Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Lucy weighed in at a healthy 7 lbs. 12 oz. at the doctor yesterday, meaning she gained back her birth weight in two weeks. Yay! However, we still are supplementing with a bit of formula, so our next goal is to try to wean her off as much of that as possible while maintaining healthy weight gain.

Being St. Patrick's day, I tried to find some green formula for Lucy, but my search turned up empty. I figured I could settle for corned-beef and cabbage flavored formula, but I couldn't find any of that either. Weird.


Well, if PuddleMama has a green beer or two maybe the breast milk will be green too. Maybe Lucy will even dig the breast more than usual and it'll help the formula weaning! Worth a shot.

Here are some photo's of my little Lucky:

Big Big Day

Lucy lost her umbilical cord today. Actually, PuddleMama and I lost it too. PuddleMama finally found it in the couch though, so all you potential visitors don't be worried about stepping on it. We decided not to keep it, but don't worry Lucy- this blog post will serve as the sentimental reminder of the day you went from being a poo'ing, pee'ing, crying, sleeping beauty with an umbilical cord stump to a poo'ing, pee'ing, crying, sleeping beauty without an umbilical cord stump.

Lucy Update

Lucy is 10 days old today. We have been home 8 days with her and we already can't imagine life without her. Pooping, peeing, eating, and sleeping are, as expected, among her favorite activities. She also likes to make faces at us (the best ones come as she works out a poo.) I swear she is going through the whole gambit of facial expressions just for practice (or maybe to see which one works out the poo the easiest.)

We are amazed by her strength already. We put her down in the middle of her crib, and invariable find that she scooches all the way to the side and lets her hands and legs hang out the bars. She seems to like PuddleDoggy coming up and sniffing her (PuddleDoggy has learned not to lick her, but you should see him come lick PuddleMama or myself after he sniffs Lucy for awhile- he gets something all pent up and he has to come let it out on us.)

Unfortunately, Lucy is not gaining enough weight so we are having to supplement with formula a bit. Breastfeeding has been our biggest struggle so far, but we are working very hard to get it working efficiently and pain-free for everyone. Personally (selfishly) I have enjoyed being able to feed Lucky a bottle here and there.

We've had quite a few visitors, and appreciate all the gifts and cuddles and food (especially the food.) All the emails, phone calls, and visits are quite amazing and overwhelming. We are so blessed that we have so many caring people in our lives.

More soon...

Our Little Bundle of LUK

Lucy Una Kleczka.

PuddleMama and I agreed very early on a girl name. We both just really liked Lucy (note, it is just Lucy, not Lucille or Luciana.) It means "Light" which is appropriate in many obvious ways that need no in-depth explanation.

Lucy was also born "sunny-side up." She was looking up as she shot out of the birth canal (which is not ideal, and makes for a more difficult birth.) I say my little angel wanted to be looking up towards the "light" of heaven from the moment she was born. I guess you could also argue she just didn't want to be looking (smelling) towards well.... the other direction. The little angel is no doubt the light of my life.

After being pretty sure Lucy would be named Lucy we thought about a middle name. I really liked the idea of Lucy having the initials "LUK." I have been calling her Lucky about 40% of the time now (Lucy 40% and random sweet names like "sweetheart" the remaining 20%.) "Lucky" is also appropriate for being born around St. Patrick's Day. Lucy has some Irish blood as well, and "Una" is an Irish name meaning "One." It has been pointed out we are numbering our children. If we have a boy next, odds-on-favorite for middle name is "Deuce." Have you ever known a Deuce you didn't like?! This system works out well the more kids we end up having- One, drive Four and Five to school please. Three is sick and two went all the way to the market for roast beef (wheeeeee!)

Unfortunately (and we actually realized this might be an issue a few weeks ago) Lucy sounds an awful lot like "Clancy" (PuddleDoggy.) Earlier tonight Lucy was on a blanket on the floor for tummy-time and I was saying "Lucy look over here!" Clancy ran back and fourth between every window in the house. "Lucy look over here!" = "Clancy, who's here?" in dog speak. Using "Lucky" helps alleviate this problem a little bit anyway. (I'll write another blog post soon on PuddleDoggy's reaction to all of this, which has been surprising in good ways.)

All this writing about Lucky makes me want to go pick her up and stare at her for awhile. More soon...

