Week One Summary

Yes, I’m doing weekly updates for awhile (they’d be recording breakingly long if I attempted to do it monthly since SO much changes week-to-week with a newborn). And yes, I’m also way behind. I did so good getting caught up when I was pregnant only to fall back behind, but I’m not stressed over getting caught up. I have ZERO life now so there isn’t much to be blogging about 🙂

Here are some of the things I learned about Brittlynn during her first week of life:

Nursing: She often nursed with one eye opened and one eye closed. She was an extremely slow nurser. She’d take an hour to an hour and half per feeding. Thankfully, even at the hospital, she never really ate every two hours. She always went about three hours between each feeding. You judge time between feedings based on the time the feeding started so that means she’d nurse for an hour then I’d have a two hour break then she’d be nursing again. Sometimes the feedings even went longer than that, our first Saturday night home she ate for literally 3 hours. Pretty exhausting for mama! Even though her feeding length was long, she actually was a quick nurser. She’d suck-suck-suck then take a mega long break. She’d eat for 15 min then take a 5-10 min break then eat for 15 more etc. If I tried to rush her it didn’t help things, she just needed that break. It wasn’t like she was fully sleeping…she was just more resting. I didn’t have to use any lansinoh cream. My nipples were still hurting a little bit when she’d latch on but then it wasn’t an issue. My milk actually came in while still in the hospital and I was engorged when we first got home but I managed it and got through it without any issues!!! I was also able to nurse in front of people a lot more comfortably. I can nurse on the couch or really anywhere which is a BIG improvement from last time. I don’t like using the hooter hider (she gets SO hot and it’s tough to see her) but I can do it which worked out well since I had to feed her so often. I only used it when male company was present, if you come to see us and you’re a female be prepared for some boob viewage 😉

Sleeping: At first she had her nights and days confused and we think it’s due to us staying in the hospital longer with her than with Kye and she got used to the bright nursery lights at night. We got her on track pretty quickly by making it obvious when it was night and daytime. We made the lights bright and talked loudly at her first feeding each morning and started having her sleep in the pack and play for naps and the bassinet at night. It only took one day to get her on track with it! When she was 6 days old (the Monday after she was born), she ate at 9 pm then at 220 am then again at 6 am which gave me 5 broken hours of sleep! Zach and I were high-fiving and soooo pumped about it. It’s funny the things that get you excited when you have a newborn in the house 😉 She sleeps with her mouth opened and pretty much breaths through her mouth while sleeping so it’s mega loud. Having her in our room was tough and Zach ended up spending most nights on the couch 🙁  Since she nursed so long and slept so much she was pretty much going straight to bed after I fed her. With Babywise it’s crucial to implement the eat-awake-sleep cycle as soon as possible so her awake time would typically only be long enough for a diaper change!

Smiling: I know they say newborns just smile b/c gas but this sweet girl smiles ALL the time. Especially when sleeping. Zach and I both love it 🙂 

Diapers: They say girls are more expensive than boys and it’s already true. This child tore through some diapers her first week. She literally would poop during each feeding (which there are eight feedings a day) and after each feeding. During the day we change her diaper after feedings to help her have awake time and at night we change them before feedings to help her wake up to eat. Zach typically does the night changes so I can get ready to nurse and he had to come get her many times between breasts to change another poop diaper!!! Before even coming home from the hospital her poop had changed to the yellow seedy looking stuff. She’d often poop during diaper changes, sometimes 3-4 times!!! People also told us that boys are tougher for diaper changes b/c they’d spray you with their pee…well hers comes out in a HUGE gush and it’s harder to control than the little sprayer was 🙂 We are new to the world of girl private parts (well, I have one but I don’t really deal with it the way we have to with her…) and that thing was SO swollen for the longest time! And it was red AND it had lots of white discharge coming from it. They told us that it’s normal b/c of all the hormones she was getting from me…but it was still different. Cleaning down there is tough too b/c of all the areas stuff can get into!

