Photo Dump!

An assortment of Maxwell photos from the last few weeks for your viewing enjoyment!

Hanging out with all my friends

All smiles

Christmas Elf!

Chatting with Papa

Bears at the Zoo

I love seeing myself in the 

Hanging out with my new Tapir toy

First trip downtown to have lunch with Papa!

That is one handsome baby!

Mama Lucy is always making sure my face is clean.

Where the Wild Things Are ornament with my name on it!

Jumping is my favorite

Sleeping like a boss at Target

Dang, I'm cute.

19 weeks- 4 month sleep regression. AKA Eff the 4th Leap.

This week has been a bit rough in the Lorenz household.  First of all, I had a tricky shopping trip all on my own with Max yesterday that required me (for many reasons) to nurse him while I pushed the cart around and shopped.  Thank goodness for my Beco Gemini.  I was able to rotate Max while he was screaming in the carrier so that he was at boob level on his side, threw on the nursing cover, and whipped out the boob.  I managed to get everything on our extensive shopping list (of course this was the week where we needed to replenish a lot of our household staples), while breastfeeding.  Luckily, he finished up right as I finished shopping, so I propped him upright in the carrier while checking out.  This was by far, the most impressive feat I have accomplished while breastfeeding.  I didn't even get any weird looks.  I'm pretty sure most people had no idea what was going on, and that he was just cold, so hence the "blanket" covering my sideways baby...

Maxwell McFussypants has decided that he wants to wake up about every 2 hours, and it's been taking its toll on all of us.  He's been a bit fussy with my mom this week (and though she'll never fully admit it), I'm sure it's wearing her down as well.  Winter break could not come at a better time- I need to be able to just spend time lounging in bed with my baby after these difficult nights.  I'm not sure if this new sleeping and waking pattern is due to being in the 4th Leap (according to The Wonder Weeks), or if it because we have been working on getting him to sleep in his crib for the first part of the night.

Max has been growing out of the Rock 'n Play, so we realized that it would be best to start having him sleep in the crib.  Now, instead of nursing him to sleep in bed, and then transitioning him to the Rock 'n Play, I have been feeding him in his room with the lights off, and the white noise machine/projector on until he's pretty passed out (typically by about 8:45pm).  Then I place him in the crib, and even if he starts to stir, I can typically get him back to sleep pretty easily right away.  We've been sleeping in the guestroom (right next door to Max's room), so checking in on him is much easier.  He has been waking up at about 11 or 12 wanting to eat, so I attempt to rock him and give him his paci first, but when that doesn't work after about 5 minutes, I pull him into bed, and nurse him until we both fall back asleep.  That wouldn't be so bad if he would just stay asleep, or be easily comforted by using me as a human pacifier for the rest of the night, but now he wakes up pretty upset.  I attempt to nurse him back down when he gets all huffy, but he refuses to be calmed by the breast, so I have found walking him around for a little bit (even if he's screaming) helps, and then he's willing to latch on again and fall asleep for the majority of the rest of the night.

I know this is all a phase, and one day, my child will no longer want anything to do with being cuddled by me at night.  I am going to look back on these days and miss holding my little bug in one arm, continuously kissing his cheeks and the back of his neck where he rocks his mini-mullet. I'll have blurry, sleep deprived memories of the first year of his life, and I'll have troubles remembering all the little details that have blended into a beautiful foggy memory.  That day is going to come faster than I'll ever be able to imagine.

Post-Birth Hospital Stay

After Maxwell was born, and got to see his little puffy face, Luke and I looked at him and determined that he was indeed a "Maxwell Jacob" and that our backup name ("Everett") was not needed.  The doctor had asked me at one point during his birth if it was okay to do the slightest cut to help our baby come out.  He had his little fist balled up right by his face, and just needed a little more room to make his exit, so while Luke and I were admiring what we had created, I received a couple of stitches after delivering the placenta (I seriously don't even remember delivering the placenta).  I never thought that I would want to see it, but when the resident who had observed the birth asked me excitedly if I wanted to take a look, I surprisingly said yes. It was pretty cool (and gross) to see what had kept my baby alive for the past 40 weeks.

