Gideon Albert Lamb

Gideon Albert Lamb arrived October 14, 2008 at 5:54am.  He weighed 4 pounds 12 ounces at birth and is 17.75 inches long.  Praise God for his safe arrival!  On Monday the 13th, I had an ultrasound done which showed my amniotic fluid level had dropped down to a dangerous level of 2.  My OB doctor considered doing a C-section but his heart rate had been good with the non-stress test so she decided to try to let me deliver vaginally. She induced me with a cervix ripening medication called Cervidil.  This was started at 2:30 pm on the 13th.  After a few hours of this, I started having contractions.  By midnight, I was dilated to 3cm and they felt comfortable starting an epidural (hooray!).  They gave me the epidural and then broke my waters at 2:30am so they could place internal monitors to watch his heart rate and my contractions.  They also gave me what's called an amnio infusion which is just saline infused into the amniotic sac to try and give Gideon a little cushion with the contractions.  My contractions were quite strong and regular by this point so they didn't start any Pitocin. By 3:30 am I was dilated to 4cm. Unfortunately though, Gideon's heart rate was dropping down with the contractions.  So they put oxygen on me and found he liked me to lay on my right side the best.  He was still dropping his heart rate but it wasn't as severe. I was starting to wonder if I'd end up with a c-section anyway because of his heart rate.  Unfortunately for me, my epidural had one spot that didn't work on my left lower abdomen.  This spot was much worse if I laid on my right side.  So, though I didn't have to go through the full pain of labor, I still had some definite pain in that one spot.  Anyway, by 4:30 am, I was dilated to 5 cm.  At 5am I was 7 cm dilated and by 5:15am I was fully dilated.  As instructed by the nurse I then started to push but with only a half of a push, Gideon was almost out, so they had me wait for my OB to arrive.  It only took 2 small pushes to get him out once my doctor came.  He did have the cord wrapped around his neck once which accounts for the drop in heart rates. He got decent Apgar scores, at 8 and 9.  Since then, he's been doing pretty well.  He had an elevation in his bilirubin level so they put him on a bili lights bed, which is a UV light bed.  He has to stay on this bed all the time, except for feedings.  It's not much fun for any of us as the thing that you want to do with all newborns is cuddle with them.  We don't really get any cuddling done.  But, they checked his bili level yesterday and it was starting to imrove.  He has a doctor's visit on Monday and hopefully we'll be done with the bili bed on Monday.  Here's some pictures. He's got lots of dark hair.  His eyes are also darker than Elanor's were at birth. SO, time will tell, but I think he'll end up having dark brown hair and eyes like me.  He has really long fingers and long feet, especially considering his size.  We are planning on getting him circumcised, but they won't circumcise him until he's at least 6 pounds.  He also didn't pass his newborn hearing screening.  They say it's most likely  just amniotic fluid or vernix stuck in his ear canal.  He has more testing scheduled in 2 weeks.  They say usually what happens is that the fulid or whatever works it's way out in those 2 weeks and the baby tests normal when he comes in.

We've been having breastfeeding issues.  Most likely related to him being so small and having a small mouth. He latched on fine at first when I just had colostrum, but as soon as my breasts got fuller he had trouble and wouldn't eat from me.  SO, now I'm pumping and then feeding him.  Sometimes he eats well from me.  SOmetimes he doesn't.  When he doesn't eat well from me, I give him the breast milk I just pumped in a bottle form.  At least I know he's getting enought to eat.  It's just frustrating and takes a lot more time than just breast feeding alone.  Elanor has decided to become her version of my lactation coach.  When I'm pumping, she comes and holds the pump on for me so I can massage my very full and tender breast.  She likes looking at the milk going into the bottle.  She almost always says when she sees a small amount in the bottle, "That's not enough, Mommy!  Keep going."

All in all, we are doing well.  God got us past 2 different times I almost ended up with a c-section (not the end of the world if I needed one, but I'm glad I didn't). God has given us a very tiny and precious gift to take care of.  God is healing Gideon of his high bili level and will, I'm sure, help with any other issues (like the hearing).  God is good!

He has the tongue tie issue that Calliani had.  We might end up clipping it later to help with speech development but we feel he's too small right now to do anything about it.

Almost Done

Big News

So, I know, once again it's been forever since I blogged.  I'm not very good at this.  Let's see. Biggest news (which some of you know already) is that I'm PREGNANT again.  I'm almost 12weeks along, due date set for 11-9.  (that's right, just a few days after Elanor's birthday, maybe we'll have 2 birthdays that day). I've been feeling pretty good., not nauseous like I was with Elanor.  I've been pretty tired but have been usually able to get a nap every day and that helps a lot.  I'm ballooning out already. At least I feel like I am.  I can't wear very many of my regualr clothes anymore. But, I'm not big enough for maternity clothes yet either.  Mostly, I'm wearing clothes I bought postpartum with Elanor. 