Other Stuff about Britt:

• Her skin looked like it was shedding. And I guess it was! We asked at the 2 day hospital visit and the nurse told us that it’s just a sign of a healthy, full term baby. 🙂 
• We did a little bit of cio the first week home with her (towards the end of the first week) because it seemed like she was wanting to nurse herself to sleep all the time (great at night, not great during the day!). She fell asleep within the first two minutes
• She does not like to wear hats so we never put them on her, its obvious that her mood shifts to grumpy when she has one on. We could tell that even at the hospital so we always took it off of her when they brought her to us
• She starting holding up her head on her own within her first three days of life. (She started holding it up on Thursday Dec 8th)
• Like her brother, she loves lights and will stare and stare at them
• Her newborn sized sleepers stopped fitting on Friday Dec 9th (too short in the arms and her legs couldn’t full stretch out) so we had to start putting her in 3 month ones! They were a little big but not by much!
• My song with Kye has always been “Lean on Me” with her I’m singing the same song my mom sand to me my whole life “You are my Sunshine” 

Here’s some pictures of her from her first week!!!

See that smile!

Serious face

While I was engorged, I pumped some. I would pump after she ate to relieve my discomfort and I really think it helped. Last time around I was afraid to pump thinking it would make me more engorged by making me produce more milk, but it didn’t at all. And it gave me a nice start to my stored milk 🙂

Kye far surpassed all expectations we had of him with a new baby at home! He showed no signs of jealousy and he LOVED all the visitors (everyone who stopped by did a great job at playing along with our telling Kye that they were there to see him and they all spent lots of time with him showering him with attention). He constantly asked to hold her and see her every time she was awake and he gave her an endless number of kisses. He, surprisingly, showed zero interest in helping us with her though. Didn’t want to help change diapers or anything. Totally fine by me (you can get it done SO much quicker without toddler help) but it surprised me. He always said”hey baby” in the sweetest voice when he saw her. When we rode in the car with her (home from the hospital, to her appointment etc) he enjoyed singing to her, especially his ABC’s and “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.”

She looks so chunky here, but I love his proud face!!!

Playing together already!

Something Zach has always done with Kye is bedtime routine stuff. I LOVE that he’s an involved dad, but felt so bad during Brittlynn’s first couple weeks of life because he rarely got to spend time with her. She was always eating or sleeping!!! Here he read her first book to her, but only made it through the first two pages and she got fussy, needing to go to sleep!

On our first Saturday home as a family Zach and I BOTH had the same thought…we both thought it’d be a fun treat to go get donuts. I thought it’d be a great family outing and was eager to see how cute Kye would be showing off his little sister. However, I was OUT of it. So, so exhausted and couldn’t attempt to get ready to go somewhere. Instead Zach took both kids and just drove through for donuts. It was still nice for him to get to do something with them and gave me a chance to soak in a bath for a little bit. Plus we got DONUTS. Um – amazzzzing.

First little outing!

YUM!

Also on Saturday we started a bedtime routine with Brittlynn. It’s important to have some type of ritual before bed each night so babies learn the difference between night and day. Since her awake time is so short, we started alternating what we did each night. We’d bathe her, wash her hair or massage her instead of doing them all. With Kye we always did bath, massage, story and prayer before bed. We’ve yet to introduce story or prayer time with Brittlynn. She’d sleep right through it! So that Saturday night we did a massage with her for the first time. I LOVED the time just the three of us together (Kye was in bed). It was nice to give full, undivided attention to her and to get to do that together was special. Since then I’ve pretty much slept during her bedtime ritual…so Zach gets that quality one on one time which is still great! For Kye’s massages we always used lotion but I found out that it actually dries out your skin, therefore making you need more lotion. Not cool. With Brittlynn we’re using baby oil and it’s gross to put on but I know it’s better for her skin! 

First massage!

She LOVED it!

Nice and warm by the fire 🙂

First time using Mamaroo swing

We used onesies with mittens for night time so she wouldn’t scratch herself while nursing at night (when I was too sleepy to pay attention to that)

First tummy time (Sunday Dec 11th)

Such a good daddy, holding one baby while playing dress up with the other 🙂

napping in the pack and play in her room

first time she peed through a diaper (12/11)

I remember reading Robyn’s blog about Lorelai and every update she’d say “her eyes are still blue!” It always made my laugh…but with Brittlynn I’ll probably always update about the status of her hair. I LOVE her hair and I don’t want it to fall out like Kye’s did (and it took a YEAR for his to grow back…yikes). So as of the end of week one…she still had all her hair and none had (noticeably anyway) fallen out! It appears to have lots of undergrowth which Mom said is a good sign that she won’t lose it…but I’m not getting my hopes up!

