WEEK ONE

Oliver was born on Monday and because I had a C-section I had to stay in the hospital until Thursday. I have to say that I’m very lucky to have such a wonderful husband. Because I wasn’t able to get out of bed due to the surgery and being hooked up to a catheder (it’s sooo weird not having to think about going to the bathroom) he ended up doing a lot of the dirty work, such as changing those first nasty meconium diapers.

They really do leave your baby next to you in a bassinet 24/7. Gone are the days where they cart your baby away so you can get some much needed rest after labor. There is no grace period of slowly getting to know how to be a parent, you really are thrust into the thick of things. I know that not all fathers stay over night with their partners (my neighbor in the room for example) so I felt incredible lucky to have a husband who was willing to sleep in a very uncomfortable chair to keep me company and offer support emotionally and physically as we both got to know our new son.

We were very lucky that our little newborn wasn’t a screamer when he cried. He would whimper like a little lamb. We discovered that by sticking a finger in his mouth to suck on calmed him immediately.

As I mentioned before breast feeding didn’t go so well. He had a quivering lower jaw (which some of the nurses believed was from the forceps that were used during delivery) and there for had a hard time keeping a latch. And trust me…we tried…and tried…I had many people trying to shove my baby onto my breast. No joke they really do shove! We then decided that I would pump and feed him out of a cup. That way he would at least get the colostrum. By luck of the draw I had this noisy pump that would make this ‘clu-clunk’ sound while pumping…I had to laugh as I sat in the dark at night hunched over pumping feeling like a cow. ‘clu-clunk, clu-clunk’.

In the end we were finger feeding him formula as he was a little jaundice and had lost a bit too much weight.

During the whole hospital experience I have to say that the nurses were INCREDIBLE, despite the whole breastfeeding thing. They work long days and don’t have to be as nice as they are. They took really good care of us.

But…was I happy to get out of there and bring Oliver home!

I don’t think that I actually nested until we got home. Running on adrenaline, when Oliver was sleeping My husband and I rearranged our house like crazy people cleaning and making it more baby friendly. Those first nights we were so deliriously tired we would just start laughing uncontrollably at anything. All time disappeared. We realized this when we finally managed to give Oliver his first bath at 2 in the morning!

We found that he didn’t like sleeping in his crib, so he would sleep in the playpen downstairs with me lying on the couch beside him. We received a sleep sheep (or lamby to us) and it’s his new best friend. He loves the sound of the rain setting and it helps him to fall asleep almost immediately. When I happened to find out that he would sleep longer if I was holding him while lying on the couch…well, I jumped all over that opportunity of course!

I also found out that my baby spits up…A LOT! Hence the reason he is always wearing a bib…day and night.

At this point he would sleep for about 2-3 hours at a time, and then wake up to eat. He slept a lot during this first week.

Things I found I didn’t have enough of when I came home?

-bibs

-receiving blankets

-swaddling blankets

Because I didn’t have enough of these things I was constantly doing laundry!