Glow Worm Baby

I distinctly remember receiving a Glow Worm for my third birthday, at the time it didn't dawn on me that a toy of a worm whose head lights up was a little creepy and weird.  However, which is stranger, a glow worm or a baby whose body lights up?  You be the judge. . .

This first picture is of him in his bilibed but not on and with the bedroom light on during the day, not too strange . . .

Here we have him with the bilibed turned on but still daylight . . .

The flash was turned to slow on the camera for this one, but still lit him up quite a bit . . .

This is what it looks like without the camera flash . . . .like I said even stranger than a glow worm toy.

Trying to read this whole post might kill you.

Well, it has certainly been a whirlwind of a few days.  I was the last person to expect to go into labor two weeks early.  (no, really, I had three coworkers say they thought I would that day).  However, Shad already has a personality like his dad and decided he was going to do things his own way.  That is how we managed to have such a nice long time to prepare for delivery.  My family history involves very very short labors and I expected to keep it under the four hour mark like they do.  Well, that certainly didn't work out.   I also thought after a long labor we would have a nice calm prepared delivery.  I made sure the Dr. was aware that this baby would be fast and waste no time getting to the hospital.  He assured me to go in immediately if I went into labor and he would be sure to be right there.  Well, he did stop in a few different times and managed to find that I was going to do things a little slower.  We had been stuck at the same place for six hours so we all figured it would be pretty safe for him to go and deliver at another hospital where the baby actually was planning to arrive sometime soon.  In the meantime they started me on a VERY low dose of Pytocin and planned for the Dr to be back in plenty of time.   So much for that plan, as the Dr. actually managed to miss the birth by about ten minutes.  Twenty one hours of labor led up to one magnificent grand finale.  Four pushes and Shad came out with an arm above his head as though to say, " Watch Out World!" I shouldn't have been surprised that I didn't follow the family model as I tend to be pretty different from the women in my family.  I think they got the better deal this time.   Shad showing up so quickly after it all certainly took the nurses by surprise and the delivery room suddenly had way more people in it and quite the commotion.  Unfortunately, because of this Dan and I missed those first few moments where you hold the baby together and get some time to yourselves which I do regret.  Of course, at that point I was just glad it was over because I was losing my resolve.  I suppose when the Dr. mentioned possible C-section and gave the pytocin it was just the push we needed to get this little guy here.  Unfortunately, he is Jaundice and EXTREMELY lethargic.  I didn't hear him actually cry until he was probably 18 hours old, he was that mellow.  This means he also doesn't eat.  He has never woken up to eat on his own.  So, we are going through quite the regime to keep this little guy fed and try to lower his Bilirubin. He has to spend twenty four hours a day on what they call a bili-bed for phototherapy except for when he is eating.  In addtion, Dan previously mentioned my "voluptuous nature", well this pretty much occupies our entire day.  I have a rediculous regime for "milk cow care" involving ice packs, electric pumps, nursing, bottle feeding, heat packs, etc that literally takes an hour even now that we have the hang of it.  My mother who had five children even says she has never seen anything like all of these steps just to feed a baby.  Seeing as we are feeding him every two to two and a half hours that leaves very little time for anything else.  Even when he nurses it takes all my time and concentration as I have to stimulate him with a wet rag on his body, or rubbing him vigorously, or doing some tube feeding at the same time every ten seconds even then to keep him awake long enough to eat.   great news is that it is making a difference and we are not having to completely force feed him anymore.  Thankfully, my mother is staying with us.  Poor Dan and her have packed up half the house to prepare for the move and been left to take care of all the other household duties as well.  They have both been amazing.   In the meantime, thank you to everyone who has called, texted, e-mailed, visited, brought meals, prayed or just had us in your thoughts  and I apologize for not getting back to you if I haven't.  I will add some more pictures soon.  Unfortunately, we have very few pictures of when he actually got here, the delivery room was so chaotic and unprepared (the surgery table and packs weren't even open) of when he actually got here.  Since having him home and doing light therapy we have also not gotten many pictures because Dan can rarely hold him except for burpings etc, and at that point I am in the middle of taking care of the milk cow regime and have no hands available.  In addition, we have no pictures of Shad and me because I am pretty much always topless.  While Dan has been so kind as to take some pictures of this hilarious spectacle we are kind enough to keep from traumatizing the world through bad, scary photos.  Dan has been amazing through it all and handled the anxiety attacks and labor and what not more calmly than I could handle a  back massage at a resort spa.  He is of course an incredible daddy and always willing to do the burping, or diapers or whatever he can.  He even surprised me with flowers and my favorite cookies the other day because he knew I was having a rough day.  My mom has made it possible for me to completely focus on Shad and not leave Dan stranded which of course has made all of the difference.  More pictures to come, but right now a certain little boy needs to woken up to eat!

