Time flies when you're making the biggest adjustment of your life...

Hard to believe but Jacob will be five weeks old tomorrow.  He gets blessed in our church next sunday! I just barely ordered his blessing outfit so hopefully it gets here in time and hopefully it's not too ridiculously big on him.

we stopped by the pediatrician's the other day to make sure his regular backed-up tear duct wasn't actually pink eye (it isn't), but while we were there we weighed him.  When he was born he was 7.6.  When we left the hospital he was 7 even.  When we went to the dr's for the first time just a few days later he was down to 6.11.  Yeah, we had trouble with feedings in the beginning and keeping him awake etc.  We went back after a week and he was back up to 7 lbs.  Three weeks later (two days ago) when they weighed him again he was 9.11- Booyah!

At his previous check up he was down in the 25% when it came to weight but now he's up around the 50%! I won't lie I was very proud.  I mean, we knew he was gaining cause he has much rounder cheeks, thighs, etc though he's still not a lil budah or anything.  The dr said that he would be tempted to say that jacob is chubby with the percentile of his weight gain but he still doesn't look fat like some babies do, so he thinks that Jacob has grown taller too-must have had a crazy growth spurt or something.  We'll go back for his two month check up and I'll be excited to get all his stats and percentiles etc (tho not looking forward to the shots and the aftermath).

 

---WARNING! The following is about breastfeeding and is prolly entirely TMI for most of you unless you're a mom and have been there, in that case I welcome all advice and general encouragement--- (i'll put it in a diff color so those of you who don't want to hear about it can skip to the end)

 

Speaking of feedings-it has been quite the roller coaster.  I won't go into too much detail cause let's face it, breastfeeding is just plain awkward unless it's you and your kid....and always awkward if you're a guy haha, but from the beginning Jacob struggled to latch on.  In the hospital the lacatation consultant came by but jacob was in the nursery at the time so it wasn't super helpful.  Another nurse after watching us trying to feed suggested we try using a shield to make it easier for jacob to latch on (basically looks like a latex top of a bottle that you just put over yourself that gives them more to latch onto).  It seemed to work and at least I could sleep at night knowing that he was able to get the milk he needed now.  Once we got home in the first week we got together with a friend of my mom's who is a consultant with the la leche league (organization that promotes breastfeeding and helps moms out for free to get it down).  After watching us try to latch without the shield and then watching him eat with the shield she said that for now the shield was a necessary crutch but that with time as he grew bigger and my body adjusted he'd be able to eat without it, but for now at least he was getting the milk he needed and could gain weight which is what the dr wants etc.  She said not to worry cause we still had time-that babies are able to quickly adapt and learn new things fast in the first 6 weeks when it comes to breast feeding but after that their habits start to get set in stone and it's harder to introduce change etc.

Well now, finally Jacob and I have managed to make progress with breastfeeding without the shield. At first I would try to start with the shield and then once he got started would take it off and we'd try to latch without it.  After awhile tho I worried that that would just be more confusing for him going back and forth and that we just needed to take the plunge.  So the past three days or so I have simply refused to use the shield.  It's been messy and he hasn't always been happy with me, but slowly but surely he has figured it out and the more often he figures it out at each feeding the quicker he is able to figure it out at the next one.  I really feel like he's learning the technique he needs to feed which is awesome.  On the not so awesome side of things, since we pretty much used the shield from the get go, it's like i'm breastfeeding for the first time and am dealing with all the soreness that goes along with it.  Hopefully I'll toughen up though and will get used to it in the next little while.

On another slightly frustrating note-the past few days jacob has been eating great without the shield but starting last night and still going on today his interest to feed for very long has disappeared.  He'll latch on eventually and maybe eat real good for, oh, tenish minutes and then he dozes off and no ammount of rocking, shaking, prodding, poking, tickling, even cold wet paper towels will wake him up enough to eat again.  In our breastfeeding class they said this happens early on (which even tho he's a month, we're basically beginners at breastfeeding now that we're going without the shield).  They said it's normal to have the baby doing really well with it and then all the sudden they regress for a few days but they'll pick it back up and keep progressing.

Not only is this frustrating cause I worry he's not getting enough (even tho he still has consistant wet diapers which I know is a good sign) I worry this will throw my supply off and then in a day or so when he snaps out of it and gets his appetite again I won't have the milk supply to fill his demand.  I hate this rocky cycle of demand and supply (that's right demand and supply-not supply and demand.  your milk comes in directly in relation to how much it is asked for by the baby and how much he eats-so it's good to let them suck away even if there's not any left cause it's like he's just putting in a future order for milk).  The only thing is if he doesn't put in much demand your supply goes down over time until he demands more of you etc...it just seems like we're never in sync with each other.  Either I'm trying to get him to eat a ton cause I have a lot but he's not interested or he's trying to eat like crazy and I don't have enough for him and he gets frustrated.

