Newborn Experiences

Drew and I have been able to take Luke lots of fun places the past couple of weeks. We went camping with our friends Katy and Chad at our favorite camping place. Luke did great, and was probably the warmest one in our tent! Other than our dead battery in the truck the next morning, it was a great time! Luke has also now been to Shrek 4, and Toy Story 3 twice! We actually got a babysitter so Drew and I could go to Eclipse and it was hard! I didn't give him a kiss when we left him because I was too busy giving instructions and I was sad. (She didn't need instructions anyway! She knows what she is doing. haha.) This past weekend for the 4th of July we were able to go to Heber and spend time with both our families because Drew's parents were in Salt Lake visiting his grandparents on their mission. We went out to eat, watched fireworks, went to Dairy Keen (a must) and had a BBQ. I love the 4th! Now I hope July goes fast. Tomorrow is my last day of work, we're going to Vegas this weekend to finalize Drew's job, my school, and look for a house. Then I'll be in Heber for 2 1/2 weeks before moving the first week in August. Pretty crazy! Anyway, enough of the blabbering. Here are Luke's newborns!! My mom's friend, Anne Pearson in Heber took them. She is great. (Annepearsonphotography.com/blog) Let us know what you think!

4 weeks old and a new future

So, technically Luke won't be "a month old" until the 26th, but he is 4 weeks old today. :) He is such a joy! We love him more and more every day, even when we have to get up and take care of him all night long. He is awake more often now, which I love because I think he's finally starting to realize who we are and recognize us. Maybe I'm dreaming, but I will keep thinking that. We blessed him on June 13. He was only 3 weeks (ish) old but it was the only time that Drew's brother could come and it meant a lot to him that he was here. It was a quick, spontaneous get together, but it was great to see everyone. Luke looked so cute on his big day. I didn't get any full on body shots of his cute blessing outfit because we got some taken with his newborn pics. (Which will hopefully be my next post!! They are so cute.) Then last weekend Drew and I took Luke to his first national park and hike. I know, we are crazy..but he seemed to like it a lot! (He slept the WHOLE time.) It was nice for us to get out in the sun. We met up with some friends, Tyson and Shawnee and their 3 month old Benson, at Red Robin for dinner Friday night. (Shawnee I wish we would have taken pics!!) Then we stayed the night at my Grandma and Russell's house in St. George (Thank you!) We got up early and headed to Zion, had a picnic there, hiked 2 different trails, and then came back to my grandma's to swim and go to dinner. It was a good relaxing little vacation.
My side at the blessing...(those that were able to come.)

Me and my babe :)

My favorite boys being handsome.

Our little family.

Drew's side. EVERYONE came!!

This is Luke today..I just like his outfit :)

All of us on our hike.

Cute boy sleeping in the pack.

Getting ready to go on the hike (Excuse my looks!!)

Now onto the big news!! Drew got a job in Las Vegas starting Aug. 18th. We are so so excited! He will be teaching hospitality and marketing at a Technical Academy, which means the pay is a little bit better than normal. I cannot WAIT to have him home at 3:00 every day and have him home for all holidays and the summer. It's going to be awesome. I have two more pre-req's that I will be taking this fall twice a week at night, and then I will apply for the Ultrasound Technology program at CSN in January. The program starts in June if I get in. Until then, I will just be a stay at home mommy! I am so happy. :) Drew's parents live there, as well as my brother and his cute family. It will be a good change, and we can finally start saving some money rather than live pay check to pay check. It's such a blessing, and I am excited to start our new future.

This is a video of us on the hike called "weaping rock." It's this really cool rock that drips so much that it sounds/looks like it's raining. You stand underneath it. It was pretty! Watch til the end, Luke is funny :)

And another cute video of him lifting his head. (PLEASE excuse my baby talk..it really sounds so dumb when you hear it...haha..)

It's time..

Hey all.. it's time for us to go private! I know many of you have already left your emails on my facebook status, but those of you who haven't, please leave your email address if you want to keep looking at my blog! Thanks. :) I'll probably be doing it in the next week or so.

Week #1

In just one week I have learned more than I EVER thought I would having a newborn. Of course I have continued to learn how to do just the regular "mom stuff," like changing diapers, feeding, swaddling, and cuddling my baby the way he prefers. But more than that, I have learned things like TRUE empathy, and a deep love I've never experienced before. Whenever people have babies and they say, "I never knew I could love someone so much...," etc., you really CAN'T comprehend it until you have one of your own. In just one week he has completely changed my world for the better...and I would never wish to have things the way they were without him. He's so perfect :) He had a rough first week having to be under the jaundice lights until this morning. (We're hoping it stays down the rest of the day and it doesn't go back up, or he'll have to be put back under them.) But even though he HATED being in them at night and would scream until I picked him up, he is still my perfect angel. We love him so much. I wanted to just write down the things I have noticed about him that I love so I can remember them later.

