The Baldwin Experience: My Journey Through Life

When the summer started I was sure that I would be good about “documenting”… blogging and updating. Ha! While it has been the best summer of my life (other than the cold weather), it has also been the busiest. Bennett is truly amazing! He is now 16 weeks and will be officially four months on September 10. I am not sure how that amount of time has passed already! At his two month appointment he was 14.98 pounds and 24.5 inches long! They said he is in the 97th percentile for both height AND weight… he is literally off the charts! He handled his immunizations much better than I expected and was seemingly unaffected by the shots (other than sleeping a lot). Of course, I made Grandma Donna hold him while the shots were administered so he would have no negative associations with me ;-), hee hee! Sleep-wise, he’s doing really well! He slept through the night for the first time last week and has done so a few times since… If he does wake up, it is only once for about ten minutes to nurse and...

Our little man is getting so big! Bennett was five weeks old yesterday! His schedules have seemed to “even out” a little. He is still sleeping around 4 hours through the night on MOST nights but will have a fussy evening every now and then where he is awake more frequently. Also, his eating has seemed to slow a bit (not as frequent as once every two hours). He seemed to have a pretty sudden growth spurt. One day last week, I put on one of his newborn onesies and it was skin tight. He is now wearing all 0-3 month, 3 month and some 3-6 month clothing! Bennett makes lots of noises. He groans, grunts, sighs… he has very good lungs already, and when he cries you can really hear it. When I was born, the nurses said I was the loudest baby in the nursery ;-). I think Bennett takes after me in that department, ha! He doesn’t often cry – only when we change his diaper or he is hungry. He even enjoys bath time (though the drying off and lotion part is chilly for him I think, so he occasionally cr...

It seems that, as soon as a baby is born, time and all concept of time is lost ;-). I had hoped and expected to be better at writing updates about Bennett, but it has been difficult! A lot of the issue is not having internet access (or cell phone reception, for that matter!) at my mom’s, where we recently relocated to for the summer. Bennett is wonderful… He was four weeks old yesterday and I cannot believe that much time has passed already! He has a lot of “personality” already: facial expressions, noises. We have several nicknames for him, among which are “noise box”, “the milk monster”, and “burp-a-potamus”. He sleeps much of the day and MOST of the time sleeps about 5 hours straight in the night, though that is not always the case ;-). He has a pleasant demeanor and is very relaxed for the most part. The only time he really fusses is when he is hungry (and the few days of gas he experienced last week). He took to breast feeding right away, and I am pretty sure if he had it his way...

Well, Bennett has arrived!! I still can't believe it's real... I left off on Friday, when I was leaking "fluid". By Saturday, I was still consistently leaking, so I called the doctor's office per instruction from my appointment on Friday. They said to come into triage to get everything checked out, and to bring our stuff just in case. We arrived at the hospital at about 1pm... Dr. Shoenmaker (not our original doctor, but the one that we really liked of all the other doctors we met in the group) first did an ultrasound. My fluid levels that were at about 12 the day before were now at 6! Even though they consider 5 and above to be "normal", since I was obviously leaking at a fast pace, it was time to consider our options! They also did another pH test to confirm that it was amniotic fluid (in case there was any doubt), and it was positive right away. Okay, now what?! I had been "crampy" all morning, but I didn't think they were contractions b...

Since yesterday’s “plug” incident, there has been more excitement. I called the doctor’s office because my sister-in-law mentioned that maybe I should just let them know. However, I left a message and I missed the call when the phone nurse called back. Then, last night in the middle of the night I started “leaking” water!!!! It wasn’t what I would consider big amounts, but it continued consistently through the night and morning. So, when I called the doctor's office back this morning, I mentioned it just in case and they said to come in. They ran a couple of tests on the fluid to see if it was, in fact, amniotic fluid, and they came back “inconclusive” (PH test and looking under a microscope). Inconclusive… LOL, of COURSE ... At that point they wanted another ultrasound because it was clear that I was losing fluid, they just couldn’t determine what kind or how much. The ultrasound showed that the levels look fine as of now , but they said that if I continue to “leak” at the same ra...

I feel a lot of pressure down low, am experiencing some cramps (almost feel like menstrual cramps), having “hot flashes” and am taking many trips to the bathroom, LOL… The doctor said my body is doing “warm-ups”. Also, something somewhat interesting happened (and *warning*, a little gross too…). I just “lost” my mucous plug! Since I didn’t even know what it was, I had to google. Here is some of what I found: Some women will lose their "mucous plug" weeks before they go into labor. Losing your plug does not always mean labor will begin shortly. Keep in mind that even if a woman has begun to dilate, it may be weeks before she actually goes into labor. As your body prepares for labor your cervix will begin to dilate and thin. As your cervix opens up, your mucous plug may fall out. This is a good sign that labor is on its way - Though, it could be days or even weeks after you lose your mucous plug before labor actually starts. Okay, it’s a little disgusting… and it doesn’t sound...

A little late on posting! ;-)