For those who don't know, Kayla has moved in with us.  My parents had set up rules that Kayla broke and the consequences that she was aware of was getting kicked out.  She didn't have anywhere to go and fter praying about it a lot, Zeke and I felt we should offer for her to be here.  So, here she is.  She pays a minimal rent every month.  We don't have many rules for her but she is aware that if she breaks those rules, she'll get kicked out.  We don't see her much as she has a boyfriend and spends a lot of time (nights, weekends, etc) with him.  Please pray for her as she is lost without Christ.  She makes me sad when I think about the choices she's making.  I've been praying that God will turn it all around for good and bring her to Him.  As far as Kayla being here concerns us, I think it's actually been good.  Elanor adores her and it takes some of the pressure off of me to entertain Elanor in the evenings when Zeke is at work and I'm tired from a long day at work.  Kayla also seems to love doing dishes.  Hooray!  So, my dishes get done a little more often now.  And, she really hasn't added much stress to my life.

Elanor is well.  She is a joy to Zeke and I.  She loves dancing and singing.  She loves being a "princess".  She loves wearing dresses and twirling around.  She's doing well developmentally.  She can recognize all the letters of the alphabet when reading if they are capital letters. She can sing the whole "ABC song".  Her favorite song is "Once upon a dream" from Sleeping Beauty and sings that too.  She can count to 12 (sometimes with counting objects correctly).  She recently learned to march (which is mostly really high leg kicks interspersed with walking).  She loves to help with household things, like dishes, cleaning, and cooking.  Mostly she's a hindrance when she 'helps' but with guidance she's getting much better.  She loves coloring and is getting closer to coloring only the object she intended.  She is definitely a blessing from God!

Zeke is well.  He is now an evening shift manager at Starbucks and is working 30-35 hours per week.  Mostly this means we switch off taking care of Elanor and don't see each other a lot during the week.  But, lately he's been scheduled for 'mid shifts' which are like 1-5pm which means Mom or Hannah watch Elanor, mostly for a nap time. Then, we are all together in the evening.  Which in my opinion is perfect!  Zeke's school is currently on hold. We're not sure yet if it's on a permanent stop or just temporary.  But, it was too much for him to do school and work and Elanor and household duties. So, school is knocked out of the program for now. We've been doing some updating to the house.  The back 2 rooms to the house are an addition and when we refinished the wood floors in the rest of the house, we had to leave the carpet in these 2 rooms alone since there was no nice wood underneath.  But, the carpet got nasty from previous dog and busy child and we wanted to get rid of it.  So, we're putting in Pergo floors (looks like wood but isn't, very durable and reasonably priced). We hired Dan to put in the floors.  Neither Zeke nor I are very mechanically inclined.  Dan is mechanically inclined and at the time was out of a job.  Unfortunately for us, shortly after hiring Dan, he got a job at Shop and Save.  So, he hasn't had much time to work on our floors.  The back bedroom has been finiished for awhile (Kayla is in there).  But, my tv room is still in progress and has been for at least a month.  It probably wouldnt bother me too much except that all the furniture from the tv room is crammed into the dining room and living room.  Everything is squashed together and poor Elanor doesn't have much room to play.  But, at least it's only temporary and will be wonderful when finished.  Well.  I think that's all for now.  the Lamb family is now members of Gold's Gym and we're all headed there for a work-out.  They have a supervised play area for Elanor while Zeke and I work out.  It's lovely for us.  Hopefully, I'll stay in better shape and not put on as much weight with this pregnancy as the last one. See you later!

Currently Listening Cello Suites 1 5 & 6: Music for You By Bach, Yo-Yo Ma see related

Places

The Lamb family has gone several different places over the last couple months.  One place that we greatly enjoyed was Laumeier Sculpture Park.  It's lots of acres with huge sculptures placed throughout the park. It was a lot of fun and required a lot of walking and exploring.

We also went camping fairly recently.  The weather was beautiful, clear skies, 75-80 degrees during the day.  We didn't spend enough time down there to be able to take a good hike, but Elanor did find ways to move piles of leaves from one place to make a pile in another place. One place that Zeke went by himself was a co-worker's house who is a tatoo artist and was giving free tatoos to his co-workers to keep himself in practice.  So, of course, Zeke took him up on the offer.  His new tatoo around his left wrist says, in Greek, "In the power of His might".  It's taken from Eph 6:10 that says "be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might".  As he's not allowed to have any tatoos displayed when he's at work (Starbucks), he wears a watch over it at work. And of course, there's always home that is a place we're at frequently.  Elanor enjoys many things. She loves wearing sunglasses and also discovered an ability to play (one tone) on the recorder.  We'll have to work on hitting more notes on the recorder later.  In the meantime, she looks like a rock star!

Another place we've been is in the backyard.  Elanor particularly likes her ability to open and close the gate on her own.