One Week

We've been home with Micah for one week now! It's truly amazing to think that just 10 days ago, I was still pregnant! I was very afraid that I would actually miss being pregnant, and while I might have initially, I certainly don't now. Having Micah here is absolutely the best thing ever, even at 3:00 in the morning when he was screaming and seemingly inconsolable. ;o)

When we left the hospital last Sunday, he weighed 6lb 12oz, so he was down 9oz from his birth weight; he was also slightly yellow, so the pediatrician who stopped by to check him over for discharge asked us to make an appointment for Monday. We went on Monday and he was the same weight, but we had to go back to the hospital to have his blood checked for his bilirubin level. The level ended up being just fine for a 3-day-old, so we were asked to come back on Wednesday! On Wed, he was back up to 7lb 3oz, which we thought was pretty good for 3 days :o) By his one-week check-up on Friday and was up to 7lb 6oz! Great job, Micah!! He's also come back from his yellowy-orange-looking skin :o)

The first couple nights home were a little rough, to say the least! He pretty much had his days and nights mixed up, so it made the 3-6am hours a little trying, but the last few nights have been tons better :o) He's really only up to eat 2-3 times during our sleeping hours and he is able to go right back to sleep, which I love. He's also sleeping 2-3 hours at a time....a few times, he's gone 4 hours at a shot!

Today, we've got new friends from church visiting! They brought us lunch and TWO meals for the week. They're also expecting their first baby in August, so we've got lots in common and they're thrilled to visit Micah. My parents are also coming up (currently on their way) for a visit. My dad will be here till tomorrow, but my mom will stay for the week to help me out while Don returns to school (*tear*), so I'm very thankful for the visit. I'll post some "recent" pictures, well, they're all recent, but we hope you enjoy them!

Micah Donald Schuessler

Micah Donald Schuessler was born on Friday, March 13th at 1:39am. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 5 oz. and measured 20 inches long. He is such a beautiful baby. Mom and baby are doing very well. Dad is hanging in there too! More to come...

T-minus 10

Well, here we are--10 days away from our due date! I don't think we expected to still be waiting right now, but since I've been feeling pretty good yesterday and today, I don't mind as much. This week has been back to "normal", with a doctor's appointment Monday morning and all my regular lessons going as planned. According to the doctor on Monday, I'm still 4 cm dilated, but also 70% effaced, so it's nice to know that my body has already started the early labor process without any pain involved! Perhaps it will lead to a faster labor....

This morning, the temp reached 50 outside, so I went for a nice walk around the neighborhood. It was terribly cloudy then, but the sun is out right now with beautiful, clear blue skies!! I am SO ready for Spring :o) I think the addition of the baby will make Spring more beautiful this year. This afternoon, I'm simply doing laundry, which is more of a task now with a huge belly out in front. The ladies at Don's school seem to think that carrying baskets of wash up and down the stairs will make me go into labor, though, so we'll see if anything happens....HA! Before we went to bed last night, we snapped a few more pictures, including some with Don in them, too. Enjoy!

The Waiting Game

I guess the phrase is "no news is good news," but Devin is really about ready to have this baby out of her. Last night sitting on the couch we felt the baby moving more than ever! It was amazing to feel it move that much.

Last night we headed across town to Manlius to see the Houghton Symphonic Winds ensemble, which I played in for all four years of my undergrad at Houghton College. It was nice to see some familiar faces, including one very close friend whose wife is due with their first child the day after our due date, Dan Wartinger. Needless to say his cell-phone was on vibrate and also drove himeself, just in case he needed to leave right away. Devin said she never would have let me do something like that =) but I don't think I would have either. A very nice concert to say the least, bravo Gary Stith!

Contrary Contractions

Yesterday was eventful and exciting to say the least. Devin woke up feeling more rested and I headed off to work with no labor in sight. Over my lunch I called Devin to check in and she informed me she was contracting every 10-12 minutes for the last two hours. Needless to say I was excited and by the time I arrived home from school she was closer to 8-9 minutes apart.
We decided to head to the Carousel Center to do some walking to see if things would progress.
After walking 2 full laps and sitting through dinner, contractions sped up to 5 minutes apart for about 30 minutes. We continued to walk until about 7:45 at which point the contractions stopped. Once we arrived back home she only had one more contraction before bedtime.
We are trying to figure out what is going on in there, but the baby seems happy and content to say where he/she is. We'll keep you posted.

Home again

As many of you may have heard, we had a rather eventful past 24 hours. Yesterday, I didn't feel like myself and by 6:00, the nausea was all but overwhelming! Unfortunately, I spent the entire night and up until 5am or so dealing with a lovely gastrointestinal bug....feel free to just use your imagination :o/ I'll spare you the details.

Don called school to get a sub and to figure things out for the choral concert his kids are a part of tonight, and I called my doc shortly after. I was able to "sleep" on and off from about 6 to 9, so that was good, but we went to the doc at 11 anyway. After about 10 hours of completely emptying my system, I was VERY dehydrated! We spent almost 5 hours at the office today while I enjoyed a delightful IV of saline fluids to get me hydrated again. I suppose the only upside was that I chose to wear sweat pants and they have lay-z-boy-type chairs to sit in ;o)

Before I got on the IV, I was experiencing somewhat regular contractions about 7 minutes apart, so our midwife thought that we were in early labor! Turns out that the contractions were most likely a result of the dehydration, BUT, there's no telling now when this little baby will show up :o) Stay tuned....

Meanwhile, we're home to get rest and drink all the fluids I can handle. Hopefully, this is only a 24-hour bug and it will all be over soon! Oh, and for the record, I am sure that I have the most wonderful, caring, understanding husband a girl could ever ask for :o)

New to the Blogging World

Well, we're going to try out this whole blogging-thing! Seeing as we have tons of family and friends, most of whom are not living anywhere close to us, and many of whom don't have Facebook, we thought it might be neat to start a blog to update you on this new adventure of parenting we're about to embark on.

Today is March 1--only about 20 days or so until we meet this little baby who's been beating me up from the inside out :o) We'll do our very best to keep this updated and to post an announcement as soon as the newest Schuessler makes his/her appearance in the world!

Here are some pictures of the pregnancy up until about a week ago!