Week Two

Rusty had returned to work when Adaline was a week old, it was so helpful to have him around during that first week and it only further proved my belief that our paternity-leave system here in America is a joke. However, we continued on.

That week was full of surprises; Thursday night, Addie's diaper caught her umbilical chord stump and ended up pulling it off (from what the doctor said earlier that day it was close to falling off), I freaked out and Addie looked at me with quite the look but seemed unfazed. Saturday morning I noticed a little white in Addie's mouth, at first I thought it was clumps of formula and tried to gently wipe them away--but when they wouldn't come off I knew what it was; thrush. By that evening what was little white dots became something far more as the thrush began to thrive and take over her mouth. By about 7:45 that night with a completely white mouth that smelled of yeast; I knew I had to take her in, but of course the only place open was the Urgent Care. So, I hauled her in and we played the waiting game, once it was finally our turn, the doctor only had to barely peak into her mouth to know that it was thrush and prescribed medicine. Sunday was my very first Mother's Day, which was bittersweet as a I felt blessed with my baby girl, but bummed that Rusty had to be out of town. We ended up celebrating and having a wonderful time with Lorie and her family. Sunday was also Addie's first real bath, until then it was sponge baths all the way for her. She didn't seem to mind the water, but became quickly upset when removing her to dry her off; I suspect it is because she became chilled.

Josie watches intently, wondering why the baby gets all the attention.

The week was met with many new challenges, such as working to establish a feeding and sleeping routine. Some nights she was able to sleep for upwards of three hours at a time (I say just her because I was constantly waking up to check on her). Other nights it was a hourly thing. Feeding was a whole new ballgame...my milk still hadn't come in and I was trying tea and other supplements in an effort to produce milk. I was met with defeat when I was only producing two ounces a day, which was not near enough since Adaline was consuming up to 14+ ounces a day. Also, Adaline had decided that each time she woke, it was time to eat. This worked well during the day because she was sleeping at least two hours at a time (although it was still her on me to sleep), but her pediatrician said that we needed to break that habit. Also, Addie still needed to sleep on one of us in order to fully rest. We had tried putting her in her bassinet and crib multiple times, both failed miserably as she cried and screamed--and after 20 minutes of that we decided she was just not having any of it and was too little to employ the "cry it out" technic. We tried swaddling and were met with a similar result. The only thing that seemed to work was her rocker (in short periods of time) or on us. Of course this went against everything we were told in the multiple classes we took on care and safety for babies.

By Thursday we had her two week checkup, she weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces, was 20.5" long and her head circumference was 36 inches. They also had to take a blood sample, which was absolutely heartbreaking. As I held her, the nurse pricked her heel and had to bleed her for five drops, but because she didn't bleed easily she had to squeeze her poor little foot. Naturally, Adaline screamed and cried and I just about cried myself having to watch her go through that. Her pediatrician and I discussed what her feeding will have to look like and he kindly walked me through the thought process that Addie may just have to be a formula baby. I'm sure my face carried my disappointment and concern because he was very professional and caring about it; he assured me that I will never know the difference when she is in kindergarten, playing, social and the top of her class. He also told me that many people of his generation (including himself) were formula fed because it was taboo during the time period to breastfeed.

Her face when she heard the garbage truck.