4/15 Kader looking all grown up in the rose garden in our yard
4/15 Daddy and Kader
My sweet baby Kader
4/12: Me and Amanda had our first "playdate" at the mexican place in Smithfield.
Pate and Kader sportin their rides! Aren't the stylish! Kader was in the middle of a meltdown. I wanted to take pictures and he wanted to eat!
Amelia, 2 wks old and Kader 5wks old (to the day!) She's such a little peanut compared to him!
4/13 Lily stopped by to say "Hello" to Kader while her parents, Ashlee and Jeff were in the area.
Lily and Kader's first date. . .they were both thrilled beyond belief as you can see! Poor Lily slept the whole time! Lily is 1 day older than Kader. These little ones are destined to be together. Kader's namesake, Kirk's great-grandad was Kader Lilley (don't pay attention to the spelling!) and Kirk grew up on Kader Lilley Rd. Kader and Lily both went beyond their due dates and we scheduled to be born on the same day . . . Lily wanted to be "the older woman" so came a day early on her own! Lots of coincidences so far, we'll have to see how time and life plays out this love story that we've already got planned out!
Kader 2 1/2wks old and Josiah 1 1/2wks old
4/15: Dr. Henderson and Kader at my 6 week checkup.
Kader had his official 1 month checkup the 6th of this month. He was a whopping 10lbs 1/2oz (50%) and 22 1/2 inches (75%) long. The past couple of weeks have flown by. . . if this is a prelude of what is to come, he'll be going to college in no time!! Prior to his checkup we consulted with a cardiologist because Kader was having episodes where he became blue around his mouth but no where else and also had a faint murmur which scared me. The cardiologist checked him over and said that there was a small murmur and the bluish hue around his mouth at times was related to superficial vasculature, both findings were normal variations. Thank goodness!! I was able to breathe a sigh of relief after that. It's amazing how becoming a Mom changes everything, including all of my medical training! The only other medical "obstacle" has been Kader's acid reflux. He started spitting up and acting very fussy after his feeds a few weeks after we got home. After trying conventional things we started him on Zantac to see if that would help. After about a week and maxing out the dosing we switched him to Priolosec, which has almost alleviated all of the fussiness related to the reflux. He still spits up like a champ though despite everything! Over the past 2 1/2 weeks Kader has been "sleeping through the night." He usually goes down around 9:30 give or take an hour and sleeps until 4:30. The first night that it happened I thought the clock was wrong! I feel so blessed to have such an easy going, low maintenance kiddo.
So for any of those of you that are interested in how Kader finally made his entrance you can read below, this will be the cliff notes version (kinda) of my 3 page documentary that was lost!
Kader was scheduled for eviction from Hotel Uterus via scheduled induction. We were called to come to the hospital at 6ish on 3/2/10 so that they could start the process. We arrived and the nurse started the ball rolling for everything. At 9:30pm Dr. Beatty examined me (no changes) and placed a foley catheter through my cervix to help manually dilate it. She also told me to sleep because I was gonna have a long day ahead of me (it turns out she was right big time). I didn't sleep a wink despite Ambien because I just watched the fetal monitor and my contractions all night. Kirk on the other hand was able to get a few hours of sleep. At 6am Dr. Beatty took out the catheter and checked me again. I was dilated to 4cm, 80% effaced and was even having some irregular contractions on my own (which was really neat because I had never felt a real contraction). She was happy with my progress and started the pitocin (an IV medicine to help increase contractions). I was reassured that everything was on the right track. The nurse increased the pitocin every 15 to 30 minutes to get me into a good labor pattern. After about 7 hours of good strong contractions and no progess I opted for an epidural (If I had made progress and had dilated to 6 or 7 I probably would have opted out of the epidural). At that point my pain level was a 8 out of 10 and I wasn't too interested in finding out what the 10 felt like! The epidural was great except that my left side didn't get blocked so after we did a few maneuvers and I was still having pain on my left side they gave me additional medication through the epidural which worked . . almost too good! Prior to having the additional medication I could feel and move both my legs, afterwards I had no control over them and they felt like pins and needles. After getting my pain under control they inserted an intrauterine probe more accurately monitor my contractions. The "magic" number that indicates a good labor pattern which should dilate the cervix and move the baby down the birth canal is 200, at one point I was all the way up to 320! Despite these good numbers my body wasn't cooperating. After being on pitocin for 12 hours without significant progress we started talking about a c-section. I knew that the talk was coming, but I still wasn't prepared to give up my dream of a vaginal delivery. Kader was tolerating the labor and the doc was okay with giving me a few more hours of laboring to see if things would change. At that point we decided that it was best to give into reason and get Kader out while he was still happy. It was best to have a c-section that is planned in a controlled environment rather than chancing that he could go into distress and require an emergency c-section. Dr. Henderson was the new doctor and was one of my favorite out of the practice, so I was reassured that he would be delivering Kader. The c-section was originally planned for about 7pm, but was pushed back to almost 9pm because of an emergency c-section before me. Unfortunately during that time my epidural wore off and I was having 10 out of 10 contractions every 2-3 minutes for about an hour before delivery! I was in agony and Kirk was beside himself. He kept his cool the whole time, but almost lost it when nothing was helping my pain. He did such a good job supporting me and reassuring me that everything was going to be okay. Finally it was time for the c-section. They prepped me for my spinal and once it was placed I instantaneously had pain relief! I also had a freak out session (that I had totally no control over even though I wanted to calm myself down!) related to low heart rate and blood pressure, a common side effect of spinal anesthesia. During this time they had started the surgery and went to get Kirk. When Kirk got to the OR he had time to kiss me on my forehead and say "I love you" and Dr. Henderson was telling Kirk to stand up to see his son! Kirk stood up and got his first peek at our son, sat down and told me that he looked just like him! It happened so quickly (from the first incision to Kader's birth was 3 minutes)! Kader didn't cry immediately but I didn't panic (surprisingly). They cleaned him up and brought him by me so that I could see him (he cried then for the first time and continued to cry in the adjoining room)-Kirk was right, he did look just like him and that's the only thing I've heard since his birth from everyone! That fleeting second was gone and the nurse took Kirk and Kader into a stabilization room. After what seemed like forever they came back and I got to touch my son for the first time. It was such an amazing feeling to be skin on skin, face to face with this precious person that Kirk and I created. I was overwhelmed with emotion and already had more love in my heart for this child that I can ever begin to describe. After only a few minutes, the nurse took Kirk and Kader to the recovery room while they finished up with me. When I got into the recovery area Kader was getting his first bath. They didn't let me hold him because I had to lay flat because of the spinal. I was really disappointed because I wanted to try to breastfeed while Kader was still alert. We got into our postpartum room around 1130ish. After getting settled I breastfed him for the first time and he did pretty good considering how sleepy he was and has continued to feed like a champ! Afterwards we had LOTS of family who had been waiting ALL day for Kader's arrival. We kicked everyone out around 1am so that we could try to sleep. Kirk was out like a light. I couldn't sleep (despite not sleeping since Tuesday at 8am) because my brain was in high gear thinking about the events of the past 2 days.
Looking back I am still sad that I wasn't able to have Kader the way that I wanted to, but am thankful that God's plan worked out and we have a healthy and happy baby boy!
So far we are adjusting to parenthood great. The first week was a challenge just because we were still getting to know our newborn but we were very lucky to be able to get into the groove quickly and the rest is history. We look forward to each day with anticipation of the new things that are to come but sadly look back at how quickly time has flown! Our little one is getting big so quickly.
Love to all,
Kirk, Tiffany and Kader
