4 weeks!

Dillan is 4 weeks old today! He's growing so fast. At his 2 week check-up he had already surpassed his birth weight and was 8lbs 15oz and grew 2 inches, bringing him to 22 1/4 inches! I'm sure that now he's well past 9 lbs and by the look of his ill-fitting footed pj's, he's a bit taller too!
He's also developing skills that all the charts say he should be able to do for several weeks. He holds his head up and steadies it for more than 30 sec. He can easily turn his head from side to side while holding it up. He pushes with his legs and likes to support his own body when you let him. And the kicker...yesterday he rolled from his back to his side to get into a more comfortable sleeping position. Mike also swears that he "crawled" up him, while laying flat, using the commando style of right arm, left leg, left arm, right leg. I can't wait for him to grow up a bit so he's more interactive, but at the same time I don't want him to grow up too fast.
Here's some pictures of the little guy.

First bath! He liked the water...didn't like getting out where it was cold!


8.19- After his 2 week checkup. He loves his giraffe!


Chilling in his mini swing in the Buddha position.


Play time on the island of fun! He grabbed the monkey and held on tight!


His island of fun mat.


Look mom...I can hold my head up all on my own!

He saw them today

Dillan loves to relax in his fish swing, and today for the first time he was able to focus on the fish mobile and watch them go round and round!

1 week, 1 day

I can't believe my baby boy is a week old already! It seems like just yesterday I was still pregnant and waiting for a sign that things would be changing. Boy did they change!!!
Dillan is such a great baby! He's been feeding and sleeping like a champ. He even lets mommy and daddy sleep about 6 hours in a row in the morning. I got in another 2 hours of sleep this afternoon. I think I'm getting the hang of this mommy thing. And Mike...well he's stepped right into the role of doting dad. He's attentive to what I need, and super great with Dillan. He's been doing the changes in the middle of the night since he knows I have to get up to feed. He went grocery shopping and made dinner all week as well as kept Dillan entertained when mommy needed to rest. I wish he didn't have to go back to work this week. It's been great having him around to bond as a family.
Tika has also taken a liking to the little guy. She's become protective of him and is distressed when he's upset. She always wants to be near whoever is holding him. I can tell that she and Dillan are going to be best buddies as he grows up.
Since we're all still in the adjustment phase and I'm still recovering from what I now know was some pretty bad tearing during labor, we have been doing visitations in small, short bursts. Grandpop Bill came for a visit last week as did Uncle J.J. and Auntie Lala. And we went to Mom-mom & Pop-pop Mettee's over the weekend and also got to meet Aunt Laura, Uncle Drew and cousin's Evan and Cameron. This week we'll hopefully get to meet Great-grandma Grace and the Smith clan.
Last week we also had his first pediatrician visit. He's perfectly healthy in every way! We go back in 2 weeks for his first of 3 Hep B shots. =( Mommy's not looking forward to that visit.

Well I guess that's all for now as I am sleepy and want to try and catch some zzz's before the 2am feeding.

He's finally here! Dillan's birth story...

That's right! Dillan Oliver Mettee has finally made his grand entrance into the world.