Birth Day

PuddleMama and Lucy are both sleeping, and I'm surprisingly not exhausted (well, not exhausted to the point where I can't take a few minutes for a blog post.) The birth day was quite an epic day in my life, and the details are certainly not as exciting as the payout, but I thought I would put a timeline up for the sake of historical accuracy.

Sunday, March 1st

6:30 p.m. PuddleMama and I drop off PuddleDoggy at Resort Steve. PuddleDoggy is distracted by a rawhide and PuddleMama and I sneak off.

7:00 p.m. PuddleMama and I arrive at the hospital. We get checked into a decent-sized room where Lucy will eventually be born.

9:00 p.m. PuddleMama is given Cervidil. We found out later Cervidil has an awe-inspiring 50% success rate. I'm glad I didn't know this before.

Monday, March 2nd

Early Morning Hours: Cervidil works. PuddleMama starts feeling some contractions.

8:30 a.m. PuddleMama is dilated to 2 cm and given Pitocen to really start the ball rolling

10:30 a.m. Contractions start getting strong. PuddleMama's water breaks. It really gushes.

10:45 a.m. Two people hit $1.00 on the nuts on the Price is Right. Lucky.

11:00 a.m. Epidural is given to PuddleMama.

1:00 p.m. Puddlemama is dilated to 4 cm. After discussion with Nurse and some quick math I determine that PuddleBaby's arrival time should be between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.

1:30 p.m. Nurse can't get a good reading on the contractions. A device is inserted into PuddleMama to better track contractions. We are told that on a contraction we want the number to hit 65 on the monitor. I am reminded of the fair game where you swing the giant sledgehammer and try to ring the bell.

2:00 p.m. PuddleMama is hitting 65-70 like a champ (she totally would have won the giant stuffed bear.) Nurse says she will examine PuddleMama again between 3:00 and 3:30.

2:40 p.m. PuddleMama really wants to push. I call the nurse in.

2:45 p.m. PuddleMama is dilated to a full 10 cm (yes, a half hour before she was even scheduled to get checked again.) Time to push!

3:40 p.m. Our doctor is no where to be found. A random doctor is called in.

3:45 p.m. Lucy Una Kleczka is born.

3:46 p.m. I determine the sex of the baby and get to tell PuddleMama personally she has a baby daughter.

3:47 p.m. I snip the umbilical cord.

4:15 p.m. Grandparents are notified.

5:00 p.m. We move to post-partum room.

Wednesday, March 4th

3:00 p.m. We check out of the hospital and are unbelievably glad to be home. I go pick up PuddleDoggy and our little family is all home and together.

I know that the above is a little disappointing in that I didn't give a bit more personal take on the events, but I don't even know where to start (not to mention some of it actually is TMI, even for this blog.) In the days (years) to come I know I'll swing back and write a bit more about the actual day and my thoughts and observations, but if there is anything truly indescribable it is the birth of a child.

Agh, how sweet!

I have so much to write about I could write a blog post just on Lucy blog topics. However, I'm finding I can't even remember what web page I want to go to after opening the browser, so I'm going to wait till I'm a bit more rested before attemping any more in-depth posts (insert joke about how you won't see any blog updates for about 18 years here.)

I will throw up a few pictures though, as promised, to hold everyone over. The first one was taken from my iPhone when Lucy was only about an hour old.

The next picture was taken at just over a day old by our good friend (and photographer extraordiaire) Molly:

Lucy Una Kleczka

PuddleMama and I are exhausted, but I have a feeling you want to know more about Lucy, not us.

Lucy burst onto the scene at 3:45 p.m. 7 lbs. 13 oz. 20" long and a 13.5" head.

I can't figure out how to add a picture on my iPhone, but I promise lots to come. I need to shut my eyes for a bit.

hospital update #2

PuddleMama started having contractions overnight. Pitocin kicked them into high gear this morning. Her water broke (gushed) and she is now dialated 4 cm. An epidural really took a lot of the pain away. ETA for PuddleBaby is sometime this evening.

Ripening

We're checked into the hospital and PuddleMama is all set to be ripened. I'm posting from my iPhone so if this post and any more I do while in the hospital lack the normal wit and detail it's because its a bit tougher to type. So short and sweet. It's surprisingly calm right now, but I feel the storm a brewing.... Brewing... Dang. Why didn't I bring a four pack of Surly coffee bender?! Note to self for next time: don't forget beer. Note to potential hospital visitors: sneak me in a beer.