On Friday, Dad, Mom, and I were going to go over Ryan's house. I had just fed and changed Micah, but desperately wanted a shower. Not wanting to wait around for me, they took the baby and left. When I arrived over there not an hour later, I was greeted with these pictures:
My child is an overachiever already. We went for his one-month check-up yesterday and here are the stats:
Weight: 12 lbs. 4 oz.
Height: 23 3/4 inches
Let's break it down. We were at the doctor's exactly one month ago where he was 9 lbs. 4 oz. and 21 1/2 inches. That means he has gained THREE pounds in four weeks and grew 2 1/4 inches in the same time frame. The doctor and nurse practitioner were very impressed with how strong he is and the doctor said that he is ready for tummy time. I didn't mention that not only does he have tummy time, but he's been sleeping on his belly at night now (he slept a five-hour stretch last night). He was such an angel the entire time. I had to strip him down for his weight and he didn't mind at all, matter of fact he was flirting with the nurse and the nurse practitioner. The doctor experienced the same affection and I was getting kind of worried that he likes older women...already! Oh, and the doctor mentioned that his blue eye color would more than likely stay that way. Again (I thought the baby would look more like D) I was hoping they'd be D's hazely color but again I am wrong! No shots this time, for which both Mom and I were grateful; he was in too good of a mood to have it ruined by a silly shot. The doctor and I discussed other things: the vitamin D drops make his belly upset so she suggested organic drops that are sold at Whole Foods. I would have gotten those to begin with, had I known about them. I told her I was using these homeopathic drops for gas relief and she said he should be growing out of that soon. It's true, we haven't had to give them to him nearly as much as a few weeks ago.
As Mom, Micah, and I were walking out of the patient room area, we ran into Ryan and Yana. Ry was there to see his doctor and as chance would have it, we were walking down the same hallway at the same time. And who was waiting in the parking lot when we got down there, but none other than my dad. He was passing by the building on his was to food shop, so we said hi to him. Mom asked a good question, "Who else gets to see practically their entire family at that point in the day, time or place?" It was fun, whatever the answer.
Micah and I went to Target where he decided that he didn't want the bottle I had pumped for him, yet he still wanted to eat. So we were sitting in the car for a few minutes while he nursed and then we were good to go. He was great and let me do all my shopping.
I found the following clip in my inbox yesterday. I guess Dad had found a site where this is possible and of course he used our Micah-man as the star of his film. The site is actually pretty cool and I can see myself using it in the future, but for now this is what Dad came up with...
What were we doing a month ago today?
This is Micah (at 3 weeks) deciding to tell everyone about the big, bad bath that his Mommy and Grammy just gave him. He makes direct eye contact and will respond with his cooing when talked to...I can't keep up with this kid!
These photos were not staged. He was in the middle of feeding and for some reason he found his thumb more appealing...
Micah is a big fan of his daddy. If I didn't tell David that Micah has periods of fussiness like when he wants to eat or be jumped up and down to sleep (almost literally...), then D would think he was absolutely perfect all the time. Basically, Micah likes to make a liar out of me. I know, it's only the beginning. After being on-call Sunday into Monday (and with only half an hour of sleep), D came home to one happy baby. D read him a book while Micah ate and then he changed his diaper and socialized with him for a good half an hour. Then Micah decided that he had had enough and wanted to go to sleep. We wrapped him up tight, made sure he was warm, and D started the bounciness that this kids likes to go to sleep to (I didn't think I was that bouncy when he was in utero...). Not two minutes later, this was the state of Micah: 
A few things about this picture: if you want to know the face D makes while he sleeps, there you have it. I'm not sure why these guys feel the need to concentrate on sleeping, but both are very intent on it. Another thing: Micah l.o.v.e.s. his hands. They are his toys and no matter how tight you swaddle him, one or both will soon make an appearance. In my 38 week ultrasound, we saw his hands up by his eyes and they were making a waving motion. Guess what he still does? It's fascinating to watch him do the exact same thing in real life. And yesterday, for the first time, he found his thumb!!! He still pokes himself with the other four fingers because he hasn't found a way to curl them down yet, but he definitely found the thumb and put himself back to sleep. I saw him trying to go for it again this morning, but everything was curled up so his entire fist ended up in his mouth...the opposite problem from yesterday! He's a great source of entertainment!
