Flashback

After a near perfect pregnancy I can't really complain, BUT the first 5 weeks of Spencer's life have been pretty crazy. First, when Spencer was born my mom noticed that his frenulum extended to the tip of his tongue. We didn't think much of it, however when nursing continued to be completely unsuccessful, even with the help of many lactation consultants and nurses, we decided to do some research. We found a doctor at Oakland Children's Hospital who was very well recommended and had performed thousands of frenetomy's. We met with him and he told us about the procedure. It was short and simple. A little rub on banana flavored numbing gel, a quick clip, 1/2 tsp. of blood, 2 minutes of crying, and the gig was over. The above picture is Stevenson holding Spencer for the procedure. Two days later Spencer was able to breastfeed. No more pumping and syringe feeding the poor little guy.
Spencer with his grandmother's.
Second, we were living with my parents in California when Spencer was born and we wanted to bless him there before we moved to Oregon. So Spencer was blessed the Sunday before we moved, May 11th. It was a crazy weekend full of packing and moving and family, but we were happy to have him blessed where so many family members could attend.
Third, we road tripped with a 3 and 1/2 week old from California to Oregon. The trip was really not bad at all. Spencer slept whenever we were driving. The only down side was stopping frequently to feed him- but who can complain when the stops included locations such as IN-N-OUT and Dairy Queen?? Moving in general is tiring though and it was good to finally make it to Eugene and get unpacked. We have such a great set-up here and a lot of family. This is a picture of us with our California family before we moved. We miss you guys!Fourth. Stop here if you are easily grossed-out because you will be getting "TMI (too much information"- Michael Scott). About a week after birth I started having frequent diarrhea. Not fun at ALL when you are breastfeeding, recovering from birth, getting no sleep, etc etc. I felt like I was loosing fluids left and right. I kept thinking it would eventually go away and that maybe my body was just getting used to not having a baby in it anymore. Well it didn't stop so I went to see my OBGYN in CA. He had me do a stool sample because he said it was not a normal post-partum side affect. He told me the results came back negative and so he was not sure why it was continuing. By now this has been going on for 2 weeks and we are getting ready to move. He tells me to see a GI doctor in Eugene if it has not stopped on it's own. We get to Eugene and nothing has changed. (oh and my dr. told me I could take Imodium to give me a break.) Even with the imodium things weren't changing. To make a long story a little shorter we couldn't get in with any GI dr. without a referral, and even with a referral we wouldn't be able to see one for 2 weeks. There was no way I could do this for 2 more weeks- i was feeling so weak and lathargic. Finally we just went to Urgent Care. After waiting 2 1/2 hours we were able to see a Dr. He re-tested me and the results came up positive for an infection. He prescribed an antibiotic (Flagyll) and now I am finally feeling back to normal! I can finally focus on being a mom instead of where the location of the nearest toilet is! What had happened was that I was given the antibiotic, Clindamycin, in the hospital for testing positive on the Strep-B culture. The antibiotic killed all the good and bad bacteria in my GI tract. The bad bacteria then overpopulated causing an infection. The Imodium actually made the situation worse because it was keeping the bad bacteria inside instead of allowing my body to flush it out.

Anyway, long story nobody wanted to know, but I need it on record for my own journaling purposes. The first 5 weeks have been crazy but we are all feeling better now, and I would do it all over again for Spencer because he is so worth it.

Here is Spencer with his great-grandmother Delila Smith in her home in Oregon.