- Since she was born at home, we were left alone with her at home just hours after her birth - SCARY!
- First night was both an adrenaline high and incredibly frightening. We were warned that due to her quick trip thru the birth canal she would be mucousy but we had NO IDEA how much - she would choke on it and we FREAKED out. She also would vomit large volumes of it. Needless to say a middle of the night page to our Midwife was made for reassurance - also? She slept with us because we were totally scared to death of her choking.
- Kathryn sleeps in the bassinet of her pack n' play in our room
- Daddy stayed home with us for the first two weeks, he took care of me and I took care of baby :)
- Kathryn was NOT interested in feeding from the breast for the first few days but I was really worried (not as much for her but about protecting my milk supply) so at 48hrs we started hand expressing colostrum into a little cup - Daddy was much better at expressing it than I was so he did the work! We then cup fed her every 3hrs. The cup feeding was ADORABLE and I'm sad I didn't take any pictures - she would lap it up like a little kitten from the cup :)
- We took her out of the house for the first time at 72hrs old to see a chiropractor to see if an adjustment would help her with breastfeeding/latching on.
- My milk came in at 72hrs and magically (and just after an emergency pump rental) she started to latch on and feed!
- We had problems with pain/sore/cracked nipple on the right side and it was torture to feed from that side for a good two weeks!
- She still doesn't have a "perfect" latch but it's not painful to me and she is being fed so we've left it
- I had gained 20lbs during the pregnancy and lost all of it by 7 days post partum, I lost an additional 5lbs by 10 days post partum and am now 10lbs lighter than my pre-pregnancy weight - I'm happy because I was about 30lbs overweight when I got pregnant (yay for breastfeeding!) - still another 20lbs to my ideal weight but I've got a jump start on it now
-Kathryn is gaining well - in fact we don't think she lost any of the weight babies traditionally lose after birth. By 5 days old she had gained 10oz over her birth weight and by 3weeks old she had gained 2lbs total
- She is an even tempered baby - she generally only cries when she's hungry or needs changing. Occasionally she cries (screams) because she's overtired or overstimulated but we've learned to watch for sleepy cues and to never keep her awake for more than 2hrs at a time
- She generally feeds every 3-4hrs now though she has gone as long as 7hrs between feeds (once! It half scared me when I woke and realized what time it was and half thrilled me!)
- She loves bath time with Daddy
- She has started social smiling (smiling when we talk to her, etc.)
- She has more clothes than I do now - everyone brings her clothes when they come to visit. She even has 5 pairs of shoes and a pair of rain boots!
That's it in a nutshell!
I'm starting to try baby wearing and this should make coming down to the basement and hitting the computer a bit easier! Hopefully I'll have some more posts soon! Real posts - not like this one ;)
