The first night was rough. We don't have a bassinet, instead we have a Rock-N-Play Sleeper that's light and mobile. Tyler preferred him sleeping in our room; I did not. We went to bed around 9:30 with Mason in our room at the foot of our bed in his sleeper. He made so many noises! Of course we paid attention to every noise he made, no matter how insignificant. He was eating every 2-3 hours but was really fussy in between so from 9:30 to about 2am we got hardly any sleep. We ended up moving him into his room (after a feeding) and using the monitor instead of having him in our room. It was so much nicer! The little noises that he makes didn't pick up on the monitor so they didn't wake us up and we were able to sleep for a solid 3 hours. (It's funny that 3 hours is a lot of sleep now!) I fed him again at 3 hours and kept that schedule the next day. Altogether Tyler got 5 hours and I got 7 hours of sleep.
Breastfeeding was the hurdle to get over. Before I had Mason I went to the Mother-Baby Support Center to see Sheila the lactation consultant. She helped me get the basics, but it was hard to put them totally into practice because I didn't have a baby yet. We were discharged on Friday from the hospital so the Mother Baby Support Center wasn't open until Monday. Breastfeeding was a struggle from Friday-Monday until our appointment. It wasn't enjoyable for Mason and it certainly wasn't enjoyable for anyone else in the house! Sometimes it would take 45 minutes for him to latch on- once he did latch on it was fine, but getting there was such a hassle. We saw Sheila again on Monday at 4 and took Mason when he was hungry. She changed my hand positions and the angle of his head, and he latched on immediately! It was amazing! Also a huge relief because my breasts weren't draining milk properly so they were huge and painful. Sheila asked me if I had ever had implants because they were so large and firm. It took a few days for the milk to properly drain but we are so thankful that she helped us out. Now breastfeeding is enjoyable and it's a time where I have at least 15 minutes of alone time with my baby. Very sweet!
We went to the doctor on Monday too, Mason is perfect! He has great head control and is strong for a newborn. The doctor (Dr. Finstad) hadn't anticipated him to gain weight since most babies don't gain their weight back very fast, but Mason weighed in at 8lbs, 7.5oz! It was encouraging to know that even though breastfeeding wasn't going well he was still gaining weight.
On Tuesday we had Mason's newborn pictures taken by Art from the Heart Photography. Teresa Norris was a very, very patient, artsy grandma. I liked all of her pictures on her website so I'm confident that she got some great ones of Mason. We didn't dress him in any outfits, just naked baby! I didn't want to get a picture taken where a majority of his body was covered by an outfit- I wasn't paying Teresa to take pictures of an outfit, I like fat baby rolls and little baby details. The whole photo shoot was tense as we were careful not to wake him while we positioned him in different poses. I had to feed him twice during the whole thing. After Teresa left, he slept for a long time! He was just exhausted from the whole thing. We'll get to see the pictures in 2 weeks, I'm excited to see them!
Altogether the first week hasn't been bad, he eats every 2-3 hours and we're able to get interrupted, but quality sleep (I'm speaking for myself here, I think Tyler is having a harder time coping with interrupted sleep!) But I like the fact that he's already sleeping in his room, and the transition from sleep to breastfeeding is seamless. He still cries when we change his diaper of course but after that he feeds just fine.
He's a happy baby! We love him!
Awwww I loved every last word of this. I even felt a twinge of something! Like baby fever! Eeeeeekkkk!
ReplyDeleteIt's contagious! :)
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