The Lutz Family Blog

Samuel went to the doctor yesterday for his four week appointment.
He now weighs 8 lbs 7 oz (up from 6 lbs 10 oz when we left the hospital, and 7 lbs 5 oz at birth).
He is now 22 3/4 inches long (he had grown 3 3/4 inches since birth).

Here are some pictures from the past week...
My daddy always makes me smile :)

(Clockwise: 3 weeks, 2 weeks, 1 week, 1 day)

Samuel has already changed so much over the past three weeks.

• He is awake for more of the day... usually for about 1-2 hours after 2 or 3 of his feedings each day.
• He sleeps for longer stretches at night... our longest stretch so far was 4.5 hours.
• He likes baths now... thanks to some tips from Amy.
• He takes a bottle well... daddy can feed him from time to time, or we can go out without me having to leave the conversation for a good half hour!
• He has started to fill out more and lookmore like a baby (less like a newborn)... I don't have exact measurements, we go to the doctor next Tuesday, but his newborn sized clothes are almost fitting him!
• He focuses on faces... he will make eye contact with me when being held.
• His neck muscles are getting stronger... he can turn his head from one side to the other while on his tummy.
• He stretches out more... he was always in the fetal position, but now he stretches his arms and legs more.
• He explodes out of fewer diapers... we were changing clothes with every diaper until we found a diaper that works for him.
• Mom can comfort him better... I know what his grunts mean - hungry, tired, or pooping :)

We have formed a play group with friends from church. There are five stay at home moms with kids ages two and under. Between the five of us there are 7 kids and one on the way. Today, we headed to Chick-fil-a to let the older boys play on the playground while the rest of us chased the crawlers and held the babies. I really enjoy getting together with these girls... it's great to get out of the house around adults from time to time. Although Samuel doesn't really play with the other kids yet, we love the company. Above is a picture of the crew enjoying lunch. There was another mom and baby as well as myself and Samuel who didn't make it in the picture. We definitely made our presence known :)

I tried to set up a photo shoot to get a good picture for the birth announcement, but most of them just turn out goofy looking. Here are some "proofs" from our past sessions as well as some candid pics from the week.

I knew life would change when Samuel arrived... and it did. I understand now how, even though I'm a "stay-at-home" mom, the house won't be clean or even picked up and dinner may not be on the table every night as I had hoped would happen. The other day we went to Walmart. When we got home, Bud had to make a work call and was unable to assist with the groceries or the baby. So, I got the groceries and Samuel in the house and pull edSamuel out of his carseat only to find that he had pooped all over himself and the seat. So, as the groceries rot on the kitchen counter, I changed him and in the process he peed on the changing table. So, I cleaned up that mess and got him dressed in clean clothes. As I'm about to put the groceries away, Samuel starts screaming to be fed. I quickly put the milk away and fed him. I think it was about 2 hours later before all the groceries were finally put away and the carseat mess wasn't cleaned up until much later that afternoon/evening. I guess that was my welcome to motherhood :)

Again, we are so blessed to have such great family! Grandma and Grandpa Lutz came down to see Samuel last week, along with Aunt Gretchen. They really helped us get set up to be on our own. Sue cooked several meals for us. They are in our freezer to be warmed up when we need them. She also did our laundry. Fred took care of Clara and cleaned the house for us. We really appreciate the help. Now that we are on our own, it's nice to not have to worry about cooking or cleaning for a while yet.

They said we would go through 10-12 diapers a day...
They said we would do more laundry once we had a baby...
They said we would use all the clothes we had ready for baby...
They said we would get little sleep at night...
They said we should sleep when baby sleeps...
They said all babies do was eat, sleep, and poop...
They said we would use every blanket we got...
They said his stuff would take over our house...
They said our world would be changed forever...
They said we wouldn't want to leave him...
They said we would love our baby more than we every thought possible...
They said we would think our baby was the cutest baby ever...
They said we would do anything for our child...

Samuel's first bath... he didn't like it very much.

But, he did like being cuddled in the towel after his bath.

Samuel's first "tummy time" with Clara. She was curled up in a ball next to him, but she kind of freaks out when you get the camera out. So, this is the best picture I could get.

Samuel's first walk...

My family has been with us for the past week +, but today we are on our own. It was great to have company in the hospital and to have help around the house.

