Cats. What can you do?

Those of you who were with me through the pregnancy know that our cats appropriated most of the baby furniture almost immediately as it arrived in the house.  Well, apparently things don't change once the baby arrives. The changing pad was delivered today, and this happened within five minutes!

Martin even tried to tackle the box in his own.  This is the action shot of a cat realizing he has made a poor decision and is trying to backtrack. Silly kitty!

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

You ever see those internet posts that say how hard it is to move when your pet falls asleep on you, that you'll sit there until limbs fall off rather than disturb them? Yeah.... multiply that by like a thousand and it's starting to reach the sleeping baby levels. She is just so cute when she's sleeping!! Forget that my arm is tingling, my foot itches, or I haven't had breakfast yet! My baby is snoozing!

One Week Down!

Saturday 8/30
Sunday 8/31

WE HAVE SURVIVED THE FIRST WEEK!!!

It's exciting and exhausting and bewildering and stimulating and... and... and... I'm just pleased that we all are alive at the end of the week with no significant damage.  Admittedly, my mom is still here, and both grandmas are helping A LOT (seriously, how do new moms survive without grandmas' help??), but we made it!  Everyone is being so thoughtful and helpful with me that honestly I'm a little concerned about when I'm on my own next week after Mom leaves and John has to go to work.  It's hard to ask for help sometimes, you know?  Even when you know you will probably get it, it's still hard.

Anyways, we celebrated the week-aversary with our usual pre-baby weekend plans: taking it easy at home!  It was nice to feel a little like "normal" again, and Ella was often cooperating by being calm and not very fussy today.  She usually does well during the day and gets cranky at bedtime.  All the medical professional say that most babies are nocturnal and give their parents problems at bedtime simply because they don't know what "day" and "night" mean yet.  Ella did get her first bath on Saturday. It was very stressful and weird.  The water part was kind of okay, but the soap and cleaning was not.  It takes a lot of hassle to be "clean," in her opinion.  The towel at the end was interesting, though.

 And it seems that good days are followed by cranky nights, and vice versa.  Saturday was quite nice, but Saturday night was pretty tough. We think Ella was a little congested, so she really didn't want to be lying down flat to sleep.  Which meant a lot of rocking and holding and singing and praying and snuggling.  Which of course meant that she slept all morning on Sunday to recover.  Boo, Ella! We really need to figure out that darkness means sleepy time, and daylight means cute cuddles & social time.  At least she is alternating fussy nights with semi-decent nights so far. We haven't really had two bad nights in a row yet (knock on wood!!).  I'm pretty sure that's a survival instinct that babies are born with.  Yes, you can test your parents, but throw them a bone every now and then so they won't disown you!  Haha.

Little Girl Cat refuses to surrender lap space to the new interloper

How to Lose 7lbs in 2days

Thursday 8/28
Friday 8/29

Thursday definitely went by in a blur of exhaustion and tired boobies. Have you ever heard of "cluster feeding?"  It's pretty rough.  Essentially, for various reasons (stimulating milk, growth spurt, etc), all baby wants to do is eat.  But, Anne, you say, all babies do is eat and poo; how is this different? Well, cluster feeding is more like baby wants to do nothing else but eat -- no poo, no sleep, nothing.  For those who understand quantitative measures better: Ella averages about 15 feedings each day... but on Thursday, she ate 31 times!!  She wanted a quick snack about every 30-45 minutes, which doesn't sound too bad until you realize she needs to latch on every 30min.  Neither of us were very satisfied after each feeding. It was nowhere near as bad as engorgement, but it lead to some pretty sore ta-tas at the end of the day.  Also, I'm fairly certain that my complete focus on Ella's nutritional needs came at a detriment to my own (but really, what else is new after nine months of pregnancy?).  The title of this post is no lie; I really did lose 7lbs between Wednesday and Friday.  I know a lot is fluid weight as well as some more uterine bleeding, but not having time to eat for almost a whole day probably helped.  P.S. I do not recommend this diet plan!!

Friday was our day to get out of the house and try out the new MeiTai carrier -- we went down to take the trash out!  Exciting!  The mei tai ("may-tie") worked out well; I just need to get used to tying it.  I didn't get one of the straps tight enough this time, but overall the design is nice and sturdy.  I think it will work well for trips out of the house that I will need a hands-free carrying system.  Plus, our outing must have helped tire out the little monkey because we actually had some success in getting her to sleep in the rock n' play Friday night. She's not comfortable to lie flat in the bassinet yet, but the intermediary step has been accomplished at least for one night!

Snoozing while Mom does the hard work

Sneezles!

