More Videos

Here are a couple more videos that I took of the little guy.

Check out Canon's smokin' dance moves!! This would've been a better video if I had someone else holding the camera so that I could use both hands. He usually sways more than this when I do it, but it's still adorable in this video. :)

This one just shows how well he's growing... Canon was really NOT a fan of tummy-time, and I have a hard time making him do it, but I know it's good for him. This video is from a time when I noticed he was holding his head up for a while. After he lifted his head, I decided to go get the camera to film it. He held his head up for much longer than I was expecting him to, and I am quite excited about it.

This one is more or less for my mother. When I told her that Canon plays pretty well by himself, she asked me what he does. Well, since it's kind of hard to explain what he really does other than just kicks, swats, and smiling at his reflection, I decided to film it for her. I won't be offended if you don't really want to watch the whole thing. It's less interesting than other videos.

And Then EVERYTHING Changes

I felt like I was starting to get the hang of this motherhood gig. Canon would wake up around the same time in the morning, and then he'd need a nap at predictable hours. He was basically awake for a little over an hour and then slept for about and hour, then awake for just over and hour and then sleep for about an hour...on and on through most of the day. Sometimes he'd go shorter or longer, but it was easy to tell which he needed when. Well...then he hit the 3 month mark, and everything changed.

I wasn't sure what was going on... is he teething? is he just transitioning from several naps to only a couple naps per day? is he becoming too reliant on us to put him to sleep that he can't soothe himself back to sleep on his own? The questions could probably keep going, but either way, Canon is growing older and his sleeping patterns are changing. He now stays up for at least 2 hours at a time, and his first morning nap seems to be just a catnap. Then again, maybe I'm just not timing things right. There are so many things I still have to figure out about this being a mom thing. Today he slept for about 40 minutes before he woke up again after being up for 2 hours. I knew that wasn't enough of a nap, but I realized that he hadn't eaten since for a long time. So he nursed for a while and then fell right back asleep. Phew! His nap turned out to be about 2 hours by the time he was really ready to get up. YAY! He does still sleep, so that's the good news.

The bad news is that I was expecting that by now I'd be getting more sleep at night. He used to wake up about twice for feedings in the early morning hours. Now he seems to be waking up every 2 hours again, and I'm not sure why he doesn't just sleep as long as he used to. The first few times that he woke up several times in one night I figured it was because he was cold. His room has 2 windows in it that are not very good at keeping out the cold of winter, so we have a space heater aimed into his crib. On really cold nights I turn up the heater. The more recent times that he gives us a bad night I notice that he seems quite warm, not hot enough for me to actually undress him so that I can take his temperature under his arm, but warm enough to think he might have a slight fever. Turns out, he's been showing several signs of teething. I've been giving him doses of baby Tylenol when I feel that he's warm and really fussy and I can't figure out what else it might be. Usually within 2 minutes he's no longer fussy or irritable.

I don't really know if he's teething or not because I can't find any places on his gums where a tooth may be cutting, and he doesn't act irritable everyday. I figured that if his gums were hurting on one day, they'd be hurting every day until the tooth cuts through. Maybe he just gets random fevers or I dress him too warmly for sleep. Either way, I feel bad when he's upset and there's nothing that I can do to help him. Thankfully it doesn't happen all the time or even every day. So far he seems to be a very happy boy, and that makes me glad.

It used to be so easy to get Canon to fall asleep at bedtime. I would watch him for cues of tiredness, and then start the routine of bedtime feeding while I read a story (or two or three), prayer, and then put him down. If he didn't look tired enough, I'd read longer, but he usually comes really close tyo falling asleep as I read to him. Now I feel like he takes a lot more coaxing. A few recent nights I spent over 2 hours trying to get him to go down. I now realized that he's probably just going to have a later bedtime. When I try to put him to bed at the usual bedtime, he treats it like a nap and wakes up after an hour or so to play. He just doesn't want to go down before he's ready, and that can get frustrating for both of us. I feel so horrible keeping Canon awake if I think he ought to go to sleep, but I realize that he'll only go to bed when he's ready. It takes me longer than I might like, but I think I'm getting used to this new nighttime ritual. I think he's going to be an 8:00pm bedtimer! We'll see though.