At about 10am, we let my mom, and Luke's parents, who had all camped out in the maternity ward visitor's lounge since 10pm peek their heads in so we could introduce them all to their first grandson.  Since I was sitting naked under the sheet with the baby on my lap, there wasn't a lot of hugs at that point, but I do remember there being tears when we introduced him as "Maxwell Jacob Lorenz."  I didn't offer to let anyone else hold him at that point (I was still in a bit of shock that my baby was here, and I wasn't quite ready to give him up yet), but they were all going to stop by later that evening, so they would eventually get their chance.

**TMI ALERT** 

scroll down to the next paragraph if you have a weak stomach...

At about noon, my sisters all arrived to meet their first nephew, and Lauren was the first to arrive.  While she was holding Max, the nurse came in to do another fundle massage.  I told her when she was done that I thought I felt like there was some sort of blockage down there, and she did a massage with more pressure.  When she did that, I felt a huge clot shoot out, and heard blood splash.  By the looks on Lauren and Lukes' faces, I could tell that it was a lot, and probably not good.  By that time, Zibby and Paige had just arrived to see Max.  The nurses definitely seemed concerned, but hadn't really spoken to me yet, and I could only see them calculating how much blood I had lost.  They put me on a pitocin drip to stop the large clots from happening, and to keep me from hemorrhaging more than I had already.  

I knew that it had to be serious when the doctor came in and asked my sisters to leave the room so she could talk to me.  I had surpassed the acceptable amount for blood loss, and if they couldn't get it to stop, they would have to either do a blood transfusion, or do a D&C procedure.  Luke had been out of the room when I talked to Dr. G, so I was all alone, and scared that I would have to leave my baby or somehow be separated from him.  They determined that they would take my hemoglobin, and if it came back at 10 or less, I would have to have interventions.  After my blood was run through the lab hours later, I found out that it was at an 11, so I just barely escaped.  While I was there, I remember feeling fine (a bit dizzy from the lack of sleep, but all together fine), but I look back at pictures and I was grey.  I had lost all color in my face (I had a pretty good tan going on!), and my eyes have a slight dullness to them.  Thinking back, I realize that things could have taken a turn for the worse, and I am grateful that I was okay. 

18 weeks

As of December 4th, MaxJack is officially four months old.  I've made it a third of the way to my breastfeeding goal, and we're still going strong!  Everyday, Maxwell gets more and more fun, and it's amazing to see him take in the world.  Today, I took a comp day from work to spend time with Max before teaching night school, and it was wonderful to just have a morning and afternoon with my little man.  After getting lots of snuggle time in with him, we bundled up, and trekked out to see Luke at work.  We met up for lunch, and walked around the skyways for Max's first downtown experience!  He enjoyed seeing all the people running around, and he LOVED it when he realized that we had found his papa.

This past weekend, I met up with Lindsey and Owen to get some steps in at the MN Zoo.  I had never been there during the winter, and we just stuck to the inside exhibits and the MN Trail.  Max was mesmerized by the aquarium, and had fun being worn front facing so he could see everything.  He passed out about 2/3s of the way through.

Max's four month well-child doctor's appointment went well last night.  He is now 13.8lbs and 25.75" long.  That puts him in the 24th percentile for weight and nearly the 75th percentile for height.  This is a pretty good, especially since he was only in the 12th percentile for weight two months ago!  Our doctor also said that he has the most perfect head that she has seen in at least a decade, and mentioned that he must get a lot of tummy time, and is held a lot (no flat head for our child!), which are both true.

I feel like I miss a lot being away from him during the day.  I never saw myself as a stay at home mom, but I find myself wishing we could afford for me to do so until our children reach kindergarten.  I love seeing him grow each week, and I know that this time is going to go fast, so I need to soak in as much time with my kid(s) as I can before they become independent, and not need me as much.

One of my high school friends had her baby last week (5 days overdue, all ready for an induction).  I was chatting with her about her daughter, Irene, and about her birth experience, and it got me thinking about how my life changed just four months ago.  All of the emotions from that day came flooding back as I thought back to Max's birth and those first few weeks at home with a newborn.  It's all such a blur at this point- I wish I written more down while I was experiencing it all.  I do need to write down what I do remember post-birth for my next post...If I remember to do that :)

Maxwell's birth story (Warning- It's long!)

