Gaining Weight and Eating Good

Our doctor's visit was a good one this morning, well besides being thrown off feeding schedule. Our visit was at 10:20 and that coincided with Ty's bottle time. Well needless to say he was a little fussy till we got done the appointment.


The good part, Ty gained 6 ounces in about 48 hours! On Saturday he was 6 lbs 10 oz and this morning he weighed in at 7 lbs even. Doctor Colli and his nurse were very happy with the progress.


Ty has become a totally different baby since getting used to the formula. In fact this evening he drank his 1.5 ounces and then we gave him about another 3/4 of an ounce to satisfy him. I think we will be increasing his amount to 2 ounces and see how he does with that. Maybe he is going to be a big eater like his daddy?!?


I took a few more pics of him today and caught a few good ones. Below is another cute pic of our beautiful boy!

Rough Start But We Are Learning... And Getting Better

Ty's arrival at home came on Thursday with tears of joy and happiness. Ty was sleeping when made his first appearance in the house and continued to sleep on his dad's lap while mom got her first good shower since Sunday.

The happiness was short lived when it came time to nurse him. Ty just would not latch on to Lori. He had extreme gas and was extremely fussy. Lori and I only got about 3 hours sleep our first night home and needless to say it was a long one.

Finally I talked Lori into giving him just a little bit of formula during our 4 am feeding and he seemed to be satisfied. After phone calls, tears and discussions throughout Friday and Saturday, Lori has come to the the decision to stop nursing on her own. A special thanks to our friend Mary for giving her advice and support to Lori during this time. It always helps to have someone there that just went through the same thing a few months ago.

The decision was hard for Lori but after visiting the Pediatrition on Saturday morning we found out that Ty was down 2 more ounces from his hospital discharge weight of 6 lbs 12 oz. Lori decided that it was best for us to begin giving Ty formula full time for him to gain his weight back. We go back to the Pediatrtion's office on Monday morning to weigh him again to see if he has gained weight. Hopefully he has and we expect that he has.

We did get some good news at our office visit. Ty's billirubin levels in his blood, which cause jaundice, have come down and should continue to go down day by day.

Since we have had a steady feeding of formula, Ty has become calm, cool and collected. He only fusses when he is hungry, has a dirty diaper or when changing him and slept for almost 4 straight hours last night. This has helped both Lori and I relax as new parents and take in and enjoy all the things we are experiencing with our son.

Believe it or not, I have changed many dirty diapers... pee pee or poo poo, I have been good and taken that in stride. Although the last one I changed this afternoon did have a bit of a stench! But I was successful and am getting quicker at changing. Lori is too getting quicker.

Yesterday just after feeding Ty, we were able to get a few photos of the little guy. Isn't he so cute? How can you not love that face?!? Keep checking back for updates!

Going Home

We Gave In....

Since we are sharing a room with another couple for the last 24 hours
of our stay we gave into our own binky rule. Ty seems to like it!

Ty's First 24 Hours In The World

Ty, Lori and I wanted to thank all the family and friends who have taken time to visit, call, send flowers and give gifts of love during this special time. We are soooo happy that Ty has finally arrived and has instintly become the new love of in our lives.

Below is a link to view photos from Ty's first 24 hours of his life. I chose to uploads photos to Wal Mart so folks can purchase pictures and get them in just over an hour for that instant gratification feeling! ;-)

http://photos.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=33995108/a=9963549/t_=9963549

Thanks Again to everyone, Ty just LOVES the attention!

Napping / Head of Hair

More to come over next several days!

Happy Family

More to come....

Getting Dressed After First Bath

More to come....

Ty & Daddy Minutes After Delivery

More to come...

Ty Gregory Has Arrived

@ 8:42 - 7 lbs 9.2 oz and 21 inches long.

Still Waiting.... Slow Progression

Lori has only progressed to 5 cm as of 3 PM. Contractions are coming
at a strong pace but slow dilation and not seeing Ty drop too much is
a concern. There is no health concern for mom or Ty right now so we
are all thankful for that.

Lori did get an epaduralso she is not feeling much pain.

The doctors are going to wait for a few more hours and see where we
are at with dilation. If it gets to be 7 pm and Lori is still at 5 or
6 cm then a c-section will become more likely.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers! Will keep you all informed!

Still waiting... Pitocin has started

The nurses have started to give Lori Pitocin which is the drug to
start contractions. She has been having mild contractions/cramping
since about 2 AM but nothing she is getting excited over. Since that
time the contractions have become stronger but Lori says it is hard to
feel them. The pitocin dosage will increase every half hour until Ty
arrives.

The Cirvadil that they gave Lori last night and kept in till 6 this
morning did little to make her dilate.

So the waiting continues....

Anxious, Excited, Nervous, Scared and Happy

It was 3:30 AM and I had just changed sleeping positions when my mind started to race and tears came to my eyes. All these thoughts and emotions going through my head...

Anxious just to get everything over with, have this entire process go according to plan and have Ty and Lori safe, sound and recouping.

Excited to be able to hold my son for the very first time. Excited to see the joy and happy tears on the faces of the my wife, the new grandparents and other family members.

Nervous wondering if I am going to be a good Father? Am I going to have the patients to deal with a screaming baby at 2 AM when a big day of work is on the horizon? Nervous thinking about the first time I handle Ty alone while Lori goes shopping and get her nails done.

Scared to death knowing that this little guy we are about to bring into this world, is going to depend on us for the next 20 + years. Scared to think that soon I will officially become a dad, something I never thought of 8 years ago partying in Shippensburg with Jeremy, Steve and Jason.

And finally Happy....

