Miles Garrett Irby

On June 19th at 9:52 a.m., we brought our son, Miles Garrett Irby, into the world in what turned out to be an incredibly easy experience!  I had complete placenta previa, so we had a scheduled c-section at 38 weeks to avoid me going into labor.  So, the anesthesiologist did a spinal, got me talking about my hobbies, and after a little discussion of modern quilting and modern traditionalism, I was able to look up and see my baby!  After we met him, Bryan and our boy were taken to recovery and my mom was shown in to hold my hand for the rest of the c-section, which went quickly and well while I talked about other sewing projects, baking, and cooking.  Yup...after being so upset about missing out on natural childbirth and having major anxiety about bad interactions with the anesthesia, I must say, it was a pretty awesome experience! I had a few problems later that day/night with throwing up, which is not fun when your belly has been cut open, but I was sitting up in a chair the next day and able to walk the day after that.  My recovery since has been way better than I expected, thanks in part to good pain medication.  My only problem has been not overdoing it, which is hard when I feel so good.  I have to remind myself that I had major abdominal surgery!

So that's me... Now for the important part!

Miles was 6 lbs., 3 oz., and 20" long at birth.  He smiled almost from day 1, and continues to be a very smiley, happy baby except when he has gas pain.  He was jaundiced and lost a lot of weight at the beginning, but my milk came in just in the nick of time and we went through some craziness to feed and supplement him every 2 hours for several days.  Our wonderful nurse, Kristina, made all the difference in the world, helping us with a plan and when we were completely wiped out from no sleep, taking Miles to care for for a few hours so we could get a few hours in.

 And by 6 days after his birth, he'd already surpassed his birthweight, so all the hard work paid off! My mom spent 17 days with us, which made all the difference in the world...I'm not sure how we would have survived without her!  

Also, my dear friend Anne brought a ton of delicious food, as well as wonderful quilted items!  I'll do a separate post about that, but for now let me leave you with some pictures and get back to napping!

For more cute photos, check out the results of our professional photoshoot when Miles was just 9 days old - they are pretty adorable (not that I'm biased). http://dianalewkowicz.smugmug.com/Other/Miles-Irby/30241374_cS23K4#!i=2603049953&k=MB79fwh