Two and half months and finally pulling his own weight

Well, Leland has officially survived a few months out “in the real world” and by golly is he thriving! Everything seems to entertain him a lot more, he recognizes his toys and his favorite spots in the house, and he loves to look around and explore the world. He’s more comfortable existing, and now is having fun interacting with the world.

And now that Leland is becoming more of a human, it’s incredibly fun being his parents and taking him on little adventures. Mom takes him on nice long nature walks when the weather is nice, sometimes even as long as 6 miles! He’s even relaxed about car rides, so that has opened up a lot of options for us.

Last week we had a crazy storm roll through - there was even a hurricane warning for it! It was the first time mom really took the warnings seriously (because she’s got a little baby now!) and camped out in the basement until the warning passed. Indie couldn’t be bothered joining them - maybe he was thinking he could protect the family by fighting the storm head-on. But the only damage that happened was knocking down part of a tree in the forest part of our yard, so dad put Leland to work to help him figure out what the heck to do with this tree!

Our little apprentice learned a lot about tree removal, and looked fashionable in his carhartt overalls while doing it. Here’s to the beginning of many fun new opportunities that Leland will learn under our tutelage.

Getting back in the saddle (or baby carrier)

Yesterday we braved the uneven terrain and took Leland on his first hike! It was a quiet and lowkey trail - perfect for everyone to get used to the new hiking normal. Elise was cleared to work out earlier that week, so we decided that Leland should start bagging peaks. He’s behind schedule a little bit, but we’re more than happy to help him catch up.

The little man either napped or just chilled in the baby carrier the entire time, and only started complaining when we stopped (clearly very impatient to work on his FKTs). Even though it’s been seven weeks since Elise’s surgery, she was able to keep up! And getting back on the mountain trails with a little one in tow is one of the biggest rewards for us.

So fingers crossed we can squeeze a few more of these hikes in before summer is over, because we have definitely missed being on the trails. Even if we’re a little bit slower and have to choose shorter trails, we’re optimistic things will improve quickly so that next summer we can crush some serious hiking trips.

Caffeine (and the baby swing) are our best friends

Leland is almost 7 weeks old and it’s crazy how much he’s growing and becoming a little person! He’s getting more comfortable hanging out and exploring the world around him, and it’s getting to a point where we can start playing with him instead of just carrying him around like our prized bag of flour.

Now that Pat is back at work (it was so helpful having him at home for so long while Elise recovered), things are getting into a relatively good routine! Leland has specific times when he typically naps, and predictable times when he’s awake. For the most part he’s a delight, and practices talking and smiling, but there are the rare days when he’s just a cranky mess. But it’s okay! We just think he’s growing and figuring things out, and that’s overwhelming business.

Leland is growing and chunking out really well - He comfortably fits in the 0-3 clothes and is slowly outgrowing his footie pajamas. Good thing he has so many great clothes in the next size up!

Luckily we’re all getting relatively decent sleep at night. Leland does sleep for 4-7 hour stretches at night, so we only really have to wake up once to change and feed him. It’s been pretty great seeing him really rock the night sleeping. It just means that he’s more awake during the day, and demands constant entertainment :)

It’s been a wild ride so far, and it’s getting better and better each week as our little guy starts becoming a more interactive and happy boy!

Happy Father’s day!

Week two with Leland ended with a bang celebrating Father’s day. Even though we don’t feel nearly qualified enough to be able to celebrate these parent holidays, it was nice to take a moment to appreciate the dads in our lives. Leland honored Pat by throwing a royal hissy fit the night before, but luckily the next day he was a sweeter baby to his pops. Pat was gifted some classic dad items (like a cell phone holster) and sweet cards from family members, so it was a pretty good haul for someone’s first Father’s day.

This week was definitely an improvement over last week - we got into more of a routine, and we’re slowly figuring out Leland’s quirks. For example, he snorts like a pig when he’s super hungry, and when he’s in the middle of a fart, his whole body wiggles as he works through the kinks. He does want to eat all the time, so Elise has been pretty landlocked on the couch with the little guy - but the sleepy cuddles afterwards makes up for not being able to reach the tv remote.

We’ve also been taking Leland out on walks to fight the cabin fever. Luckily he’s a fan of being in the stroller, but we haven’t tried sticking him in the stroller while he’s awake yet… Stay tuned on that discovery. It has been nice to go outside and stretch our legs as a family, but it will be super nice going out when it’s not 87 degrees out.

Leland’s first week home

What an eventful week!

In Leland’s first week of his life, he met all of his grandparents, some of his uncles, his aunt and cousin. He also met his puppy brother Indie, and it looks like they’re going to be great friends. Leland isn’t bothered by Indie’s barking, and Indie isn’t bothered by Leland taking up extra space on the couch. We’ll see how Indie feels when Leland grows into a mobile adventurer - fingers crossed Indie won’t turn cantankerous in his old age.

