Sam - One Month!

Dear Sam,

You were one month old two and a half weeks ago! 

My goodness, a month passes quickly!  Especially when you're juggling an almost-two-year-old and a newborn!

At your one month check-up, you weighed 10 lbs. 9 oz. and were 21.5" long!  You were in the 50th percentile for your weight, 75th for your length, and 50th for your head.  You are currently wearing size 1 diapers and 0-3 month size clothing.  You are kind of in that in-between-stage where your newborn outfits and especially your jammies are getting snug, but your 0-3 month clothes are a little big. 

You are a very good eater, and I can tell you are starting to fill out a bit.  You are beginning to lose that itty, bitty newborn look, but your little arms and legs are still small and haven't quite plumped up yet.  You eat about every two-and-a-half hours during the day and about every 3-4 at night.  You are able to go back and forth between nursing and a bottle with ease, which is very exciting for Mommy.  It makes going out and doing things so much easier when I can just pump a bottle and go!

We've had a few LOOONG nights in this first month....I'm talkin' STILL up at four in the morning long.  You're a pretty gassy baby, so that bothers you a lot of the time.  Unfortunately, it's bothered you a couple of times at night, but we made it through!  Other than that, not much upsets you!  You cry when you're hungry, sleepy and have gas - that's about it!  You're a pretty noisy baby - you grunt and make noises all day and what seems like all night.  Although, don't get me wrong - you are a very laid back baby and just as sweet as you can be :)

You've yet to show much interest in any kind of toy.  I've laid you on the activity mat once, but you didn't seem too interested.  I'd say your main source of entertainment comes from your big brother, who loves to hug and kiss on you constantly :) Fortunately, you don't seem to mind it, so that's good!

You love bath time.  You get completely relaxed in the water and love to have your little head scrubbed.  I can tell you don't like being cold and don't really like having your diaper changed.  You don't get hysterical or anything, but you definitely let me know that you're not happy.  One of the many cute things you do is when you're upset, your little mouth will actually turn down into a little frown.  It's so cute!

You are sleeping in a bassinet in our room (right next to Mommy), and I imagine you'll be in there for at least the next month.   You are becoming more and more alert each and every day but still sleeping a lot, which is to be expected :)  I haven't recognized any kind of schedule really, just the usual eat, sleep, poop routine.

Sam Little, you are such a sweet blessing and such a wonderful little addition to our family.  Your big brother doesn't fully understand what's going on or that you're here to stay, but I can tell you he's excited and loves you very much (more on that later).  Your Mommy and Daddy also love you very much.

Happy first month, Samuel James Randall!

Sam

Samuel James Randall Little

Born August 9, 2014 at 2:02 am

7 lbs. 9 oz. and 20" long

We are so excited to have our little Sambo here!  He is healthy, adorable and just as sweet as can be. 

I've been meaning to put Sam's birth story on the blog for a while.  Well, a month.  He's 1 month old! Hopefully, I can remember all the details!  Since I obviously dropped the ball (surprise, surprise) on updating weekly during my pregnancy, I'll touch a little bit on the end of the pregnancy (ie. how I was feeling, progress, that sort of thing)  Ok, here goes...

So, I think it was at my 37 or 38 week appointment, Dr. Davis told me that I was 1 cm. dilated and that he was head down and really low.  The 1 cm. part came as a big surprise to us, because I never dilated beforehand with Jack.  It actually took nine hours in the hospital to get to 1.5 cm with Jack, so this was very exciting news!  

Mentally, I had been "ready" to have Sam for weeks.  Jack Little, being the wild-man he is these days, really kept me on my toes in those last few weeks when all I really wanted to do was be off of them!  I was uncomfortable, not sleeping well and just plain exhausted at the end of the day.  I was hoping Sam would decide to make an early appearance, and to our surprise, he did!

Jack and I went to my 39 week doctor's appointment at 10:30 am on Friday, August 8th, and as usual, Mom went with us.  The news from Dr. Davis was the same as it had been the last couple of weeks:  1 cm. dilated, head down, really low - great position.  After expressing my desire for Sam to make an early arrival, Dr. Davis said, "You never know, the day's not over!"  I'll never forget that :)  

We left the doctor's office and went to our weekly lunch spot, Bogue's, for our usual meat and three lunch.  Jack had fallen asleep in the car, so Mom went in to get our order to go.  While she was in there, just minutes after leaving the doctor's office, I had my first strong contraction.  It felt different from the Braxton Hicks I had been having for months, and I got cautiously excited.  I told Mom when she got back in the car.  We decided to go home, eat lunch and then maybe go for a walk and wait and see what happened.  That was at around 12:30 pm. 

We went walking/shopping in downtown Homewood as my contractions continued to get stronger and closer together.  I wanted to wait to tell Jonathan until I thought that I was actually in labor, because I knew he was in a training class for work that day.  I waited until about 3:00 pm to tell him, so by the time he got home at 6:00 that night, my contractions were coming steadily at 5 minutes apart and were quite painful!

Fortunately, I had packed my bag, Jack's bag, and Sam's bag ahead of time, so they were all there and ready to be loaded up into the car.  Mom and I loaded the car up and waited for Jonathan to get home.  Once Jonathan got home, we headed to Josh and Bonnie's to borrow their air mattress to use in the hospital, and then realizing we wouldn't be able to eat for a while, we headed to McDonald's!

When we got to the hospital, they put is in a room where they could monitor my contractions and make sure that I was actually in labor.  I thought, heaven help me if I'm not, because by that time, I was in a lot of pain.  The first time she checked me, I was still at 1 cm.  She then proceeded to tell me that if I hadn't made any progress by the next time she came in (which would be in an hour), then they were going to have to send me  home...not an option in my mind.  Lucky for me, the next time she came in, I was at 2.5 cm.!

After that, the rest of the night went rather quickly!  We got checked into a room where I got my IV and epidural.  I was at 2.5 cm. at around 10:30 pm that night, and she came in to check my progress about every hour to hour and a half.  I continued to make steady progress throughout the night, and around 1:30 am, we were ready to start pushing!  Jonathan had fallen asleep on the couch, so I had to wake him up so he could get in on the action as well ;) After about 30 minutes of pushing, our sweet little Sam was born at 2:02 am.

Our hearts are full of love and thankfulness for another healthy son.  We love you so much, sweet Sam.  Welcome to the family!