Shad was born on February 20th at 8:23 pm.  He weighed 6 lbs. and 11 oz. and was 19 inches long.  As mentioned in the last post, the labor was 21 and 1/2 hours and Mikaela did the whole thing natural.  I must say that I was both amazed and impressed with her perseverance.  Since Shad was born things have gone smoothly.  He seems to be doing well but doesn't have much of an appetite.  He is pretty laid back and likes to look around to see what is going on.  We came home from the hospital on Sunday and Mikaela's mom has generously been helping out.  Mikaela and her mother took care of the baby throughout the night.  The biggest challenge so far seems to be convincing him that he needs to eat.  The voluptuous nature of his mother does not make the eating easy but I am sure he will get the hang of things.  Both Mikaela and the baby are doing well and we sincerely appreciate all the support our friends and family have given us!  There are so many people that have done so many nice things it is impossible to even name everyone.  Please know that we appreciate the kindness that has been shown to our little family!  

What a little pimp!

WELCOME TO THE WORLD SHAD!

AFTER 21 AND 1/2 HOURS OF LABOR, SHADRACH THOREAU PHILLIPS MADE IT INTO THE WORLD.  THERE WERE ONLY 15 MINUTES OF PUSHING BECAUSE ONCE THE PUSHING STARTED HE WAS COMMITTED TO GETTING IT OVER WITH.  THE NURSE TRIED TO TELL MK TO STOP PUSHING BUT IT WAS ALL OVER AND THE DOCTOR DIDN'T EVEN MAKE IT INTO THE ROOM.  I WILL POST LATER BUT HERE ARE SOME PICTURES TO KEEP ALL OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY SATIATED.    

Will the real MK please stand up...

 . . . okay, for those of you who didn't realize that was not me in the last post I am horribly ashamed.  Dan likes to sign in to my accounts sometimes and pretend he is me.  Those of you saved in my e-mail contacts may have received strange forwards from me in the past, this can be attributed to the same thing.  I don't know if this is an outlet for his wish that he was more like me or if he is trying to make a version of me he likes more, either way you should be able to tell the difference.  Less than three weeks to go and I am starting to understand how it feels to just want the pregnancy part over with.  Of course, I  keep reminding myself that then I will be recovering from a traumatic physical experience, getting absolutely no sleep at all, worrying about keeping the baby alive non-stop and have the added pressure of figuring out how to be a dairy cow at the same time.  I try and prepare myself and think that the swollen ankles, acid reflux, inability to breath, and feet living between my ribs are nothing in comparison.  We are trying to get prepared and I have certainly felt the urge to "nest" as they say but we will actually be moving just a few weeks after the baby is born.  This means our house is in a little bit of turmoil at this point.  Empty and packed boxes have taken over while I am preparing for the exciting transition of moving out of our  apartment.  However, it does leave me rather conflicted as I keep wanting to set up a nursery that will not get used until after the move and therefore should be getting packed up instead of set up. In addition, our little boy may experience a little bit of confusion when his new room is set up since it has lavender walls.  I am not complaining though, I would take bright orange walls at this point.  We have been so very blessed by people's generosity though and I am feeling as though we pretty much have all the "stuff" we need, now I just need the skills to use it.  A big huge thanks to Karissa, Jessica, and the rest of the girls at my work who threw a shower this last week and literally bought everything on my registry that the store carried and I didn't have yet. Thanks to everyone who contributed and Tracy, thanks for letting us take over your gorgeous house.  This baby, Dan and I have been so spoiled!   Dan is still working hard in school and trying to get ahead so that he doesn't fall behind when we have our first child, move and he has finals all within two months of each other.  He also continues to work full time, he wants to be Superman when he grows up.  We figure why not make things completely insane, right?  I believe we have settled on a first name, but the middle name hasn't been sorted out and of course there are no guarantees.  Amazing to think people use to have to wait to know the gender after the baby was born, now people are shocked we don't have things monogrammed two and a half weeks before.  Time certainly flys when you are freaked out about the future haha.  Well, we will keep you posted.  If I do as poor of a job of keeping our blog updated this time around as last then the baby will be here already, hopefully that doesn't happen.