What was immediately apparent about little Leland was the fact that he did not like to be put down. He enjoys being held 24/7. Luckily there’s enough people around to help with that (who wouldn’t want to hold a cute baby?!) but it’s something Elise and Patrick definitely are trying to problem solve so they won’t lose their sanity. Luckily, through some trials and errors, they managed to find ways to get Leland to sleep at night without forcing someone to stay up holding him. And Elise just mastered the baby sling, so life just got a lot easier.

For the first few days home, Elise mainly just slept and fed Leland. She needed to recover from surgery, and took it easy while everyone took care of her. But, being an impatient person, she couldn’t stay in bed all the time, and slowly worked on rehabilitating herself. She still has a long road to go before she’s fully recovered, but her progress so far is very impressive.

Patrick has adjusted to being a dad quite well! He’s already used to not getting a lot of sleep, so adjusting to intermittent wake up calls in the middle of the night hasn’t messed with him as much as it has with Elise. Pat enjoys finding ways to interact with Leland, whether it be to practice bicycle kicks on the baby gym piano, or taking Leland outside with Indie to hang out in nature.

It’s been the craziest and busiest week of Elise, Patrick, Indie, and definitely Leland’s lives.

Baby Leland’s arrival

What started as a short trip to the hospital to get induced (Elise was 41 + 1 weeks pregnant) turned into a crazy three day event full of struggles and victories.

Elise and Patrick checked in at the hospital at 4:30 pm Wednesday June 3rd to get induced, She was a week overdue and ready to get her baby out! Being barely dilated, Elise knew it was going to take a little bit to get the party started, but definitely didn’t realize how long her body wanted to take.

After contractions slowly ramped up over the night, they were hopeful to see some progress. They checked Elise again and she was barely a centimeter dilated. Feeling discouraged, they started up the pitocin and hoped for better results.

The pitocin was definitely working! And it made the contractions a bit more bearable for Elise, but the baby had other opinions. One of the nurses noticed that during contractions with pitocin, the baby’s heart rate would drop dramatically. They were afraid if Elise didn’t find a stable position, they would have to plan for a c-section that afternoon.

Not being quitters, Patrick and Elise tried out different positions and monitored the heart rate for hours. And not surprisingly, the most stable position for baby was the most uncomfortable position for Elise. But she white knuckled it until they knew for sure that the baby was feeling better again. Luckily Elise advocated for herself and was able to get some sleep medication to help her sleep between contractions (she wasn’t dilated enough for an epidural just yet).

After an hour or two of sleeping and dealing with painful contractions, the doctor checked Elise again and saw she was significantly more dilated! They broke her water and warned her that now the contractions and pressure will definitely get more severe. Knowing how well Elise progressed with some pain/sleep medication, the doctor advised her to use an epidural to help relax her body even more. Even though an epidural wasn’t part of her birth plan, Elise gratefully accepted. She already dealt with about 24 hours of labor, she was very okay with accepting medicine.

The anesthesiologist was top-notch and dialed in Elise’s epidural so she could feel that a contraction was coming, but didn’t feel any pain. She also was able to control her pushing muscles, so when it came time to push, she could control her muscles the right way.

Around midnight, Elise felt the urge to push with her contractions. The nurse checked her and said that she was fully dilated and ready to go. Knowing that with most first time moms it would take an hour or two to push the baby out, Elise and Pat settled in for the marathon.

Four hours passed…

Elise gave it her all with each push (it felt like the longest workout of her life), and the little head kept showing up, but not enough to pull out. The doctor said that it wasn’t even enough to use the vacuum to help guide the head out. So Elise and Patrick were given two options: take a break and try in a little bit after Elise felt strong again, or have a c-section.

This was one of the hardest decisions they made - they heard scary stories about c-sections from family members, but Elise no longer had the pain relief from the epidural protecting her from the intense pressure of the baby on her body. She was in pain and knew she couldn’t rest. So they decided that the best choice for both Elise and baby would be to have a c-section.

Waiting for extra pain medication and the surgical team was the longest 30 minutes of Elise’s life - contractions were coming fast and the pressure and pain were relentless. The team did arrive and whisked her away to the surgical room to prep her.

Thankfully Pat was allowed to come in the room and sit next to Elise and hold her hand throughout the process. He and the anesthesiologist kept her mind occupied while the rest of the team worked quickly. Elise was able to make a few Alien jokes, so they knew she was going to be okay.

It only took a few minutes, but at 6:10 am on Friday, June 5th, Leland Patrick McGuckin came into the world. He was a healthy 8 pounds 4 ounces, and promptly peed and pooped on the nurses. He was perfect.

They stayed in the hospital until Sunday morning to make sure both Leland and Elise looked healthy enough to leave - everyone was impressed by Leland’s ruddy complexion (yay for no jaundice!), adorable features, and quick ability to latch and eat. They also were very impressed by Elise’s recovery! She was walking around Friday night and everything was healing nicely.

With the help of a nurse, Patrick and Elise carried little Leland to the car and strapped him in to take him to his new home to start the biggest adventure of their lives.