Dear William,
You are officially one week old! I feel like I said this in nearly every monthly post of Lexi’s, but I can hardly believe it is only one week and that it is already one week. I’m going to be completely honest, this week was really hard for me.
We came home from the hospital on Thursday afternoon, a day earlier than we needed to, but I was just ready. I was uncomfortable in the hospital bed, the food wasn’t great and just wanted to start adjusting to our new life. That first night wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t great. We started putting you in your crib and I slept in our bed, but I think the house was too cold for you as you just didn’t want to sleep alone. You did a good job sleeping in my arms, so we spent a majority of the night sleeping in the rocking chair.
Overall, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday I was just in a lot of pain, hormonal, tired and was having a hard time seeing when the pain would dissipate. Between the pain from the tare, uterine contractions, bruise on my back from the epidural fiasco, my milk coming in, EXTREME engorgement and very little control of my bladder I was just having a really hard time adjusting. I became mean, short-tempered and frustrated, and knew I was, but wasn’t able to control it.
In addition to the pain I was feeling, Lexi started to misbehave more than normal. She was deliberately disobeying us and not listening. This, with my lack of patience was not a good combination. However, by Monday, I felt like I had turned a corner and could start to see things getting better.
We visited the doctor on Monday and you weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz and were 20.5″ long and your head was 14.5″. Your weight and height are in the 75% and head is 90%. Everything else continued to look great for you. The doctor even said that since you are pretty much at your birth weight we don’t have to do the 1-month checkup for you as they really just want to make sure you’re up to your birth weight and you’re pretty much there!
It has been interesting watch Lexi adjust to you over the week. When she first met you in the hospital, she could have cared less about you and was really excited about the cool new train that you got her. Overall, she didn’t like the hospital and wanted to leave and go to Grandma’s house. When she came to visit again that evening, she was still pretty unimpressed with you but kept asking who you were. On Thursday, she definitely started to show more interest and asked what you were doing and who you were over and over. She also went with Daddy to pick out a pal for you. Her original pick was a purple bunny, but eventually settled on a Raccoon and was pretty excited to give it to you. The following days she warmed up a little bit every day. At first, Daddy would ask her to give you a kiss and she refused. She didn’t even want to be near you, and didn’t like the additional attention you received over her. By the end of the week, she would touch your head and is constantly asking where ‘brother’ is and what he is doing or why he is crying. I’ve even caught her touching your head and giving you unprompted kisses.
Other notes about your first week:
- You really dislike diaper changes and kick a lot during them.
- Your umbilical cord is almost ready to fall out and it really smells
- You love to have your hands by your face, but have really long finger nails and scratch yourself so we’ve been wearing sleeping gowns with hand protectors a lot
- You barely squeezed into a newborn outfit when you came home from the hospital. I tried a different one a couple days later and you couldn’t get into it. You’ve got some broad shoulders buddy.
- You love to cuddle up in a ball with mom and dad and love to have warm blankets wrapped around you while you sleep.
- Overall, you’re pretty content and just like to sleep and eat 🙂
- The first week you met all of your grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, the Mauer’s and the Vossen’s.
- You eat every two hours or so–mostly because I need you to, to help manage my milk. Hopefully this will start to stretch out a bit once it has maintained itself.
And that wraps up your first week buddy. We love you so much and are so excited to have you join our family.
Love,
Mama
P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures, Lexi ‘accidentally’ played with my phone and locked me out of it, which meant all of my unsaved pictures were cleared.
Peanut Smiles 