Due Date

Well we finally made it to William's due date. As most of you know I really thought I would still be pregnant at this point, but Will had other ideas. It has been a wild ride for the last couple weeks, but I wouldn't change it.

My parents left on Sunday and Adam's parents arrived later that day. So the Grandparents are getting their baby holding time in. Adam's Mom even said Will might be cuter than Adam was as a baby, so I told Adam his top spot in Pam's heart might have been surpassed by Will :)

Here's a nice family picture my Mom took before she left, those who get her Christmas letter will no doubt see it again on that letter.

We started using a pacifier in the last couple of days. Here is a picture with a content sucking William. It works well for when he is full of milk, has a clean diaper and isn't too tired but wants to suck. Adam also started to give a couple of bottles and the first went a bit slow, but the second today got sucked down fast. So hopefully Will can switch back and forth between without incident. Only time will tell.

Tummy time and sleep

Working on tummy time, still not our favorite. When we use the boppy we get more head lifting, but a bit more yelling too.We had another rough night last night, waking every 1 to 1.5 hours. My Dad got up early with him at 6am and let me sleep out a bit, then I got a nap this afternoon during a good nap session to make me able to function today. Adam slept well last night and feels better today, so that is good.

I think the short sleeps was my own fault, after talking to the doctor she said the spitting up might be him getting too much milk (hence the weight gain) so last night I tried not to let him get over full, but in turn I might have caused him to wake up hungry more often. They sure don't make this easy; tonight I am going to let him fill up and if he spits up, so be it. Here are pictures from our long nap this afternoon. He is just too cute sleeping in the Moses basket in the window (Chandra, thanks for lending it to us, it has been a great item to have).

2 Week Doctor Appt.

Well we are up to a whopping 7lb 1oz, we were expecting at least a little over birth weight (6lb 2oz), but not over 7lbs. Obviously he is getting enough to eat, which is good. Now if we could just get a little more sleep at night we would be all set. The last couple of nights he has been up every two hours, with a feeding, changing and settling, that gives me about one hour of sleep at a time. I hope it's just a growth spurt right now. William also gained an inch up to 20.5 inches now. We don't fit in the Gerber Newborn sleepers any more when we stretch out our legs. On to Gerber 0-3 mo sleepers.

Napping during the day is becoming a must, as when the 5pm time frame rolls around I am beat. Adam just caught a cold and is not feeling well on top of the loss of sleep. Hopefully he can knock himself out tonight with some NyQuil and get some sleep to try to get on top of the illness.

Happy Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for, William, our families health, our jobs, the list goes on. We feel very blessed this year and hope you do too.

We received William's hospital picture yesterday. He has changed so much since this picture was taken. I think his cheeks have filled out a bit and his color has improved.

We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow so we will get a new weight to see if he is back up to birth weight yet. He has been eating good, but yesterday and today we are seeing more spit-up and gas. I am concerned that it is something I am eating that is bothering him so I am going to ask the doctor about it and read up on line. I know there are things they say to avoid, but I am not sure if that is the cause, or if it is just his digestion changing.

Happy Birthday Grandma McCarty

It's my Mom's birthday today, we won't say how many years. So we have celebrated today with a walk down by the lake (was a bit cold) and a nice dinner tonight at home.


My Dad is driving out this evening to join us and then stay for Thanksgiving weekend, so we are excited to have him back and for him to have some time off of work to spend with us.

Awake and moving around.

Hiccup King

Sorry for the delay in posting, so here is another one with pictures for those who need their fix. The background change apparently messed up the comments, but I think I got them working again.

William is the Hiccup King, he gets the hiccups at least three times to five times a day. If he is feeding, he doesn't seem too bothered by them, but if he isn't, they seem to annoy him. I can't blame him, they annoy me too when I get them. Here is Daddy and Will hanging out on the floor.


Murphy checking out William, he sure smells interesting. They are getting along pretty well, Murphy is a bit jealous of the lap time that Will gets during feedings, but Murphy gets his fair share of attention too.


