Our Journey

So it has been so long since I've blogged, I didn't think I even remember what the sign-in & password was but ... I conquered & was able to ENTER.

Is motherhood ever CRAZY! The beginning here has been on quite rocky & rough terrain. This week has just started to seem to get reasonably 'manageable' (as manageable as motherhood can be. ).

Let me begin to give the recap for the last two months (oh and this is Ashlee speaking).

Dec. 6th Jeff & I drove out to Chilliwack to spend the day visiting with our friends Allan & Paula. We went Christmas tree hunting and had a pizza/movie night. It was a great time. We got home late and in bed by midnight. I woke at 2:15 wondering why I had woken up (realize here that through the whole pregnancy I had NO problems at all sleeping at night) to find out that I wet the bed. Well, off to the hospital we went and my contractions started within a couple hours but very mildly. To make a very long story shorter I progressed from 2cm to having our son from 11:30am to 2:30pm Dec. 7th. A very intense 3 hours. So this was a surprise as I was not due until Dec. 19th - he came almost a full 2 weeks early. We were a little shocked as we still had stuff we were going to do before he came but looking back I am very thankful for God's timing in it (he was a plump 8.0lbs. Imagine if he had waited another 2 weeks. I could have been looking at close to a 10lb baby so I am very thankful for his early arrival).

We can home from the hospital Monday evening (Dec. 8th). We thought everything was running along tick-a-de-bo when Thursday came and he went 6 hours without eating, crying for a full 2 hours of that, and completely refusing the breast. So off to emergency we went where they looked at him and right away called in the pediatrician on call. Essentially, he was jaundiced and too weak to bring in my milk and get the nutrition he needed to gain weight. He had already lost more than 10% of his body weight and was in a continual downward spiral as he didn't have the energy to suck harder to get more milk but he needed the more milk in order to gain the energy to suck harder. So we had to supplement with formula to help him gain the weight and energy back that he needed. By Wednesday of the next week we were admitted to the hospital (he was not losing anymore weight but he wasn't gaining anything either (over a 4 day stretch). Friday we were discharged with the affirmation that it was just a supply issue and not a digestion issue on Nate's part.

This is were I will end for now. I need to get ready for bed myself before I get Nate up to give him one more feeding this evening. I will continue his story at a later time and when I have time on Jeff's computer I will post more pictures (at least more recent ones).

Thanks also to all those who have prayed through these first 2 months of Nate's life. He is such a blessing and we are glad that he is out of the 'danger zone'.

Love and hugs,
Ashlee