Samuel Craig's Life Blog

Week 3 Updates

The remnants of Sammy's umbilical cord fell off last Thursday. It was a momentous occasion and was celebrated by not having to fold down the front of the diaper any more….Yeah!


This also signaled Sammy’s first real bath on Friday. I don’t know if he liked it, but I enjoyed watching Grandma wrestle with him in the bath tub :)


Sammy finally got to meet Grandma and Grandpa Craig this week.



We rented a car (ours is woefully small), packed up Grandma Kim's stuff, and headed to Chicago. Moon's mom went back to Korea on a 1:00am Sunday flight (we'll miss her help). While my car had plenty of room when I picked her up in Chicago there was plenty of room in the car. That was before we decided to add a baby, car seat, Moon, and all the gifts she's bringing home :)
It was a wonderful visit. Sammy got to meet the family and they all got to meet him. Let's see if they want to see him again after the demonstration of his lungs for 2 days :)


The Big Cry

We got him home this week and he has continued to cry a lot. I've seen some articles online that say a newborn cries around 2.5 hours a day. If that's true, he's off the charts. If he's awake, he cries and he's awake all the time. Moon has been feeding him each time he cries which means that he's eating more than every two hours. It's beginning to drive us both crazy. Neither of us can get anything done, including sleep. We've tried just about everything, leading us on the search for something else.

More on this next week...

If Week 1 is the honeymoon, week 2 is the 7-year itch!


While our nights have gotten better, our days are hit and miss. Sammy sleeps all day some days and is fussy on other days. It's starting to drive us crazy. Luckily Moon is still off work and we have time to get acclimated to this insanity.

I'm at the busiest time of year right now. I've got two classes that seem to have all their assignments due at the end of the semester. I'm going to have to re-evaluate that in the future. I've only been able to keep up because I'm pulling late nighters doing grading. I grade until around 4am and wake Moon for the 4am feeding. This means that I get to sleep at around 5am and wake up again for the 7:30/8:00 feeding. I can't say that I'm getting used to it, but I have had a lot of sleepless experience in the last 7 years.



Moon's got the worst of it, however. She still hasn't been able to catch naps when Sammy is sleeping. She's so tired that it's hard to get anything done, but without sleep achieving anything during the day is difficult. This is bound to get even more difficult with her Mom leaving early Sunday morning.

When Sammy is sleeping, he is an absolute angel. When he's awake, he takes on a slightly redder hue :)

He is getting so strong and he is growing fast. I wish that we had a good scale to weigh him ourselves. I'd like to track that every week (along with these postings). We have to go on our perception of his growth.

His strength is amazing as well. Right after birth he had quite a bit of neck control and it's just gotten better. Given this neck strength and his exercising his arms and legs, he's quite a squirmer. He is now able to turn to his side. Luckily, he can't make the full rollover. That is going to make the changing process a little more difficult.

Wake me when it's time to feed him again.......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


Sleepless in Indy

It's been a little over a week now since we came home from the hospital. I probably don't have to tell most of you how exhausting the week has been. We have been battling a superior being and he is now completely in charge.

Moon only sleeps while I'm changing diapers and I've just given up on sleep altogether. You might have noticed this if you've received one of my 4:00 am emails recently. My students are probably thinking that I'm nuts. They've gotten most of their feedback between 3:00 and 5:00 am.

Grandma Kim

Grandma Kim has helped out a lot with this. She fills in those gaps that allow both Moon and I to get cat naps during the day. These are the only things keeping us going, so she is really a saving grace. We pay her back by letting her cook, clean, change diapers, listen to us complain. We occasionally drop her off at the golf course when she's really good (and when there's not yet another tornado coming through).

Cutest Baby Ever!

When we are awake, nothing keeps us more entertained than Sammy. He's just so damn cute. Of course this is when he is sleeping or somewhere in-between. This is the kind of talk that will have you logging off this blog, but I can't help it. At no time in the history of man has there been such a cute baby. I'm still trying to figure out how Moon and I created this guy. He's better looking than either of us.

He's either screaming or sleeping about 99% of the day. The other 1% he is just staring around the room wide-eyed. I enjoy walking him around the house. Sometimes, this is the only way to keep him quiet. I think it is because he likes the change of scenery. Whatever it is, it just fascinates me to see this in him.


Some Obligatory Reporting

After a tough start Sammy is feeding well. He lost a bunch of weight at the hospital, but is now quickly approaching his birth weight. He's been gaining about an ounce a day for the last week and unlike me, weight gain is good for him.

We've been to the doctor's office a couple times (for a check up and weighing) and the doc says he is doing great. Moon is constantly worried that she is going to break him, that his crying has a terrible hidden meaning, that he's not getting enough to eat, and that she is just simply doing something wrong. I suppose this is normal for most new parents. I spend a lot of time reassuring her that she's doing a great job. I think that she's slowing beginning to believe that and it becoming more comfortable with him in general.

We've been doing all of the fun stuff. I've changed about 100 diapers and that's not an exaggeration. We've tried a dozen different remedies for discomfort associated with breast feeding (look into the cabbage thing...strange, but it works). We've begun to figure out Sammy's likes and dislikes. This is really important, because it has resulted in some restful nights this week.

All in all, we're enjoying the experience.