I love when he holds my hand with both arms SO tightly around his chest.
I love his sad face he makes in the middle of a dream for a slight second.
I love his scrunched forehead when he looks up.
I love it when he's eating and hears someones voice, he'll stop eating until he makes eye
contact and then will continue to eat.
I love how he knows me.
I love his cross-eyes when he stares too long at something.
I love how he tightens his butt whenever I wipe him.
I love how his hair will stay in the same position after I comb it no matter what.
I love his hairy ears.
I love his "baby acne."
I love how he sleeps like me when he's on his back and like his daddy when he's on his tummy.
I love the grunts he makes when he is sucking on a binky and is hungry.
I love when he stretches and he sighs afterwards.
I. Love. Him.

P.S...when people say, "you will get peed on.." they aren't kidding. We have had him pee on us/himself 3 times..and counting. Poor thing...he makes the saddest face when he pees on his face! (Haha duh...)

Pictures (the fun post..)

Going home! :)

First family photo

First hair wash...he loved it.

Chunky boy

Tender moment :)

First pic...

I really was happy...just so exhausted.

Love.

In his tanning bed :)

I think he likes me...

He's here!!!

Luke James Burton. 05/26/2010, 7:14 a.m. 8 lbs. 13 oz. 20 in. and PERFECT.

How ironic that the day before Luke came, Drew wrote a funny post about patience and waiting for him to come :) It was such an amazing experience that nobody can prepare for but it was so worth the wait. (I know, I say that now after complaining for 5 weeks.) This might be a huge rambling because I am so tired, but I want to write as much as I remember so we don't forget! :)

My contractions got progressively worse over the weekend, so we decided Tuesday night that we would go into Labor and Delivery, and if I hadn't progressed, we would talk to my Dr. about possibilities since the baby was so big. I really wanted to avoid c section, who wouldn't?!

We got to the hospital a little after 7 pm. As we walked in I said to Drew, "I am NOT leaving without a baby this time!" I know, I was getting a little impatient at this point but contracting every 2 minutes had me thinking it really was time. And I was right! They checked me when we first got to the hospital, and I was a 3 (like the last three weeks, so that was frustrating!) and they decided since my contractions were so regular they'd just keep me two hours and see what happened. Luckily, the contractions were strong enough this time to dilate me to a 4 in the hours they watched me. We were prepared for her to say "no change" and we would then ask for an amnio, ultrasound, or whatever was necessary in order to induce. So when she said I had changed and that he wanted to keep me and get me going, we were so so happy. It was now almost 10 pm so we called our parents and told them to head this way. However, it went pretty slow for a couple hours after that. She started me on a little pitocin, and when that kicked in the contractions hurt a lot worse but no progress with dilating. They started the epidural, which in my opinion is heaven sent for sure....that thing does wonders! I was really nervous to get it but it wasn't bad AT ALL.

After I got the epidural I felt so much better but it slowed things down quite a bit. She upped my mL in pitocin, but I still hadn't changed by 2 am. By this time our parents had showed up so we were all just hanging out in the room. We decided we were all too anxious to sleep so we didn't even try. But then at 3:30, I still hadn't changed and we decided now was the best time to take advantage of the quiet, and sleep. So our parents went out to the waiting room, and Drew and I turned the lights off and shut our eyes. Not two minutes later, I heard a pop noise and thought it was just a huge movement from the baby. Nope! It was definitely my water. :) I was so happy that my water broke on it's own rather than the Dr. having to break it for me. Drew went and got my nurse and she came and cleaned me up and told me things would speed up now.

Our parents came back into our room at about 4:30 am after we got more anxious now that my water had broken. Once my water broke I started feeling a lot more pressure and a little bit more pain and I realized my epidural was wearing off a little. Within 10 minutes I could feel a lot more than I wanted to, so she called the anesthesiologist to come give me another boost. After he gave me a boost I got really sick and threw up for about 5 minutes. Not the funnest of moments, but I was rewarded with my nurse checking me and telling me I had progressed to a 6, almost 7. Now things started getting a little more real. My dad and Drew gave me a beautiful blessing, and I knew that I would be holding our new baby boy within the next couple hours.