Saturday morning (8.1.09) I woke up around 4:30 with a small contraction, nothing new by now. I realized I was really hungry but didn't feel like hobbling downstairs for breakfast. I say hobbling because I threw out my hip a few days earlier while working on the bathroom. Anyway, I laid awake in bad and realized I had another contraction. I figured, what the heck, I'll start timing them again. They were about 35sec each but about 12-18min apart. Again, nothing new. I thought they would stop like usual so I got up and moved around a bit. After about 40 min I was sitting in bed and Mike woke up. I told him that I think this is it. My contractions seems to be getting stronger and more regular. By 6am I was contracting every 8-10 min and they were getting much stronger. He made me a bagel so I could have something in my stomach, but I couldn't eat but a few bites. By 8am I was contracting just about every 5 min. Mike was being a great coach and telling me to breathe, rubbing my back, and putting up with my intense mood swings. I went from "this isn't too bad" to "I changed my mind, I don't want to have a baby" to "DON'T F-ING TOUCH ME" to "omg, I can't do this"...and he stayed right there to make sure I was ok. I convinced him that this was going to happen soon and he needed to call the hospital. He called a little after 8 and told them my progress. They said to wait until I had at least 4 contractions 5min apart before we go in. The doctor that I was hoping not to have was on duty, but got off at 9. I labored more upstairs between the bathroom and my glider. It's funny, but the positions that I learned in birthing class and the breathing techniques actually came in handy since I remembered them. By 9 I couldn't take it anymore and said we needed to go...NOW. That was the longest, worse car ride of my life!!! Every bump felt awful.
We pulled up to the hospital and the garage entrance we always we was closed! I thought we were at the main entrance, but we weren't. Luckily enough a guard got us a wheelchair and let Mike leave his car on the front sidewalk to take me upstairs. It seems to take forever for him to get me checked in. The nurse said that I would have to stay in triage for a it because all the beds were full. Full!?!?! WTF, I had heard of this happening to other mom's on my July Birth Board, but didn't even worry about it since every time we'd ever been to the hospital they were practically empty up there. The woman in registration actually came out with a form and expected me to be able to sign it! HA...I think I scribbled something, but there's no way it would hold up in court...lol.
I was moved to triage, got the last bed in the place, and could only manage to get my pants off and onto the stretcher before I was overwhelmed with the contractions. A midwife came in and checked me...8cm, 100%, 0 station...he would be coming soon. This was about 9:45am.
The doctor I had hoped not to get (my OBGYN has 4 doctors in her practice) was paged back to the hospital because so many women came in to L&D in labor. I was GBS+ and was told I would need an IV of Clindamycin before he was born. A tech put my hep lock in my hand, but that's about all she could do since my contractions were so fast. The nurse was worried about the baby's heart rate and put me on oxygen. The Dr. came in and wanted to do an internal contraction monitor and an internal sensor on the baby's head. We hesitated on the sensor...we learned about those and didn't want to do it if we didn't have to. She let us go with just the monitor but had me hooked up to saline. It wasn't long before I told the nurse I needed to push. This was about 10:30am. The Dr. came back and checked...I was ready! I started pushing but wasn't doing to well. I had to be on my back and was extremely uncomfortable. Mind you...I was still on a triage stretcher...not in a delivery room! My hep lock began to leak fluids all over the place and they had to take it out and do a regular IV on my arm. Ugh...another needle! Once they got me hooked up to fluids the baby was doing better. Mike was sure he heard mention of c-section or vacuum...I was having none of that! This kid was coming out the old-fashioned way.
I started pushing again and Mike was right by my side coaching me on breathing and really bearing down. The Dr. was between me and another lady who was also in pushing mode. She ended up staying with me since his head was close to crowning. I began to block out everyone but Mike and started to push with everything I had. Once they could see his head, it only took 2 more good pushes and he was out. 11:51am. He wasn't very blue or slimy. He was perfect. He wasn't crying though. Mike got to cut the cord and I could see how proud he was to do it. The NICU had been called to asses Dillan since there was no time for me to get the antibiotics when I came. They said he was fine and cleaned him up. He was crying by this time and (Mike told me this later) my first words to him were "now what do we do?"! Lol. Our son weighed 8lbs 4oz and was 20.5 inches long. The amazing thing was that his head was 34cm in circumference!!

They gave him to Mike and he held him while the I was hooked up to Pitocin to help stop bleeding and while I delivered the placenta. I had some tearing that needed to be stitched (OMG did that hurt!!) then I was able to hold my son for the first time. After I was cleaned up the best they could (I was STILL in triage) my mom came in. Dillan took to breastfeeding right away and then napped on my chest for a bit. Mike had to go move his car to the garage so my mom stayed with me in the room. I still can't believe I did it...and with NO drugs!!!!!

I was stuck in that room until around 5:30 when I could be moved down to the Mother/ Baby Unit. They were also apparently very full. Once I got settled into my room and had something to eat I felt much better. Very sore, but better. Mike ran home to check on the dog and get his overnight bag. He came back around 9:30 and stayed with me until we were discharged on Monday.

It was a rough second day, but now we're home and everyone is doing great.
Dillan sleeps for about 5-6 hours at night (well, early-mid morning) and eats like a ravenous little monster. He's perfect in every way!

More pix...

While we waited for my wheelchair on Monday, we took some "self pictures". Mike was trying to concentrate on lining up the camera and getting the shot, but kept forgetting to smile!
We figured it out and have a great couple of family photos.

Napping after a good meal.

Swaddled up and ready for bed.