Introducing Henry Russell Crain!

Geez! Where have we been? We have been living in a sleepless state of happy, frustrated, delirious bliss the last 5 weeks.

On Monday, February 22 at 12:24pm, Henry Russell Crain joined our family. He weighed 8 lbs 8 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. This was 3 long days after my due date. Who would have thought I would have had a post term baby? I know we certainly didn't.

On Friday, my due date, I had lunch with friends, shopped, grocery shopped and made dinner. A nice spicy dinner. Thanks for the enchilada recipe Shelby! That night, I started having contractions. They were 5 - 8 minutes apart for 2 1/2 hours. At that point, I took a shower and packed my and Rhiannon's bags to get ready to go and the contractions stopped. Saturday, a trip to the park and lots of walking. Still no baby. Sunday, Rhiannon and I played outside. Hopscotch of all things. Maybe that will get the baby here. We had a great dinner with ice cream sundaes for dessert and said the same thing we did over every dinner for the last few weeks. "This could be our last dinner as a family of three." And it was. My water broke in the middle of the night at around 3:30am. And the fun began.

When I arrived at the hospital at 5am, my contractions were every 3 minutes and I was 75% effaced and 5 cm dialated. I had not made up my mind about an epidural so I waited, and waited to get one. At about 7 cm, I gave in and begged for the drugs. And my epidural only worked on one side of my body. Frustrated, I asked to take it out but they convinced me to try again using the excuse that if I had to have a c-section, then I would have to be completely knocked out since the epidural didn't work. So, they tried again. And it still didn't work on the other side! Luckily, it was time to push at that point and Henry arrived 20 minutes later.

I was shocked that he was a boy becuase I was convinced he was a girl. Russ claims he knew all along.

He is a beautiful, chubby, dark haired baby. . .

That has screamed most hours of the day for his first 5 weeks of life.

Let me start by explaining that Russ and I are amateurs to newborns. Rhiannon was in the hospital for 45 days and when she came home whe was already on a schedule. And preemies rarely ever cry and sleep all the time.

I'm not talking about normal crying. I'm talking about screaming and wraithing in pain and breaking out into sweats. It was terrible. Russ and walked the halls, bounced, swayed, rocked, sang, swaddled, and cried with him all hours of the day and night. We visited the doctor at 1 week, to see what could causing this pain. In one week, he had gained a pound so he was definitely getting enough to eat. After a few other visits, we decided that he had silent reflux. He doesn't spit up but the acid comes up and then he swallows it again. So it's double the pain! So, now we have tried zantac and that didn't work. Now we're on prevacid and I think we have found the cure.

The other thing recommended is that I change my diet. I'm breastfeeding exclusively. So, I have to exclude all dairy, onions, garlic, spicy foods, cabbage, brocoli, beans, and the worst . . . chocolate, caffiene, and alcohol. Let me get this straight, I can't sleep and I can't have chocolate, coffee, or booz? This sucks.

But it seems to be working. We now have a happy, smiley baby boy. He no longer screams in pain and for the last couple of nights has slept 5+ hours at night.

So, that should explain where we have been. I'm completely in love with this little guy. His little chubby smile melts my heart.

Rhiannon is great with him and it is already clear that he prefers her as entertainment. She gets most of his smiles and coos.

I can't believe how fast time has flown. Here are a few of our favorite pics from the last few weeks.

This is where he sleeps most of the time. . .




And my favorite!

I have tons of other pictures to post and hopefully now that Henry is sleeping, I will have time to do so!