Welcome to the New World

Sorry in advance for the long post but much has happened.

As you have (hopefully) heard from Ken, Kieran Michael Gauvey was born on January 17, 2007 at 1:28 pm weighing in at 6 pounds, .8 ounces and measuring 19 inches long.

The c-section went fine and I am now home with Ken and Kieran for the next several weeks. It is a very strange adjustment to make. But, I am skipping over everything - I'll give you a quick rundown of the birth (what I remember) and a few other hospital moments before talking about life now.

First, understand that I am terrified of needles (I think I've said that before) and that I was bound and determined to be able to get my IV in without taking anything - I didn't go 9 months without a drink to do drugs at the lasat minute. Yeah, that didn't last. They gave me valium to calm me down enough to get the IV in and everything after that gets a little, well, fuzzy. I remember them getting me into the OR and getting the epidural (not as horrible as I thought, but that could be the drugs talking). The next thing I recall is hearing Kieran cry, and Ken telling me "Do you hear that? You did it. He's OK, and he's beautiful." They worked on me some more in the OR and they showed Kieran to us. He had curly hair and the first words out of my mouth were "He's not supposed to have curly hair!" and I may have started to cry.

The curly hair was only because he was still gooked up from being inside. After they cleaned him off (as you can see from his photos) he has beautiful straight hair, just like his dad.

So, that was birth. Not horrible and very fast. My mom, dad and stepmom were there with us at the hospital and welcomed Kieran into the world. It was very nice to have all that family around. My Uncle Gary and Aunt Joni also stopped by. My brother tried to be there on Wednesday but came just a little after visiting hours and was shooed away by the security guard.

We had a ton of visitors throughout the next few days - and I want to thank everyone who stopped by, sent gifts or just sent a nice thought our way. It's all much appreciated.

I was not allowed to get up for 24 hours after the surgery and we left the hospital on Sunday. It was the first snow of the year but we got home before it started and by the next day the majority of the snow had melted. Our new life had begun.

Life with Kieran is interesting, if not very restful. He sleeps the majority of the time, but only if someone is holding him. We're going to be working on that soon - his next doctor's appointment is on Thursday and we'll be asking them about it then. Ken can't keep sleeping in the glider chair in Kieran's room - I know he's going to end up with back problems. Personally, I end up sleeping on the floor next to his crib, but barely sleep because he'll coo and I'll be up and waiting for the cry to come.

We're getting this whole breastfeeding thing down fairly well. Kieran was born with Tongue Tie, but that was quickly fixed with oral surgery - took less than 10 minutes and he's a much happier kid for it. We've been having some issues with him gaining weight - at his first doctor's appointment (Tuesday after we left the hospital) he weighed the same as he did when we left on Sunday (5 lbs, 10 ounces). So, we're working on stuffing that kid silly - whenver he wants food, he gets food. Again, we'll know more on Thursday and I hope to be able to blog at some point on Friday.

Anyway - I better get to the other things I have to do today while Ken is taking care of Kieran. I honestly don't know how any woman would take care of a child alone. Being able to hand Kieran off to Ken so I can shower, do bills, clean dishes, whatever, is a godsend. Even though it is difficult for him to study with Kieran, Ken is doing a tremendous job of parenting. He takes on the lion's share of the nighttime duties. Right, back to work for me.