**I want to preface this by stating that this took me a long time to write. I started writing this back in September, but feeding and caring for a newborn left me unable to use both of my hands at one time for very long...  There are so many details that I know I have forgotten to add, so I might add more later on, but I wanted to make sure that I at least got the majority of Max's birth story posted.**


In order to help serve baby Lorenz's eviction notice, we packed out weekend full of activities and obligations so that Murphy's law would go into effect and he would decide to arrive in order to ruin all of our plans.  Friday night, we had a surprise birthday to go to.  I had been feeling contractions on and off that evening, but it definitely wasn't go time.  Saturday, we had an engagement party to attend.  I was able to start timing the contractions, and even needed to sit down a little through them, but they dissipated after a couple of hours.  Sunday, we had Luke VS's first birthday to attend in the afternoon, all the way out in Ham Lake. 

We decided that it would be a good idea to have the car seat locked and loaded, and the bags thrown into the car just in case we needed to make a mad 40 minute dash to the hospital.  All through the birthday party, I was having contractions, and was able to start timing them again.  This time they became much more consistent, and I could see a pattern starting to emerge.  By the time we got home from the birthday party, they were coming on about every 5 minutes, and were at least 1 minute in length.  After about an hour, I texted Mary to see if she followed the 5-1-1 rule, and she suggested that I call ASAP.
I called the maternity ward, and the head nurse told me to continue to monitor the contractions for the next hour, and to call back if they hadn't gone away.  After an hour of putzing around the house, making sure the nursery was ready, and chatting with Luke, I called back at 5pm, and the nurse told us to come on in.  Luke quickly packed his bag, and we got the dogs ready for the potential long haul.  
I cried as I hugged Lucy and Kale goodbye.  Not only because I was going to miss them while I was stuck in the hospital, but because I knew that the next time I would see them, everything would be changing, and they no longer were going to be my only babies. 
At about 6pm, we walked out the door of our house for the last time as a family of 2, and my water broke.  It wasn't the big gush that movies and TV shows make it out to be.  It was more of a trickle, and I was convinced that I had lost control of my bladder.  I sat on a plastic Target bag the entire 8 minute ride to St. John's just in case.  I remember being concerned that people were going to see that my shorts were wet and judge me, but Luke reminded me that people would probably get what was going on as a 9 months pregnant lady waddles her way to the maternity ward.
At 6:15pm, I checked in and we were brought back to the room that would be my home away from home for the next 3 days.  After gowning up, determining that the leaking was actually amniotic fluid, the nurse checked me, and I was 4 cm dilated.  Since I was having back labor, she showed Luke how to provide counter pressure during contractions.  I wanted to try different ways of laboring, but after trying to labor on all four, using a yoga ball, walking the ward, I realized that the only way for me to get through the contractions was to lean over the counter in the room, and breath through them.  
At about 9 or 10pm, I asked Luke to let the nurse know that I wanted the epidural, and within the hour, I was numb from the waist down.  My nurse turned down the lights, put on soothing music, and let me be.  Every hour, she would come in to turn me over.  I know that when I do have another baby, I will do the same thing- labor on my own for as long as I can go, and then get the epidural once I can't handle it anymore.  The relief that it brought was amazing, and as I think back, I don't think I would have had the energy to push if I hadn't gotten the small amount of rest when I did.
By midnight, I was still only about 6 cm, and they realized that the baby was sunnyside up (and slowing down his progress), so they placed a peanut shaped yoga ball between my knees in hopes that gravity would help turn him over.  This seemed to work. After about 6 more hours, and one epidural bag refill, I finally was almost complete.  They had me do some practice pushes, and they had me labor down until about 7am, and that's when they had me start pushing for real.  It was a strange feeling to push.  I could tell when I was having a contraction, due to the fact that the epidural wore off on my left hip, so I could feel each contraction in that localized spot, and therefore knew when to push.
Over the last 9 months, Luke and I had discussed labor expectations, and I told him that he was to remain by my head for the entirety of my labor and delivery (and he readily agreed), but things changed rather quickly.  The nurses got Luke pretty involved by having him hold a leg while I pushed, so he got a pretty good view of everything going on.  When the baby started to crown, they asked him if he wanted to see, and he decided to take a look.  They asked me if I wanted to feel, and despite the fact that I said I never wanted to do anything like that, I changed my mind and felt the top of his little head.  That made everything so much more real.  During the time I had been pushing, I kept my eyes closed for most of it, so once I felt his head, it kicked in that this was really happening, and that I was going to be meeting my son very soon.
I pushed for an hour and a half, and at about 8:20, the doctor came in, suited up, and the nurses broke off the bottom part of the table in preparation for delivery.  At 8:36am, Maxwell Jacob took his first breath, cried his first cry, and my first words to Luke were, "Is he really a boy?" I had to ask Luke twice (he was rightfully distracted in the moment!), and he finally confirmed that the ultrasound tech was right 20 weeks prior.  As the doctors immediately placed my baby on my chest as they rubbed him down, the first thing I said to my son was, "Ooohh, hi baby, hi baby."  The whole thing still feels so surreal, and I would have a hard time believing that it all really happened if it wasn't for the fact that Max is actually here.