Happy knowing that I am so lucky to have to beautiful, loving, caring wife that is going to give birth to my son in a day or two.

Happy that I had such great parents of my own and that they were able to teach me and mold me into the man I am today.

Happy knowing that so far with a few peaks and valleys that my life has gone the way I imagined and hoped it would since I was in high school.

Happy because Ty's Birthday, besides getting married, will be a day that I will never ever forget.

Week 40 - Over Due Checkup w/ Eviction Date

Ty has decided he likes it in mommy's tummy. Unfortunately, Doctor Brown has given Ty the weekend to make his grand appearance or else we are going to evict him by the force of drugs.

We go into the Labor and Delivery Dept on Sunday Night at 7 pm to begin procedures to induce. On Sunday night an IV drug will be given to Lori to make her dilate, currently she is on 1/2 a centimeter. Monday morning the nurses will begin to give her a drug that will force contractions. If all goes well, we will have Baby Ty by Monday evening. If not, Lori could end up repeating the process over again or having a c-section.

Lori's appointment went well this morning. We visited with Doctor Brown first and she scheduled the appointment for the hospital. Lori then had her last stress test. Ty did not perform up to his prior standards again, but he did have some spurts.

During one of Ty's movements during the test, Lori had a contraction but Ty's heartbeat dropped instead of rising.

Doctor Brown requested we go for a biophysical sonogram where they measure movements of the baby and to see if he is stressed in his environment. Depending on how this test went, could have determined if we went for inducement today or wait till Sunday. Well after about a 45 minute sonogram and about 70 minutes of waiting for the results, we found out that Ty was just fine and we would wait until Sunday.

So... Hopefully, if all goes well, Monday, September 22 will be the day. If everything went really well, it would be this weekend without force. But for some reason, I doubt that will happen!

Oh by the way, Lori asked Doctor Brown how big she thought Ty would be.... her guess was 9 pounds! :-)

Still Waiting - Eviction Notice

September 16, 2008

Tenant: Ty Gregory Smith
Address: Mommy's Womb, Fayetteville, PA

Dear Ty Gregory,

You are hereby given notice that the undersigned is terminating your tenancy of the premises located in Mommy's Womb, where you are a tenant from month to month under the lease dated December 2007, between Mommy as landlord and Ty as tenant. This termination is to be effective on September 19, 2008. You must continue to pay rent or punch and kick mommy until this date.

You are required to vacate and surrender possession of the premises to the undersigned on or before the above date, free of all occupants and personal possessions. Upon termination, the security deposit in the amount of Room and Board, Food and College Tuition, will be given to you after being used to repair any damage to the premises.

If you fail to vacate the premises by the above date, the undersigned may commence eviction proceedings (also known as inducement of labor) against you.

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Week 39 - Checkup / Stress Test

With the Due Date only 2 days away (Sept 14th) Lori had another weekly checkup and Stress Test today.

Lori's Doctor visit was first and both her weight and blood pressure were excellent. She has not even gained a pound since last week. The doctor did an exam and said there is no dilation but that does not mean much at this point.

Ty was a little stubborn this morning and did not dance like he did last week. That is until the technician gave Lori a granola bar to munch on. Ty sure did like that... he became our dancing fool again.

The stress did reveal something very interesting.... Lori is having very mild contractions. :-) Yes, she is having mild contractions that she barely feels but they are showing up on the radar screen. So we are close. Could be today, tonight, tomorrow or this weekend sometime... might not be till next week, but at least we know we are close!

Keep checking back for up to the minute news!

The Waiting Game

As the saying goes, Good Things Come to Those Who Wait. Well sometimes waiting can be the hardest thing of all.

We are still waiting for Ty and Mother Nature to decide when the big day is. So far no clues have been given.

Mommy and Ty continue to be healthy and happy. Ty is moving more and more each day and at times is literally a pain in mommy's side. He likes to kick her some where under her right rib cage and occasionally makes mommy cringe. But then mom smiles, rubs her belly and Ty relaxes.

We are hoping for some news tomorrow when we visit the doctor but until then, just more waiting!

Week 38 - Checkup / Stress Test

Today was another weekly doctor's appointment and stress test.

The fetal stress test went great. Ty was kicking like mad this morning. He is getting pretty good at this. No coaxing this time! This is one of the neatest things for me as a dad to experience because you can hear this noise (sounds like horse galloping), which is Ty's heart beat going about 135 beats per minute. Then when Ty moves his heart races to about 160 beats a minute and it you can hear this sound like water sloshing around and fingers screeching across wet glass. Truly an amazing feeling.

Today we had Dr. Brown and I have to say, out of all the doctor's we have visited she is one of the most pleasant, caring and cheerful doctor's I have ever been around. In fact, I like her almost as much, if not a little more, than Dr. Orndorf.

Anyways, Dr. Brown checked Lori's cervix which was not dilating at all. So for at least today, no celebration. She did perform another quick sonogram and confirmed that Ty is still head down and in proper position, which confirms we are a shooting for a natural birth.

Lori's vitals were just OK this week although the doc did not seem concerned. Lori gained 3 more pounds and her blood pressure was a little high today. But I think the high blood pressure was only because I was agitating her while she was getting her stress test! :-) Imagine that?!?

Lori became very happy with Dr. Brown when she suggest Lori quit work. Since we are close to the due date, and since Lori travels to Carlisle everyday Dr. Brown thought it would be a good idea. So today is Lori's last day at work.

Now I have to start hearing "ah, someone has to go to work tomorrow, but I don't!" Oh Joy... I guess I will have to put up with that for a few weeks until Ty comes... then we will see if Lori is still saying that! ;-)

That is this weeks update. Keep checking back...