I know it all balances out over time and it'll all work out, just is frustrating.  I just have to keep reminding myself that he's not starving-heck he's gained almost a pound per week for the past three weeks so even if he drops a little as we figure this out that's ok-he'll survive.

Anywho, it'll all be worth it when we're both well adjusted and can confidentally get full feedings 100% of the time without the shield, but no matter what I'm not going back to it-such a hassle.

In a weird way though as I was thinking about the process of breastfeeding I sort of saw an application to the gospel-yeah...you get desperate for spirituality throughout your day when you can't go to church for a month.  But I was thinking, so breastfeeding is demand and supply...meaning the kid starts sucking even when there's nothing there having faith that it will come, but it won't come unless you start trying to drink-you have to act first to bring about the desired result.  It's the same with the gospel.  We all have leaps of faith where we know what we want and have been told-if you do this than this will happen/be the result, but we don't have any garauntee and sometimes it seems crazy, but if we act first and show our faith then the Lord can bless us, but only after we do our part.  Also, our blessings are contingent upon the us following the laws/commandments that they are predicated on.  So the more you live righteously and follow the commandments, the more blessings you'll receive in the long run-it's not always immediate.  It's like that scripture in the bible somewhere that talks about how you get out of it what you put into it-if you fill your cup/container half-full than you'll get half a container's worth of blessings, but if you fill it up brimming over with big heaping ammounts than that's the kind of return you can expect from the Lord etc.

ok, it's safe to come back those who don't want to read about that stuff.

here's some recent pics of our bouncing baby boy! And here's to hoping that he gets back on a regular eating schedule soon cause let's face it it effects EVERYTHING else-especially his sleep :)

I have to say tho, Code has been an amazing supportive voice of reason through all the ups and downs of this first month and I'm SO grateful for him and his patience and willingness to help out anytime day or night.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Faces of Jacob

I love watching Jacob's face cause it's CONSTANTLY changing facial expressions haha.  I figure if I have my phone on me at all times I can make one of those shirts with the pictures of different expressions using jacob :)

See the full gallery on Posterous

Needless to say we feel very lucky that we have such a happy-go-lucky baby for the most part.  He wakes up 3-4 times a night (just 3 times is more common).  Code is good to get up, change him, and then give him to me.  Jake still struggles to stay awake during feedings but eats more than he used to and has gotten good at eating while he's snoozing so that's something.  Slowly but surely he's getting bigger and gaining mini rolls :)  

It's insane how much older he looks already.

In other good news, my younger bro Steve gets home from his mission tomorrow.  When he left Code and I were only engaged-now we're married with a kid-it's been a productive two years.  I'm excited for him to go back to BYU-a little jealous I'll admit when it comes to the football games he'll get to go to.....sigh, so fun

Shayne has been here for the week loving on Jacob and making us delicious meals-needless to say we feel very spoiled and it'll be a harsh reality to go back to fending for ourselves next week.  We went on our first walk in the park the other night....at 8:30 at night....yeah....it was still hot but we got good pics from it that we'll have to get from shayne.

What can I say life is very good and full for me right now :)

 

2 weeks old!

I can't believe our jacob is already 2 weeks old!  I don't know exactly how much he weighs now cause we had our "2 week" appointment at one week to make sure he was gaining enough weight etc which he was- he was already half way back to his birth weight and he's kept eatng good since so i'm assuming that he's back to his birth weight (7.6) if not passed it already. Maybe i'll try to weigh him on our kitchen scale.... :)

Things that we've learned about jacob so far: he makes the weirdest little high-pitched sounds! he likes to really move around.  Even in his sleep he's constantly moving his arms and fingers around-seems very restless-maybe will take after his dad's sleeping habits? we'll see...

He likes/hates tummy time.  He can lift his head up while on his stomach for a few seconds and turn his head from side to side while on his stomach.  His chord is this close to coming off (can't wait for that! then we don't have to fold over his diapers which I think leads to half of his accidents).

Speaking of accidents-he has yet to pee on me-he's a gentleman and if he feels the urge to go while I'm changing him, he pees on himself.

He loves to just stare at you when he's in a chill awake state-which happens 2ish times a day, otherwise he's sleeping or wanting to eat.

He's not a lover of his sponge baths which I'm curious to see how he'll like regular submerged baths.

He likes riding in the car and will quickly conk out the second we get going.

He still doesn't fit in a lot of new born clothes yet so we wash the few outfits he fits into frequently.

He has a 1000 different facial expressions-very expressive.  My favorites: the power pout-so sad looking it will make you laugh, his half smile, he draws his mouth up into this lil "o" and it looks like he's whistling or something, and the raising of the one eyebrow.