I should be loading the picture gallery with a bunch of photos soon. Make sure to take a look (see link on upper left-hand side of the page).

Ok, so it's not exactly a coherent movie, but it is a series of tidbits from a couple minutes after Sammy's birth to the time we brought him home. I'm sure that this is the first of many.

Unfortunately, I don't have the bugs worked out of Sammy's Gallery yet, so he's going to have to use Daddy's Gallery instead.

Sammy's Gallery

This is a rather lengthy description of the day leading up to Sammy's birth. It's probably going to bore the heck out of most of you. However, throughout the pregnancy, I was never able to find narratives of this hectic time in the pregnancy. So, here it is.

For those of you who just want pictures, go to Sammy's Gallery at http://www.danielcraig.com/gallery/v/SammysAlbum
-----------------------------------------------------------

As you all know, if you have been following Sammy’s blog, this has been a nerve-wracking few weeks. Ever since the OB said that Moon was 2cm, we have thought that Sammy’s arrival was just around the corner. By the beginning of this week, we had given up. “He’s never coming,” Moon would say and I would agree with her.

Last night (Tuesday, April 4, 2006), things finally started to get interesting. Moon was beginning to feel contractions. They were irregular, but unmistakable. Throughout the day, she was recording the times to see if there was any consistency. There was none. By 1:00 am, she was asleep and I though, “just another false alarm.” Of course thinking that, should have been my sign.

I was up for a few more hours. I had a bunch of assignments to grade and I knew that I had to get them out ASAP. Even if labor wasn’t immediate, it was surely around the corner. I got to sleep around 3:30 am.

At 7:30 am Moon woke me up. She’d been really nice about letting sleep in after my late nights these days, so I knew something was up right away. She’s in the bathroom looking worried. She says, “I think my water broke.” There was no questioning that. A puddle had formed at her feet and she was rather nervous. That fear that she would even know that she was in labor was quickly dissipating.

I suppose we both should have been more nervous, but we took our time getting ready as we would just about any morning. Then I gave a call to the OB’s office and they talked to Moon. I think that they wanted to confirm that she had all the required symptoms or something. I guess that they were satisfied. They told us to head to the hospital. After some last minute packing, we were off.

We got situated in our room and began with all the paperwork. I can’t believe how many papers Moon had to sign. The privacy laws have seriously gone awry, but that’s a topic for another blog.

Moon was checked soon after and she was already 8.5cm. Not too surprising considering she was 4cm at our OB appointment a week before. At this point, there was very little pain and she was likely thinking that this birthing thing was going to be a snap. That didn’t last long.

After about 30 minutes she was 9 cm , then 9.5 cm. The pain was getting terrible and she had had enough. She finally asked for the epidural. She had this idea of doing it drug free, so she was rather depressed about giving into the pain. I told her to do it right when we walked in. Why suffer?

The pushing then began around 10:30. It took her a while to get the hang of it, but nature took over. Even with the drugs this was a difficult process and she was getting really tired. She then became really brave and told them to turn the drugs off. I was standing there thinking, “did you forget what was happening before the drugs”? She obviously had.

So, the drugs went off and things were good for a while. She was pushing away and Sammy was moving further and further along. However, she just couldn’t get him past the pelvis.

Then the pain came in again. If the previous pain was a 10 (on a 1 to 10 scale), this time was a 15. It really pained me to see her like this. I’ve never been in the situation when a person you love is begging you to help them and there’s nothing that you can do. Finally, she agreed to kick the drugs on again. They took a while to get hold and never really dulled the pain as much as the first round.

By this time, she had been pushing for 3 hours and she was exhausted. She didn’t feel that she could go on, yet with every contraction, she pushed a few more times. This couldn’t go on forever. For the last hour, there was little progress and she was wearing down. The doctor suggested that there were basically two options at this point: forceps and C-section.

A C-section was out of the question (at least at this point) so Moon told him to go ahead with the forceps. It took about 30 minutes for more drugs to kick in and get everyone in the room who needed to be there. The forceps process probably began around 2:15. I won’t describe this part, but needless to say, it doesn’t look comfortable.

After a couple minutes of maneuvering, you could tell that the doctor was in place and Moon was pushing. At first I could see the tip of the head. I was thinking, “damn, that’s a small head!” Little did I know that the cone-headed little baby had a bit more coming. As he started sliding, it was a quick process to pull the whole baby out. I was amazed. That was a BIG baby that came out of a little woman.

They whisked him away to the heater. They cleaned him up, poked and prodded, and weighed him. The whole time the nurses were marveling over the “moose” that just came out of this little thing in the bed next to them.

They wrapped Sammy up and threw him in my arms. I suppose everyone who has shared a moment like this will understand. For me, it was a first and it was marvelous. He was crying for everyone else and just shut up when he hit my arms. It’s pure magic.

This lasted for quite a while, since the doctor had a lot left to do with Moon. Once he was done however, she was ready for Sammy. I have to assume that it doesn’t matter how exhausted you are, a mother wants to hold her baby. Moon was no exception. It didn’t take long before they were both asleep, but it was nice while it lasted.

There’s obviously a lot that goes on after this, but I’m done writing for now.

Until next time.

Dan, Moon, and Sammy

We are pleased to announce the arrival of Samuel Jin Craig at 2:30pm on April 5 2005. Weight : 8lbs 1.5oz

In labor now