Ben put all our first days photos on his flickr account.  You can see them all here, but I'm putting my favorites here as well. 

(From Ben)

I was scheduled to be induced Thursday night.  Amanda lovingly entertained me all day to keep my sanity.  We went to Cherry Creek Mall where she encouraged me to buy this gorgeous dress with the hope that it will fit by July.  (Darn that Glee, while looking for a pic of the dress I found Lea Michele in it)  We also got our nails done and had lunch at Cafe Rio.  Amanda quickly dropped by a clinic to get her shots for Thailand while we were out.  (She leaves today!  Bon Voyage!)  I had painless contractions randomly all day, from 3-15 minutes apart.  I hoped this might lead to natural labor but it did not. 

Ben and I were anxious but trying to play it cool that evening.  I can't remember what we had for dinner that night.  Chipotle maybe?  My favorite summer program So You Think You Can Dance premiered that night.  Another good distraction while I waited for 9 pm to come. 

At 8:40 we put my hospital bag and extra large pillow in the car and drove to Lutheran Hospital.  At the ER entrance they transferred me to a wheelchair (totally unnecessary, but kind of fun) and took me up to the L&D unit.  This was kind of a nice way to go.  They had all my paperwork ready and everyone was expecting me, and I was in no pain.  Just a smooth transfer to my room for the next couple days. 

I changed into a gown and they took my vitals and checked my cervix.  Still a 1, dagnabbit.  Now a "very loose" 1 cm.  Ben and I laughed that over the past three weeks I had progressed from "almost 1" to "a solid 1" to "a loose 1" to "a very loose 1."  They placed an IV in my right wrist (my first, ironically).  They explained the plan of action and assured me that one way or another I wouldn't need to leave the hospital without a baby, that this induction was going to work!  They put me on the monitors for 30 minutes and decided that I was not contracting too much for the misoprostol (a medication that softens the cervix to start labor).  I got an oral dose at 10 along with a small dose of Ambian so I could sleep.  Ben stayed with me through all this, then went home around 10:30. 

At 3:30 another cervix check showed no change so they gave me a second dose of misoprostol and I fell back into a groggy sleep.

At 5:00 I woke up with mild contractions.  I stayed quiet in bed but could not fall back asleep.  At 6:00 suddenly the contractions were very strong and more painful.  I put an episode of 30 Rock on my laptop to distract me but the pain was too much for Tina Fey.  I called my nurse and she drew me a jacuzzi bath.  The bath lessened the pain to a bearable amount and I labored there for about an hour.  Ben called to check in.  The plan was for him to take Jem to the dog boarders at 8 when they open.  Brian was our back-up to take the dog if Ben needed to hurry in sooner.  I told him I was laboring pretty bad, that I was even thinking of getting the epidural already.  But it was only another hour until he'd join me and the nurses said there was no hurry for him to come.  However, after we talked Brian called Ben and offered to take Jem anyway, so Ben was able to come to me by 7:20.  I was so glad!  The contractions were escalating fast!  I could barely breathe through them now.  It was crazy how strong the belly contracted shape and how hard it would become.  Ben jumped in with coaching my breathing and called my nurse to start the epidural process. 

The epidural was placed at 8:40, just in time if you ask me.  The contraction pain was scary bad but Ben kept me calm through it.  My Australian anesthesiologist was quick and kind.  My nurse rechecked my cervix and found I was 4 cm with bulging water sac! 

I tried to nap but didn't ever fall asleep.  Ben kept me company except when I sent him out to get food in the cafeteria for himself.  He was also in charge of sending out text updates to people and did a great job.  By midday I was 5 cm.  My nurse suggested we break my water and start pitocin to ease things along, if I wanted.  (I wanted.  I hoped to have the baby with my midwife who arranged the induction and was on that day until 5 pm).  I countered that we just break the water first and wait on the pitocin.  My nurse helped boost me in bed and the act of pulling myself up suddenly broke the water!  My nurse stared at it confused for a second before telling me what happened - she couldn't believe it just popped on its own like that.  The water had meconium in it so they watched my monitors closely.  Jack had some decelerations, indicating some cord compression.  They put in an intra-uterine monitor to track my contractions more accurately.  Within an hour he looked better, having "adjusted to his new environment." 

Ben put Singin' in the Rain on the DVD player for me while I tried to sleep some more.  The good thing about that movie is I've seen it so many times, I don't have to see the screen to know what it looks like!  While I watched all the routines in my head with my eyes closed the contractions kept doing their thing.  I was feeling kind of weak and asked the nurses if there was anything besides ice I could eat or drink.  Being a nurse, I knew there's always some room for negotiation and they ended up bringing me a popsicle.  Heaven! 