Here's more from his newborn photo shoot:

See the full gallery on Posterous

Jacob Aloys Nolden 7.23.2012

So, I'm sure everyone has heard but our baby boy was born a week and a half ago-crazy!

The birth story is pretty straight forward-no crazy surprises or twists/or turns.  We went in Sunday July 22 at 9 pm to start the inducement here:

Our nurse was WAY cool prolly cause she was young like us, engaged, etc and it was just easy to chat with her.  They gave me some stuff to get the process started but they didn't want to give me petocin (sp?) yet cause apparently I was having contractions every minute (small ones I couldn't feel) and Jacob's heart rate was really high/excited so they didn't want to encourage things too fast or we'd have him too soon/before the dr could be there.  Plus he was so low that if I were dilated fully at that point I could have started pushing.

I couldn't sleep a wink.  It was really frustrating cause I knew I'd be tired the next day and that I needed my rest.  Between the EXTREMELY uncomfortable hospital bed/my pregnant back pains/and the blood pressure squeezing my arm off every hour or so it was just not in the cards for me.  By the next morning they went ahead and gave me the petocin.  I still didn't really feel the contractions at all but my back was KILLING me by this point!  Everyone says-oh yeah, that's the contractions talking but I knew my back-it would hurt like this throughout the pregnancy if I let it go long enough without a heating pad.

Around noon? ok honestly I don't remember but I got an epidural.  There were like 5+ moms in the delivery wing that were all first time moms so the anesthesiologist was running from room to room handing out epidurals left and right so I got in line so I wouldn't have to wait behind all the other moms.

The epidural was AMAZING-finally I had relief from my back (forget the labor pains) so then I was able to sleep and snooze off and on until they came in and broke my water....yeah....really really weird sensation and I couldn't believe how much of it there was (sorry if that's tmi) and Code saw when they did it and informed me that it was really gross-I believe him.

So around 3 pm our other nurse Janice (also really nice/sweet nurse) came in and started me pushing.  I won't lie it was pretty weird cause I couldn't really tell if I was doing anything but apparently I was. then Dr. Schmidt came in around 4 pm and we pushed for 30 more minutes and with a lil help from the tongs Jacob was able to get his head out and the rest came fast.  

It was pretty crazy surreal, but he was perfect so they put him right up on me.  He was 7 lbs 6 oz (so not quite as heavy as they were predicting) and 21 in.  He seemed so long and skinny! 

this is his angry yoda face:

 We've been home now for a week and slowly but surely are getting used to and loving our new lifestyle/schedule etc.  I'll admit at times I get a little cabin fever-not being able to go anywhere cause we don't want him around crowds yet plus I'm not supposed to pick him up in his carrier for awhile-let myself heal but I'm learning how to still enjoy my day and feel productive.  I'm grateful for all the one-on-one time with Jake though, it's funner and funner every day. We love our lil Jacob so much! He's slowly but surely putting on the pounds as you can see here:

More to come...

The Waugh Bridge Bats

[wpvideo YUaJ7hYn]

While the Engstroms were here we went to the Waugh Bridge-near downtown Houston which apparently houses a large colony of bats that fly out from under the bridge every night at sunset.  In honor of the soon to be released Dark Knight Rises I had some fun with the videos I took of the little guys:

Clearly I am a dork and a dork who is very excited about this movie.  I honestly can't decide which I would find cooler: that our little man doesn't try to make an unplanned early arrival allowing us to see this Friday night (we have our tickets and are all set to go), OR if he comes on the same day TDKR is released which would indicate a level of coolness on the part of our little man that exceeds even my own expectations.  Either way, it's going to be a great week! 

sigh, women...

Life has been crazy busy lately.  Our good friends the Engstroms drove through on their way to medical school out east and stayed for a few days.  It was fun to hang out, play games, and eat out at our favorite restaurants.  Just before they came we had another check up with the dr, and I conitnue to progress every week.  I'm still 80% effaced but am now 2 cm dilated so things keep chugging along.  

There are tons of pics that I need to upload from the Engstroms visit, our recent maternity photo shoot, and our newly finished nursery, but that can wait for another day.  Seriously, I was so excited for the whole icloud concept and would still be excited if it actually worked.  It only picks and chooses which photos/videos it uploads to my pc and if I want to get all of the pics I have to still plug in my phone, and these days I try to avoid things that will annoy me at all costs.