Sunday we went for a drive, William liked going fast, but slow down for a dinky town and he let us know he wasn't too happy. His poor little head just bobs in that huge car seat, but he doesn't seem to mind too much. We are still figuring out how to load the little guy in there with all the little appendages moving around.


A successful bath with no contamination in the water. William does not like to be cold, so we found if you drape a warm wet wash cloth over him there is less screaming.


Tuckered out after a busy morning of eating, burping and pooping.

To Do Lists

Not happy when Mom tried to pose us with duckies!

Chilling with Mommy by the window

Daddy likes to give us whisker kisses.

It's amazing how getting few small things done can make you feel better. Adam had a to do list and got the lawn mowed, the windows cleaned and the floor vacuumed. My Mom cleaned hard floors and bathrooms. And I got some Thank you's written, made a few calls, and went through my maternity clothes.

I feel like I have a whole new wardrobe that is now at my disposal. Not everything fits (pants especially) but we are moving that direction, so that is good.

We got out for a walk around the block yesterday while Grandma watched Will. It was nice to get some fresh air and a stretch of the legs. I wish it was a warmer time of year to get the stroller out, but we are nervous about his little size and catching a chill.

One Week Old Today

Such a sleepy guy, and occasionally he puts his little hands under his head to bump up the cute factor.

Here he is wearing a onsie we got from some of Adam's work friends it says "P is for Police Car", even though it is a newborn size, he is pretty much swimming in it. But we are working on getting a little more chub on those skinny arms and legs.

So it has been a week and we are all getting to know each other better. All in all, it has been a wonderful week, and I wouldn't trade this little guy for the world.

It has been so helpful to have both Adam and my Mom here for the week. Adam is such a great father, he changes a lot of the diapers, cuddles with William, does tummy time on his chest, and they read books in the living room chairs together. Though I hope he isn't teaching William about Scotch Whiskey, which seems to be Adam's latest interest.

My Mom has been cooking up a storm, I don't think I will have to bake any desserts for at least a year. Good thing we bought a chest freezer before William came. She has been a great help cooking dinner every night, watching Will when we need to run out to the store quick, and getting some Grandma time in later in the evenings.

Green Geisers, oh my!

We have been peed on quite a few times, and have found you need to be quick with the diaper changes or have a cover ready. But the bottom side hadn't been a problem until yesterday. Adam was at the end of the changing table and I was at the side.

We were changing a poopy diaper so we weren't expecting any more. So with his little butt straight in the air and Mommy wiping we let out a shot of poo straight into the air and onto Mom's head, shirt, Daddy's shirt, the changing table and the floor. Adam yelled something like "get a cover on it" as it kept coming out. Then we both started giggling.

Now I know why people go through so much laundry with a baby!

Here's some more pictures from the last couple of days, needless to say I have the camera out pretty often.

Doctor Check Up

Good news, we are gaining weight, well I should say Will is, hopefully I am loosing some slowly. I don't know how he couldn't be gaining with all the milk going through him causing lots of poopy and wet diapers. He just weighed in at 5 lb 13 oz at the doctors office, so in the last 2 days he has gained 2.5 oz. She said he looked good (slight jaundice, but not bad) and we go back on the 27th for the 2 week check up.

Last night was much better for sleeping as he went 3 hours between feedings, I actually woke him up for all of them. Which gave me at least 3 solid sections of 2 hours sleep. So feeling pretty good today. I would say we are slowly figuring out what he likes (swaddling, sleeping on side in wedge, rocking on your lap on his side, laying on Daddy's chest, white noise) and what he doesn't (taking his clothes off, the sun or a bright light in his eyes).

Hope everyone is having a good day!

Good to have your own bed back.

Well there wasn't much sleep to be had last night, but it means he is eating well, so I can live with it. Sleeping in our bed was so much better than the horrible hospital bed, even if it was just for 30mins to an hour at a time.

Murphy is getting to know Will, he is a little apprehensive when Will starts screaming while we are changing him. But I had both of them on my lap earlier today and they were doing well. We put a little Murphy bed in Will's room and for the first four or so feedings, Murphy followed me into Will's room and sat in his bed. After a while I think he decided it just wasn't worth it and stayed in our room.