I LOVE having a newborn at Christmas time because I got to nurse under all the pretty lights 🙂

cuddling with Daddy

Schedule: When Kye was born I had never heard of Babywise. I didn’t hear of it until he was about 3 weeks old (thanks to Crissy!) and didn’t start really implementing it until he was 6 weeks old. This time, we’re Babywise from the start. It’s interesting because I know quite a bit about it, yet know nothing about the early weeks and what to do. I’ve had to ask for help from some of the mommies I actually introduced it to (such a great circle!!!). The first two weeks of a baby’s life, according to Babywise, are about having the goal of establishing full feedings. That’s it. You don’t worry about scheduling or anything else – just making sure the baby gets a full feeding. A full feeding is one where they eat from each breast and should last around 40 min. You have to work to keep the baby awake and such but it’s worth it b/c a baby who gets full feedings from day one (no snacking!) will naturally fall into a schedule on their own within the first two weeks. 

Many Babywise moms say they love the first two weeks of a baby’s life because they can hold them while sleeping and break other babywise “rules.” Zach and I couldn’t stand it. We never slept with her in our arms…we felt too guilty about it!!! I really didn’t like not knowing when she’d need to eat next or where the day would take me. It was so tough. Sometimes she’d eat 8 times a day. Sometimes 12 times. Sometimes our day would “start” (if you can say it ever ends when you’re feeding around the clock!) at 7, sometimes 8, sometimes 6. It was not an enjoyable phase for me. I’m a girl who thrives in a world of a schedule! I AM proud of myself though b/c I didn’t force one on her. I let her do her thing and truly fed on demand. When she cried, I fed her. I wanted to establish a great breastfeeding relationship and I knew this was KEY! 🙂 

While Zach and I don’t like the first two weeks without a schedule, our families do. Once we get hardcore, we GET hardcore. Don’t bother visiting because if the baby is asleep we won’t be waking her. However, during that non-schedule time we encouraged everyone to visit often so they could hold her and cuddle her while she wasn’t needing to be sleeping in her bed yet (however, whenever she wasn’t in her bed she was hungry…so it often ended up being that people would get to hold her for a few minutes then I’d be nursing!). People didn’t take advantage of it as much as I thought they would and now that opportunity is gone! Hope you got your fill 😉 

Robyn and Matt

G-Mama (Mom came a good bit too but I didn’t get pics for some reason!)

Casey and Jordan

Postpartum Week 1: Having a baby is no joke…it pretty much wears you out physically! I tried to sleep as much as I could that first week, but it was hard to squeeze it in since she ate so often, for so long, and since I also wanted to give Kye attention. If you haven’t noticed I’m pretty much a perfectionist and I wanted to be able to jump right into having two with no issues. Um, not possible! Zach went back to work the day after we got home from the hospital. He’s paid on commission only, he didn’t work the two days I was in the hospital, and it was his busiest time of the year. So I get it, he needed to be working but I also wasn’t ready for that. Mom helped me a TON and I planned on having both kids on my own on Tuesday (she’d be officially one week old). The night before a lot of company was over and after they left I had a breakdown. I realized there was NO WAY I was ready. That afternoon I’d had them both on my own for like an hour while Zach was upstairs working on setting up a new fax machine and it was stressful. It wasn’t that it was hard it was that I felt a TON of guilt. I had to put Britt first but that meant not putting Kye first and I’m used to Kye coming first (as is he!). Emotionally I just couldn’t deal with it (although I don’t even think Kye cared one bit!) but I felt a lot better after reading the babywise blog about it…Valerie said it’s best not to be alone with both kids for like the first four weeks and that she doesn’t even have her older children at home for awhile with the newborn. To me, she’s Super Mom so I felt WAY better about myself for feeling the way I did. I ended up calling Mrs Charlotte and telling her I needed help. This was tough for me as I am very independent. But I told her and Mom both that I needed them to help me handle Kye and my plan was to not have them both alone until after Christmas (giving me a little over two weeks with help). I felt SO much better with a plan and didn’t feel guilt having Kye go places, I know he enjoyed it and I felt less guilty focusing on her when he wasn’t there.

