day 5

My cute little pumpkin.  So far he is a very easy baby.  He only cries when he's hungry, which is every 2 hours.  As soon as his belly is full he either dozes off into a milk coma or checks things out.  He looks around a lot with wide eyes.  Sometimes when he's sleeping he makes little moaning sounds.  He hasn't peed on anyone but himself so far.  He's caught himself on the cheek twice.  Connor saw one of the times he peed in an arch and hit his own cheek and said "Bulls eye!"

 Kaiden's first pediatrician appointment.  No shots today, just an exam.

 checking himself out in the mirror

 Connor is a fantastic big brother!  He loves his new baby brother and is always looking out for him.  He's very eager to help anyway he can by feeding his brother a bottle (I pump some breast milk and put it into a bottle so Connor and Jason can be involved in the feedings too) or singing to him if he's crying.

Monday day 4

Jason took the week off work to hang out with me and Kaiden

day 3

waiting to get the okay to go home.  Final step was deciding on a name... we pretty much knew the name, but I still debated until the last possible minute.  Jason picked Connor's name because he loved the name.  His middle name is Nathan after Jason's middle name Jonathan.  So, I knew I wanted a name with "Ka" after my middle name of Kay.  The choices we decided on were either Kaleb or Kaiden.  I didn't like Kayden because it tends to be a feminine version of the name.  Kaden could be miss pronounced because it looks like it's missing a letter.  Everyone loved Kaiden... my only hesitation is that it's a very popular name, along with Brayden, Hayden, Jayden, etc.  Although Hayden was one of our top choices for a girls name when I was pregnant with Connor.  For the middle name we debated between Alexander, which everyone loved.  Connor calls him "Kaiden Alex the Lion" from the movie Madagascar.  For several months before the birth Connor was introducing his little brother to everyone we came into contact with and he always referred to him as Kaiden Alex... so it would have been hard to change the name anyway.  I also liked the middle name Alexander because for me it represents a piece of Jason's dad, Albert who passed away this last Christmas.  He always went by "Al."  I also liked the name Levi, but Jason and Connor both hated it.  Connor said it sounded like we were telling him to "leave." So the final name... which all 3 of us loved and all our friends and family loved as well...

Kaiden Alexander Charette

Our new little angle in his home coming outfit and jacket.

Big brother was waiting at home and very excited to see us come home. 

My 3 men fist bump

Jason is still wearing a mask when he's coughing around the baby.  He also slept on the couch to avoid coughing around the new little guy for the first several days. 

The beautiful roses Olesya brought to the hospital, along with a huge star balloon that said Welcome Baby boy.  She also bought us 3 cards: 1 from her family, 1 her church family signed for us, and 1 she passed around WSU nursing school and had our classmates sign.  She is such a sweet friend.

The beautiful flower arrangement with fuzzy bunny from Jon and Vicki, our neighbors who moved last year.

day 2

My parents came into town on Friday to meet their new grandson.  They spent the night at our house to watch Connor over the night, while Jason stayed at the hospital with me and our new little guy.  Jason went home on Saturday morning so he could take Connor to the Easter Egg Hunt at our local park.  Afterwards him and Connor came to the hospital to see us.

After taking my OB clinical in nursing school I learned that it's beneficial to wait 24 hours before giving a newborn a bath.  The white vernix that covers their skin at birth has several antibacterial and infection resistance properties.  As well as the immune properties it is also a great skin moisturizer.  So, we waited 24 hours for the bath and our nursing aid, Kim gave his first bath.

He wasn't fond of the bath, but he did enjoy the spa treatment under the heat lamp afterwards.

Aunt Staci came to visit.

more snuggles skin to skin with my little man

Grandma and Grandpa came by to see him again too.

Connor checking out his Easter Basket.  He's really into Rescue Bots (Transformers) right now.  In his Easter basket he got some candy and 2 rescue bots- Boulder and Bumble Bee and a fun activity book. His little brother also had a present to greet him on Friday- Optimus Prime. 

Connor was sick for several weeks prior to our C/S date, but actually got over his cold right before the birth... and Jason caught it days before the birth.  So, to protect our new little guy Jason wore a mask when he was around him.  We also limited his contact with the little guy... which meant that I was pretty much with the little guy 24-7 for the first several days, while Jason hung out in the background.  The picture above is our little guy getting his hearing test done.  The evening of the second day I started having some cramping pains.  I took ibuprofen, which fixed the problem and I for the next couple days I used ibuprofen occasionally when I would start having cramping pains.  I never used anything stronger that ibuprofen though.

My friend Olesya came to visit with her two daughters, Eva and Nina and her husband, Roman.

Kaiden's birth

At 5:30am on April 18th Jason and I checked into Sacred Heart Medical Center for our scheduled Cesarean section at the end of my 39th week.  We dropped Connor off at my brothers house the night before for his first ever sleep over without us.  He had a blast playing with his cousin, Ryan.  I got hooked up to machines to monitor the baby, get my vitals, take blood samples, etc.  Jason got changed into his scrubs.  At 7:30 we entered the operating room.  After my spinal epidural, catheter and all the prep work was done, Jason was allowed to enter the operating room too. 

And in no time at all our little guy was pulled out into the world.  Jason occasionally peaked over the curtain to see what they were doing, but for the most part he avoided watching.  I made him raise the camera to take a few pictures for me though. 

He came out crying, but had lots of liquid in his lungs still and required suction.

Jason cutting the cord

Our little guy... Born 4-18-2014 at 7:56am.  6 pounds 3.3 ounces.  Exactly 1 pound bigger than his brother, Connor!  19.68 inches long. Head circumference 13.58.  APGAR scores: 1 minute 6, 5 minute 8, 10 minute 9.  24 hours after birth his weight dropped to 5 pounds, 14 ounces, which was his lowest weight.  Day 3 he was back up to 6 pounds 1 ounce. 

The first time I got to meet my new little guy

first family shot

At 8:35 (1 hour after I entered the operating room) I went to the recovery room.  My legs were completely numb for several hours.  I spent the majority of the first day skin to skin with my new little guy... breast feeding every few hours.  You don't produce very much colostrum which matches the small size of their stomach, but apparently nobody told this little guy that because he wanted to eat every few hours.

When he got his foot prints done they put a stamp print on Jason's arm too

recovery room

After about an hour or so in recovery I was taken to my room, 2018.  I am dressed in the hospital gown, but since he was breast feeding all the time and I was laying skin to skin with him when he wasn't the top half of my gown is pulled down and we're covered with a sheet.  I felt great and didn't take a single thing for pain (since I didn't have any pain).  This really shocked all the nurses, who didn't believe me when I would say I wasn't on any narcotics, especially when they would see me walking around the room with no problems.  The only problem I had was vomiting after I got settled into my room.  Anything and everything I attempted to eat I would vomit up.  This lasted for a few hours until the spinal wore off.

At this point we don't have a name for our new little guy.  The final list includes the following names:  Kaiden, Kaleb, Alexander and Levi. My camera battery died, so half the pictures were taken on Jason's iphone.  After we got to our room the following people came to visit us: John, Laura, Ryan and Connor (Connor spent the night at their house so once we were settled into our room they brought him to the hospital to meet his little brother), my parents, Staci and Tony, Vicki and Jon, Tina and her boys Zach and Jakob (they brought a bunch of single servings of ice cream for everyone), Joann and Greg.  We had a busy first day!