Summer fun in the sun!!!

Lately, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous here in Calgary! We have been going on lots of walks and just soaking up the sun. One thing we know in Calgary is it doesn't last very long so we have to take advantage of it while we can.
This past Thursday we went to my friend Nicole's cabin up in Gull Lake. We went on the dock and we went boating. It was great! Hunter dipped his little toes into lake water for the very first time and actually liked it! I was shocked! We were all prepared for a good scream but he was pretty content! He loved the boat ride too. He thought the jerky movements were just great; giving us really good smiles while it went.

Cute Lifejacket!

 Kobi had fun with his bestie too Roxy (Nicole's Black Lab)

Then, today My friend Vickie came over. We went for a really nice walk around my developing neighborhood and then just lounged on my front lawn with Hunter and Kobi. It was so hot out on our walk I had to strip Hunter down to his diaper, as you can see he was quite happy about that! 

Kobi is such a good big brother to Hunter, he was kissing him so much hence the look on Hunters face :)

Cloth Diapering!

I get this a lot, and that is, "Im brave" for doing cloth diapers. It really isn't that hard or as scary as people may think it is. I use diapers called "g diapers." They are a hybrid diaper that uses both disposable liners and cloth. When we are at home we use the cloth inserts and when out and about we us the disposable. They are super eco-friendly and easy on Hunters bum. The disposable liners you can compost, throw out, or flush down the toilet. They have no chemicals in them and degrade in 50-100 days:) I use a wet bag for the cloth which I then just throw into the wash and if needed bleach in the sun to get rid of the stains. The sun is amazing!!! Plus, he has a really cute bum in these diapers!!

www.gdiapers.ca

Baths!

Hunter at the beginning hated baths! It would take everything in us to get it done fast because he just screamed the entire time! The picture below is at the NICU I held the pacifier in his mouth while the nurse finished bathing him. He can't keep pacifiers in his mouth on his own because of his cleft. He is so red because of all the screaming that was going on. 

But then at 2 months we had a turning point! He started really liking them. It is so precious to see him happy in the tub. If he is upset I put him in the bath and he stops crying its awesome! 

Hunter at 3 months.

Going to play a little catch up!

Hunter is gaining weight and growing like a weed! He is just beginning to smile like crazy and notice himself in a mirror. He loves faces and people. 

He is so strong too, he is standing with guidance and holding his head up like a pro.

He has the best "wah" ever, and ultimate pouty lip when he cries :)

Meeting my cousin Isaac, who lives in the states for the first time.

Meeting my parents

Hunter meeting his cousin Beckett

Hunter meeting Megan

Hunter meeting my brother Drew

This pic was back at the NICU just before he was discharged, I love it :)

The NICU

Hunter was in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) from March 9th to the 21st. He was in the NICU because he wasn't feeding all that well in the beginning and wasn't gaining the weight they would have liked. By the second day, he was using the haberman bottle and we would end up gavaging the rest of the food. The gavage or g-tube is a tube that they place inside the nose and runs down all the way to their stomach.

The NICU is an amazing place with amazing people. There are a few nurses that I will never forget. They were absolutely amazing in helping my husband Kelly and I take care of our little bundle. I don't know what we would have done. They taught us how to bath him and feed him. Because he can't breast feed they taught me how to pump, it was great. Best of all, as much as we hated leaving Hunter in the NICU every night, Kelly and I were able to get a good nights rest while he was there and I was able to recover a little better.

By day 10, it was getting a lot harder to go to the hospital. Kelly and I just wanted him home and we weren't seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It was really hard. We just felt like we weren't getting the answers we were looking for. Most of the time we would just get answers like "Its all up to him when he can come home." We finally had a nurse on the 10th day talk to us and really help guide us how to get Hunter out. She basically told us that he is a term baby but was being treated like a premie. On a regimented feeding schedule that newborns don't generally follow. Newborns will eat when they want to eat and most of the time we were forcing him to eat and he didn't want it. She told us that she was going to talk to the neonatologist about it and after that two days later he was home!!! Thats all it took! Getting him off the schedule and onto his own! Amazing!! We were so grateful!