We seem to be handling our body functions better, but sneezes still scare us. This is our post-sneeze stunned face.

Momma Merit Badges

Well, I got spit up in my hair yesterday.  That's got to count for a merit badge, right?

By my count, I'm racking them up:
- spit up in hair
- calling the pediatrician after midnight
- projectile poop
- no make up or "real" clothes for over a week / going to Walmart like that
- letting my child cry a little longer because we both really had to pee, but we both didn't have the luxury of diapers

Crazy Day of Outings

Wednesday 8/29
We had our official first doctor's check-up for Ella this morning. (Of course, she received an A+.  Why would you doubt it?)  What amused me was trying to get three ladies out the door on time!  Knowing how hard it is to get just me ready on time, I really shouldn't have been surprised that adding my mother and my daughter to the mix would make it about a thousand times more difficult.  Haha.  So, I fed Ella breakfast when she wanted it, but of course, as soon as we started to look at our watches and try to hurry out the door, she starts getting hungry again!  Bah!  I called John (who was meeting us there) and said that I would try to feed her quickly and just hope that it would last her until we got home again..... Nope!  Kids do what they want.  We weren't really late, but Ella did need a quick little top-off while we waited for the doctor to see us.  Other than the trauma of being naked for Dr. Cold Hands, we rather enjoyed riding in the car.

Trying to look classy for the doctor, but my socks are too big!

Doctor's report -- she's practically regained all the weight she lost after birth.  She only lost 2% while in the hospital (average is about 7%) and had already gained all but the last ounce or two back.  Babies have the first week to resume their birth weight.  Ella also was looking so good that she did not get the official bilirubin test for jaundice.  Actually, it was the amount of diapers she was going through that made the doc feel the most comfortable about her progress.  What can I say, pooping champion!

We took naps in the afternoon, but when John went to the gym, we met him there afterwards to meet and greet some of the friendly staff who have been watching me get ever bigger these past few months.  Our trainer was impressed that I was up and about already.  He said that he's already used me as fitness motivation for some of his other clients.  "See her?  She did natural childbirth and looks great!"  Haha.

Still wearing these dad-gum mittens
because I keep scratching my face

All this good news is usually moderated with some bad.  And the bad came later that night.  Mom was helping me a lot with "the night shift," as I called it, so that I could rest a little and John would still be able to go to work in the morning.  However, we hadn't really yet figured out temperature control for our house.  While pregnant, I had cranked the thermostat to the "arctic tundra" setting, but I was concerned that it would be freezing Ella in the night.  We had been dressing her in long-sleeve pajamas as we wrestled to get the thermostat regulated again.  Well..... this night Ella decided to tell us that it was too much clothing for sleeping. Unfortunately, I don't speak Baby so what really happened was many, many hours of a fussy, cranky baby who wanted nothing to do with anything.  I finally was about to lose my sanity (and maybe cry again) around 2:30, so I called the pediatrician, only to find out that their ask-a-nurse is not available from midnight to 6am! Argh!  I either had to wait four more hours of listening to my baby suffer or go to the emergency room. Thankfully, pretty soon after that, she needed a diaper changed and I felt her little hot belly, deciding to get her less clothing as an experiment.  You know, when you finally understand what the baby is trying to tell you, you get pretty fast results!  Ella calmed down really quickly and was able to sleep a little after that.  Mark me down for already completing my first sleepless night concerned about my baby's health.  There aren't anymore of those in my future, right?  (sarcasm)

Adventures with Boobies

Tuesday, August 28
Sooooo, while you may hear a lot about "sore nipples" with breastfeeding, there is nothing to prepare you for the reality.  Yikes!!!  Getting settled at home was pretty rough on Tuesday because both Ella and I were getting used to feeding schedules and techniques.  My boobies swelled up like cantaloupes as the milk was coming in, which just made it harder for poor Ella to get any kind of latch, let alone a good one. (The pediatrician later called it, "like trying to kiss a basketball." Poor Ella!  Poor me!) I was so uncomfortable that I ended up pumping twice just to relieve the horrible pressure.... I may have had my first hormonal, postpartum cry over not being able to feed my baby.  Not admitting to anything.

And, ladies, we should all be thankful.  I know a lot of us new moms this year have gotten our breast pumps through our insurance plans, which is pretty sweet in itself.  But let's remember how far we have come in the pure technology aspect, too:  My mother was watching me set up the pump for the first time and commented, "Oh they gave you two bottles?"  No, mom, it's a double electric pump.  "You mean you can do both at once??!?"  Mother then described to me how thirty-(cough cough) years ago, she was unable to get even an electric pump, let alone a double pump.  She told me that she did all her pumping by hand.  Let's all flashback to having to pump a bike tire or something- it sucks!  My mother and your mothers are troopers for hand-pumping everything for us!  It was super cute that Mom spent most of that afternoon sighing and swooning over the double-electric pump.  She even called my aunt, who was jealous, too.  Aunt said that twenty-five-ish years ago, she was able to rent a huge, cantankerous electric pump, but still had to do each boob separately.  I know I'm thankful not to have to deal with that!