Here are a few more recent pictures of our little guy!

Make a Smilebox collage

Cuter and Cuter with Each Day

I can't believe how much Canon has grown within that last few weeks. I was excited that he was hitting what I thought was the "cute stage" when we left for Utah. He was just old enough to smile and coo. I was very happy that when family would be meeting him that they would probably be able to see those adorable smiles.

Now, however, I see that he is even cuter than before... and I must say that family in Utah are definitely missing out! :) Just last week I heard Canon laugh for the first time...and I mean a real laugh, and of course it was Mark who got him to laugh. (It was Mark who got the first smile too, I'd have you all know! Not the mother who spends all day and all night with the guy. No sir-ree!) Just a couple days ago I got Canon to laugh though, so I'm not jealous anymore. In fact, this morning I got him to laugh three times in a row. (I had him laying on his back. I was holding his arms up and tickling his armpit with my nose. I had done it a few times over the past week, but usually with no reaction at all.) I was so excited to know that something that I was doing to get him to laugh actually worked!!

Other adorable milestones, Canon is starting to grasp for things and entertain himself now. I've been putting him down to play in the baby gym, and before he would just stare at all the colors and toys. Now he's starting to talk to the little baby inside the fishy mirror a lot more, and he's actually grabbing the toys he can reach. I saw it with my own eyes! He grabbed the octopus's fishy ring and pulled on it a few times. Canon's also starting to amuse himself for longer periods of time. VERY EXCITING! Yesterday he actually played by himself in the gym for long enough for me to clean the stove...well, almost that long. It was a pretty dirty stove, and I was cleaning all the burners and underneath and everything. He entertained himself for at least a half hour. I was very impressed.

Now that I've officially quit my job, I feel so much freedom to get things done around the house. I don't feel the need to sleep every time the baby does because I'm starting to feel mostly rested in the mornings. As long as I get to bed at a reasonable hour, I feel like I can get through my day without a nap. This morning was pretty awful, but I didn't really fall asleep until about 1am! I was not really functioning much until 11:30am today, but that's not normal. Canon is getting more and more predictable in when he needs to eat and go back down for a nap. I'm learning to read him a little better, and all I can think about is how glad I am that I am not working full-time anymore. Being at home allows me to really get to know my son. IT'S WONDERFUL!

A few things to describe my precious boy:

1. He wakes up around 6:30 or 7:00am, and wants to play. Within an hour, he's ready to go back to sleep. In fact, he's usually only up for just over an hour before he's ready for a nap. Sometimes that's difficult because he will often take only short catnaps, but others he sleeps for up to 2 1/2 hours.
2. If he's just eaten and is well rested, he absolutely loves to have his diaper changed. Most of the time he doesn't complain about his diaper, but if I can't figure out what could possibly be making him upset, I'll change the diaper...even if it's not that wet he's excited for the little bit of "air time." He used to hate getting his diaper changed, but now he coos, smiles, and kicks his legs for it.
3. I think he's going to be a morning person because his cutest smiles are when he first wakes up at 6:45am. (see video below! He gets distracted when I have a camera)
4. He's definitely a daddy's boy!! He gets so excited when Mark picks him up to play. (It's so dang cute to see Mark with Canon!! He makes a very adorable daddy!!)
5. He still has lots of dark hair. A few friends keep telling me that I should make Canon a baby model because he's so handsome, but I can never seem to get any pictures that really do his cuteness justice. I need someone else to manage the camera while I work out the cute faces. Oh well! :)
6. It might be a coincidence, but every time Canon has seen figure skating on the TV, he won't take his eyes off the screen. I don't have him watching a lot of TV or movies, but when he does, he's glued!
7. When he's awake, he's always so alert. He always wants to be with someone and looking at everything all around him. It's only when he's nursing or about to fall asleep that he doesn't have his eyes wide open.