I've been given the not-so-subtle impression that I'm crazy for absolutely loving and thoroughly enjoying every single minute I was in the hospital...post partum. The nursing staff was outstanding, the meals were delicious (I could order as much as I want off of the menu they provided), the visitors were entertaining and never stopped coming, and Micah was (is) such a good boy.
I have to take a moment to give David his much-do credit on his role as both husband and father. He was with us the entire hospital stay doing everything that I couldn't do for both the baby and me. He never complained, was always there for us, and was such a big help that I couldn't have done as well as I did without him. I was so grateful that his resident decided to give him the entire week of paternity leave then instead of a month later. Not only was my man supportive, he was so kind and loving and the all-around awesome guy I knew I married and the wonderful father that I knew he would be. He even changed those first few diapers, which, as you may know, are really quite...messy. And not that his help has stopped there because it hasn't, but working 80+ hour weeks can slightly impinge on good help.
Dad posted these Welcome Home, Micah Andrew signs all over the house. He's such a grandpa already! Now we're home and getting in the swing of things. We still have lots of visitors and everyone says the same thing, "He's so beautiful. You have to say all babies are cute, even if they're not, but your baby really is beautiful." We're kind of partial, so we agree, but I tell them not to say it too loudly otherwise Micah will get a big head. We love you, little man!
One Week Stats
We had our one-week check up last Monday morning, even though he was released from the hospital the previous Friday afternoon. He left the hospital at 8 lbs 8.9 ounces and over the weekend he went up to 9 lbs 4 ounces, surpassing his birthweight of 9 lbs 1 ounce. He only lost 6% of his weight, even though he's allowed up to 10%! My little man can eat!
The appointment went really well. He peed all over the scale and I mean all.over.the.scale. The doctor said he was doing so well that we could skip his two-week check-up and go straight to the one-month check-up. As she was checking him out, he kept trying to hold his head up to which the doctor commented, "We have a strong little man here." And it's true. He can hold his head up and he doesn't like to be held in the cradle position. He likes to see what's going on. I feel bad for the people who automatically hold him like the little baby he is because he starts fussing. So we hold him up or face him out and he's content to look at everything around him. I swear I gave birth to a one-month old!
First Time at Church
Micah's first trip to church was kind of rushed. David was post call, so he came home, showered and changed in under ten minutes, and we were out the door and a bit late to the morning worship service. He was perfect the entire time, sleeping so soundly. Of course it was stifling in there, so he could have been passed out. I had a bottle at the ready in case he decided he wanted to eat, but he slept through everything, even all of the commotion afterwards as people lined up to see him. Not bad for a thirteen-day old!
You've probably already read all about Micah's birth, so I won't belabor (ha!) the point. I'll add a few things from my perspective, but D got all the facts right...of course!
So Mom, D, and I left for the hospital, which is three short minutes away, with enough time to make my 5am inducement check-in. I got hooked up and all went well throughout the day. I didn't have any adverse affects to whatever was being pumped into me and Mom and D were great entertainers and distracters. Actually, at one point, having more visitors somehow came up when a nurse was in the room and I told Mom that we were only allowed two support people. The nurse said that I was allowed to have anyone I wanted in the room, which we were not told, and that started the chain of visitors. D's dad came to visit from his office upstairs, followed by his mom, my dad and Yana, Ryan, then Nick and Kristina. The stream of visitors made the time go by even quicker and before I knew it, I was halfway dilated and 34 minutes later I was fully dilated. From that point on, Mom and D were in the room because not everyone wanted the view that was being presented.
At some point, I got the epidural which was heaven. My wonderful nurse Sharon kept asking me every half hour that she came to check on me if I wanted it, but I kept putting it off saying that I wanted to wait until I had "better" (aka harder) contractions. She looked at the tape pouring out of the monitor machine and told me that I had been having quite a few hard contractions already, which surprised me. So anyway, I pushed for almost three hours with little progress and was kind of disappointed that the baby wasn't going to come naturally, but I was totally ready to do anything to help the baby be born safe and sound. The doctor had been warning me that day and for weeks previous that I had a big baby and might need to have a C-section, so I was prepared for it.