A little while after the movie ended I told my nurse that the contractions had changed quality.  I could feel them mounting by chest pressure and slight shortness of breath.  Then at the peak I could feel pressure lower, in the birth canal.  Another check revealed I was 9+ dilated!  It was about 2:30.  They let me labor a while longer.  The fetal heart rate monitor kept sliding off during the contractions so they talked about putting in a scalp monitor.  I wanted to hold off on that a little more.

At 3:00 I said they could put the scalp monitor in since I could tell they weren't really getting good data.  Also, they started up some pitocin because my contractions were kind of far apart for the final stage of labor.  The pitocin was set to the lowest dose and the nurse prepped the probe.  She was about to put it in but paused, looking quizzically at my nethers, and suggested I try a push with the next contraction.  "Huh, well let's just do that then.  Looks like he's on his way." 

My midwife and the nursery team assembled in the room and the delivery supply table was brought inside.  My midwife had been knocked over by her labrador the day before and fractured her pinky finger.  It was bandaged and braced making sterile gloving slightly comical, but I was totally fine with her doing the delivery.  Something for us to laugh about.  At 3:30 I started pushing with each contraction.  22 minutes and 9 contractions later Jack was born! 

When they held him up all bloody and screaming my first thought was "Holy smokes!  That thing is huge!"  Ben and I were both in shock.  Suddenly we were parents!?  They wiped Jack down and did the initial assessment in the warmer bassinet.  His Apgar was 7 and 9 - really good.  A short Chinese nurse bossed Ben around, telling him what to take pictures of.  I'm glad she did :-)  We declared Jack's name and word soon got around the unit about our interesting middle name choice.  Random nurses popped in to say congratulations and they loved the name. 

The afterbirth was really weird.  I was shaking violently but not cold.  I tried nursing for just a few minutes and Jack already seemed to know what to do.  Ben held him in the rocking chair while I got fixed up.  It took an hour of stitching to fix my tears.  They saved my placenta per my request so I could look at it before tossing it.  I think placentas are so cool.  Mine was perfectly round and intact.  They let me order lunch so I got a grilled cheese sandwich, sierra mist, and veggie sticks.  Ben helped me eat a little but it came right back up.  Ugh.  My blood pressure had dropped to the 80s systolic and apparently I lost all my color and had purple lips.  They let us stay in the L&D room for two hours, twice what it usually takes to recover after the epidural is turned off.

I held Jack in my arms while they wheeled me down the hall to the Mom/Baby unit.  Ben somehow managed to carry everything we brought except the lunch tray in one load.  Here we settled in for a scary, nerve wracking, exciting, happy two days.  I had some issues with heart palpitations and shortness of breath that seemed to have resolved.  Other than that it was a standard stay before we came home on Sunday. 

I loved my experience at Lutheran.  The nurses I had during the entire stay were excellent.  My midwife was wonderful.  I couldn't have asked for a better induction experience.

Today Jack is one week old and we've made some great strides!  He weighed 8 pounds 11 ounces today, which they said is great progress back to his birth weight.  Besides sleeping, eating, and pooping, we're encouraging other endeavors. 

Tummy time to strengthen his muscles and get him tired for night.

Introductions to dance critique to make him cultured.


Arts and crafts to improve dexterity.



And some light econometrics to give him a head start in school. 


But his favorite part of the day is still happy hour at the milk bar.

Jack is doing great.  I'm not so hot.  Well, strike that, I'm very hot.  Our house feels like we're in the middle of summer.  We have our new portable swamp cooler running the bedroom round the clock and we turn on the main floor wall AC unit midday.  The animals are sprawled out on the floors.  Jack doesn't need a hat or even a blanket most of the time. 

I thought I was on the fast track to healing last week but I seem to have hit a wall.  Yesterday and today have been awful.  I feel dizzy when I walk too long or get up too fast.  My right leg feels weak, where I had gracilis pain during the pregnancy.  It burns when I pee.  In fact, that whole area still hurts and often itches.  I've been feeling queasy and nothing sounds good to eat.  I get headaches often.  I have uncontrollable crying spells.  My boobs are too enthusiastic about supply and hurt when Jack cries or goes more than two hours without eating. 

Speaking of which, Jack, we need to get your sleep sorted out.  He seemed to be on a good schedule of eating at 9, 11, 3:30, and 6:30 throughout the night.  He roughly stuck to this all week.  Then last night he decided he needed to eat every two hours.  I was up at 8, 10, 12, 2:20, 4:30, 6:30, and 8.  Too much, buddy!  Each time he's up it takes me an hour to feed him, change him, get him back to sleep, and fall asleep myself.  So at most I had an hour of sleep off and on.  Ugh.  Today he's back on the 3+ hour schedule.  I've taken two naps today but still feel exhausted.  The heat isn't helping. 

