Eden is 1 week old!

We have three children! Its zone defense time! Eden, amazingly, is one week old!

This week was a whirlwind, as we dove headfirst into life with three babies. Drew didn’t take any time off after I had Eden other than the regular memorial day weekend Monday break, so Tuesday-Friday I had the nanny to help and onward we went to our regular routine. Surprisingly it wasn’t so bad. The boys really dote on Eden, and so far have cut me a lot of slack in caring for her. I realize that they are probably a bit more stir crazy since I’m constantly saying “I can’t, I have to change/feed/hold Eden”, and I’m not exactly on my best parenting game being overtired, but really, I can’t complain too much. They adore her, want to hold her and sing songs to her. Its incredibly cute (check out the videos!).

In the first week of life we’ve learned a lot about Eden. First, she’s a very sleep baby. Almost too sleepy! It made me worry a bit. After her deliver we were home in 24 hours- which was nice to be back in my own bed, but also made me hyper-vigilant about her because so many things they typically catch at the hospital I was now watching for at home. For example, Jaundice. Turns out, she was jaundiced, just like the boys. This meant at the hospital a horrid nurse smashed her foot onto a sheet of paper after poking it for something like 10 minutes to squeeze out 100 drops of blood. – A note of advice to the hospital nurses who do bilirubin checks, WARM THEIR HEEL, you ASSHOLE. AND DON’T SQUEEZE THE HELL OUT OF THEIR FOOT WHILE THEY SCREAM. After a few minutes I wanted to punch that nurse in the face. This test results in a high screen (but not a confirmed case of Jaundice) so it made for another round of testing in the doctors office (which went wonderfully, by the way. That nurse knew what she was doing and Eden didn’t even make a peep- she warmed her foot and the waited for the blood to flow instead of squeezing the hell out of it). A few days later we had to have a third check on bilirubin- she kept coming in with a high screen, but just under the “worry” line, so we continued to poke her foot and not worry. Meh. I wasn’t super happy about it.

The second thing we learned was how baby girls and peeing works out. We’ve had two boys, so we were very used to the circumcision rules and such. With girls, no such thing, which is fantastic! This meant by day two she was supposed to be producing two wet diapers, but by day two, she still hadn’t. Which made me worry she was dehydrated or not eating enough, so back to the doctor we went. Turns out that after a super intense cycle of feedings (every hour) she finally peed, and that seemed to break the dam. Now she pees a lot. Like 10 times a day.

The third thing we learned is that nursing was not like riding a bike. My body didn’t remember exactly how to “toughen up” and Eden didn’t quite master the latch (and is still fairly lazy about it!), so this made for horrible pain and a decent amount of blood. So, another call to the nurse was warranted because Eden was spitting up blood. At first I panicked that it was her blood, and then I realized that it was my blood. Photos were taken, submitted to nurses, and they too worried about what was going on, so on to the doctor we went the next day. It turns out that when babies are born, often they have in their stomachs some of the blood from delivery. It comes up as brown mucus-y chunks and pieces. She had this in her spit up, so that part was pretty typical. The bright red stuff was all mine, and it also turns out that its fine for them to ingest blood while nursing, but it generally means nursing is not off to a good start, so a visit to the lactation consultant was in order.

The lactation consultant taught me something else about our dear daughter- she’s a “Chomper”. While nursing she definitely prefers to use her gums to “chomp” down which is super fun for me, and not the easiest thing to correct, so the consultant advised I change techniques, which I have, and it helps some but she’s still a bit lazy and still likes to latch on weakly, wreaking havoc on my body. Alas, though, at the end of week 1 thing are looking up, so all hopefully will be good on the nursing front.  My milk came in fast and furious around day 3 or 4 and since then I’ve had to pump some because she’s been spitting up after nursing. Too much food for her little belly.

Our routine for week 1 was totally governed by Eden, but I have to say, that she’s been pretty generous at night. The first night in the hospital she wanted to nurse all night long, but since then she usually gets up just twice a night, which is such a blessing. Sound sleepers are the best (when you aren’t worrying that they are sleeping too much!). She had her first bath this week and so far, she seems to like it so long as she isn’t cold- getting in and out, she didn’t like so much, but being in the warm water seemed to please her.

So far, its been sleep, eat, poop, repeat. She loves to suck on her hands, looks a little like Collin and a little like me as a baby, seems to dig music, and is generally adored, all around. We read stories, and rock and dance around, and smile at her, with the hopes that her little brain is seeing those smiles and knowing that her life is surrounded by so much love. We’re so happy she’s here and so excited to see what the coming weeks bring.