Tomorrow we head into the Pediatrician for a color check and weight, so I am hoping we are going in the right direction. With all the diapers we have gone through, it sure seems that way. We also attempted the first bath today and it went really well till just at the very end when we were ready to pull him out, he let out a great green mess. Oh well, par for the course!

Proud Grandparents!

Pictures with the Grandma's and Grandpa's and the boys toasting William (my father calls it wetting the baby's head).

We're Home!

Hi to all, William Vincent Suedkamp has arrived home today. It has been a busy couple of days. But all are doing well, we just need to get some weight on the little guy. He came out at 6lbs 2 oz and as of last night had dropped to 5 lbs 10.5 oz. So our main focus right now is building up that weight and getting some rolly polly onto his little body. We expected him to be a little bigger to start with, but with being two weeks early and his cord was connected a bit oddly to the placenta, both contributed to a tinny peanut.

I am completely in love with him and so is Adam, he couldn't be cuter if you ask me. He looks to have my face shape as a baby, but his fingers, feet and toes are all Adam. Right now we are enjoying all the baby faces, snorts and grunts and trying to get a little sleep here and there.

Enjoy some pictures of the little guy and family.

William Has Arrived!

William arrived today at 6:00 a.m. He weighed 6lb 2oz, and was 19 1/2 inches long. Everybody is doing well. This was written by Adam, hence the lack of information. Erin can expand when she gets home from the hospital :-)

Progress

Another doctor appointment today, and now I am 2cm dilated. The doctor said it could happen any time, my contractions are every 5 minutes or so according to the monitor they hooked me up to again today. Not painful though, so we will see how much longer this will last.

My doctor joked that he wants it to happen in the next 48 hours so he will be around. Since next week he will be back in Austria visiting his family for the week. Either way I know I am going to be taken care of well by any of the doctors in that clinic.

I am feeling like things are getting closer as I am in more discomfort walking around and getting a bit more tired by the end of the day. But I am still trying to keep in mind that it could go another three weeks. Either way I am looking forward to holding my little boy in my arms when ever he is ready.

If he comes early he will be taking after Adam, who can't be late for anything, and is typically 20 minutes early for every appointment. If he comes late, he might take after me and just be stubbornly comfortable where he is. Who knows, only time will tell!

Doctor's Appointment for this week

Well I had a doctor appointment today and they hooked me up to a monitor to see how Will was doing, he kept moving around a lot which made it hard to keep an eye on his heart beat. I ended up having to hold the monitor on my belly in a certain area to get a good reading. My arm got sore from holding it there for 20 minutes. They were looking for his heart rate to increase when he moved, which it did very regularly, so that is good. It also monitored the contractions I was having, they are still pretty irregular but it was interesting to see them on the monitor print out and really understand what a contraction was versus, some times I thought it was just the baby stretching.

I measured right at 36 weeks on my outside dimensions, so the doctor thought his head dropped, and upon further examination he confirmed that it has. So all looks good. I am 1cm dilated, but I don't think that means much at this point. The nurse mentioned that if I was to go into labor at this point, no body would try to stop it. So I guess we are in the clear any time now.

I think it gave me a sense of urgency to try to tie up loose ends at work as much as I can before I leave. So that will be my goal for the next couple of weeks.

Murphy's Tough Weekend

Murphy had a rough weekend. He went in for a haircut on Saturday and ended up at the Vet. The lady cutting his hair on his feet caught his pad when he squirmed and it wouldn't stop bleeding. So I met them at the Vet and they glued it up and put on a purple bandage. I had to kind of giggle as they had only gotten half his hair cut done. The body is short and the head hadn't been touched yet, so I guess for Halloween Murphy is a lion. Apparently all the dogs at the groomers were acting up, she said it was a full moon.

Welcome to our Blog!

Welcome to our Blog! So this is my first attempt and I am just getting started. We plan to use this blog to post pictures of our family and our activities. Hope you enjoy it!