The operating room was just how it looked in the many A Baby Story episodes I had been watching. I didn't like that curtain up in front of my face, which I knew I wouldn't, but that was the only uncomfortable part. The anesthesiologists had to wait a bit longer than usual for the medicine to kick in because I had been lying on my left side for a bit, so all the numbing medicine was there and not so completely on my right side. They tilted the table and injected some more stuff and we were good to go after about five minutes. D told me later he was wondering if they had forgotten about him, but they didn't. He eventually came in and not ten minutes later we heard two pitiful cries which marked our baby's entrance into this world, followed by, "It's a boy!". Someone asked me what my reaction was when we found out he was a boy, and the question kind of stumped me. I guess I always knew he was a boy because I wasn't surprised and I guess I really wanted a boy because I had a feeling of overwhelming satisfaction that he was a boy. Of course I would have been just as happy with a girl, but those were my initial reactions.
The nurses brought Micah to David a few minutes later (I think he might have been the only C-section baby with a cone head. They had to push him back up out of the birth canal because he was half way down and then pull him out!) and we got to meet our little man while one of the anesthesiologists took both pictures and video of our first moments as a family. Words can't describe the experience, but it's one D and I will always share and remember. The nurses took the baby away to the nursery to do their thing (His APGAR scores were 8 and then 9) and D stayed with me while they sewed me up. I would have never scheduled a C-section, but I have to say that it wasn't a bad experience at all. I tell the Lord all the time how thankful I am for a body that heals so well. The doctor gave me two pain medication prescriptions and I didn't need to fill either and I only took a few ibuprofen pills the first few days home. The bleeding isn't nearly as bad as if he had been born vaginally and I can sit down normally without any pain. So there are definite perks to having a C-section!
As the doctor was finishing up, he called out over the curtain, "Mrs. K, I've never seen someone with so little [insert some medical word beginning with a "v" here] before, I can't believe it." I didn't understand what he meant, but his tone of voice sounded kind of positive, so I said, "Oh, well, thank you." Then I turned to ask D what that word meant and he told me: layer of fat. I was definitely encouraged about the state of my post-pregnant belly after hearing that!
When they were done sewing me up, one of the doctors and a few nurses wheeled me back to my labor and delivery room where D and Mom were waiting for me. In the meantime, and unbeknownst to me, all the people who had gathered in the waiting room were now gathered around the Newborn Nursery window closest to Micah's isolate. Everyone was watching him get washed up and weighed and poked and prodded. No one knew if he was a boy or girl, so Mom got the nurses' attention away from the scale where they were still oohing and ahhing at his size and asked if he was a boy or a girl. The mystery was no longer and most people found out that they were right: we had a boy!
Back in the L&D room, Mom said there were people in the waiting room who wanted to see me and asked if it would be okay if they came in. I was shocked at the amount of people who were there, 11 in all: Mom, Dad, Ryan, Yana, Nick, Kristina, D's Mom, Dad, Sara, Rita, and Justin (plus D and me). The nurse (who was also shocked at the amount of people in the room) wheeled Micah in and made sure everyone knew that "Mom is in charge." We told everyone that they could hold him as long as they washed their hands...so of course he was passed around before another nurse came in to kick everyone out, check me over, and wheel me to the maternity room (oh, and I nursed Micah for the first time somewhere in there) where D was waiting for us. 
The last thing I really remember is one of the doctors coming into our room and asking, "Was that mob for you?" "Well, " I said, "more for the baby."
The second night in the hospital, David surprised me with this beautiful necklace representing Micah's birth and also his birthstone. He thought of it all by himself and had some help from my sister-in-law since she works at Zales. He told her what he was looking for and she bought four different options to show him (since he was kind of indisposed). I guess anyone in the waiting room got to see all the options and give their opinion, but D chose the one he wanted and gave it to me the next night. I don't have to say how absolutely romantic and creative and thoughtful David is, do I? ;)
And don't worry, I'm still working on our birth/hospital story...
Micah: Who is like God; Gift from God. Micah is a prophet in the Bible. Even though judgment is a big theme in his book, Micah also offered words of hope that gave the people of Jerusalem encouragement to live as God's people in a darkened world.
Andrew: Manly; brave. In the Bible the first of the twelve apostles chosen was Andrew. The name comes from the Greek word andros, meaning strong, manly, and courageous.
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