Life sure has been busy with a newborn! Ben and I quickly discovered that everything takes at least twice as long as usual with a brand new baby, but fortunately we have found ways to tag team so pretty much everything eventually gets done. I started writing a post about his first week last Tuesday, and we're now nearing his two week birthday! Long-ish periods of time to write seem to have gone away with a newborn around. Instead of the one week birthday post I had planned, here's a recap of what's been going on since we have been home from the hospital. Lots of cute baby pictures are scattered throughout since we know that is really why you are checking the blog anyway. ;-)
- Last Tuesday morning I woke up to feed Max and when I noticed the clock said 7:04am I burst in to tears. My tiny little baby is already growing up!
- Nursing is going pretty well. Max has a great latch and I have an ample milk supply. He is still a sleepy newborn so it is often difficult to keep him awake for an entire nursing session. The hospital where we delivered has a free lactation consultant hotline and I have already called twice for advice related to what I thought might be oversupply of milk on one side (turns out I have a super producer), length of feedings, time between feedings, keeping the baby awake, interested, and calm (versus just screaming at me when he's trying to nurse), and lots of other questions. Max hasn't been nursing "by the book" which made me a little nervous that he wasn't getting enough of the fatty milk to eat (during a feeding it's like "skim milk" at the beginning and "whole milk" at the end. Babies need both.).
I've had more than one meltdown over the whole thing including one bout of sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor crying hysterically (I'm sure post-partum hormones are partly to blame). Between some of the advice I've gotten from the lactation consultants and a very, very supportive husband I've started to relax a bit and tried to find some balance between Max's cues and what he is "supposed to be doing". The quantity and contents of his diapers indicate he's getting enough food, and when we had to pick up some paperwork at the pediatrician's office on Friday I asked if we could stick him on the scale to make sure he is gaining weight. It turns out Max is nearly eight pounds now! That means he not only returned to, but exceeded his birth weight in a week and a half! This makes Mama feel muuuuch better.
(Need to carry a basket full of laundry and baby? Stick the baby in the basket!)
- Nursing is extremely time consuming as 20 minutes of actual eating can take close to an hour to complete once you add in time to keep the baby awake, calm, and burped and get a diaper changed. I track his feedings and diaper changes with an iPhone app. It has all kinds of neat charts summarizing his feedings and diapers in various ways. Looking at the daily summaries he usually eats for just under four hours each day, but I probably spend closer to eight hours a day feeding him.
- Max's umbilical cord stump fell off on the eve of his one week birthday! His belly button is sort f half in and half out. We're thinking it may become an "innie" once he gets some fat on his little belly.
- Max's circumcision has healed nicely and we no longer have to mess with the gauze and petroleum jelly during each diaper change which has been amazing (you have to put a gauze pad with petroleum jelly over the penis to keep the healing area from sticking to the diaper).
- After getting peed on many times during feedings (usually out the side or top of the diaper), we've learned to change the diaper before he eats and to fasten them much, much tighter.
- Our bedroom carpet and curtains have been "anointed" on more than one occasion. The carpet cleaner a a roll of paper towels now have a permanent spot alongside Max's other baby gear in our room.
- We don't have anyone to compare him to, but it seems like Max is already getting stronger. If he is propped up on a shoulder or laying on a chest face down he will often lift his head for a good ten or twenty seconds.
- Generally speaking (and knock on wood!) Max is an easy going baby. He only cries when he's cold or if we haven't met a need quick enough (usually hunger or gas). We try to pick up on his cues before he gets fussy as it makes it more difficult for him to get what he wants. For example, if he starts to cry hysterically because he's hungry I have a really hard time getting him to calm down enough to realize I am trying to feed him and he'll just scream instead of latching on.
- Max had a pediatrician appointment the Friday after we came home from the hospital. The doctor said everything looked great and he doesn't need to see us again until Max is a month old. I can't remember how it came up, but the pediatrician said something like, "At this point he's pretty much just a brain stem and everything he does is a reflex." We thought it was a funny comment for him to make. :-)
- Our sleep has been somewhat challenging. Usually during the day we feel okay, but do try to take a snooze when possible. It can be hard to sleep during daytime hours, though, so it doesn't always happen. The middle of the night wake-ups are really hard as we're usually getting roused from a deep sleep every few hours. Max usually has to be woken up to eat and I set an alarm to make sure I get up, but I guess mother's instinct kicks in as I often wake-up on my own a few minutes before the alarm goes off. "Sleep when the baby sleeps" isn't necessarily practical as we have to do things like bathe, eat, and accomplish a few non-baby things to maintain our mental health. Also, it's unpredictable how long he will sleep during the day so it's always a race against the clock. One nice thing about nighttime feedings is that he's now old enough to eat every four hours at night (after 10:00 or 11:00pm) instead of every two to three hours. This means we get three hour stretches which has been great (feedings are from start time to start time, so you have to subtract out the time for the actual feeding, diapering, etc.).
- At first both of us got up for all the night time feedings. Ben would change Max's diaper while I went to the bathroom (which is time consuming due to post-partum care) and got ready to nurse. Now that we've gotten a bit more accustomed to Max and are faster at changing diapers (partly due to not having to work around a healing umbilical cord stump and circumcision) I just get up and Ben is "on call" to help as needed. It's working well so far.
- I'm doing pretty well on the post-partum front. It's been far more messy, involved, and uncomfortable than I anticipated. I've been doing my best to take it easy, but it can be challenging as I am used to being on the go. Ben has been amazing in picking up the majority of the household to-dos (laundry, meals, etc.) so I can spend time nursing, resting, and tending to other post-partum care. My belly still has a bit of a bump and is very, very mushy feeling because my abdominal muscles are separated from being pregnant. I have some exercises that the nurses gave me to do to help bring my abdominal muscles back in to place. All of my healing will take four to six weeks.
This photo was taken on Max's one week birthday. The bump has continued to go down, but my belly is still mushy feeling.
He used to fit in my belly!