Taking a nap while we wait for Daddy to come home from work

First Fancy Photos

One more thing from the hospital -- apparently they don't do the "baby mugshots" anymore, but rather have a connection with a professional photographer to do a mini photo shoot of you and the newborn before you leave the hospital.  I thought it would be weird, but it was over quickly and we really got some good pictures out of the deal.  Ella was such a good baby for being less than 12 hours old and having her first photo shoot.  We even got several with her eyes open and looking at the camera!

These are some of my favorites.  Commence photo dump!

 

 

 

 
Humorous anecdote -- as part of the whole "born just before midnight" thing, we had gone to bed around 2:30-3:00 Sunday morning once everything was settled.  I guess the photographer comes to your room "the next day" after birth to take her pictures, which for us was barely 6 hours after we went to sleep!  She came to our room mere minutes after I had gotten out of the bed, put on real clothes, and run a brush through my hair.  Any earlier, and we would have looked completely atrocious!

Anecdote #2 -- I had ordered several onesies with her name on them to wear coming home from the hospital.  But the little stinker came so early that only this one arrived before she did! I think she looks super cute, though, so it all worked out.  (P.S. Yes, of course I made her hat.  Even if it is August, babies need a hat)

In the Hospital

There's not much to say about our stay in the hospital.  It seemed very chaotic because none of the three of us knew what we were doing or had a routine or was running on adequate levels of sleep.  We stayed in the hospital all day Sunday and were discharged around lunchtime on Monday.  It was so short because Ella came before midnight Saturday night, so our "next two days after birth" were Sunday & Monday.  If she had come just 20min later and been born after 12:01am Sunday, the two days would have been Monday & Tuesday.  Go figure.  I'm still not sure if we would have benefited from that extra day in the hospital or if we were just ready to go home.

Ella had great complexion until she started to scratch herself.
Apparently babies are born with raptor talons. Who knew?

John's family was great while we were at the hospital.  They helped take care of our house -- feeding the cats and taking out the trash (Remember that futon? We hadn't even had a chance to take the boxes to the dumpster yet!) -- and they came to visit bringing breakfast and goodies for us.  My mom was able to take a whole week off to come and help us, too.  If there's one thing I've learned with a new baby, is that it really does take a village to raise a child.  Even if "all" they do is bring dinner or hold the baby while mom takes a nap, the extra help is invaluable!!!

My mom came just in time to help us get home.
 Ella thinks having two grandmas is pretty cool.

Sunday night going into Monday was the toughest part, I think.  I wanted to feel better and I wanted to get into a routine with Ella, but apparently it was still much too early for all that.  I was tired and sore, and Ella was not sure about this "being outside the womb" craziness, so we both struggled during the night.  A lot of doctors and nurses and visitors had come through our room during the day, so daytime napping had not occurred as much as we had hoped.  To make sleep even more elusive, our hospital does "rooming in" instead of taking all the babies away to the nursery.  (It's supposed to be great for bonding and all that).  This means that even when John and I were taking turns getting sleep, there wasn't really anywhere the one could take her so that the other could sleep.  It is hard to sleep in the same room as a fussy baby!  I think the night nurse took pity on us.  She definitely saw each of us trying to soothe Ella over an extended time, and finally she offered to take Ella to the nursery for a few hours.  That really helped us both get a decent nap in before we were back on baby duty.

Monday was much more relaxed as all we really did were final wellness checks on Ella, take a shower (gasp!), and review discharge procedures.  We left the hospital around lunchtime, and realizing that we had no real food in the house since we'd been gone several days now, we decided to grab lunch on the way home.  And what better way to celebrate Ella coming home than the way we started to greet her Saturday morning?  Why, back to the bakery, of course!  (Also, John and I were a little concerned that the girls working had suffered trauma or something because of that crazy pregnant lady. Haha)  Well, the girls weren't working Monday, but the owner was there and he was just tickled with our story.  I'm pretty sure he created a "new baby, free loaf of bread" policy right then and there, but I'm not going to complain.  So, loaded down with sandwiches and tasty snacks for a few days, we finally arrived home.

Yes, our pushy cat, Martin, was not affected by Ella at all.
No one was surprised.