Emma: 1 Week Old

Emma turned one week old today and what a week it has been. Emma is so precious and tiny and spent the week sleeping, eating and pooping! While Emma's transition into our family has been very smooth, Hannah's transition to being a big sister has been rough. For the first 3-4 days of this week Hannah was a mess. She was crying a lot and throwing lots of fits. While this is common for most two year olds (terrible two's) it is definitely out of character for Hannah. I spent the week mourning the loss of my sweet and obedient oldest child and shed several tears with her. It truly broke my heart to see my "baby" hurting and knowing that it was something we could do nothing about. Thankfully things started getting better by the end of the week and Hannah has seemed to start settling into her new role as big sister. Thankfully despite her change in attitude, Hannah never took it out on Emma and was in love with her from day 1. She has asked to hold her everyday since she was born and is so gentle and sweet with her. She loves to hold Emma's pacifier too, which we found out was because she desperately wanted to put it in her own mouth! I let her put one in her mouth (one that was already broken because Bubbles has gotten ahold of it) and that seemed to satisfy her curiousity and I haven't seen her eyeing them like she was the first few days.

We have had family at our house the entire week, which has been wonderful. We started the week with Brian's parents and sister here as well as my parents. Brian's family left on Monday and my parents have been here all week. It's been wonderful having extra hands to keep Hannah occupied and to keep the house in order! I don't know what we will do when we are on our own. The idea of doing this all on our own is daunting!

This week we took Emma to her first pediatrician appointment, at 4 days old. At birth she was 7 lbs. 1 oz. and at 2 days old (the day we left the hospital) she was 6 lbs. 8 oz. Then at the doctor's appointment (4 days old) she was 6 lbs. 10 oz., which was great news! At birth she was also slightly jaundice but at her 4 day appointment her coloring was improving and her wet and dirty diaper count was up a lot, all good news. We don't have to go back for another appointment until she is one month old.

We gave Emma her first sponge bath this week and she was not a huge fan. But after washing her hair we saw that she has the same hair that Hannah had as a baby....it sticks up all over the place! :). We have also realized just how much Emma looks like her big sister did at this age. The main difference is that Hannah had huge dimples in her cheeks and Emma has one dimple in her chin.

We have decided to do Babywise from the start with Emma (we didn't start it with Hannah until she was 3-4 months old). During the first 1-2 weeks Babywise stresses the importance of establishing a good nursing relationship and not forcing a schedule at this point. So we have been pretty laid back about it. However, Emma has fallen into a 2.5-3 hour feeding schedule on her own and is napping for 1-2 hours between each feeding. For the first part of the week I let her nap wherever she fell asleep, but by the end of the week I was trying to put her down for her naps in her crib. On the last day of the week, she took two full two hour naps in her crib without a peep. I was definitely happy about that! But I know there is a lot of work ahead! The feeding schedule that we generally followed this week was feedings at 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm, 11pm, 2am, and 5am...roughly. She has been a wonderful nurser since birth but was just so sleepy this week that it was a challenge to get her to take full feedings (at least 20 minutes total). Babywise tells you to aim for 15-20 minutes per side, but I was not able to get Emma to do that. 10 minutes per side was the average feeding I was able to get (after a lot of work!) and I was happy with that. But each 20 minute feeding took nearly an hour with all the stopping and starting we had to do to wake her up. It also proved to be a challenge to get her to burp at times. There were several occasions where I didn't do a good enough job of burping and we paid the price - a fountain of spit up all over everything! Oh the joy of smelling like spoiled milk!

One thing that we have done differently this time around is having Emma sleep in our room. We set up the pack n' play with the bassinet and have it right next to the bed on my side. It has made those middle of the night feedings so much easier! I don't know why we didn't do that with Hannah, but we were just so determined that she needed to be in her crib from day one. I don't plan on moving Emma out of our room anytime too soon, but we will see. Thankfully she is a very quite sleeper, otherwise I would not be able to have her in our room.

My recovery has been amazing this week. I can't believe how easy the whole labor and recovery process has been with Emma's birth compared to Hannah's! Everything has been so much better. I stopped wearing the hospital mesh underwear the day after Emma was born (while still in the hospital) and stopped using the huge pads the day we came home (when Emma was 3 days old). I haven't used the ice packs or epifoam since the hospital either. I'm pretty sure I wore those mesh underwear for several weeks after Hannah's birth! What a difference! I also haven't taken any pain medication since coming home from the hospital. I probably should have though because my stomach muscles or uterus or something has been pretty sore this week. Feels like I have some pulled muscles or something. Other than that, all systems are a go! I have also lost half of the weight I gained while pregnant. I gained 31 pounds during the course of the pregnancy and have already lost 17 pounds. I still look about 4-5 months pregnant and am wearing maternity clothes, but I'm pretty sure some of my normal clothes would fit if I tried. I've just been to busy to even try. The maternity clothes are what is in my closet (or the laundry basket) so that's what I'm grabbing. Nursing has been going great but my. Ilk supply has definitely not regulated yet. I am still dealing with painful engorgement and am pretty uncomfortable throughout the day and night. I'm hoping that this begins to regulate next week as Emma gets more consistent and proficient with her feedings. I even did my first short pumping sessions this week and fed Emma 1 oz. of pumped milk from a bottle when she was 6 days old. She took the bottle very easily and sucked down that ounce without a problem. It took me only 2 minutes to use my manual pump to get 1 oz. of milk. I was pretty impressed with that, especially since that was after Emma had nursed on that side for 8 minutes.
 

Overall, we had a good week, but I don't think I was quite prepared for what the transition from one to two would entail. It has definitely been harder than I expected, especially with Hannah's reaction. The one thing that was definitely not an issue was my fear of not loving Emma as much as I love Hannah. There is no question that I am completely in love with my tiny little peanut! She has wiggled her way into my heart and I can hardly believe how much love I have for both of my girls! I was instantly in love with Emma the moment she was born! I think that's one reason this week was so tough emotionally for me. Seeing Hannah so out of sorts over our new addition literally felt like my heart was being torn in two. I wanted to comfort Hannah and let her know that things were not going to change and that we loved her just as much if not more than before, but I also wanted to snuggle with my new little peanut and enjoy her tiny newborn stage. It was heartbreaking having to take time away from one to spend with the other. It is definitely a juggling act.