Beaner has arrived! Matthew Joseph Rickenbach, aka BEAN, was born into this world on December 4th, 2010 at 3:23 PM, Saturday afternoon at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma Washington.
Now.. I realize this was like, 5 weeks ago, but I have 5 weeks worth of excuses as to why I have not posted this wonderful obviously vital information! For starters... labor and delivery was by far the worst experience of my life... I'm pretty sure it topped major back surgery. 25 hours of petocin induced labor with contractions coming every 45 seconds for 45 seconds 20 hours straight. No medication. Horrible anesthesiologist who probably lost her job due to major negligence in not looking at my X-rays or reading my surgeon's report and attempting to put needles into my back where my rods and screws were... (genius!)
Needless to say, this was unsuccessful and so I had no medications.
Now... after that I came home and was an on-demand baby bottle for an IUGR 4 pound 14 oz. baby boy. Therefore, what he wanted, he got. So for the first two weeks I didn't know what sleep was. My mom helped my husband take care of the details: pump parts cleaning, cooking, house upkeeping, laundry, and of course, throw in the fact that we were due to move across the country two weeks later, so we took care of movers coming into our place, packing everything up, etc. etc. Oh, plus the fact that our clutch went out on our car the day we returned from the hospital with baby Bean, had to trade in the car the same night baby went back to the hospital for high billyruben levels for jaundice. Hmmmm.... then there were all of the extra doctor's appointments scheduled here there and everywhere.
Okay, so now I'll fill you in on the trip. We left Bremerton, WA on the 23rd of December in our pick up truck, towing our car, and with us, my mom rode to SD. We arrived in SD on Christmas night. We spent several days with family. Bean got to be held all the time. January 2nd we dedicated Matthew Joseph to God at United Churches. His Aunt Bonnie made a beautiful gown for the dedication ceremony. Bean weighed 6 pounds 5 ounces when we left WA for SD. About January 1st we estimated Bean at 7 pounds based on the home scale having Daddy weigh self and then he held Bean in his arms afound weighed again.
January 3rd we drove from SD to CT, this time without Grammy consoling Bean in the back seat. I spent the entire trip going from front to back seat and back to front. I pumped in the car to feed little Bean on the road.
We arrived in CT on January 6th. We spent four nights at the Navy Lodge and signed for a house rental in military housing on the 10th. Which brings me to recent events:
Yesterday afternoon we moved into our new home. We spent last night on an air mattress and I fed Matthew on the stairs, on the air bed, on the floor...all lovely and comfortable places! (sarcasm). Our semi full of our household goods was to arrive tomorrow, Wednesday, however, due to the predicted 12 MORE inches of snow for our area tomorrow, we will not be getting our stuff. Therefore, we will enjoy this air bed for the entire week and hope to get our stuff Friday (weather cooperation necessary.)
I am currently attempting to write as much as I can while Bean is lying in his little bed. No, he's not sleeping. Instead, he is making grunting noises and supposed to be sleeping. Today, the navy marine corp relief society baby nurse stopped by. (Bean hasn't seen a doctor for over two weeks now!) She played with him, answered my questions, weighed him, and taught me some things about crying babies. Just because he cries does not always mean he's hungry, sometimes it's because he is sleepy! ... Hence the lying by himself right now. One month and one week after birth...today, he is exactly EIGHT POUNDS! He is 21 and 3/4 inches long. (Birth he was 18 inches). So he is growing like a healthy little weed.
Between moving, driving, packing, hotels, unpacking, feeding, feeding, and more feeding... this is literally the first chance I have had to update! And now I am done because Bean is screaming. :) Welcome to motherhood! It's great! I hope to update from here on out at least once a week again!!
