First 2 weeks at home

I apologize for the delay in getting another post on here, but who knew that when you have a kid you're really busy and get really tired.....

We came home from the hospital on Thursday March 24th around 1.  We gave Aili a tour of her new house and we were happy to be at home and not sitting in the uncomfortable hospital chairs anymore.  Alicia was feeling great and Aili was feeding well and sleeping pretty good all that Thursday afternoon.....we were thrilled that she wasn't being fussy at all and were hoping the same would continue that night....well Aili had other plans.

Alicia fed her around midnight and we put her in the bassinet anticipating her to sleep for 2-3 hours and eat again....well she didn't like the bassinet and let us know it because she cried and fussed for the next 3 hours....Alicia fed her around 3am and we prayed she'd sleep....but no she wanted to make our first night at home a sleepless one.....  She eventually went to sleep as the sun was coming up, I used to have those nights in my youth, and then she was great the whole next day sleeping and eating.  We were hoping the previous night was merely a fluke and that she'd sleep better Friday night....NOPE!!!  Same deal as Thursday...for whatever reason she didn't like the bassinet at all and wasn't falling asleep.  Our friend Courtney, who you'll see later on in the blog, uses a Fisher Price rock'n'play and her little girl Cameron, the President of the Troublemakers Club, slept great in it.  Saturday I went to Target and bought the last one they had and ever since then Aili's slept great.

Here is a picture of the life saveing rock'n'play.  It swallows her up so hopefully she'll fit in it for a while.

The next big thing we did with Aili was her first bath at home.  It wasn't her favorite thing at first but then she came around and enjoyed it, here's a few pictures of the experience:

Here we're de-robing the little thing, and you can see her face is pretty red and she's not happy.

OHHHHHHH the HUMANITY......!!!!!!!!

Not too bad.......

Ahh finally done and rockin' the stylish mohawk.

All babies have a little jaundice when they're born and Aili was no different.  Her jaundice levels weren't abnormal but the doctors told us to put her in the sunlight which helps get rid of the yellow jaundice color in her skin.  We laid her out in her bouncy chair and she didnt't mind it.  I'm sure she'll love laying out when she's older but hopefully she'll have a top on and not be wearing a diaper...

SUNSHINE!!!!

Relaxed with her legs crossed and ready for Mike Tyson's punchout....

I'm pretty convinced the cats thought we were making them a baby's room and all the stuff we bought was for them.....well they were wrong but it didn't stop them from having Wrestlemania in the pack'n'play.

Mr. Dibblesworth is trying to get Goose in a rear naked choke hold.....

Here are a bunch of pictures of Aili and some of our visitors during the first two weeks:

Relaxing in her bouncy chair.

Aunt Vicki, who will soon be watching Aili in the mornings....we love Aunt Vicki!!!

Courtney and Jordan Andrews with the baby.

Awwwwwwww.......

Nom....Nom....eat hand.....

And forearm....

Grandma Kim and Grammy Anne with the baby.

Our dear friend Meggypoo came down this past Saturday to visit, we love seeing MeggyPoo!!!!

Our friends Kelly and Courtney with her baby Cameron came to visit this past Sunday and brought us lunch from Padow's......it was delicious and it's always a pleasure seeing all these lovely ladies......

Lots more to come, stay tuned........

After Birth

I named this blog post 'After Birth' and no it's not what you're thinking seasoned parents....it's all the stuff that's happened since little Aili came into this world.  The last blog post was pictures of everyone still in the l&d room.  We took a few more pictures and then shuffled my family out because Alicia wasn't feeling well, and right after they left Alicia's head spun around and she threw up like the exorcist.  That was the last time she threw up the poor thing......after the nurses tended to her they took the baby up to the nursery and then took us upstairs to our post partum room.  At this point it was around 1am and we were all exhausted, especially Alicia considering she just birthed a small watermelon out of something the size of a lemon.  Alicia checked into her room and got settled, me and grandma Kim went back home, drank a victory beer, and passed out.

We went back to the hospital around 8ish the next morning and spent time with the baby and made sure Alicia was comfortable.

The pediatrician came Wednesday morning and checked the baby and said Aili was looking great, she got a great Apgar score and the pediatrician said she was fiesty....she gets that from her mama.  For those of you who aren't parents an Apgar score looks at the baby's activity and muscle tone, pulse, appearnace, etc.

I didnt take too many pictures of the post partum room because it was pretty small and there isn't a whole lot to see, but there are lots of pictures of visitors and of course pictures of the little peanut.


Alicia went to the baby class in the morning she was the only one in there so the nurse used Aili as the model for the bath demonstration.  Once she got all fresh and clean the nurse gave Aili a stylish mohawk.  Here are a few mohawk pictures.....


