One Month Old! What?!?

Can you believe this little face is one month old already???

Time has flown by....but also creeped along. 

My sweet little Ronan is changing so much every day! 

We have a doc appointment on Monday, so I am curious to see how much weight he has gained. 

Currently, he is still in newborn clothes! But he fills them out much better now, and I have a feeling he will be in the 0-3 month soon. 

I'm feeling myself again, thank goodness! Those post partum hormone changes can be rough! Luckily, I think that the worst is behind me, as I feel pretty good these days. 

So far, we have no real schedule, other than eating every 1-2 hours a day and 1-3 hours at night. A couple of nights we have even had a 4 hour stretch!!! But that was after a particularly fussy day....

Nursing is going splendidly! I'm so thankful for this and can relate to the mommas who struggle with BFing because I totally did with my first. Luckily, Ronan has been great at it! 

Ronan has been diagnosed with reflux=(. 

It is the saddest thing to see him hurting. He will wake up out of a dead sleep just screaming and squealing and you can just tell that something hurts.

He is taking zantac twice a day, but so far we haven't seen much improvement in either the spitting up or painfulness. 

Hopefully it starts working soon, or we will need to try something else. Some days, it is so bad that the poor little guy just can't stay asleep at all. It is exhausting for everyone involved!

Other days, he seems to catch up on sleep. Some days look like this:

And then some look like this.....

Overall though, he is the most wonderful little thing in my life. K-man is a wonderful big thing in my life too=). 

I think we have had a couple grins from Ronan, even though they say they are from gas, it seems like he is smiling in response to us! I LOVE it. 

I don't want to jinx us, but nights seem to be getting a little better. He is still up every couple hours, but most of the time goes right back to sleep....which is awesome. 

Its hard to decide during sleep times if I should sleep as well, or shower, clean, sew, work on my shop, etc. Sometimes sleep wins. Other times the laundry does.

Speaking of the shop, I am trying to post some more aprons and other items for a bit more variety in my online shop. At craft shows, I always have folks that want to buy aprons online, but I don't post them very often, so I am trying to remedy that. =). The goal is to make a little bit of money with the shop so that I don't have to go back to work right away. Fingers crossed. I'm trying to work hard at getting the shop where I want it to be. 

Soon, I will have the new blog up and running, and I am so excited!!!

The new address will be www.theprettypickle.com

I will blog and have my shop in one place...how convenient!! 

I wanted to get some opinions on what you would like to see in my shop. 

More Aprons??

More Earrings??

Baby items??

Purses, bags, totes, pouches??

More Customizable items?

Hit me with your best ideas!! Or shoot me a message on my FB page https://www.facebook.com/theprettypickle

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear some new ideas! 

My Baby Story

I have a brief moment to write a quick post about my baby story! As most of you know, I gave birth to Ronan Thomas Brown on May31st at 6:36am. 

He was 7lbs 1oz 19 inches long.

But let me back up...

I was trying to VBAC and when I went over my due date, even with all the home remedies and doctor prodding, my doc decided to induce me. 

We got up early on Thursday morning, loaded our bags into the car, double checked the car seat, and went to the hospital. 

11 days ago

In the parking lot. 

Anxious, nervous, and excited! 

They got me into a gown pretty quickly and things started to roll. 

They started low dose pitocin along with antibiotics (which hurt like the dickens going in my iv) around 9am.

I wasn't progressing as they wanted so, they put a balloon type thing in my cervix to help it dilate. TMI? sorry. 

At around 4 centimeters, I wimped out and asked for the epidural. I knew from the beginning I wanted it, but thought I would hold off a little longer than that....oh well. I'm not a fan of pain. =)

The epidural was quite the experience. They hit a nerve in my back, which made my right leg shoot straight up! It was pretty scary. Felt like the worst funny bone accident ever. 

It started working pretty quickly, and I was nice and relaxed after that....

Then we waited....and waited....and nothing was happening. My body wasn't cooperating. Stupid cervix.

I eventually dilated to a 6. 

This was later at night...not sure what time....

Mom, Kait, and Zach stayed with me all night. We decided to get some rest. 

A couple times, several people rushed into our room and started turning me all kinds of directions. The baby's heartbeat was dropping, and when they turned me, it would go back up. 

Around 6am, his HB dropped again and they couldn't get it back up. It was this point they said we must do an emergency c-section.

Talk about scary. 

I was out of the room and unhooked from everything in less than a minute. 

I was rushed to the OR where they checked the HB again. It had come back up, thank goodness, but they still wanted to proceed with the c-section. At this point, I had labored for almost 24 hours and was ready, though disappointed for the c-section. 

I was afraid Zach wasn't going to make it to the OR in time, but after a few minutes I looked up and there he was=). A few minutes later, Ronan was born. I heard nurses talking about his head full of hair and couldn't help but ask what color it was. When they said it was black, I was shocked! Not what either Z or I had expected. =)

Ronan was whisked away for a few minutes because his oxygen levels were low, but they normalized and everything was good to go. I got patched up and sent back to my room, where Ronan was already waiting for me. He is beautiful!

My sweet baby.

Proud grandparents! 

Uncle Joel is in love!

Daddy Z trying to figure out the diapering thing. This was late one night, and one of the black poo's I believe. Z said it was like tar!

Resting. 

The hospital was pretty stressful after the c-section, because we hardly slept at all! Baby Ronan has had some belly issues that hurt and make him cry (shriek is more like it). 

After a few more days in the hospital, we were able to come home. 

Every day, Ronan gets a little less fussy. I think the belly issues are subsiding. 

Nana has enjoyed coming to visit and singing to Ronan. His eyes go directly to her when she is singing and do not leave her until she is done! So sweet.

We've had some other vistors as well. It is so nice to be loved and thought of by so many!

While lack of sleep is definitely on the menu these days, we are so happy and blessed by this little life that has been given to us. 

We love you Ronan Thomas!