Tuesday, April 21, 2015

1st trip to the Doc

Weight: 6lbs 10oz

I freaked out at the hospital when he dropped down to 6 lbs 15oz overnight after he was born.
So you can imagine that when we went to the pediatrician for his 5 day checkup and he was even less that I went into full panic mode. 


The Dr. didn't seem too worried about it. And we figured he would start gaining soon. 


We went back to the Dr. when James was 14 days old for his circumcision, and he had only gained 3 oz!!!  He weighed 6lbs 13oz and the Dr. wouldn't do his circumcision because he wasn't gaining well.  He had been such a good baby and seemed to be doing so great that I couldn't believe he wasn't gaining! 

I started pumping all his feedings and feeding him bottles, plus a little formula. By the next Monday (6 days later) he was 7 lbs 2oz. The Dr. said he needed to be 7 lbs, so we were on the right track. Newborns are supposed to gain around 1/2 oz a day, so he was doing great!


We went back in on Wednesday for his circumcision and he was 7lbs 5oz! 
And one week later he was 7 10oz! Finally reaching his birth weight at 1 month old!


Monday, April 20, 2015

Welcome Home Baby James!

It was quite an adventure trying to get out of the hospital. My blood pressure wouldn't go down so they were monitoring me, and then once they okay'd me to leave, we had to wait for a doc to check off baby James again. We got home around 1pm and these 3 kids went nuts. They saw him in his carseat and immediately all ran for their cameras to take pictures! It was the cutest thing ever and this is the best photo I got of it! They are a product of their photo crazy mother!

Jack could NOT take his eyes off James!

It was SOOOOOOO nice to have my parents there to help!  George even took Dad for a little Razor ride. 

 3 days old

Saturday afternoon Mom and Dad had to leave to head home and pack up their things to go back to Argentina.  I held back the tears, but later that night cried in my room. I have never brought a baby home without mom there to help.  I was so lucky to have her for 1 day. 

That night James got his first bath at home! 
 Jack was in charge of pictures and his seriousness makes me so happy in this picture. 


 We spent a lot of time just being lazy. Lucky for me Abby was able to take off an entire week of work to come up and help me. I would have DIED without her! 


 James gave a cute little smile on Day 4 of his life, and started getting the saddest nursing blisters. Poor kid!

Sunday, April 19, 2015

James Alan Byram

On March 3rd I went into my OB for my weekly visit.  I asked him to check me since I had been having some contractions and he did, I was 2 almost 3 centimeters. He told me not to get too excited as that could stay the same for weeks, but I had a feeling I wouldn't go much longer. 

I came home that morning and called my hair gal to change my appointment to the next day, instead of the next week. I really thought I might have a baby that week and really needed to get my hair colored.  My appointment was March 4th at 4pm. 

(that nasty blue thing was my throw up bag!)

At 3:55 Vince came home to watch the kids so I could go get my hair done, I went to the bathroom and something felt strange. I told Vince I "thought" my water broke a little, but wasn't sure.  I had to leave soon or I would miss my appointment, so I had to think fast. Vince called Cala to see if she was available for the kids, even though I told him not to.  I decided to go to my appointment. I knew if I stayed home nothing would happen. 

(1 minute old)
At about 5pm I felt like my little contractions were actually becoming something. I told Stephanie (my hair gal) to hurry the foiling along. She put me under the dryer. I had a few more contractions and told her we needed to wash me out and skip the cut.  At this point I really didn't think it was happening, but wanted to play it safe and go home. I got home just after 6pm. 

My contractions stopped, I was so disappointed. We got the kids in their jammies and went down to cut fabric.  While cutting fabric I had a really good contraction, and go all excited. Finished cutting orders and had another one. By now it was about 7:30. At 7:50 I texted Deana to see if she could be on call for the night.  I go the bathroom around 8pm and start leaking pink stuff . I FREAKED OUT and called Deana and told her to get over here quick. Good thing she lives across the street! 


Deana and Trevor come at about 8:05, and I am walking around getting stuff together, not really having contractions anymore, but we are going to go to the hospital anyway. At about 8:10 we jump in the car, and before we even pulled out of the driveway I had a pretty good contraction and knew that this was it!

(my 2 favorite James')

The whole way to Idaho Falls my contractions were painful and frequent. Every 2 minutes!  I was freaking out. I called the hospital on the way there because I wasn't even sure where to go. I've never had a baby at EIRMC before but we had to this time for insurance reasons. 
(Love his face)

We walked in and found L&D.  I could barely walk though. The lady at the counter was on the phone and we sat there waiting for her to get off. It seemed like 20 minutes!  I was holding the side of the counter ready to die! 

She got us in  room and they checked me. I was a 5!  Thank goodness! That meant I could still have an epidural!  I told them to get somebody here quick for it! And they did! 
The epidural guy came in and got started. I had to lay down and it made my acid reflux go nuts!!! I was gagging, burping and on the verge of throwing up the whole time. It was awful. The epidural didn't work on the right side and I was still in so much pain. The nurse called in another guy and he got it working. Phew. 
About 3 minutes after the epidural started working my Doc, Dr. Baker came in to check on me.  He put on his glove to check me and didn't even stick his had in there, he took one look and said, "Time to have a baby. You are going to push once this baby will be here." I kind of doubted him and he said, "No seriously, don't sneeze, he is RIGHT there!"


He was wrong though, I did 2 pushes and James was here!
7 lbs 7oz   21"  at 10:49pm


I was hoping my swelling and acid reflux would immediately go away, but I was wrong. I still burped and gagged and almost threw up the whole night, and my swelling got worse! 

But that's okay, little buddy was here safe and sound!


I snapped this photo as they were doing his hearing test.  He has electrode things all over his head! I was terrified but the lady told me it is completely safe! Okay.....

And over the course of 2 days I took 4000 pictures!  

I still couldn't believe that James came 3 weeks early and was able to see his Grandma and Grandpa Wheatley before they went back to Argentina. It was perfect!  Grandma Jane even made a trip down the hospital to see him.  She is still recuperating from her fall and it was a lot for her to come. 

 Here is a quick sampling of the 4000 pictures. 







Our first family photo. 









On Friday March 6th we brought him home!