Daddy Time!

Xavier enjoyed playing Bicycle with Daddy tonight!

He has been having some awake time at night the last couple nights. Some of them have been fussy nights!

Okay just wanted to post a couple pics with his eyes OPEN. Off to feed Xavier's big tummy!

THANK YOU

Huggies bath time on Saturday morning

Daddy and me working on head control

Just chillin

Two words I cannot seem to say enough of in the last few weeks. Thank you to Jake for being such a great, devoted father after he comes home from a long day at the office fending off upset people about the market! Thank you to my mom for helping me through some nightly feedings and sleep during the week! Thank you to my sister, friends, mother in law for constant food and nourishment. Thank you to all the mothers and friends who have been giving me good advice on my over-used breasts and feedings.

Thank you to all our friends and family for all your visits!

I knew breast feeding would be a deeply rewarding experience for both myself and Xavier but I never really realized I don't think that you become glued to your couch or rocking chair in anticipation of the next feeding. We have had to supplement a little for X because he has been doing a lot of clustering feedings lately and I just sometimes cannot handle it. I have started to pump some for the days or nights when I need to go somewhere or be somewhere so Jake or someone else can feed him breast milk. It is not as easy as it seems, thats for sure.

I have made it almost 3 weeks though. My goal is to make it 1 more until he is a month old and hopefully by next week, I will make it yet another week.

I used to joke around about how I was not breast fed as a baby and I might have made my mom feel bad when I did that. I have to say I am sorry because her pain from my brother was probablly 10 times worse with Mastitis and I completely understand now why she decided to take a break on breastfeeding me.

Okay enough on my woes of breasts.

Here are a couple pics of Xavier from last week. Can't seem to get the camera out when he is in his awake stages, although at 3 am that is the last thing I am thinking about!

Oh and Thank you to my friend April who came over today and we went out for lunch for the first time. I was sweating to death at the beginning of it when X was crying but all it took was for me to take him out of the car seat and snuggle with him then he no longer bothered the 3 people having a business lunch next to us!

Oh and one more thing, Xavier is anxiously anticipating the arrival of a new cousin! Ashley, Brady and Caden are expecting a baby on September 19th. We of course are hoping for a girl, but 10 fingers and 10 toes and a healthy baby are most important! Our friends the Deno's though just found out girl #2 is on the way for them, their bundle of joy is due July 29th, Dustin's birthday!

Eat, Poop, Sleep.......

Sleeping on Gigi

That is pretty much what we do around here most days! Xavier is on the every 1.5-2 hour feeding schedule......sometimes (mostly late night) it is frustrating becuase I feel like he just ate, but during the day I can handle it! I cannot find a lot of time or left over milk to pump for a later date, but hopefully that will start too.
We went to his 1 week check up yesterday. Everything was GREAT! He is back to his birth weight of 8.7 in just one week, so that was comforting to know that all the feedings are paying off. His jaundice is going away. He wasn't really too yellow unless under the harsh glow of Fluroescent light bulbs, but Dr Jim showed us yesterday that it is going away. There is a distinct difference from his waist down where it is redder skin and then waist up you can see the slight yellow cast. He said to keep watching the line because jaundice moves from the feet up and out the body. Well it actually leaves through his bowels, which he definitely does NOT have a problem with!
Tomorrow we are going to take a little trip to Kokomo so daddy can go to a funeral. We are just going for the ride and staying in the car. Mommy needs out, not sure that I can obey any sort of 4-6-8 week rule about staying inside and not taking him anywhere.......
Tomorrow is also Daddy's Birthday!!! And Uncle Bradys. Jake and I are going to go out for an appetizer and a drink (woo hoo!!!) while Grandie, Pops and Aunt Betsy stay home with X and hang out for awhile, then we are bringing dinner back home to eat and will have some of Jake's favorite cake....funfetti!
TGIF! Hopefully I can start to get some pics with eyes open! :)

He's Here!

Here is our new PRIDE and JOY....Xavier David Knott.

I cannot tell you the feeling of sheer joy and wonder of having a baby. It is the most amazing thing.