So as to the title of this post, since getting pregnant my eyes have been opened to the crazy world of moms with strong opinions.  Naturally since I am very large with child the topic ALWAYS comes up no matter who I am around so basically that's all I talk about with people.  Now, at first this was fun and exciting and depending on the person, I don't mind it.  I just find it terribly ironic that all of these women, who have been pregnant before and know how it is, still proceed to ask all the same questions/bring it up anyways.  I mean... I assume they know how annoying it can be towards the end when you're REALLY tired of being pregnant, you're not feeling very attractive/comfortable/ etc. so why would they conitnue to do to you what they found to be so annoying back when they were pregnant?  I mean self-aware RMs know not to ask recent RMs the question: "how was the mission?" (stupidest question EVER just FYI for those who didn't serve a mission or have since forgotten how annoying those over-simplistic questions can be.) So why can't mom's remember how it was and throw me a bone?

Now before you start freaking out that you've somehow offended or annoyed me-relax, I realize that I'm a crabby pregnant woman and really don't mind it most of the time, so don't feel like you can't come up to me and talk to me- I just want to remind everyone that I have not lost my ability to talk about subjects other than baby things as well, infact I'd welcome it!

All that being said, sometimes I wish I wasn't so perceptive of people's thoughts/feelings.  I wish I could be blissfully ignorant and take what everyone says at face value, but I can't help but notice expressions, pauses, and I have good gut instincts when it comes to these sorts of things.  The point of all of this?  Cody and I have decided to induce a little early.  Now, chances are, you are sitting there just having read this and have an opinion on the subject-maybe even a strong opinion.

Because I can read people, I can tell that most people we tell this seem to have an opinion on it-whether they voice it or not....and frankly I have to ask why??? Do you think that we haven't weighed all of our options, thought all of this through, and have good reasons for it?  More importantly, do you think we would take the health of our little guy and myself lightly, and not make sure that the Dr approves/says it will be fine etc?  That we haven't talked about it/prayed about it etc?

frankly, I'm not going to list all of the different reasons for this decision cause I don't feel like I should have to, but everytime I tell someone the exciting news of when we're going to start bringing our little man into the world I'm met with surprised looks and the question "why?" No excitement.  No congratulations.  Most of the time (after I've explained why) we don't even get a lame "well that makes sense" just an "oh...ok" and a weird half nod/shrug, and I'm left feeling judged and sensitive.  

Why do moms assume that there's one universal right way to do something (in regards to kids) that applies to everyone, and heaven forbid you approach something a little differently.  I mean, I won't lie, there are certain parenting techniques or opinions out there that I find a little crazy, but if someone shared with me what they found to be right for them and their particular situation I wouldn't judge them or look at them weird-I'd say cool, yay for you etc etc.  Just cause it's something that isn't to my taste doesn't mean it's wrong, it's just another option.  

It's like those moms out there who think that you're somehow less of a mom if you take painkillers during delivery, or if-for whatever reason- you decide to go the formula route rather than breastfeeding etc.  Now, honestly I could care less what you decide to do for all of the above, and I personally don't feel strongly either way.  I know what I'm going to try to do, but if certain things don't pan out or we have to adjust how we do things-it's not the end of the world, and thinking that there's only one way to go about something puts entirely too much pressure on yourself. I don't believe for one second that there's only one acceptable way to do something-even kid to kid.  Who knows what our circumstances will be in the future for our 2nd, 3rd, etc kid-just cause I did A,B, and C with kid #1 doesn't mean that that's they way I HAVE to do it with kid #2 etc.

I just hate how women have this need to judge one another and make themselves feel more secure about their personal choices by making everyone around them feel insecure about the choices they've made.  I know it's probably because we all feel very strongly about motherhood/love our kids etc, but frankly I think most of it is very much misguided.  Why can't we all love eachother and be eachother's cheerleaders?  We all know how hard the job is so why burden each other with our judgements, but instead encourage one another to be moms-in whichever way works for us.

ok, random rant officially over.  And really, I'm not writing this with any particular people in mind, just through my own experiences/and stories I've heard from other women.

We are really excited though and can't wait for all of the precious and- no doubt- hilarious moments that await us.

 

 

More Updates

Well I'm 36 weeks today-woohoo! Went to the dr and everything is still looking good-I haven't dilated further but I'm 80% effaced now so still progressing.

We had a fun 4th of July.  We had some yummy food and fun company at a friend's and then we went over to my parents for round two later in the evening.  Code and I got absolutely killed in rook-we've really been off our game for awhile...and after getting back home we decided to go for a walk in the copperfield neighborhoods and we'd like to thank all those families who spent 100s of dollars on fireworks for the great free show :)  Some of those fireworks were pretty intense and being set off right in the culsdesac all around us-it was great. 

Yesterday we had our maternity photo shoot with Laura Gilgen (gilgenphotography.com) and we can't wait to see the finished pics!  

The last major furniture item for the nursery has arrived at the store so we'll go pick that up tonight along with a curtain rod for this adorable window valance I also got for the nursery.  We'll prolly have the majority of the room done and put together this weekend so pictures soon to follow.