A hard day's night

Thursday night Dexter got overheated and spiked a temp of 102.4 around 1 am. The admitting temp for a newborn his age is 100.4. Yikes! We cooled him down as best we could, I fed him, and we took him to the hospital. By the time we got to the ER his temp was at 99.9. By the time we left it was 98.6. After examining him they decided to let us go home without any further testing since we had an appointment in the morning with our pediatrician, and he seemed completely fine otherwise.

Our peditrician was horrified that they had let him go without any testing, and we had to endure watching our 4-day old baby get a cathader for a urine sample, and a needle in his arm for a blood sample, and yet another heel prick for more blood. She did not issue the spinal tap, much to our relief, because he did seem fine, but didn't feel that she would be doing her job if she didn't at least do the other testing. Fortunately, his testing revealed no infection, and no signs of jaundice, so we're in the clear. She agreed with us that he was probably over-heated and dehydrated. We're going to supplement with formula, and she wants me to start pumping to get my supply up. I think my supply has already started to catch up though, because he's only taken the formula three times since yesterday after a feeding, and has thrown most of it back up twice. He's had some reassuringly soaking wet diapers that started last night, and several dirty diapers, so I'm hoping we're back on track.

Poor exhausted baby after a morning at the doctor's office.


We're enjoying getting to know the newest member of our family. He's a sweet boy - he rarely cries, and so far when he has, it's been clearly a result of gas. I've been learning to hear the difference in his "I'm hungry now, momma" cry, and his more painful sounding "I have gas now momma and don't want to try and eat right now" cry. He's sleeping well for now, but I'm not going to declare him a good sleeper until he gets back these first few weeks of normal newborn drowsiness.


Frankie has accepted her baby brother like a champ. I am immensely grateful for my mom being here and spending so much time with her, and it's wonderful to have Chris here at home too. I will tell you that as soon as I had Dexter, she seemed HUGE to me. Physically, but more developmentally. She's at such a fun age right now. She's continuing to add to her vocabulary, and shockingly, without further prompting or dilligence on our part, has started to use her signs. They aren't consistent, but this morning she clearly asked me for "more" nutrigrain bar.

She is enjoying the new house - it's wonderful for her to have so much space to roam in now. Here she is on the deck playing with her pool and in the grass in our backyard.



Videos to come later today!

Dexer Wallace McFadden I is Here

The people have been demanding pictures, so here's the best of what we have so far. I'm not sure any of the photos do justice to his enormous hands so you'll have to come see those in person! Pictures first, then the details:
















Labor and delivery was as different this time around as night is from day; much quicker and fewer complications - we arrived at the hospital at 1:00 pm and Dex was born at 9:07 pm! Jenny had been laboring already earlier that morning, and on our way to the hospital so that we when we arrived she was already at 4 cm of dilation (for those that like to know that sort of thing). She opted for the epidural again, and was also put on pitosin. She actively pushed for 15 minutes, or 7 sets of 3 pushes and then baby Dex was here! He weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 21.5 inches long.

The best part has been how easy the post-delivery has been on her (us) this time. Dex immediately started breast feeding, has had no problems with jaundice, and is sleeping/eating/crying pretty much on cue. He's been very well behaved.

Frankie, who is 16 months this week, has been playing the role of older sister like she was born to it. She learned the word 'bay-bee' last week and when asked where the baby is, she points to D.W. She's a little clingier than normal, but that's to be expected! Jenny's mom Chris has been a rock star, helping us through the home buying process, the big move on Saturday and watching Frankie while we have been in the hospital the last few days - all while suffering through the Boston scorcha'; 95 degree temperatures!

More to come once Jenny's back on line, but wanted to get some of the details posted so that you could know what's going on. Thank you for your prayers and all the offers of help!

Dexter's Coming!

Good news - we're at the hospital and baby Dex is on his way! Jenny is doing well, and we're hoping Dex will be born late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Right now Jenny is 4cm, her water has broken, and she is enjoying the magic of the epidural. Her contractions are strong but still only semi-regular.

Fortunately we were able to successfully move into our new house on Saturday; thanks to the efforts of many of our stalwart friends. The 96 degree day was a scorcha' for Boston, but we're just happy it didn't rain. Actually we're just happy that the cops helped us find a parking space for our 25 foot truck by calling the owners of the cars in front of our condo and asking them to move. Lucky us. A bunch of our guyfriends showed up in muscle t's jockeying to see who could move the heaviest items - which I think we all agree was the IKEA armoire. Special thanks to Jeff Derrick who prevented me from hitting about 4 different parked cars when maneuvering narrow Cambridge streets!

The move took most of the day, and was complicated by the fact that Jenny and Sarah were busy buying more furniture around the corner while we loaded up the truck. Turns out the senator next door was having a garage sale, and so we loaded up on his cast-offs, including a sweet oversized leather couch that's perfect for the new place.

