The First Week Home

We brought Sophie home on December 26, 2016.
Home has not been the same since.  We learned, as we assume all first time parents learn, that babies are not easy.  Everything we did the first few days were literally a first for us.  First time putting her in a car seat, first time pumping, first time feeding, etc.  We learned as we went, and some things took a few tries (like swaddling) but we eventually got the hang of the basics.  All this while trying to please a crying baby.  Wow, a tiny little baby can really scream loud when they are upset and hungry!  That was the biggest lesson we learned was a crying baby is usually a hungry baby.

The majority of Sophie's first week was spent either sleeping or crying.  We saw some eyes and some looking around, but that was usually Sophie looking for mommy to feed.

We went to the doctor on day two home for a normal check up.  This check up consisted of an overall health check and a weigh-in.  Everything with Sophie was perfect, except she had lost a bit too much weight.  So they had us come in the next day to see how she was doing.  Unfortunately, she lost a bit more at a total weight loss of 11%.  It's normal for babies to lose 8-10% of their body weight after birth, but at 11% it was enough the doctor really wanted to stay on top of it.  So they put us on a baby boot camp of feeding.

The feedings consisted of breast feeding on one side for 15 minutes, a good burping and maybe a change of diaper (Joel's job), and then 15 minutes on the other side. After another quick burping, we fed her an ounce of formula while Melissa pumped for 15 minutes.  We were supposed to do this every two hours, which mean little to no sleep for mom and dad.

After the next weigh-in she had put on a few ounces and we were told to back off on the formula but to come in the next day again for another weigh-in.  Again, she had lost 1 oz. so we were back on the boot camp from Thursday to Monday afternoon. Which meant about 4 days with little to no sleep.  That was very tough.

Back at the doctor's office, she had gained a another 5 oz. in 3.5 days.  This was great news.  Especially since the formula was really making her gassy and fussy.  That was the hardest part of the whole force feeding process was how fussy Sophie got.  She just didn't want to fall asleep.  Even Sierra was feeling the affects. 

Now, a few days after we stopped the marathon feeding, she is feeding great and we are on a more normal schedule of just breastfeeding every 2-3 hours.  Sophie still gets really hungry and fussy at night, but we just keep letting her eat and that seems to make her happy (a milk drunk baby!)