GOT MOHAWK?

Last of the Mohawkins...hahahahahaha.

Praying Mohawk.....

Grandma Kim with mohawk baby

Glow worm mohawk......

Ok enough with the mohawk already...

Me and Kim were changing a dirty diaper and we learned Aili needs a clean diaper under her skinny butt after you take the dirty one off because she peed all over herself.......oops. 

Here are some pictures of our visitors in the hospital:

Paulee "Peeshkadoo" Cooper and his wife Courtney came with their baby Cameron to visit.  All along me and Paul joked about our kids being friends and getting in trouble together so here you have front and center the President and Vice President of 'The Troublemakers Club'......I already have some gray hair but these two will make me buy stock in Just for Men.......I'll probably go with the Touch of Gray to show off my energy.......... and experience.......

My Mom, Grammy, with the baby

My little brother, Uncle Trevor.  He did a great job holding her, but if you read this Trevor.....wrap it up.  If you have a baby my mom really will be on drugs.....tranquilizers.

Cousin Hayden with the baby.

Alicia's boss Judy Humphreys lookin' good and holdin' the peanut.

Thursday was the discharge day from the hospital, Alicia was feeling great and the baby was doing well.  The baby actually gained weight which is really crazy.  The baby weighed 6lbs when we left the hospital.......she took to breastfeeding really well.  The biggest thing we had to do was get the baby in the carseat and situated for the ride home. 

Here is a picture of us fitting her into the carseat, I'm a great supervisor......

Here's the little nuggett in the car ride home.

The next post will be the first few days at home......stay tuned.

Labor and Delivery

At the doctor's visit on Monday March 21st they told us to head on over to the hospital because the baby wasn't getting bigger, based on ultrasounds, and Alicia's fluid level was okay but a little low.  We walked over to the hospital since our doctor's office is in the building right beside Henrico Doctors and checked into our Labor and Delivery room around noon.  Here are some pictures of the room, aka my home away from home til Tuesday night:

Alicia is all smiles at this point, no contractions and HAPPY the baby/alien will be out of her so we can meet her.

This is the machine that monitors the baby's heartrate and her contractions, I watched this screen alot because it had all the other women's contraction rates in the other l&d rooms, so I'd say to Alicia, "Room 6 had a good one...come on Alicia we need to beat the height of that contraction"  Before the epidural she didnt find this too amusing...

This is Tuesday around 2, they gave her some food before they broke her water and I've never seen somebody so happy to eat hospital jello and italian ice.

After the doctor broke the water they started the pitocin again and her contractions started causing her a good bit of pain, she wasn't trying to be a hero so she made a signal to the anesthesiologist in the bullpen and he came in and gave her the epidural.  This helped a lot but it only worked on one side, so we had to call in the lefty aka new on-call anesthesiologist, to reposition and redose the epidural.  Once they did this she went so numb that her leg flopped off the bed and I had to lift it back on....

The pitocin kept flowin and she got up to 6cm by around 6pm.


This is me doing a dilation dance,,,,,similar to a rain dance....

The dance didn't work........, it's probably because white guys dont have too much rhythm.....go figure, because she didnt dilate anymore from 6pm to around 8pm and stalled at 6 centimeters, they gave her an internal contraction monitor to get an accurate calculation of her conctractions, once they did this they realized that she was only in low to moderate labor, the nurse said labor is on a scale from 180 to 300 and Alicia was 190, so they started moving her around in the bed and upped the pitocin. 

Moving her around in different positions and an upped dose of poticin did the trick because from 8-930pm she became 'fully complete' and the nurse said it was pushin' time. 

The picture below is the warming table and the cart with all the necessary tools and gadgets to get the baby out.

Alicia pushed for about an hour and little Aili came shootin' out screamin', she was probably thinking "PUT ME BACK IN"  and who can blame her, it's a 98 degree hot tub with an all you can eat buffet.  Aili was not a big eater because she only weighed 5lbs 9ozs and she was just over 19 inches long.  She was screaming on the warming table but she calmed down and was alert and looking around wondering where in the hell she was......

After the doctor got done tending to Alicia and she was alright I went out and meeted the Bialkowski greeting party and brought them into the room to meet the little peanut, here are some pictures of Bialkowski clan and of course the star of the show, THE BABY:

Aili on the warming table screaming, I'm right beside her taking pictures like an asian tourist.

Another baby pic.

Here are some proud and tired parents.

Alicia and her happy mom.

Bialkowski clan, from left to right, Cousin Hayden, Aunt Vicki, Me, My Dad, Aunt Hayley, Grammy

Happy mom with baby.

Charlie Sheen is on a drug called Charlie Sheen......My mom is on a drug called Aili Grace.......hahaha.

More posts to come......so stay tuned