The First Weeks

September 2 - 13

Ok- I'm going to try to get down as much as I can before I forget it all (it's already starting to mix together... what day is it??).

Madison was born at 10:44pm on Wednesday, September 1. We stayed in the delivery room for a couple of hours while the nurses checked the baby and me and we visited with family. Then, around 1am, we moved to the postpartum room. By that time I was STARVING, since the last thing I had eaten was a strawberry lemonade smoothie at 2pm. Unfortunately the kitchen was closed, and all they could offer me was a mini box of cereal and some graham crackers with peanut butter- dinner of champions! We were able to get a LITTLE sleep that night, but the nurse had to come check on me every hour for the first 4 hours to make sure my uterus was contracting and the bleeding was slowing down. Madison was nursing about every 3 hours. We had a lot of trouble getting her to sleep between feedings- she didn't want to be put down.

The next couple of days in the hospital are all kind of a blur. On Thursday Mitchell's mom came to see us in the early afternoon and brought beautiful flowers and balloons. We got lunch from Panera (hospital food just didn't sound very good- although their breakfast wasn't bad...). Tommy and Kim came up to visit us and gave us a TON of presents, as well as a really cool teddy bear made from recycled plastic and a bunch of balloons. Then my parents came later that day and brought eggplant parm from Eddie Spaghetti- my FAVORITE (and garlic knots- yum!!) and more flowers- our room was looking gorgeous. Aubrie, Erin and Jacob (and his daughter) came to visit that afternoon too. There certainly wasn't a lack of visitors :)

On Thursday evening the nurse weighed Madison and her weight had dropped from 6 lbs 13 oz to 5 lbs 15 oz. (To make matters worse, they had incorrectly put the birth weight in the computer as 6 lbs 15 oz.) The nurses were concerned because she had lost more than 10% of her birth weight, so they told us to supplement with formula until my milk came in. We used a curved syringe to squirt the formula into her mouth while she sucked on my finger to avoid using a bottle- I didn't want to risk confusing her and messing up the breastfeeding. Her bilirubin test also came back in the high-normal range (8.9), so they told us to check in with the pediatrician on Saturday to have her weighed and to monitor the jaundice.

On Friday we were discharged from the hospital after getting checked out by my doctor, the pediatrician, and the lactation consultant. Friday night, our first night at home, was definitely eventful. Madison was not thrilled with the idea of sleeping in her own room, and none of us ended up getting much sleep that night (except maybe Michael). Luckily Mitchell's mom stayed with us and was able to hold her between feedings to let me get some sleep (and I put Mitchell on night time diaper duty!).
We went to the doctor on Saturday morning. Madison's weight was up to 6 lbs exactly (about 1/2 oz weight gain per day). Her bilirubin level had increased some, up to 12.6, so the pediatrician told us to keep supplementing with a little formula and to take her outside to get some sun. My milk came in that morning, so we were hoping that would help her to gain more weight, and decided to wean her off the formula to help my milk supply come in right.

We had more visitors on Saturday- Cindy, Dan, Kelly, Sandra and Taylor all came over. Later that afternoon my parents stopped by too. Everyone brought a bunch of food with them, so we had tons of food for the week! Madison watched her first Clemson game (win over North Texas 35-10). We also took Madison on her first walk with the dogs- she wasn't all that fond of the stroller though... I ended up holding her for most of the walk.
I don't really remember much else from the next few days. We took lots of pictures, went back to the doctor on Monday (weight was up to 6 lbs 1 oz, bilirubin dropped to 10.6- no more jaundice), gave her her first bath, Mo came to visit on Tuesday, bought a co-sleeper (made for MUCH better sleeping), went back to the doctor again on Thursday (normal 1 week checkup- weight was up to 6 lbs 2 oz), and went to school to check on my sub on Friday. On Saturday Madison took her first trip to Costco (we got a lot of stares with her in the mei tai, but wearing her definitely made the trip easier!), then we went home to watch her second Clemson game (win over Presbyterian 58-21).
We had more visits from family on Sunday (my parents in the morning, and Mitchell's family in the afternoon). Then Madison and I said goodbye to Mitchell as he headed back to work. We checked in with Skype when he got to his apartment so he could say goodnight :)

My first night alone went pretty well... Madison nursed every 4 hours, so I got about 3 hour stretches of sleep. The only minor issue was at her 5am feeding. She must have had a big gas bubble, because she spit up her entire meal (all over the changing table, herself, her onesie, her blanket, and her swaddling blanket)... then realized she was hungry again. Overall, I got almost 8 hours of sleep (broken up into chunks, but still not bad).

The most exciting part of my day so far? Just as I take the last load of laundry out of the washing machine, Madison explodes one up her back, through her onesie and all over the carrier... awesome timing. The silver lining? That was the THIRD blowout in disposables... cloth diapers have got to fit better than this! Ah the joys of mommyhood :)