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Videoclips of the Cutie-Pie

Here are a few videos that I shot of the little guy. You may not find them as entertaining as I do, and that's ok. I just think he's cute, and it's hard to get his best moments on film. Here are a couple clips for those who are dying to see more of the little cutie-pie!

He's learning how to entertain himself using the baby gym!

Here he's about to fall asleep.

Here, I saw him sucking on his thumb briefly, so I tried to catch it on camera.

First 2 Weeks at Home

There are a few things that I was totally expecting about being a mother to a newborn:



middle of the night feedings

changing a lot of diapers

crying as the only form of communication



But there are a few things that I was really not expecting:



crying bloody-murder every time I change a diaper

crying sad tearless cries with every time I change his clothes

not being able to use my mom's advice regarding when to change him at his feedings...

And the biggest shocker of all:
I can never get anything done! I knew a baby was a lot of work, but I didn't realize that I wouldn't have the energy to do the dishes, take a shower, or even straighten up the living room. If I checked my email (of which I had over 60 piled up in my inbox), it was a productive day. I feel like I'm constantly feeding him. And if somehow I'm not holding him because he's down for a nap, the time flies so fast that I wonder how come nothing got done. It amazes me how mothers of newborns ever get anything done. Seriously...you mothers of more than one child...how do you take care of your older children when you have a newborn? It just astounds me.

Ok, so maybe I'll just get used to it and I'll finally get into a groove of things...but it's no wonder they give 6 weeks as a standard time for maternity leave. There's no functioning outside before that! :)

1 Week in the Hospital

I know a lot of people talk about how they hate being a patiant in a hospital, but really, I didn't find it all that bad. Except for the bad internet connection and the bed soreness I experienced from not really being able to get up that much, I actually enjoyed some of that time in the hospital. If there were only a few things to share about my experience, these would be my thoughts:

• With having gone through an unexpected c-section, having my son son taken to the NICU was actually a blessing to me. Those first few days I was taking several pain killers and needed help to get out of bed, go to the bathroom, and whatever else. If I had to deal with feedings every few hours in that time it would have been quite difficult to actually recooperate.

• I expected that I wouldn't see my OB/GYN until the very end because I've read that it was often hospital procedure. I was also not terribly surprised that she didn't show up because they were just using the OB on call. It was a weekend afterall. However, I was utterly shocked when my OB came to visit me in the hospital the following day, and she told me that she didn't even know until I didn't show up for my scheduled appointment. Wasn't someone from the hospital supposed to page her? She told me that she attends about 90-95% of her babies, and I'll bet that the 5-10% of the ones she doesn't attend are ones just like mine... BECAUSE NO ONE EVER INFORMED HER THAT I WAS IN LABOR! How ridiculous is that!! Now I'm stuck wondering that if she had been there whether I really would've ended up going into the operating room. Maybe she would've advised me to get induced earlier. Maybe she would've been willing to pull in an ultrasound device when I asked about one to find that the cord was around his neck. Maybe this and what if that....yeah...all hypotheticals that really don't matter now because I can't change the past...but still! She didn't even know! Who dropped the ball on that one?

• They gave me a menu to choose what I wanted to eat for every meal. How cool is that? So what that it's not gourmet eating...it was cooked for me and brought to me in bed. It tasted alright, and I didn't have to lift a finger to get it. I was even able to ask for several side dishes if I wanted to and share with Mark so he wasn't so hungry. Shhh! Don't tell! :)

• As much as I would've liked to have the baby close to me in the nursery, I loved having him in the NICU. I was so glad that I got to go up to see the baby whenever I wanted to, but I didn't have to worry about spending my energy to take care of him. I felt like I got special treatment all the time because the ladies up in the NICU were always so helpful and wanted to help in every way possible. It was a NICU nurse that showed me the technique to breastfeeding and getting him to latch on properly. They also gave us tons of things to bring home like thermometers, diapers, and the baby blanket they had on him all week long. There really is a special feeling in that place, and I loved visiting in the NICU.

