Dexter is 3 months old!

We have had an eventful month.  We had visitors for Thanksgiving and Dexter was baptized.  I will have to do a separate post for that.  For now, I just want to post a couple pics of Dex on his 3 month birthday :) 

He smiles, giggles, reaches for toys, and makes such sweet coos.  He's growing like a weed, the complete opposite of Anora.  At 3 months, he is already wearing 6 month clothing!  To think we were worried about how tiny he was when he was in utero, ha! 

Check out how handsome he is...We sure adore this guy!

Dexter's 2 months old!

Time is flying by in the Egan household.  Our little guy has already been with us for 2 whole months.  A lot has happened in those few months.  Dex has basically doubled his birth weight, so he has been growing and growing.  Translated, this means he has been eating around the clock  He was eating about every 2-3 hours without fail.  He is growing into a strong, sturdy guy.

He has also been fending off all the illnesses his sister brings home from school each week.  She constantly has some sort of virus.  He had been doing pretty well right up until the end of October.  On Friday October 28th he spiked a fever. He had been fussy the past couple days, but I wasn't sure why until he woke up

that night at 11pm just soaked with sweat.  I took his temp and it was 101.5.  As I was feeding him I started googling what to do.  I was freaking out because it said anything over 100.4 was a medical emergency.  I took him downstairs to ask Ben what we should do. I ended up calling my doc office first to get a call back from the on call nurse, then I called 911.  They told me to strip him down and wipe him with lukewarm washcloths.  They also said I can give him infant tylenol. We did all that and by then the nurse called back.  She said he needed to be seen tonight and which ER would we be going to?  I was so freaked out - having to both call 911 & go to the ER - two things I had never done before.  We went to Swedish First Hill.  I fought back tears the whole way.  Luckily Dex was calm as could be.  We got triaged right away and into a room shortly after.    Little Dex had to get his blood drawn from an IV in his head and cathed to get a urine sample.   He did really well with it all thanks to the "Sweet Ease". 

I was told we would get all the test results in an hour.  Three hours later, we finally heard back.  All testing came back negative.  The doc said we could be admitted to the hospital for further testing, including a spinal tap, or take him home and monitor him.  I chose the latter.  On our way out, they decided to do one last respiratory test even though he had no snot, cough, or congestion. 

They took his temp again and it had gone up to 102.5 while we had been there.  They finally gave him some tylenol to keep his temp at bay, and we did the same for the next couple days.  We didn't leave the ER until 6am the next morning.  I didn't get a wink of sleep.  Brutal.

The respiratory test results came back that Monday, and the only thing that was positive was for Rhino virus which is the common cold.  So after all that, I guess he just had a cold, but it sure was scary!

With all that said, I was actually looking forward to his 2 month vaccines!  He was a champ with the shots, but its always painful to watch.

Here are his 2 month stats:
Height : 23.5" --- 67%
Weight : 12lbs 5 ozs --- 45%
HC : 40 cm --- 69%

Dexter's Birth Video

If you haven't seen the amazing video Ben put together of Dexter's birth, check it out!

Dexter Allan's birth story

Ok, so it has already been a coupe months, but I did want to document his birth!
He came to us on September 4th, 2016.  He was ready to be here and came out pretty quick.

 Dexter’s due date was September 6^th, 2016.  I never thought he would arrive early or on time.  I was always assuming he would get here at least a few days to a week or more late.  Especially since he had been measuring small on the ultrasounds – I figured he may need extra time to grow.  Two of his ultrasounds had him measuring in the 9^th and 11^th percentile for size.  I was worried he was going to be a preemie, but at our last ultrasound on Sept 30^th, he was measuring in the 33^rd percentile!  It was a miracle.  He sure was growing. 

On Saturday September 3^rd, my mom and I took the day to go shopping. We got some last minute things for Dexter’s room.  I felt so tired after a full day of walking.  Even more than usual.  We went to church that evening.  By the time we were watching a show before bed, I was feeling some irregular contractions, but didn’t know what to think of it. 

The next morning I woke up leaking fluids.  I was guessing my water broke, and was slowly leaking, but it would start and stop, so I didn’t get too panicked.  But we went ahead and packed our hospital bag, changed the sheets on our bed so my mom could sleep there, and loaded up the carseat.  Then, we went to the Sunday market and walked around a bit.  The leaking increased, so I decided to call the doctor’s office once we got home.  She said I should come in.  My mom made us waffles for lunch and then we headed to Swedish first hill.  We got there around 1pm.  The nurse, Deirdre, verified I was leaking amniotic fluid.  She also noticed my Magnificent medals I was wearing and we talked about how the canonization of Mother Teresa was that day.  She said her sister was in Rome now for it and got to be inches from the pope!  A good connection right from the get-go.

