Welcome Home Emi! - first 2 weeks home

The past weeks have been a challenge, to say the least. It's been a steep learning curve, and we have had some breast feeding challenges, and a few nights of very little sleep (did I say very little?).

First, I must say that even with a normal delivery, there is definitely recovery time for moms. Ladies - I highly suggest that you take the ice packs that the hospital offers, and stay on them the entire time you are in the hospital. I didn't like the way they felt when they started melting, so declined them after the first one. Big mistake, which I paid for, for days after coming home because I was still a swollen mess.

The first day home was kind of rough on us. I was still sore in the sitting down area (which didn't really get better for about a week), but Grandma and Grandpa Y met us when we got home, and brought us lunch. They did come to see Emi at the hospital every day, but it was nice to have a welcoming party waiting for us. Emi met Bear and Chewie - Chewie was very curious and wanted to come and inspect her all over; Bear seemed to want to give her space and seemed to go upstairs everytime she was downstairs, and go downstairs every time she was upstairs. Emi was a little jaundiced, so the doctor suggested that we put her in indirect sunlight through a window. It was so hot in the house that day, and I probably should not have done that, but she slept for over an hour by the window, and I think she got dehydrated (which may have caused what I describe in the next paragraph). But we made it through the rest of the day, and Emi woke up around 2am that night (which we expected) and we fed her and spent about 10-15 minutes rocking her back to sleep.

The one thing the hospital tells you to do is count the number of diaper changes you go through the first days. The second day at home had Scott running around town trying to find lighter swaddling blankets and Lanolin cream for my nipples. When he got home we got concerned because it was 1pm and there were still no dirty diapers that day. We called the ped, and they said to bring her in right away. They weighed her, and she came in at 6 lbs, 4 oz. They said she lost 15% of her body weight, and this was not good (but up to 10% loss is normal, so don't worry ladies if that's you). We were then told to start supplementing with formula at each feeding. That night we gave her her first supplement through a syringe in her mouth, and she was not a happy camper all night. She spent the majority of that night crying. From there, the pattern of sleepness nights started (which lasted the first 2 weeks). She would sleep great one night, waking up for just her middle of the night feeding. The next night, she would cry the majority of the night and rocking and swaddling did not help one bit. Then it would start over again with a good night the next night.

The following day we went back to the hospital (I didn't think I would see this place so soon again) to talk to the lactation consultant. She gave us a tube to help with the supplement so that we could do it while feeding, and she told me to start using my pump after every feeding. This should help my milk some in quicker, and get her off the supplement sooner. The next day, Emi had her newborn ped appt, and she weighed in at 6 lbs, 11 oz. This was a good sign that we were headed in the right direction, and she told us to keep supplementing and doing what we were doing. Otherwise, Emi checked out just fine. The ped also showed us the trick of how to tell if her diaper is wet. There is a line on the outside that turns blue if it's wet (because diapers are so absorbent these days you can't really tell if they are wet). I wonder how many wet diapers we just let her sit in because we didn't know to look for the line?

We continued with the pumping and supplementing all weekend, but I wasn't getting much out of the pump at all. On Monday, I called the lactation consultant to see if this is normal (which it was), and she said that we are probably doing just fine if Emi isn't crying of hunger all day. But she did suggest that we come in to get a hospital grade pump until my milk comes in, since it might come in quicker with that pump. So we took yet another trip to the hospital!

So overall, the first 2 weeks consisted of my recovery, changing diapers, feeding, supplementing, and pumping. Notice there is very little sleep mentioned? Scott was able to take the entire first week off work, and also stayed home on Monday. Then he went to work Tue - Fri on week 2. Luckily, my mom was able to come over almost every day to help, but it was a tiring and frustrating 2 weeks. There was a lot of crying going on - both from Emi and from me. Looking back, those weeks may have been worse than the labor itself. No one tells you about these things, and adjusting to a newborn is a lot harder than I ever imagined. Everyone says it gets easier - so let's wait for that...