Canon Michael Dahl is HERE!!

These few posts are very overdue, but it's been a difficult couple of weeks trying to get used to parenthood. Here is the full birth story of how our little baby boy was born with the details that several people have been curious about...and probably a few more details than others care to read! :0)

Friday October 30, 2009

My mother had come to visit and help out with the baby on Sat. the 24th, which was 1 week before my due date. I was excited to spend some time with her and do a few fun tourist things here in Boston before the baby would be born and I'd have to be home bound for a while. Well, on Friday we decided to do a 10AM session at the Temple. After that we ventured to find a Toys 'R' Us to take one more look at car seats for the baby. I was still a little nervous about the one that I own, but when I actually saw how the new ones are installed and compared that to the one I had, I felt much better. Around 1:00PM we ventured over to the nearby Target just for one last look when in that baby isle I felt a very distinct, sharp pain in my abdomen. As I described it to my mother, she told me that was what contractions felt like. I was so excited to think that I had my VERY FIRST contraction. I thought, "Yay! I just might be going into labor and I'll be having an October baby after all!" That was the only contraction until much later that evening. In bed I had 2 more just like it about 8 minutes apart... but that was it. I wasn't actually going into labor.

Or so I thought!!

October 31, 2009

At about 6:15AM I got up to go to the bathroom, but when I got back to bed I didn't quite fall asleep. At about 6:35AM I felt that my water had broken. I wasn't exactly sure, and I didn't want to wake up Mark to get him all excited unless it was the real thing. Well, when I filled up 2 pads within minutes and it was not bloody, I knew that it was confirmed. I woke up Mark and he was happy to find that he had just had a full night's rest (mostly) before heading to the hospital. We were actually starting to get excited about the idea of having a Halloween baby.

We all got up, got dressed, ate breakfast, and I called the doctor's office to let them know that I would be coming in. I didn't feel any contractions, nothing was painful at all...just that I was leaking the amniotic fluid. We arrived at the hospital around 8:00AM. Once we were all settled into the labor/delivery room, the nurses hooked me up to fetal monitors and I was practically restricted to staying in bed, except to go to the bathroom. I told the nurse that I hadn't been having any contractions. She looked at the monitor and said, "Do you feel that? Do you feel any pressure right now?" I told her there was a little bit of pressure, and she announced that was a contraction. "Oh!" I thought, "I've been feeling that for about a week now. I didn't think that's what Braxton Hicks would feel like, so I never would've associated that with a contraction." Around 9:00AM is when the OB there on call (Dr. Teste) checked me. I was only about 50% effaced and not the slightest bit dilated. He discussed with us our options of induction and said that he'd come back after a few hours to see what our decision would be. If I progressed on my own, there would be no need for the induction measures.

Around 1:30PM Dr. Teste came back to know if we made a decision. So far there was no progress, but I still wanted to wait a little longer to allow my body to naturally go into active labor. However, I was getting anxious...my window for having an October baby was running very narrow, so I really did want to get the show on the road. Around 3:00PM the midwife Kathy inserted a prostoglandin (cervadil?) to help ripen the cervix. At this point I was only 1 cm dilated, so there really hadn't been much progress at all.

Around 7:00PM I was tired of being restrained to the bed, so I asked if there was a way I could walk around. There was nothing wrong with my legs, and I've heard that walking helps to kick-start the labor. So they switched the monitors to portable ones and let me cruise around the maternity ward. It wasn't a very big area, but I just did laps around the whole ward. The nurses at the desk were somewhat surprised to see me walking so fast, but I wasn't in any pain, and I really wanted that baby to come! :) The walking didn't really seem to do much at all for me though. Around 10:00PM I started to try to get some sleep. I knew that labor was going to be difficult, and I was going to need my rest, but with the excitement of the impending birth of my baby boy, there was not much sleep to be had. Then, the clock struck midnight, and it was no longer October. It was going to be a November baby after all...sighs!