So far he has been an excellent baby. He is a little confused on sleeping and eating times, or shall I say times that work best for me :) but it about him now so when he wants to eat, mom lets him eat! He and daddy are enjoying a nice nap right now which gave me some time to take a much needed shower and check some emails and throw a load of laundry in

Here he is in most of his splendid glory! He was born at 5:31pm on Wednesday February 11, 2009. Weighing in at 8 pounds 7 ounces and 22 inches long! Just like his mama, only I was 21 inches long. Luckily he was not a 9 pounder, but his daddy already has him doing some lifting and encourages all feedings for weight gaining!

His name in his new room!

Leaving the hospital

I also cannot say what a great dad and coach Jake was while I was in labor! He definitely has "coaching" abilities that we will see some day! He was so loving and supportive and I know I would not have lasted 3.5 hours in labor without him! Thanks Jakey, love you! :)

I will try to post some new and updated pics this week because as we all know, they change daily!

Thank you to everyone who visited us or is visiting us, we appreciate all your love, support and guidance! Thank you!

Countdown.....

Well it is Sunday evening and no baby yet. We had an active weekend, I cleaned parts of the house, I cleaned out my car, I have eaten more spicy food. Tank just wants to wait until Wednesday I guess. I went and got a Mani/Pedi today so I have pretty toes in the hospital. I remembered, again, why it is I never usually get manicures....because I almost always mess up at least 1 nail! But guess what.....I had a coupon for my for my pampering today! $6 off for a total of $32, can't really beat that deal. And it is actually a nice, clean "salon."

Below is me at 40 weeks and 3 days preggo.....tomorrow is my last Monday at work for awhile, or maybe forever, we'll see! :) I am sure I will get some more obvious questions from people like, "isn't that baby here yet?" Well no, otherwise I sure wouldn't be here! Tuesday I am working until noon, meeting my mom and sister for our weekly Tuesday lunch and then headed home to make sure I have all the necessities to take to the hospital for the arrival of our Baby Boy. Our probably BIG baby boy...scared to death of a 9 pounder now that he has had time to "cook" longer, but we'll see!

Happy 30th Birthday Anna-Bella (McKain) Plovick!

Okay, we celebrated a week early, but I was lucky enough to get to go to her Surprise party last night!

Next post will be Tank's actual name and arrival details!

Stubborn.......

Not neccessarily Tank, but my anatomy I guess! NO changes yesterday at the Doctor. I am a big fat 0 dilated right now. Still effaced and his head is down there, but no dilation. His heartbeat was 144 by Jake and by Dr Thomas! First time that has happened. So the "plan" for his arrival right now is next Tuesday I go in and my cervix will be "helped" along and hopefully will dilate and then Wednesday morning I will be induced using Pitocin. I am hoping that he still decides to make an appearance on his own, I just don't know many first time moms who have been induced and the process hasn't taken 24 hours or more for baby to arrive..... so I would prefer he just come on out! Maybe the 50 degree weather we are going to have on Saturday will help him! 4 inches of snow yesterday, 50 degrees and maybe some rain on Saturday-love Indiana weather! If anything happens before then......I will let you all know!

Lucky Monday?

Here are 2 new pics of Tank's room. The "dots" look pretty good, if I do say so myself. For those of you who know that Jake L-O-V-E-S the Cubs, that is a Cub's mobile hanging above the crib.

We have a very nice bookshelf from Grandie and Pops with tons of books to read to Tank! Thanks G&P!

We hung Tank's real name on the wall, you can just barely see the tip of the last letter of his name. I was going to put the whole last letter in the pic, but Jake didn't agree......it wasn't going to set off any ah-ha! bells anyway so stay tuned and wait and see for his name!

We hung 2 shelves courtesy of Aunt Ashley's short stay with us a couple years ago and Aunt Ashley's painting she made especially for Tank for Christmas. Thanks Auntie A.

Well I am off to check my meatloaf in the oven. I am trying to make sure Jake gets a "last supper" this week.....just in case! :) I am doing some laundry, planning on sweeping a little later, see if we can't get things moving! I cleaned laminate floors and some baseboards yesterday and that didn't do the trick. Oh I also ate some Jalapeno chips today for lunch!

40 week check up tomorrow. I will update then!