At 6:00 the nurses had a shift change and I was sad to see my nurse leave since she had been there through it all and shared in my excitement. But during the shift change, my contractions and pressure started getting a lot more intense. This part sucked because nobody was coming to check on me since they were busy changing shifts. My Dr. showed up shortly after and decided to check me. I was complete and ready to push by 6:20. My father-in-law, Ron, wasn't into watching the whole thing (who can blame him....haha) so he was the "detail noter." He says I started pushing at 6:23 a.m. (Luke was born at 7:14 a.m. so I pushed for less than an hour, and a total of 46 pushes, Ron said! :)

Pushing was a lot different than I expected, and a lot harder too. They kept telling me I was pushing too much up top and not enough down low, so once I got the hang of it, everyone started cheering me on which helped a lot. After pushing for about 20 minutes, they noticed Luke's heart rate had raised considerably (as did mine) and after doing some more vitals noticed that my fever was 101. It didn't help that the nurses kept making weird faces at each other and saying things under their breath. At this point, I got really stressed which made it all the more hard. Luckily, I had Drew, my mom, and Lori right at my side helping me and trying to keep me worry-free. I think my fever and heart rate got worse as the nurses kept scaring me, which in turn didn't help Luke out. My Dr. came in and let me know the risks of my fever on the baby and told me he was going to give me an episiotomy to help the process along and get Luke out asap.

Those last pushes were the longest moments of my life. He was crowning for what seemed like forever, but with the help of everyone else and positive thoughts I finally got the baby out. Seeing him come out was the most amazing thing I'll ever experience. Drew and I couldn't contain our emotions and the love we had for each other and our new little one was so present and real at that moment. They put him up on my belly as they wiped him off but I could tell he wasn't doing too great with breathing and it was a little scary. They didn't let us hold him for long, but we did get to see the scale and that bright red, "8 lbs. 13 oz." and 20 inches shining. Everyone gasped and couldn't believe he was so big for only being 38 weeks. (After doing some tests, the pediatrician thinks I was actually over-due, which makes sense.)

Anyway, they took Luke to the nursery and unfortunately he has to stay there and be monitored while getting antibiotics for atleast 48 hours in case my fever was because of an infection. They couldn't find a vein forever so the poor thing must take after me. They poked him a couple times and he had an oxygen tube put down his stomach (so sad on such a small tiny innocent baby.) The good news is, after 24 hours, he was doing so so much better and they think he might not have an infection after all. They think that he just had a very stressful delivery (probably because of my stupid stress....I feel guilty) and the transition from womb to air had him confused on how to breathe. He's getting it now though! He did develop jaundice rather early so he is under the lights now. He is nursing okay, still a little hard to catch on to, but we are working on it together and he is doing great for his 2nd day of life.

Other than my stitches and the pain from ripping (sorry if that's TMI) I feel awesome. I can't believe he is really here and he is so perfect. I can't wait to take him home and start our lives together. Drew and I know what a blessing he is and our love for each other has grown because of the blessing we now have. We're catching up on our sleep, and with a lot of help from the nurses, and our parents, we're as good as new. :) I don't have a ton of pics on the computer yet so the next post will be an overload of the pics. We'll be here until tomorrow morning for sure and then they'll let us know depending on his blood work and jaundice levels.

Thanks everyone for your support and love through this whole pregnancy. We are so blessed and never realized how it would feel to love someone so much. He is amazing. We decided on the middle name James because both of us have great grandpas named James, and it also translates to "Santiago," which is where Drew served his mission.

So there you have it. I'm sure I've left some details out, (can you believe it) but we are just happy to have him here and that everything turned out to be okay after such a crazy stressful couple weeks. Love you all.

The Hubby's Point of View

Well, I finally figured out how to get on this thing and post. Maybe. We'll see after I'm done. Don't expect any pictures or anything, because I'm still figuring it out and too confident in myself to ask my wifey for help. :) So for the past few weeks, Kylie has been contracting at least once every five minutes, and sometimes every two or so. We have gone to labor and delivery about one a week thinking they might start her and pull little Luke out already. But no. We have been sent home everytime and it's getting frustrating. They same to come in if it gets worse, so we do, and we waste a lot of time and energy. It's really stressing Ky out and we are just thinking that we'll just wait longer, but then the contractions get worse.

The thing is, our doctor says that Luke is probably about 8 lbs now, and even though I don't know much about it, I don't think that Ky wants to be pushing out a 12 lb baby out any time soon. So we are trying to convince the doc to help out, but he won't budge. 39 weeks. That would be this coming sunday, but he won't on a Sunday. So he decided Monday, but no, it's Memorial Day. So Tuesday, but he will be out of town. Geez, we need a new doc!

Our mom's aren't helping the situation much. They just think we can waltz into the hospital and break the water ourselves and demand that they pull Luke out! I think they just want a new grandbaby, and who can blame them?

So I guess our lesson here is patience. We have tried everything from excercise balls, walking around the block, to back hand springs on our neighbors' trampoline. :) He just likes it so much in her belly.

Ky has been a trooper and I know she is feeling a lot of pressure during her contractions. Or how she puts it to me, imagine that you have to go "#2" really bad and can't do anything about it, somebody is stabbing a knife through my pee hole, and getting punched in the stomach 10 times all at the same time. She's hilarious, and I love her! So let's all pray he comes soon so he can grace you all with his presence!