Life with a Newborn

Having Micah home with us has been absolutely amazing. How is it possible to love someone so much? I have learned to completely love unconditionally and sacrificially. I finally understand how much my Mom loves me. I have survived on little sleep, defied my own pain to meet his needs, and have loved every second of it. Now that we are entering week 2 of Micah's life, we are getting more sleep at night and even some during the day. He is settling into a routine, although bedtime doesn't seem to come any earlier than 2am. I am finally figuring out the whole breastfeeding thing although I am still overcoming soreness and proper latching. He is growing and is very healthy. The doctor said that he is beautiful, no signs of jaundice and probably will be beyond his birth weight by our 2 week appointment next Wednesday. Now that we have been home for almost a week, we have started to get a little cabin fever. So today we ventured out to make some returns to Babies R Us, pick up Wes's paycheck, and have a quick lunch at Sonny's. Micah did great and never even made a peep while we were at Sonny's. He seemed to be mesmerized by the pattern on his carseat, and spent most of his time staring at that. It felt so good to be out of the house, and we were so glad he did so well.

Sleep

I never realized how little sleep you can actually live on. Since having Micah, I am averaging about 3-4 hours a night, sometimes in 1 hour increments. For the most part I am doing pretty good on that amount of sleep, until early Sunday morning. About 3am, I had yet to go to sleep for feeding Micah. He is a hungry boy, and I was having a very hard time getting him full and satisfied enough to fall asleep. At about 3:45 I reached my limit. I had only had about 4 hours of sleep the night before and I was exhausted. I found myself rocking in the rocking chair begging Micah to go to sleep while hearing Wesley snoring in the next room. He had been asleep for a couple hours at this point. So I decided it was Daddy's turn to take over. I went and sat down in the bed next to Wesley and woke him up. The next thing I knew I was crying. Wesley jumped wanting to know what was wrong. All I could say was just give him a bottle. I then cried myself to sleep. The next morning I woke up to find Micah sound asleep. Wesley had gotten him to sleep soon after I fell asleep, so I went back to bed for 2 more hours. In the meantime, Wesley begged Micah to sleep til 9 just so that I could get some more rest, and he did. It's amazing what a few hours of sleep will do for you. Once I woke up, I felt so much better. That afternoon, Mom and Dad came and allowed me and Wesley to catch a few more Z's while they watched Micah sleep in the other room. It was a glorious day!

Goin' Home

I am a girl who enjoys the freedom of pajamas, but never was I so glad to put on clothes than I was on Friday. Finally, I got to take a shower and put on something other than a hospital gown. It was time for us to go home, so we gathered all of our belongings, dressed Micah and wrapped him up, and headed to the car. The nurse promised she wasn't trying to say anything about my size by bringing in the biggest wheelchair they had! Oh well, at least it was roomy. Wesley put Micah in his car seat, and he didn't mind at all. He did great, never even whimpered. Walking in the door at home was so relaxing. It was so quiet and calming. Not too long after we got home, Mom came with groceries and stayed with us that night. It was so nice to be at home, and even nicer to have Mom help us through the first night. We were both so tired, and we were able to get some well needed rest that night.

He's Here!

Our sweet little boy is finally here! Micah Edward Lewis was born on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 11:50am. He weighed 8lbs and 2 oz and was 20 inches long. He was a bit smaller than we expected, but he is absolutely perfect! Dr. Powers decided to do a C-section because of the estimated size from our sonograms. The last estimate was 8 lbs 9 oz, and Dr. Powers was afraid of what could happen to me and the baby if I tried to deliver him naturally. So last Monday, I got a phone call from Dr. Powers office telling me they had scheduled me for a C-section. I really wasn't sure what to think. I had just prayed that I would be able to have him naturally the way God intended but I was willing to do whatever would be safest for both of us, and then I got the phone call. I was almost in tears when I called Wes and our family, but I held it together. This was God's will and the safest way to get Micah here. So Wednesday morning, Wes and I went to the hospital. I was calm, cool, and collected until the nurse said Dr. Powers was ready and was going to take me back an hour early. I instantly started shaking. I was so nervous!! It was an instant reality check. The scariest part for me was thinking about the surgery, but it all went very smoothly with no complications. Within 45 minutes, they had rolled me into the OR, numbed me up, delivered Micah and rolled me into recovery. It was unbelieveably fast. I wasn't able to see Micah for a couple of hours because his blood sugar was low, and they had to give him formula and stablize his blood sugar before bringing him to me. In the delivery room, I did get to see him all bundled up. My first thought was that he looked just like Wesley, absolutely adorable! His first cry made me cry. Once I heard him, I knew he was ok and that he was real, not just a strange movement in my belly. Finally, when they brought him to the room, it was love at first sight. He was beautiful. So pink and so wonderful! My baby boy was finally in my arms and had taken over my heart! We spent the next few days in the hospital while I recovered from surgery. The nursing staff was amazing, but I was so ready to get home. You would think a hospital would be a great place to get some rest, but that is so not true. Every time I fell asleep someone would come in and disturb me. So let's just say I survived those first few days on about 4 hours of sleep.

The Last 9 Months, part 3

The Last 9 Months, part 2

The Last 9 Months, part 1

For those of you who have been waiting for my return to the blogging world, this is for you. Over the last 9 months, blogging has been the last thing on my mind. But this week, Wesley has set me up with an easier way for me to communicate and share our life with those we love. I have also been working on my most recent scrapbook, spending hours in front of the computer. So I figure this is the easiest way to get you all caught up and to share some pics with you as well. We are also working on setting up a web album so that you can view all of our photos. I'll let you know when we get that one figured out. You can click on the scrapbook images to get a better look.