Fresh From Heaven

Welcome to the World

Tanner Richard Buchanan

January 15, 2015

7:57 am

7 pounds

19 3/4 inches long

We've waited a long time for this!  Our baby boy is finally here!  We schedule our c-section for my actual due date.  Some thought it was crazy to wait, but I really wanted it that day because of a 3-day weekend.  The night before he was born I started having strong contractions.  I was up starting at 1:00 am having contractions every 5-10 minutes.  This baby was ready to come!  They slowed down around 5:30 as we left for the hospital. My sister Melissa came over nice and early to stay with our kids, get Kirstie off to school, and hold down the fort while we were gone.

 We were the first appointment of the morning, so we didn't have a long wait.  We checked in, got my all hooked up to monitors, and pretty soon we were walking to the O.R.  It was a strange things, lying on the table, completely exposed as nurses and doctors just walked around me.  Brent sat by me at my head while they started cutting-- I could actually hear them cutting me open.  It sounded like scissors cutting through a thick material.  Soon I could feel them moving things around.  The dr announced "He has a full head of hair!"  And then the worst part-- pulling the baby out.  It's a horrible, horrible tugging sensation.  For some reason this part seemed to take a very long time.  I really thought I was going to be sick or something.  But it was worth it to hear his first tiny cry!  They lifted him over the sheet to give me a peek.  He is perfect!  My actual first thought was "He has the same nose as Ian!"  I laid on the table and listened to Tanner cry as I felt them putting my insides back together.  Pretty gross, but true.

They announced that he was 7 pounds, 1 ounce (same as Ian), but he was actually 7 pounds even.

I LOVE this little face!  He is so expressive.  Most of his looks are looks of worry or concern.

All bundled up!

Brent got to hold Tanner in the o.r as they were finishing up.  I'm glad that they let me hold him as they wheeled us back to the recovery room where my parents were waiting for us.  We oohed and awed over him for an hour.  I suffered through the itching and shaking that are results of the anesthesia and other medications.  Then they moved us upstairs to our room.

Proud Daddy!

Meeting Grandma and Grandpa Olsen

We had lots of visitors-- all but one of them coming that first day.

Aunt Charise

Grandma and Grandpa Buchanan

Aunt Stacy

Aunt Melissa-- when she finally got a break from our kids and made it up to the hospital.

My BFF Kelli came to visit on Sunday afternoon.

Due to the flu season, no kids at all were allowed to come visit.  We borrowed my dad's laptop so that we could Skype with the kids each day.  That was a lot of fun to do.  Each time we started chatting, you could see the kids looking all around for Tanner.  When he came into view they said "AAWWWW!"  They loved to see him all unwrapped and look at his toes and feet.  And they loved looking at his hair!  We skyped at least twice a day while we were in the hospital.

Tanner's first bath!  I love that they do it in the room so that I can see it.  Brent was home with the kids at this time, but my mom and sister recorded it for him and the kids to see.  Tanner was very calm all throughout his bath.  In fact, there comments made all the time about what a content, calm baby he is!  He loved to just lay there, wide awake and look around.  He really studied his little nametag that they placed on his little bed thing.

Brent stayed with me the first two nights.  It was a huge help to have him there so I didn't have to get up and walk around to take care of Tanner.  But the third night he slept at home.  So Tanner and I got some good, quality time together taking selfies and watching Newsies.

Our plan was to go home on Sunday afternoon, but that didn't happen.  Tanner lost a lot of weight in the hospital.  It's normal to lose some, but losing 10% is when they start to worry. Tanner lost 11% and dropped down to 6 pounds 3 ounces.  To get his weight back up, we had to start supplementing the breastfeeding with formula.  I have a test tube type thing we fill with formula.  A little feeding tube is attached to the bottom.  While he's nursing, we put the tube in his mouth so he's eating formula and breastmilk at the same time.  That helped and his weight was back up to 6 pounds 10 ounces when we left on Monday.

Tanner's heart rate also kept dropping.  It's supposed to be around 120-140.  His kept dipping down into the 80s.  So they did an EKG on him.  Results seemed to be normal, but when a cardiologist at Primary's read it, he saw something that was red-flag abnormal.  He suspected that they just mixed up some of the leads they attach for the test, but ordered a new EKG, just in case.  The two people who came in to do it were so young-- in college still.  And it was obvious they weren't used to doing this on babies!  Because of the weekend it took a long time to get results back.  But our pediatrician put a call into Primarys to put a rush on it, and results ended coming back normal, thankfully.  That was a HUGE relief!

Tanner's other issue was that he couldn't keep his body temperature up.  We did a lot of bundling with blankets, skin-to-skin time with mommy, and spent time under the warmer in the nursery.  Part of this dip was due to all his weight loss, part due to this central nervous system taking longer to stabilize to his new environment.  

Luckily, all these issues were resolved and we came home on Monday.  (See, this is why I wanted to have him over the 3-day weekend!)

I always love how tiny they are in their car seats!

The kids, of course, were SO EXCITED to finally meet him!  I thought they'd fight over who would hold him first.  But instead, the first thing they wanted to do was a give him his gifts that they had bought for him.  Ian picked out a pair of fire truck pajamas.  Kirstie gave him him a cute striped shirt and little tiny jeans.  Kirstie and Ian had each opened a present earlier that day from mom, dad, and Tanner-- matching (or similar) shirts. They said Big Brothers Rock/ Little Brothers Rock/ Best Sister Ever.

Look at those pants!!

It was so good to be with my kids again.  Ian kept hugging and hugging me-- one time leaning against me and saying, "Best mom ever!"  Melt my heart!

The kids were quick to grab books and read to Tanner.  Ian had been practicing one of the books for a month or so.

Look at her smile!  That is genuine happiness!

The week before Tanner was born we had practiced holding a baby and talked about the do's and dont's.  The kids were great and Ian followed all the rules to the T!  He's going to be a great big brother!

Our happy family!  I am so blessed!!!