Yeah, yeah.  Welcome to parenthood.  I get it.  Can't wait for this part to be over though so I can enjoy being a parent.

He was underwhelmed by his first outing to the Target toy section.  I have a feeling this will change.

Things are quiet and fine in the Mason house.  Some milestones:

• Three nights in a row with greater than 2 hour sleep stretches.  Yay, Jack!
• We went to Park Day with some other moms.  It was nice to be out in the open and visit with other people. 
• Jack's cord fell off this morning!  Besides looking nicer without the grody dead cord, this has two outcomes
• Jack can take a submerged bath!  (no pictures, sorry ;-) He seemed confused, like "hey this is nice and soothing, but wait!  I'm naked and I hate being naked!  But I'm warm . . ."  I cleaned up all the dried bits of milk and dead skin flakes, then gave him a nice coating of lotion.  I guess Colorado is a bit too dry for him because he's had some cracked spots.  
• I can really try the cloth diapers now.  They are too big for his tiny bum and wrap up to the navel.  Before his cord fell off I could see that they were irritating him.  We'll probably always do a combination of cloth and disposable, but I can finally give cloth a real try-out. 

• Jack took his first bottle this morning.  Nothing difficult about it.  I just pumped, put the lid on, handed it to Ben, and stuck it in Jack's mouth.  He slurped it down happily and fell into a milk-drunk nap for the last two hours.  I wanted to try out bottle feeding together before asking Ben to do it solo as a favor in the future.  Also, if we want to leave him with eager grandparents I wanted to be sure he would eat ok.  

And what about me?

• I'm down to 400 mg ibuprofen 2x a day (from 600 mg 3-4x a day).  
• My chest is much less swollen.  Maybe there's hope I'll ever fit in my old tops again.
• Ben went to work yesterday and I did NOT freak out about being home alone with the baby all day.
• But then I made him take me to Freddy's for hamburgers and fries.  Yum!
• Yesterday I shaved my legs!  Hello to breezy summer skirts!
• Our ward has been bringing us food this week and it has been so nice.  Our fridge is full of healthy food as well as desserts. 
• I still think boredom and loneliness will be my biggest problems this summer.  I might have to join a mom's group so I have more socialization to look forward to. 

More baby pictures!! (click on them to enlarge)

They had four of my favorite flavors! I chose chocolate Andes mint.
Yay for getting out of the house!

Ben is back to work this week, leaving me alone with Jack every day.  Yesterday we went to Fort Collins to visit Kristin.  She has a busy week with both her birthday and her due date!  It was great seeing her and Jenni for lunch.  But this meant a long drive with Jack and being away from the house for most of the day.  Despite him deciding he was hungry right when my food arrived, and then letting his poop leak out of his diaper onto my pants in the restaurant, we survived! 

Kristin lent me a book called Babywise.  I haven't read any parenting books yet but I think it was time.  Jack's feedings are chaotic and unpredictable.  I basically feed on demand.  I'm always anxious about when he next need me and feel incompetent about how to care for him all day.  Last night I got only 4 hours of sleep, split up throughout the night.  This book has a simple flexible plan that they recommend.  Apparently I was doing a lot wrong.  I'm going to try to enforce their "feed - waketime - naptime" routine and stop nursing him to sleep, except at night.  I haven't done any "naptimes" yet, just letting him sleep when it happens.  Today I put him down twice and he cried mightily.  But in less than 5 minutes he fell asleep.  Huh.  It worked.  With any luck we can both work out a routine that works for him, so I can feel more in control and less anxious. 

I slept a whopping 6 hours last night!  (split into two 3 hours chunks)  So far Jack is doing pretty good with our routine and I'm feeling a lot better than I did the last couple days.  But I won't throw any confetti yet.

I went to a free lactation support group this morning, followed by a "Survival for New Moms" group.  They meet weekly for just $5, you get to have a lesson, talk to the nurses, and meet other new moms.  Today we learned infant massage.  I learned some tummy swooping moves that are supposed to be good for digestion.  While practicing Jack let out some good poop, so I guess they work!  I'll have to try them the next time he gets fussy from gas.  I talked with a couple other girls about our boys and cloth diapering (it seems to be the hot topic among mothers these days).  Jack was the youngest baby by 3 weeks. Not sure if I'll go regularly, but it's a nice option to have around.  They were a nice group and I signed up for their e-mail list. 