Thanks again to all of you who helped with the move! Sometime down the road we'll have the official house-warming BBQ - but first things first; we're waiting for Baby Dex!

* ghostwritten by cdmcfad

Lambie and Ring around the Rosie

We are still waiting to have this baby, which is fine with me, since we close tomorrow at noon on the house, and are moving on Saturday. I would love for him to be a gentleman and wait until we're done moving to the new house. Fortunately I'm fairly comfortable all things considered. My contractions have all but stopped, and it seems that Dexter is content to hang out for a little while longer in the comfort of my womb.

To pass the time, I will leave you with these two videos:

I love the worried look on her face in this video, and the way she's not sure what to do with lambie to console him. I realized after I shot this that I don't think lambie's batteries are low, I'm pretty sure I washed him. Whoops!


Hannah and Frankie have learned "Ring around the Rosie" from Sarah, and we were thrilled the other night when they played themselves without Mrs. Murry's assistance. So sweet!

News...

We finally have some news on the house and the baby!

First the house news - we're closing on Friday at noon - Praise God! This has been an emotionally trying experience for us, and it's been difficult for us to remember that God loves us and that we can trust in him at all times. We'll be moving to Dorchester on Saturday!

Second, but not because it's less important, Dexter gave us some hope this morning that he was on his way. Around 4:30 this morning I started having painful contractions that I could not ignore. They seemed to be really sporadic but very frequent (I was getting frustrated that they weren't coming in that classic easy-to-decipher 10 minute spread like labor is "supposed to"). Around 7 we decided to leave for the hospital. They checked me, and decided that it was "early labor" - as of this morning, I'm 3 cm dilated and about 60% effaced for those who care about such things. I drank a bunch of water, and the contractions slowed down, and we went home to labor. My contractions have slowed considerably this afternoon, and I don't have a good sense that he's coming real soon. The OB this morning said he could come tonight or next week - that especially with subsequent births you tend to dilate much sooner, and that some women walk around for weeks 4 cm dilated.

So we wait. Chris stayed home today to let me rest and help take care of Frankie, which I was able to do. My mom has changed her flight from arriving this Saturday to arriving tomorrow morning. I'm so happy to have her help earlier.

We'll keep you posted!

Pictures!!

We deleted some old Battlestar Galacticas from the HD and got some space, so I was finally able to transfer the photos from the camera to the computer this morning. I have to back up to Mother's Day....

Two Pregnant Mommas. Heather is due June 2, and I'm due June 16th. Here we are at her baby shower!

My belly at 35 weeks. I'll be full term tomorrow, Praise God Dexter decided not to be a preemie!

We had a nice brunch with the Ashe and Murry families at Atwood's. There was some live music (a fiddle and a guitar), which was great because it muffled the sounds of our noisy children.



Elizabeth helps Frankie and Hannah with their dance moves.


Matthew Polk also stayed with us for a week in mid-May. After moving all their belongings to Texas, he needed to come back to Cambridge and wrap up a few things to complete his PhD in Ancient History from Harvard. Congratulations, Dr. Polk!

Kristen, I missed you greatly - there were a few distinctly "college-boy apartment" moments during his stay. The breakfast conversation about when and how robots were going to take over the world, the staying up late to watch Saturday Night Live, and my favorite: the "jam" sessions. The boys figured out how to use Chris's laptop to connect the guitar to the stereo speakers, turning it into an amp.


Groupie Frankie

Matthew slept on the couch while he was here, and I'm afraid there wasn't much sleeping in for him. Frankie would walk over to the couch and just stare at him. Some mornings for 10 minutes at a time. Matthew said he woke up several times with her face about 6 inches from his, just breathing on him. Very different, apparently, from the way Nathanael greets his daddy in the morning - jumping on him and squealing until he is awake.

Animalia

We went to the zoo today with Sarah and Hannah and had a great time! Other than the packs of wild school children that arrived in three separate buses, we enjoyed getting to see the animals. Frankie particularly liked the Flamingos and the Jaguar. She wore her jagular shirt, her khaki 'safari' pants, and her Red Sox cap. Needless to say, she was mistaken for a boy all day.

In other animal news, we have adopted Manny (Ramirez, of course) from the Polks as they were not able to transport him to Texas when they moved. Manny is a beautiful blue Beta fish (man, I wish I could post pictures!). Frankie likes to wave at Manny. He's right next to her high chair, and she often requests to be turned towards Manny while she eats so she can watch him. We don't touch Manny or his bowl though, just wave.

I've decided that Manny is my favorite pet in the house and often drop comments to Maisy such as "Manny doesn't pace for his food and knock Frankie over...", "Manny doesn't run down the driveway like a naughty dog...", "Manny doesn't tear up tissues from the trash and leave them all over my clean floor...", "Manny doesn't scratch at the door and whine to be let out...". Poor Maisy, she really is a good dog. It's just hard to compete with a fish when it comes to being quite, out of the way, and low maintenance.