I remember after having Kye I LOVED rubbing my stomach because it felt so empty and flat (I mean, duh, it wasn’t actually flat but compared to a huge pregnant belly it was!). It was great coming home from the hospital and taking a shower…when I looked down I could see my privates again!!! I also didn’t have any new stretch marks. All the same ones from my first pregnancy, but no new ones to report! Isn’t that some kind of miracle?!? My arms were pretty weak (not nearly as bad as last time though) and my inner thighs were beyond sore (from spreading so wide when pushing). My hands even got sore because of all the funky positions you put them in when nursing haha! Since I didn’t have a major episiotemy this time around, I didn’t use my little ring to sit on but quickly realized I NEEDED it. I was so sore “down there” simply from sitting so much. There was a lot of pressure being put on my area that needed healing and it wasn’t a good situation, sitting on the ring helped a TON and I’m still sitting on it while nursing. But for awhile I even needed to sit on it while eating or on the computer or anywhere I sat!

Here are some pictures of me during the first week after giving birth. When I had her I had gained 22 lbs overall. When I left the hospital two days later I  had 17 lb left to lose (I’d lost 5 lb) and I still had a decent sized belly on me. I got dressed to take her for her two day checkup at the hospital and was pleasantly surprised by how much my stomach had gone down!

Wearing much too big maternity shirt (jeggings still fit though)

I do have that dark line on my stomach to my belly button…I didn’t have it before…it goes away right???

17 lb over goal weight

On the day she turned one week old I weighed myself again and this time I was down another 6 lb and only had 11 lb left to lose (and that was only 5 days after I had been weighed)!!! I was SHOCKED! I had been chowing down since coming home from the hospital. I especially had been craving mega healthy food. I LOVED it all. Anything anyone brought us I ate happily 😉 I snacked at night. I ate as much junk as I wanted. I ate WAY more food, WAY more often than I did when pregnant yet I still lost weight…maybe this time breastfeeding is helping me out!!! With Kye I didn’t lose a single pound in the first 8 weeks at home. Breastfeeding did nothing  for me in the area of baby weight loss so I assumed it wouldn’t be helping me out this time, I’m glad I was wrong 🙂

Here’s how I looked one week postpartum

11 lb left to lose!
Here is what I looked like the first week after having Kye

Other postpartum stuff: My skin looked horrible. It looked clearer than it did during pregnancy as far as zits and such but worse with the malsma. I think it shows worse this pregnancy because I’m not tan AT ALL. This is the palest I’ve been since high school. Gross. My bleeding the whole first week was still pretty bad and I needed to wear the mega thick pads and had to change them pretty much every time I peed. I pretty much wore the hospital underwear the whole first week. They were mesh and sooo comfortable. Why put on mine when I can wear those comfy things? I was even wearing them in all the pictures above! 

In the brief times I’d get to sleep at night I’d wake up SO sweaty. Mega gross. I also had the same dream over and over again. Every single time I woke up at night I’d awaken in a panic and think I’d fallen asleep with Brittlynn in the bed and I’d killed her. A VERY stupid dream since I don’t even nurse her in bed!!! Zach said I’d wake up with a jerk and even say things to him about taking her to her room and such.

Overall, it was a crazy yet wonderful first week…I don’t think I was as nice and welcoming as I was the first go round but I think I managed okay for everything that was going on!

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Emily Parker

Hey Y'all, I'm Emily! I'm a stay at home mom and consider parenting to be my passion. Disney is my happiest place and I love making memories as a family together. I'm a big believer in transparency and share all of my real-life moments as a mother of four.

My work has been featured on Love What Matters, Today Parenting and Babywise.Life. I'm also honored to be a member of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network.

You can read more about our family on my About Me page. Also be sure to follow along with me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest!

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