By the way, I need to pat myself on the back for going to this group.  This required getting up at SEVEN AM to get myself showered and dressed and Jack ready to go out the door by 9:20.  And I wore MASCARA and EARRINGS.  Like a normal adult woman.  Alright, alright, I admit it.  I wore my maternity stretch jeans.  They are just too comfy! At least I wore real pants and a button-up shirt instead of sweat pants and a T shirt.  Also, I had to talk to STRANGERS in a casual, friendly-type way.  Pat pat pat pat.

During the lactation support portion (which is free!) they weighed Jack and looked at his latch.  He's still hurting me, we think he's just squishing down his mouth too hard while sucking.  We weighed before and after feedings and determined he ate about 3.5 ounces, a good amount for his size.  His weight was 9 pounds 8 ounces - finally got back to his birth weight and then some!

(This second picture shows how he was fascinated by the fluorescent lights during the group.)

I'm trying to do little things to feel normal again. During his morning nap yesterday I baked cookies. This recipe that Miranda pointed me to makes the BEST cookies. I can't stop eating them.  I even cooked dinner once this week.  It was a nice change to have freshly prepared, home-cooked food. 

I have a wild garden this year.  I haven't done a single thing to it, not even watered.  This lone iris is blooming.  My clematis is ready to burst.  Most of my herbs came back - mint, sage, thyme, lemon balm, and lavender.

Jealous of my mother's birdfeeder, I had her get one for me last November.  Despite it being "squirrel proof, squirrels had been emptying it fast all winter.  You can see one hanging off the fence in this snowy picture. 
I found a spot outside that's a little harder for the squirrels to get to and in return I have beautiful red finches in my window all day.  The birds are camera shy, so I only got this blurry picture.  Molly is VERY interested in the backyard lately. That squirrel is pissed that I let her out there.  He's barking at her from the roof now. 

Dude, you can order Qdoba nachos with the chips on the side, so they
don't get soggy. We're getting a fathe'rs day lunch before going to a
family-hosted baby shower.

Ben and Jack, at 3 weeks and 2 days old, on Father's Day. This is also the first time Jack has smiled in response to our voices and faces (instead of just after eating or burping). What a moment to catch! I had a hard time picking my favorite photo, so check out the others on Ben's photostream.

After 20 minutes of fussing I couldn't figure out what he needed.  So I let him fall asleep on my shoulder.  I guess that's what he needed.  :-)

Last weekend Ben's aunts hosted a lovely baby shower as a chance for the family to meet Jack.  They had great snacks, including M&Ms with his name printed on them!  My parents and grandmother came all the way out to attend the shower.  We got some great things to round out our nursery, including a diaper bag, baby monitors, nightlights, and an exersaucer. I posted all my pictures on flickr, but here are some of my favorite of him being passed around.

I never posted a follow-up to the nursery decorating, did I?  Here are some photos from the other day.

I received this Poang rocking chair from Ikea and I just love to nurse here!  I set up a little station with water, books, burp cloths, and boppy.  I use it at night instead of nursing the bed because it's more comfortable to sit in the chair.  The book shelf is more supplies than books at this point, with a few toys thrown in the mix.  You can see I chose the teal damask print fabric for curtains.  I'm happy with my choice.  Miranda is working on turning the bird print fabric that I also bought into a quilt! 

On the left is another angle of the crib wall.  You can see the wall decal from Blik that is the main decoration.  Also, my finished sweater vest is pinned on the wall, waiting for him to grow into it.

On the right is the changing area.  I framed the fox prints that I found in NYC and put those above the table.  We have a cloth diaper service right now, and those are piled in the green basket.  The robot painting was done by my brother Andrew.

While taking these pictures Jack napped in his crib for the first time!  He has a preference for sleeping in his basket, so I'm slowly getting him used to being the crib.  We'll probably move him out of our room to sleep in the nursery in a couple weeks.

I went to visit April with her daughter Ella this week.  We couldn't believe how small and big they look!  Ella was born at 34 weeks, 2 days before Jack, who was born at 41 weeks.  Also, her family are all shorties while I come from a family of monster men on both sides.  I love this photo!

My mom came to visit for a couple days this week and it was heaven!  She just took care of Jack for me and kept me entertained for two days.  We went shopping and got some cute outfits for Jack.  She taught me how to do a kitchen sink bath.  He's still not a fan of being wet and naked.  I caught up on some sleep while she cared for him in the afternoon and mornings.  I could have her come every week!

And I'm trying to savor every minute of it. I love you, little dude.

I'll stop with the anniversaries soon, but one month is a milestone!  I'm so impressed with how fast Jack is growing.  He smiles and sighs.  He holds his head up when he is upright.  He seems to be a double sneezer, like my brother.  What else will we discover?

Look what I got in the mail today!

Hee hee hee.  I LOVE it.