Update: One week

"Slow and steady wins the race" has been my mantra this week. Bringing the baby home has been very trying to my patience, but I'm breathing deep and taking things one step at a time. There have been no lack of tears on either side of this Mommy-Baby relationship, but the love I have for this little girl is beyond belief. Blade has continued to be a wonderful help, and I'm trying my hardest to take most of the responsibility for her so that he can get his work done, but he doesn't seem to mind lending a helping hand when need be. I've gotten extremely frustrated, to the point of crying a little, just about every night. First it was the feeding, until my milk came in, and now it's the sleeping. As much as I love Atticus, I would really enjoy being able to set her in her rocker or bouncer when she's sleeping so I can fully rest. She will only sleep on my chest, which is so heartwarming and adorable, but I tend to stay tense all night- I think my body just registers that I have a baby on me and stays in protection mode so I can't fully relax. We have stopped trying to put her down at night, she fusses way too much and it inevitably leads to less sleep for us instead of more. Now that I have caved and let her sleep on me, I've technically got more sleep... right now I'll take quantity over quality.

Mommy update: I dropped 9 pounds immediately after birth and know that I have lost more since, but have no scale to give you a number. I've lost quite a bit of the water weight, I look way less bloated (my thighs have a gap again!!) and you can see my jawline for the first time since my second trimester, but I still have a ways to go. I can't go to the gym until I'm four weeks, but I think I will take advantage of the treadmill once my membership begins. I've started doing the postnatal "workouts" that are suggested in my What To Expect book and added a postnatal yoga video that I found online to do in the meantime. I am just so antsy to be able to have a little freedom and get back to my old self, I had to start doing something to keep me sane.

School starts in a little over a week and I think that will help with this lonely and tired feeling I have from being home by myself so often, and then I'll start picking up a shift or two at work around four weeks, maybe sooner. I started pumping this week, so we should have a good stockpile for when I can finally leave the house.

I am overly exhausted, quite lonely, and running out of things to do around the house to bide my time, but we made it through the first week!

Baby Update!

How old: 1 week

Feeding: Breast milk only, no bottles yet. She eats any time between 2-3 hours, sometimes a little longer, for about 15-30 minutes total.

Sleep: We still have our days and nights mixed up so she is out like a light and goes down in a bouncer pretty easy during the day, and is fussy and only sleeps on my chest at night. She's up for maybe 4-6 hours total throughout the day, not including the 10 minutes here and there for changes. 

Dirty stuff: We started giving her gas drops today because it seemed that she was having pretty upset stomachs and it was making her fussy, so hopefully these help. At least 8 wet and dirties a day, just about every time she feeds I have to change a messy diaper. 

Milestones: I've started getting up close and making facial expressions, and sure enough, she starts to mimick me a little bit- I've been making O's with my mouth and sticking out my tongue, not necessarily things I should be teaching her but it's adorable so what the hell. She's also been doing 'tummy time' when she's on my chest and her neck seems to be getting stronger, but she's still a loose noodle most of the time.

Upcoming: I think her first outing will be at the end of the month to go visit mom's new house, but maybe sooner depending on how she's acting and how I feel. Her one month appointment is in a couple weeks and I'm curious to see where she lands on the scale- hopefully by then she will have gained enough weight that we can let her sleep throughout the night without waking her ourselves.

1 week <3