November 1, 2009

At 2:00AM we added an hour for the Daylight Savings change. When 2:00AM hit again, they removed the cervadil and found that I was 100% effaced. Woo hoo! But I was only 2 cm dilated. Ugh! This was one stubborn labor. At 3:00AM they started me on pitocin to induce contractions. By this point it was still pretty pain-free; however, that wasn't the case anymore within a few more hours. I really lost all track of time, but the contractions steadily became harder and harder.

At 8:15AM the nurses changed the fetal heart monitor because they found that the baby's heart rate was dropping with the contractions. They were unsure if the monitor was just picking up the wrong heartbeat or not, so they inserted an internal monitor. (That really hurt! It felt like they were sticking a needle into my cervix and taking their sweet time to remove it! Ouch!) His heart rate returned to normal after a little bit though. At this point I was really in pain from each contraction. I didn't want to talk or yell out, but I wanted them to know when I was having one. So, I just whispered "oooh oooh" through each one to give them some sort of clue that I was in pain. It was at this point that they administered the epidural. I was only dilated to about 5 or 6 cm.

At 9:45AM I was dilated to 8 cm, and I wasn't in nearly as much pain...both very good things, but they were still concerned about the baby's heart rate. At 9:55AM the baby's heart rate dropped again, then it came back up. At 10:00AM they told me that we just might have to seriously consider the option of doing a c-section. So I signed the consent form. I really didn't want to go that route, but I didn't feel scared about it, or that it was the wrong form of action at the time. It felt like a calm and rational decision to me to sign those forms. Then, just 15 minutes later, I was being wheeled into the operating room. They prepped me for surgery with an extra high dosage of the epidural, and my body started to shiver. I didn't really feel cold, but I couldn't keep my body from shivering. At 10:34AM they started the incision, and at 10:40AM they brought out our baby, Canon Michael. It turned out that the cord was wrapped around his neck, so that was most likely the cause of the baby's distress.

He measured in at 7 lbs. 2 oz and 20 inches long.

After a few pictures, cleaning off the baby, and stitching me back up, they wheeled me back into the labor/delivery room and brought me my little baby. We attempted to nurse, but he seemed mostly uninterested. I noticed that my body was still shivering, and even though I wanted to still hold him, I feared that the constant shaking would not help to calm the little guy, so I asked my mom to take him. I asked about his APGAR score, an 8 or 9... so that's a good healthy baby! YAY! I was so glad to be done with the whole labor thing, but it was at this point where I was starting to get nervous about the recovery I would have to go through. The nurses took my baby to the nursery, which I totally expected so I didn't really mind, but there was something a bit unexpected.

At about 1:40PM the nursery nurses were all crowding around Canon. They discovered that he seemed to be having some breathing problems. He was taking rapid shallow breaths, which was not normal. So they took him to the NICU. X-rays of his lungs showed that there was more fluid than normal. (Theory has it that because he was not delivered vaginally, where the extra amniotic fluid would get squeezed out traveling through the birth canal, that fluid remained in his lungs and he just needed to cough it out or let it evaporate.) There was a possibility that it was pneumonia, but that takes a couple days to diagnose, so they started him on an antibiotic right away, just in case.

For a few days they had Canon on oxygen therapy with only a very minimal amount of extra oxygen. So, they were feeding him through a tube and had a tiny IV hooked up to his hand for the antibiotics. My mother was only allowed up in the NICU for the first day, but after that only Mark and I were allowed to visit him. Canon was in the NICU for 1 week because of the antibiotics, but really, he was perfectly fine. Once they felt that his oxygen levels were stable without the extra oxygen, he was able to mouth-feed, and I was able to start trying to nurse. He's been diagnosed as a "strong, very healthy baby boy" and we are so glad to have him home. He's doing just great and we're doing our best to adjust to parenthood!