My first blog!!! Well, where to begin...let's see. Well, as most of you know by now, I've just given birth to our new little bundle of joy ~ Marcus Patrick Machado Moniz, born April 17th, 2009 at 11:09am weighing in at 5lbs. 13 oz's. He's just over a month old now and, I have to say, a pretty good baby. He's already sleeping 5 hours at night!!! I'm not sure, but I think I have the perfect baby :) (Except for that lady who shared a room with me in the hospital - her little girl never made a peep!!! But that's another story...)


He's sleeping now and I really have to admit that there is nothing more beautiful than a sleeping baby. And nothing more peaceful then that little baby snuggling into your breast and snoozing away :) They really are miracles, aren't they??

So, starting at the beginning, Marcus was a scheduled c-section and was born premature at 36 weeks (rather than the usual 4o for those who don't know how long full-term is). Everything during pregnancy went really well this time, although I was gestation diabetic again as with Molly, but we jumped all over it as soon as I got pregnant this time and we had it under much better control. The OB actually tried talking to us about going full-term, but Mike and I would have nothing of it. I was already mentally counting kicks every day, I don't think my nerves could have handled doing that for 4 more weeks. Every time I laid on the table to get an ultrasound done or have his heart rate check I'd hold my breath. 4 weeks was way, way, way too long to wait. So, 38 weeks it was. Vasko took us to the hospital that morning and we joked in the car on the way that we felt like we were going to go pick up take-out. "1 baby boy to go please!!!" C-sections have a different feeling obviously than going into labour. You just show up and get hooked up to an IV and off you go. Nice, eh :) (sorry to all you mother's out there who have/will be going through hours of labour. My hats off to you all).

It was actually cool knowing all the stuff that they were going to do this time....it actually set me up for a little surprise. I knew that once they put the spinal in that I'd be feeling the tinglies in my feet and that the OB would be asking if the freezing had set in soon and then they'd begin the c-section. So, I'm sitting there feeling the tinglies work their way through my legs and wondering when they were going to get started when the OB exclaimed "I see hair!!" I'm thinking that they haven't started yet and she's already close to pulling the baby out!!! Hang on, lemme catch up here!!!! Okay, so we're pulling the baby out soon, okay...woah!!! He's out!!!! Okay sweetie...cry...come on, cry! Okay, all the staff is laughing.....why........hehehe, okay. 1 Point for Marcus. He's already peed on everyone. :) That's my boy. LOL! First cry. There's no sweeter sound. Honestly, for those ladies who have been there, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. I bawled :) Pregnant for almost 2.5 years and I finally have a little bundle of my own!!! I can't even express how much joy went through my heart at that moment. The nurse just kept asking me if I was okay - if only she new. :D


So, the pic I've posted is of our first kiss. Sweet, eh? I think so :D Then they wrapped him up and gave him to Daddy who proudly took him out to introduce him to everyone.

Once I was stitched up and ready to go they took me to the recovery room where we tried breastfeeding for the first time.

Didn't go to badly but the nurse was starting to get a titch concerned about his cry. We didn't know it at the time, but Marcus was to end up in the NICU for 2.5 days with a wet lung and low O2 levels.



So, I had a baby but I never got him back from the recovery room until Sunday afternoon. Michael and I had to keep visiting him in the NICU for feeds (at least I got to do that!!) So, finally, Sunday afternoon they decide that he's O2 levels are good and he's wet lung is better and they've weened him off of his IV and they are about to bring him into my room when they start discussing if he's jaundiced or not. That was our next hurdle. They did 3 rounds of tests before deciding to just go ahead and do the lamps anyway.

So they started the lamps about 3am on Sunday, continued poking his little foot for jaundice tests and blood sugar tests (cuz of the Gestational Diabetes or GD as it's affectionately called) . Poor little guy's foot looked like someone had taken a meat mallet to it. There were band-aids everywhere! And, every time a new nurse would have to take blood, she's exclaim! Oh, why so many bandages?? God, you're taking blood, aren't you? Gonna add another, I presume? . Well, he was under the lamps until Tuesday morning. He finally passes the jaundice test with low enough numbers where they were comfortable letting us go home. I mean, don't get me wrong. It was good that they did the lamps instead of Marcus' jaundice getting worse after we left and having to come back....but I just wanted to get out of there! I had 3 different room mates in 5 days and they were wheeling in the 4th. I wanted out!! Just let me go home and get on with my life with my new baby already!!!