Wednesday, September 26, 2007

I've got the hiccups!

A few new tricks...


Little fingers holding onto mom after finishing cup feeding.


Dad and Logan playing.


Dad and Logan enjoying a post-MSU teaching nap.

Logan has learned a few new tricks...now when we cup feed him (an alternate way to feed him given our still ongoing breastfeeding difficulties)or offer our finger as a pacifier , he grasps our fingers with his -- so sweet. And he has determined that his favorite post-meal and post-burp position is laying on mom's chest, little fists clutching either the collar of mom's shirt or the top of her nursing bra, elbows splayed out, and knees out froggy style -- also so sweet. Yesterday, he also laughed twice in his sleep, which was so ridiculously cute we only wish we knew he was going to do it so we could have posted it up here as well.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Notes from the Occassionally Triumphant

Let me begin with saying, that yesterday I felt triumphant: our well baby visit went well (Logan put on all of the weight he lost 3 days earlier than expected; so it would seem even with the difficulties we're having with breast feeding, he is still getting what he needs to grow! And to boot, his height puts him in the 80th percentile, which Jim is excited about. The doctor also said that we look better 11 days out than most new moms and babies - so there is something to be proud of. I even managed to pick up lunch for me and a friend - I said I felt triumphant!)

Part of that carried over to today, and I thought no problem, I can quickly pick up a few things for a belated b-day dinner for Jim and we'll be fine. Except by the time I put Logan back in the car seat after having left Kroger, he was hungry again. So I got home, the neighbor offered to bring in the groceries for me, which I readily accepted. And I plopped us on the couch to nurse. No sooner had we started than the door bell rang. I pulled myself together or so I thought, and answered the door. The postman gave me a bit of a weird look, but I figured, I know I'm walking a bit funny (thanks to a god-send of an ice pack) and the baby and I probably look a bit rushed from transitioning from cozy nursing to publicly presentable, so I figured he was just taking pity on us. I take the mail and the package, go to sit back down on the couch (as Logan has a nice amount of overflow shoot out of his mouth on to my top and I wonder why do I even put on clean clothes) and then I realize why the post man looked at me weird. While I had managed to clip my bra back in place, I had forgotten to pull my tank top back up on my right side, so I had the whole amazon assymetrical look going on. Nice.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Pictures from Grammy & Grandpa visit


Grammy holding Logan!


Grandpa holding Logan in the rocking chair that Fritz dropped by (it is his great great grandmother Becker's chair, and we are honored that he passed it along to us to hold Logan in)


Family Portrait


You wanna mess with me??


Sadie feeling a bit left out of all the attention.

Visit from Grammy & Grandpa

This past weekend Kim's parents came into town to help - and boy did they ever. From fixing the wall that Sadie had chewed into (who knows why?) to helping with the ridiculous amounts of laundry that began to pile up after our dryer broke (what better timing). We all even managed a dinner with our neighbors, Mike and Meredith, and a birthday brunch for Jim with Fritz, Patty, and her daughter, Heather. Logan is growing and changing every day; the little sounds he makes are becoming more consistent - his hungry sounds resemble a baby pterodactyl; his talking sounds resemble a clicking-like insect sound; his over-tired sounds are like lots of little sighs on top of each other. He still is very mellow, and can be calmed down quickly even at his most "angry" moments. For this, we are deeply thankful.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

News from the sleep deprived...

Well, Logan has certainly captured our hearts with his cuteness, and every day we learn something new about him. Yesterday, Sadie met him for the first time and she gave him a lick on his head, arm, and foot, and then was off to inspect other things. Only to re-appear when I was feeding him. She seems very interested and protective: if he cries, she lies down next to my feet where I am with him. She even chose to lay near Logan and I over Jim eating in the kitchen this morning, which if he hadn't had been there, I might have taken her to the vet thinking she was sick.

My mom epiphany from this morning: At about 2 am, I finally caught onto a pattern: waking up at 9 at night and going on strong until about 3 or so, and then crashing until about 8 or 9 in the morning. That is exactly how labor began on both Wednesday and Thursday before it got enough steam together on Friday. So it seems he likes the London time zone a bit better than ours! Jim's mom found this idea delightful - and completely civilized! Maybe tonight, I should just enjoy the late night time with some tea and crumpets.

In other news, we have our second midwife home visit today and the lactation consultant will also come by today to address his latching on difficulties.

Sunday, September 9, 2007


A New Addition!!

After much waiting for labor to begin, Logan Cohen Keller entered the world serenely and calmly and in water. He is 21" long and 8 lbs. 12 oz. of perfection. At 41 weeks + 4 days, early labor started on Wednesday at 9 pm, then stopped at 4 am, picked up the next day, the doula came over to help while Jim slept. At around 1 am, the doula and Kim decided it was time to go to the center. Kim went upstairs to get Jim up who was out of it. She told him it was time to go to the birth center now. He replied with eyes half open, "But we are the birth center." At which point, Kim realized he was sleep talking, and so she tried to shake him awake a bit more and explained again that they needed to leave and that the baby was coming. He then asked if we were going to pick everyone up in a hot air balloon :) . After a bit more effort, he was roused and explained in his dream, Mitzi (the doula), him and I, were members of a band called the birth center and we traveled around in a hot air balloon helping people.

After a nice laugh, we piled into the Passat (not the hot air balloon) and went to the birth center at 1 am. We had another entire night of laboring (and no sleep) only to have labor slow down (again!) at 7 am. So we went home and tried to get some sleep. However, the contractions made it impossible for Kim to sleep. Later on that Friday afternoon, we went in for an ultrasound and non-stress test to make sure he was tolerating his overdue status and the contractions well -- and he was a champ! By Friday at 6 or so, we placed another call to the midwife with the intention of asking for a prescription to help Kim sleep since one theory that the labor wasn't progressing was that she might be too tired to tolerate active labor. We went to the birth center to consult with one of the midwives, and we learned that we were 5 cm dilated and already in active labor and didn't realize it! So with that exciting news, we returned home to labor more comfortably and for at least Jim to get some sleep--which he did. By 9 or so, we decided it was time to go to the birth center because Kim didn't want to travel there by car already and didn't foresee wanting that desire to grow any as labor progressed. The doula arrived about 2 hours later. And little Logan, was born the next day, September 8, at 7:33 am!

Both mom and baby are healthy and happy to be home. And Jim got the best early birthday present a dad could ever get: a ridiculously cute, chunky monkey baby. So far, we both think that he's got those Cohen chipmunk cheeks and Jim's dippled chin. Right now, he's still a bit swollen from all his hard work, but that is going down by the hour. We had our first home visit this afternoon. He dealt with the newborn screen test like a superhero. He cried for the first two blots, then whimpered, and then just resigned himself to it all. He needed only to be held for a few seconds to be completely happy and calm again. The midwife will probably return in a few hours again to help out with some latching on and nursing issues.

However, other than that, we're overjoyed and completely in love. Here are a few pictures to get you started, more will come as the midwives took almost a hundred since we were there for two nights!