17 Weeks

My work load on Tuesday nights has dwindled a bit, so I figured that I could use this extra, baby-free time to post updates.  I know that I am going to be sad that I didn't update as much during the first 3 months, but better late than never, right?


This past week was Thanksgiving break, and I was grateful to be able to spend 6 glorious days off of work with my most favorite people. On Thanksgiving, my cousins were able to meet Max for the first time, and he spent a lot of the day in the arms of his doting Kleinberg Aunties.  I love seeing them interact with Max, and that they love him just as much as we do.  He did such a great job being passed around from person to person, while not really getting much of a nap in during the afternoon.  Poor little bug also didn't get to really nap when we got to Luke's parents' house, but we did get about an hour of resting time while we were there.  His cousin, Lily, has been super sweet with her baby cousin, so hopefully that is a good sign for how she will interact with her still-baking little sister (due mid-February).  She loves to be helpful while he gets his diaper changed, and tells me that the baby is hungry when she sees me nursing Max.  She'll sing songs, and read books to him.  On Thanksgiving, Max spent a good 15 minutes watching Lily run up and down the hall, and she cheered ("Yaaaaay, Mawksh!") when he almost rolled over.  Seeing little ones interact in that way gets me excited for the day that we are able to give Max a little sibling- knowing that he'll have a live-in friend, someone to get into trouble with, someone to support emotionally, and protect as the big brother.  I get teary-eyed thinking about having to split my love and attention between two kids, but I know that I will be even more surprised by how much my love for my family will grow.

It really is amazing how much can change with infants just over the course of a week.  During my time home with Maxwell, he became an expert at rolling from his back to his belly (he's been rolling from belly to back since he was about 2.5 months old), he reaches for things that he wants, he has found his tongue, and he has discovered his voice!

I have been watching Max try to master the skill of rolling from back to belly over the last couple of weeks.  He would always get SO close, but his arm kept getting in the way.  To finally have that moment where everything clicked was incredible.  The look of pride and excitement on his face was priceless.  He now has the ability to choose if he wants to be on his back, or if he'd like to be on his stomach.  While the motion is still a bit choppy, he's getting better and better at it every day.


He's also realized that he can choose to reach out and grab for specific items.  He loves the new Comotomo teether, and the Manhattan Winkel Ball we got for him this past week, and will reach out for them when he sees them.  He also routinely reaches out for Lucy and Kale, and when we bring him near, he'll pet them.

Max has also discovered that he can stick his tongue out and move it around outside of his mouth.  His big smiles usually include the tongue sticking out, but it would typically stay in one place.  Now he has realized that he can lick at the collar of his shirt, and stick it out as far as it can go.  What makes it especially fun is that if you stick your tongue out at Max, he'll smile and then start sticking his tongue out as well.  I didn't realize how much babies mimic things at such a young age!

I love how vocal my little man has become.  Before, when he was starting to make noises, it would be a moment of slight panic, because the noises usually meant that it was time to eat, and that there was only a short amount of time before he would be full out screaming for food.  Now when the sounds start coming out of his mouth, he is typically talking to one of us, a dog, or his toys.  I adore his raspy little baby voice as he coos and laughs.  It's fun to "talk" back to him by mimicking his sounds.  He gets the biggest grin on his face and it often times encourages him to talk even more.

Maxwell completely melts my heart, and even though his sleeping pattern has been a bit worse for wear, I forget about how utterly exhausted I am, as I am overcome with this deep love that I never could have imagined feeling for someone who has been in my life for such a short amount of time.

Next week, I should be able to update with how his 4 month appointment went!  I'm excited to see how much he's grown over the last two months (though I'll probably take his shots worse than he does...)!