She administered the antibiotics since I’m group strep B positive.  She checked us into a labor and delivery room so we could drop off our stuff.  By around 2:30 we were off to walk!  We walked and walked and walked.  We listened to the Adnan Syed book as we walked.  It was actually quite nice.  It was a beautiful sunny warm day, so it was nice to be outside.  We walked around the Seattle U campus a few times, doing some laps.  We came and went from the hospital to get a bite to eat, go to the bathroom, and have the nurse check the baby’s vitals.  I also made sure to apply Clary Sage each chance I got on my pinky toe nail bed and on the inside of my ankles.  This was to create stronger contractions.  I got into my hospital gown around 4pm, but my contractions had slowed down since coming back inside, so we went off to walk some more.  This time I looked like a mental patient in my hospital gown and robe circling around the block time after time.    We were out there until about 5:30pm.  My contractions were getting really strong.  I had to really slow down when one would hit.  I wanted to wait as long as I could before going back inside so that things wouldn’t slow down. 

By the time we went back in, she checked and I was 6 cm.  Yay!  I worked through some contractions on the bed and rested my legs a bit.  I got up to pee, and the contractions hit even stronger.  I leaned over the bed as I breathed through them.  Around 6:30 they were intense and painful and I felt ready to push.  It was very painful and for my own sanity, I set a time.  I said I would have the baby by 7pm.  They checked my cervix and I was at 8 cm.  The feeling to push continued to increase.  A few mins later, they checked again and said I could push!  Thank God!  I pushed for only about 10 minutes before Dexter came out at 6:50pm!  It took about 4 strong contractions.  It hurt like hell.  I was screaming a lot.  But fortunately it was a short time of intense pain.  I could handle that!  He came out and they put him right on my chest.  He was beautiful.  SO perfect!!!! 

My doctor – Dr. Okorn – tries to be at all her patient’s births, but she was at the State Fair that day.  She had her husband drop her off at the hospital on the way home, and she literally walked in about 5 minutes before I pushed him out.  I was glad she made it, even if it was just for the ending.  She helped the resident sew me up while still in her street cloths, LOL. 

I had a second degree tear, but I didn’t bleed nearly as much as I had with Anora.  By the time they finished sewing me up, Dexter was ready to nurse.  He latched on right away!  I couldn’t have felt more at peace or relieved in that 1-2 hours after his birth.  It was a really nice time. 

We were able to go back to an overnight room by about 9pm and get settled in.  We stayed the night – getting no sleep since they came in about every 2 hours to check vitals and my pee.  But we made it through.  Dex is a pretty mellow baby and didn’t cry too much as long as I held him close. 

The next morning (Monday, Labor Day) he got to meet his big sis, Anora for the first time.  Anora loved seeing baby.  Unfortunately she’s been sick, so we were a little worried about her touching him too much and coughing on him.   

He was also able to get all his checks in – hearing screen, heart screen, heel sticks, and jaundice – so we were lucky to be discharged a day early. He even had a little newborn photo session.  He’s such a good boy, but just like Anora, was wide awake for the photos!  Can’t sleep through the action.  We were able to leave the hospital around 5:30pm and be home shortly after 6pm.  Anora was glad to see us.  She had a tough time with us gone over night.  It was the first time neither of us were there.  She slept with Gammy for most of the night. 

All in all, I feel so fortunate that I was able to have my natural birth and that is was so much quicker!  It feels like such a relief to have that behind me and to know that it can be quicker and less traumatic.  We were all less exhausted after this labor. 

We are now 2 months out and honestly – he fits right in with the rest of our family.  I already feel like someone is missing if he’s not around.  He’s my special baby boy <3

Birth Stats: Weight: 6 lbs, 9 oz, 18.5 inches long

Maternity Photos for Baby Brother

 Stephanie, from Seattle Flashing Lights, did another amazing job with our maternity photos!  We have used her several other times, and I think we love the photos more and more each time!  I had a share a few here from our session in July.  I'm 33 weeks along in these shots!  We took them down at Lincoln Park and it turned out to be a beautiful day for some lovely family pics :)

Happy 33 Birthday to me! (and other July happenings!)

I can't believe my birthday already came and went this year.  July flew right on by!  We have been busy doing all kinds of summer activities around town.  We like to go on walks, play at the beach and check out new parks.  There are lots of events in our neighborhood over the summer, so for the 4th of July, we definitely went to be a part of the big kid parade!

 We also got to go to the Woodland Zoo for the IBM Family day!  Anora got her face painted as an ICE TIGER!  RAARR!

