woken up every three hours.

Micah and I are learning how to understand Xander's cries. There's the crying and rooting (hungry), the scrunched up wiggle worm (pooping), the dying cat wail (you aren't responding fast enough!), the quiet ah-lah (I've forgotten what I was crying about, but I'm still crying but I'm also kind of sleepy...), the constant fuss (change my diaper) and the less dramatic fuss (hold me).

We also have fallen into a routine--Micah has been making most meals, which is great since he's such a good cook. I'm feeding Xander every 2-3 hours. We take turns on diapers except at night when Micah does diaper duty while I wake up to nurse. Micah's managed to get in a bunch of bike rides and going in to work. I generally either sleep, do chores, or take walks with Xander when I'm not nursing him. I got a chance to go swimming the other day, too.

We both agree that he's the best thing that ever happened to us.

closeup
Originally uploaded by lauren buckland

Alexander in Motion

Alexander in Motion
Originally uploaded by lauren buckland

Yes, at long last, coming to the small screen near you: Alexander Charles Ledbetter in full motion.

Alexander's First Trips

Alexander is now a week old and he's done a bunch of things already. His first bouldering trip--to Turtle Rock in Marin County--was on november 13th. He hung out in the shade with his mom while his dad was climbing, and vice-versa. The Ledbetter grandparents, Denis and Ellen, had come to visit a few days before and joined us at the rock. Later that day he went out to his first restaraunt--sushi in Rockridge--with Ann and Wiley. Lauren was very happy to finally have some raw fish, boy was it good.

IMG_0705
Originally uploaded by lauren buckland

Birth Story

I thought I'd add a condensed version of how the birth went. I loved reading birth stories when I was pregnant--just to see how things might turn out.

Pretty much there's no planning anything. Beyond the goal of making sure Alexander was born healthy, I had wanted--ideally--to start birth naturally, use hypnobirthing techniques to manage the discomfort, and give birth with very little pain medication.

What ended up happening was different, but still an incredible experience. Since Alexander was overdue, the doctors had us schedule an induction for November 5th. I started having contractions on November 3rd, but they weren't regular (every 6 to 10 minutes). I went in to the hospital as scheduled with Mom and Micah on November 5th at 6:30 pm. I was barely (1-2 cm) dilated. Around 9 pm they started me on pitocin to augment my labor. Within an hour and a half I was having contractions every 2 minutes. However after four hours of this, I still wasn't any more dilated. At that point I decided I was in it for the long haul and opted to have some morphine. Though it didn't deaden the pain, it did make it more manageable.

After a few more hours, the doctors checked me again and I still wasn't dilated. The doctor manually tried to dilate me (very happy I had painkillers at this point) and I immediately moved open to 4 centimeters. After that, things progressed normally--with me ready to push around 10 am. Alexander was born at 11:02 am after 14 hours of labor. Micah received him, cut the cord, then bathed him and we all got into bed together to snuggle for half an hour. The nurse and doctor who were with us for the delivery were great--very willing to have us use alternative pushing techniques.

So did the hypnobirthing work? It kept me calm--the whole labor was very calm and almost meditative for me. I used hypnobirthing to relax through contractions--I listened to the relaxation CD and Micah read some scripts to me. I needed it completely quiet during contractions--the only thing I felt comfortable doing was closing my eyes and breathing out very slowly while moaning. (My mom called it humming, I think of it as lowing like a cow.) I eventually became overwhelmed with contractions (also not dilating at all was worrying me) so opted to use drugs.

Newborn Family

Baby Alexander is alert and on Daddy's chest next to Mommy. He's about 30 minutes old in this photo. Click on the photo to see some other pictures.

We're all home now and doing very well. Alexander is too cute for words!

We'll upload more after we get some sleep!

Newborn Family
Originally uploaded by lauren buckland

No News Yet..

Baby still is happy in his warm little womb. I'm scheduled to go in tomorrow early evening to be induced, though, so it is likely that baby will be born by Friday. I've been having somewhat regular contractions since last night, so *maybe* I'll go into labor naturally. That would be nice.

Mom and I have been walking, window shopping, knitting and cooking for the past few days, just hanging out. Several of the stores in Rockridge are offering 15% discounts today if you voted. We were on a search for Obama pins--only found Obama action figures--but were told we can get some cheap pins outside a nearby Safeway.

Tonight we're going to go to a local pub to eat burgers & fries, drink beer (those of us who can) and watch the election results on TV. Go-bama! No on Prop 8!