Paige Barclay Photography

Paige Barclay Photography

Paige Barclay Photography

Hunter's Birthday

Hunter was born on Saturday March 9, 2013 at 6:53pm.
He weighed 6lbs 2oz and was 19 inches long.

He was two and a half weeks early. Kelly and I had an appointment for a c-section consultation at the Rockyview Hospital. When they went to confirm by ultrasound that he was still breech we were all very surprised to find that the little turkey had flipped!

The doctors decided that they would try and stimulate labour to take advantage of the situation as Hunter was considered at that time a term baby at 37 weeks 5 days gestation. I was already 2 cm dilated and 85% effaced. When they went to stimulate labour I started bleeding, they monitored me for a few hours and decided that if by 3:30 am on Saturday I hadn't stopped that I would have to be admitted. I stayed at the hospital while they sent Kelly home. 3:30 comes along and I still haven't stopped so Kelly was called back into the Hospital.

Wow! We were going to be meeting our little boy later that day!

At 10:30 am we were finally admitted and in our labour and delivery room. They broke my water and induced me with Pitocin. Everything was going fairly well for a few hours but then Hunter's heart rate started dipping. They had me lay down on the bed and move in different positions until it evened out again which it did. The contractions then started getting more intense so I requested some Nitrous. It kind of helped for a little bit but then the Pitocin really kicked in between two contractions they intensified 10 fold. I requested a epidural at that point after going through about 10 contractions I couldn't handle the pain anymore.

Once the epidural was placed I slept for 2 hours....it was amazing...the anesthesiologist is my very best friend at that point!

All is going fine I am progressing but then Hunter's heart started dipping again, they came to the conclusion that the cord was getting stuck somewhere. I was tossing and turning to help him adjust, it would help for a short while but then would drop again. They decided to place a scalp monitor on his head to measure his heart, a monitor inside me to measure how strong my contractions were and a amniofusion to bring saline solution into me so to buffer Hunter and hopefully relieve some pressure on his cord.

After about an hour they had to turn off the Pitocin and there for my contractions weren't strong enough any more. Everytime I had a contraction it was too hard on Hunter so they had to think of ways to get him out sooner then later. By this time I rolled over to adjust and I broke the epidural tube. The pain there for was increasing again. They fixed the epidural tube and realized a while later that the button that releases the medicine also had been dislodged from the machine. I was too far gone medication wise that the epidural was no longer working. They had the anesthesiologist come back in and give me something else. It helped a little.

Plan A was that Hunter needed out soon, they wanted to try the vacuum and see if that would help. If not Plan B- c-section. Haha.. I laughed at this one. Funny we came in for a consultation the night before for a c-section, go through all the pain of natural birth to have the option of a c-section in the end.. haha.

Anyways, they got ready for the vacuum. In 2 pushes Hunter was out and sure enough the cord was wrapped around his neck. Although it didn't seam to matter he had lungs on him like no other and not a hint of blue anywhere on his body.

I was very out of it when Hunter arrived, it was a very long 9 hours. Because I had been bleeding since the night before, my hemoglobin levels were very low and I was in shock. They tried to get me to have a shower and I fainted. Then after about an hour of rest they tried to get me to the NICU to see Hunter. I was in the NICU for 30 seconds and fainted again. My body just was not ready to be up and about yet. I went to sleep until the next afternoon.

Hunter is a beautiful, healthy little boy. He has both a cleft lip and palate but it doesn't seem to stop him from being such a great eater and the cutest little boy I have ever seen. Kelly and I are so in love with this little guy we couldn't be any happier with his arrival!

He eats out of what is called a Haberman Bottle. It allows for him to suck but we assist him by squeezing the nipple so that he doesn't have to work as hard. A cleft lip and palate makes it feel like they are sucking up milk through a straw with a whole in it. Its just a lot more work for them :)