And we celebrated 100 years of Boeing!

We even rode the water taxi one night just for fun and grabbed dinner down on the Pier.

Mostly, we just enjoy being together as a little family.  We are really soaking up time as just the three of us before our little man comes.  I really love life how it is exactly in this moment, and I know it's just going to get better. 

My big dream for my birthday this year was to go camping!  We had never taken Anora before and I knew she would just love it.  Well, she did love most of it!  We had a really fun day playing at the campground.  She loved getting in and out of the tent - pretending to take naps, etc.  She also loved playing down by the beach.  We made 2 trips to the beach, one before dinner, and one after.  The only bump in the road came when it came time to go to bed.  Anora really struggled to settle down.  It took her about 2 hours to finally relax, so it was at least 10pm before she fell asleep.  Then we woke up to her screaming and crying at midnight.  She had a scary night terror for several minutes.  It felt like an eternity since we were outside probably waking up all the other campers but couldn't do anything to calm her down except wait for her to wake up.  Once she did, she was kind of disoriented and couldn't settle back down.  We asked her if we needed to go home, and she jumped up and said yes, sleep in my big girl bed.  So, we did.  Ben and I threw everything in the back of the car and drove home.  Luckily we were only 40 mins away!  It was all good though - totally worth it.

Did you watch the amazing video Ben put together from our camping adventure?!  If not, it's a must see!


Did you hear, Momma got a brand new record player for my B-day, hurray!  It's amazing!

 

The morning before we took off camping for my Birthday weekend, we went to the West Seattle Grand Parade!  Anora got to see her bestie, Eleanor!  Aren't they the cutest?

 Sunday morning instead of waking up at the campground we woke up in our own beds, lol!  We decided to hit up the Alki Art walk down by the beach.  Mostly we played in the sand.

 July sure has been grand!  I cannot believe August is already here!  My belly is growing as an indication that my baby boy is almost here!  Here is the most recent view of my expanding tummy!

TYPO!  That should say 35 WEEKS!  Chalk that one up to pregnancy brain.  Boy, it's been bad this time around!

Baby Boy Bump Shots

Well - I have been pretty bad about taking and posting pictures of my baby bump this time around.  So, I thought I would post a few of the last several weeks.  I'm now in my third trimester - hurray!  Things are progressing smoothly.  My energy has been low throughout this time around, so working out has been nearly non existent, so that's been a bummer, but all in all I've been feeling pretty good.  But I am getting anxious to meet this babe. 

So here I am in week 29 counting down the weeks until I get to meet this sweet boy. 

23 Weeks

As an aside, I started the Specific Carbohydrate Diet about 3 months ago now to see if it can help my gut.  It's a diet geared towards those with autoimmune disease.  My hope is that I can someday get off my Crohn's meds.  It is a very strict diet to follow - no added sugars, no grains, no preservatives - almost no convenience foods are not allowed.  One of the few things I can buy pre-packaged is a Lara bar!  Needless to say, I've been eating a lot of nourishing foods, so I'm happy about that, and my sweets addiction is more under control (yay!).  Those my chocolate cravings still sneak up on me.  Hoping I can incorporate it back into my diet at some point - hehe.  For now, I rely more on fruits to fill that desire.  Anyhow, I hope this diet is benefiting baby too.  Lots of nutrient dense foods for him to eat as well :) 

Visitors from Wisconsin!

Last weekend, we had the good fortune of seeing G-ma & G-pa!  They came for a long weekend over Father's Day.  They were with us when we were first looking at buying this house, so it was fun to show them the house again with all of our things inside.  Our place sure is coming along!

When they came, Anora & Eleanor were finishing up their last day together of nanny share.  They have been together nearly everyday for the last 2 years, so it was a bitter sweet day.  I'm not sure they totally understood what was happening.  They will still see each other, just not as frequently. 

 G-ma & G-pa spend about 2 days working out in our yard!  They cleared out a bunch of weeds a laid down wood chips.  The yard is looking so lovely :)

I love these pictures of Anora - she looks so happy <3

  

On Father's Day, Anora & Papa got matching sunglasses that they wore to the Sunday market together.  Anora liked petting all the dogs, and dancing to the street performers down at the market.

We made a stop at Starbucks so Papa could get a coffee and Anora could demand a pouch :D

Stealing my Lara bars!

 Of course any celebration of Ben would not be complete without an oreo DQ ice cream cake.  We celebrated with ice cream after a nice grilled meal of steaks & corn.  Yum! 

A Few Father's Day Gifts fom Anora!












It was a fun few days!  Thanks for visiting, G-ma & G-pa :)  Glad we got to spend some time together.