The past three weeks....

Well, finally I am back adding a new post. It's hard to believe that three weeks and one day ago Preston Alixander was born. His birth went beautifully. We had a waterbirth at Ashland Community Hospital (which is the best hospital with the most wonderful nurses and my doctor was fabulous as well) and everything naturally progressed so well. I was so grateful to Carl for all of his support. I definitely could not have done it without him. What an amazing experience.... the greatest miracle that I could imagine.

We stayed in the hospital for two nights and then we came home on Saturday, January 17. Bringing Preston home was almost unreal. It was hard to believe and sometimes still is, that he is our baby. Throughout the time we have been home, we have been getting used to our new life. While childbirth was what I had prepared myself for, I never fathomed the difficulties that breastfeeding would present. At first, everything seemed to be going on just fine and Preston had gained weight at our first doctors appointment after the birth, but as the week went on I found that we were having more troubles and Preston started losing weight as his jaundice levels rose. Luckily, Ashland Community Hospital has the most wonderful support with their lactation consultant. After the first two meetings with her, we had to start feeding Preston some breastmilk in a bottle, then I nursed him and finally I would pump at least every 3 hours to help build my milk supply. The process has been so time consuming and filled with many tears since it often takes an 1 and 1/2 hours and then in an 1 or an 1 and 1/2 it's time to feed again. And for a while I wasn't sure if he would be able to breastfeed. During the night I have had to set my alarm and wake Preston up because he is such a wonderful sleeper and then attempt to get him awake enough to nurse. I didn't know that a wonderful sleeping baby could also present problems. Fortunately after meeting with the lactation consultant a few more time and some extra doctors appointments, we have been able to stop bottle feeding him and I am starting to taper off pumping as well and through this all he has still only had breastmilk, which was my goal. Best of all, we are starting to let him sleep more and he will sleep for 5 hours at night!!! Yeah.... I'm hoping that he keeps up his great sleep habits. I have been so lucky to have all the support. Carl was home for all of January where he did everything waiting on me, cooking and cleaning and just returned to work this week. My mom and sister have been wonderful to help and cook and clean and Carl's mom has been here this week cleaning and helping. My dad, his wife, my brother and his girlfriend were also here for a short while to visit and were helpful.

Overall, Preston is such a mellow babies. He rarely cries. During the day, he has his awake time where he is constantly working on holding his head up and he can hold it for a long time. He loves looking at everything and he even likes being on his stomach. He also likes being naked and even doesn't mind having his clothes changed. He seems to like baths. At night, he sleeps, eats and then goes back to sleep almost effortlessly. I can't imagine a better baby. WE ARE SO LUCKY! It's so fun to watch him change and how start to get chubbier cheeks. At our doctor's appointment yesterday, he weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz. I also love watching Carl with him. He is such a wonderful father and it makes my heart melt to see him interact with Preston. I couldn't ask for a better husband or more wonderful father for Preston.
Okay, now I'm sure you would also love to see some new pictures.... Here they are....

After his first bath in his bathtub

Preston loves his crib

His first bath

Smiling in his sleep

The family