The first week with Janie

Oh, that first week with a new baby.  It’s rough. At least in our house it is. 

Janie was a really content baby at the hospital until about an hour or two before we were about to leave.  She was finally getting a little fussy.  We took her home late on Saturday night and luckily the boys were sleeping at my parents house again.  Janie was pretty restless, not sleeping very much and just wasn’t content.  All day Sunday was a similar story – she just wanted to be held and cuddled all day.  Would cry and cry if we put her down.  Wes and I looked at each other with the look of “oh no, not this again {Nate was this way!}.  I called the doctor on Monday morning to book her standard 3 day check-up.  Luckily Dr. Carrie had an opening that morning while Wes was still home so we took her in.  She had dropped to 7 pounds, 12 ounces.  I knew Dr. Carrie was a little worried about that when she asked the nurse to weigh her again.  Dr. Carrie came in and talked about how she was pretty sure Janie was dehydrated {my milk finally came in right before we left for the doctor}.  She advised us to give her an ounce of formula after each feeding and wanted us back the next morning for a weight check.

She was inspired!  Janie downed the entire bottle and was instantly back to her content little self during the day.  The poor thing was hungry and thirsty!  I’d never had that problem with my other two so I just figured the colostrum was enough until my milk came in but not for our little lady.  We gave her bottles for almost a week and then she stopped wanting them after a feeding.  So glad things got better!  She was up to 8 pounds + by the next morning.

We learned after a few days of letting her take a nap downstairs that she needed to be upstairs (even if she slept better downstairs).  We needed to focus on the boys when she was asleep without having to ask them to stop touching her or trying to wake her up.  That helped a ton.

Nights were rough.  She spits up a lot and during that first week she did it a lot while she was sleeping and she couldn’t clear her throat without some help.  She slept in her cozy little chair and for the first number of nights Wes slept on the couch downstairs and she slept in her little chair down there with him.  She cried a lot at night and Ryan is such a light sleeper – nothing was worth having him up in the night, too!  Once she started calming down a little at night her chair was moved to her room which was another great step.  She isn’t a fan of her crib but loves her little chair.  So for now, that’s where she sleeps!  It keeps her elevated enough that she doesn’t seem to gag as much anymore while she’s sleeping.

So, we survived week one.  Wes put it well when he said something to the affect of . . . “it’s just not right . . . a mom has to carry a baby for 9 months, endure labor and delivery, be exhausted from having a new baby that doesn’t sleep very much, whacky hormones, the pain of nursing, recovering from delivering a baby all while being a mom to her other kids.  It’s a lot to ask!”  It sure is.  But we made it and we love our little lady!

Wes took Monday off but went back to work on Tuesday.  The only thing that saved me that week was my sweet mom.  She came over every day around noon and stayed until dinner.  She cleaned up my house every afternoon and took care of Janie while Ryan took a nap so I could lay down for an hour.  It was a lifesaver.