My mom is amazing! She cleaned, cooked, pulled weeds, and bought all our groceries. She was willing to do anything we needed. And, of course, she took care of Samuel and helped me adjust to and learn how to be a mom. Every morning she would come get Samuel so that I could get a few hours extra sleep.

Alyssa (aka sister big) was here until this morning as well. We appreciate her taking Clara for a run every morning and stalling Samuel off between feedings. It was also extremely helpful being able to ask Alyssa about any medical questions... especially considering Samuel's respiratory issues. I'm sure she got sick of us asking, "Is that an okay sound he's making?"

Lauren and Dad were able to come for the weekend. It was great to watch them love on my son. I really appreciate the effort it took for them to come out here and keep us company during the first few days of Samuel's life.

Thanks for the help! We will miss you all! So, today is our first day without help. Bud is "working from home" (responding to a few emails or phone calls and maybe going in to sign papers after work hours) for the rest of the week. So, far we're doing okay on our own. We have been extremely lazy, but that's what's expected of us right now. I'm really looking forward to getting into more of a routine over the next couple of weeks. But, for right now, I'm requiring myself to take it easy and not over exert myself! It has really been a sweet time of getting to know Samuel and hanging out as a family!

Last trip down the hall in his hospital bed...

Ready for the car...

In the car...


Getting out of the car...

A family picture in front of Samuel's home...

The Pfister family picture of all 7 of us!!

Dad and Samuel taking a nap (actually neither one is sleeping, but oh well)...


We got to head home for the hospital on Saturday afternoon. Samuel did great in the car, not a peep, and was quite comfortable in his carseat. We gave him a tour of the house when we got home and tried out some of the fun baby stuff we've been collecting. He enjoys the swing, the bouncy seat, the crib, etc. Really the only thing he doesn't like is the changing table... which is understandable.

Clara (the dog) has done pretty good with the transitioin. We aren't getting rid of her yet at least. She misses the attention she had before, but hasn't bothered Samuel much at all. She sniffs him and licked his face once, but he doesn't really react too negatively. She's more excited to have so many people around and to chase the camera lights (she thinks she can catch the lights that the cameras make) than to pay attention to Samuel.

It sure is good to be home! Although, I missed sending Samuel to the nursery in between feedings :) He really did well sleeping with us. He woke up well and slept after eating for the most part. Sometimes it would take a while for him to fall back asleep, but overall no complaints. I thought I'd worry about him all night, but I only got up to check if he was still breathing a couple of times! God has really blessed us with a smooth transition into parenthood!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I had plenty of time while drugged up, but now that Samuel's here I'm spending my time with him. We didn't get to hold him until last night (when he was 28 hours old), but spent a lot of time in the nursery yesterday "petting" him while he was on oxygen and being monitored closely because of respiratory issues.

So, here's the story...
We went to the hospital at 5pm Tuesday evening for a scheduled induction. Over the next 12 hours contractions began and by 6am Wednesday, I was ready for the epidural. As most of you have read, the epidural was amazing and the rest of the labor part was not too bad. It was slow, I did not progress quickly, but finally at 3:20pm, I was ready to push.

Samuel was then born at 4:07. He had respirated some meconium (baby's first poop) and therefore they had to clear his lungs out immediately. He had good color and started crying immediately, but they had to check his lungs. So, they handed him to me to hold for 20 seconds, snapped a quick picture of the whole family, and then rushed him off to get an x-ray, get cleaned up, and clear out his lungs.

His rates continued to improve throughout the day and they began dropping the amount of oxygen being fed into his tube by 10% every few hours later Wednesday night. They tried taking him off of it completely, but he didn't respond well... so, they had to go gradually. We could touch him and rub his fingers and toes. This post is getting long...

So, finally at about 2:30 on Thursday, they let us hold him with his hood still around him. This was the first time for Bud to hold him (I had held him for the first picture and once while they changed his bedding).
He responded great when he heard my voice or Bud's voice (his monitors/rates would settle down into a normal range), so they encouraged us to hold him for as long as we wanted at this point. We stayed in the nursery for most of the rest of the evening. I finally got to try feeding him at 8:30... at this point he was down to 20% oxygen (the same as normal air), but he still had the tube in and all the nodes hooked up. This morning the doctor said he's good to go... "We can treat him like any other baby." So, we brought him back to the room at about 8am and he has been passed around from GiGi to Grandaddy to Aunt Lauren to Aunt Alyssa to dad to mom and back again! He's not going to have to lay down by himself for a long time!!