Madelyn's First Month

Month one is done. Time is seriously flying and I can't believe she is already a month old! Let's recap -

Breastfeeding - It is going well. I was fortunate enough that Madelyn came out ready to breastfeed. We didn't have any latch problems and the kid loves to eat. Around week 3 I had Nick try giving her a bottle and she took it just fine. When we went back to the breast she was just fine with that as well. I don't think she cares how she eats, so long as she's getting food. The first few days didn't hurt but my nips got pretty raw after that and Lanolin became my new best friend! They never cracked and were never bloody but there was about a week that I cringed whenever she latched. After we got through that, it has been smooth sailing. Fortunately, I haven't had engorgement issues but I have started stuffing my bra with a cloth diaper at night to prevent waking up in a pool of my own milk - the joys of motherhood!

Cloth Diapering - I am so glad we are cloth diaapering! We had a few challenges at the beginning since Madelyn seems to be a heavy wetter and a few of our diapers didn't have big enough inserts. We switched those out and have started doubling her diapers with a microfiber and hemp insert for nighttime. Since then it has worked perfectly! Washing the diapers is super easy. I do a load everyday but it really isn't a hassle. I like the Allen's detergent but I am interested in trying Rockin' Green. I noticed that the dipes had a smell to them after washing so I added a second rinse to them after washing and also reduced the amount of detergent we use. It seems to have worked. Nick said he was sold when he just finished changing her and not 30 seconds later she pooped again. He was very grateful another quarter wasn't just spent changing her booty. Going out and cloth diapering is super easy as well. Just throw the dirty dipe in the wetbag and continue on. When I get home, I just empty the wetbag into the diaper pail and throw the wetbag in there as well. Overall, love it! My only complaint is regarding the Fuzzibunz. We elected snaps instead of velcro because I heard the velcro can wear out. The problem with the snaps is when she is between sizes. If you go one snap closer, I feel like I'm squishing her. If we go one snap farther, we end up with blowouts. Dang it!

Madelyn's Firsts - Madelyn had her first ride in her stroller this month. I love our stroller and so does she! We went Christmas shopping at the mall with my mom and bought all kinds of frilly girly cloths! She also had her first bath and her first shower this month. She is just starting to smile and it is the most amazing feeling in the world when she offers you that toothless grin! She has found her voice and startles herself when she shouts out - hilarious!

Sleep - The closest we have come to a pattern involves Madelyn waking sometime between 2-4 and again sometime between 5-7 for feedings. She usually starts by grunting for awhile and if I grab her before she actually wakes herself up, I can get her changed and fed before she's really conscious. She's pretty easy to put back down after that and we all can be back to sleep in about 30 minutes. However, if she wakes herself up, it's a whole new ball game. She is either awake and ready to start her day or cranky and it can take anywhere from 1-2 hours to put her back down. On those nights, we usually bring her into bed with us after feeding and changing her. It keeps her content enough to not scream and allows us to sleep a little more.

Week 3 - check!

Week 3 was interesting. She is starting to develop more of a pattern but just as soon as we depend on that pattern she goes and changes it up! Most nights Madelyn is getting up around 2am and then again at 6am. A couple nights though, she decided to stay up from 2am UNTIL 6am - that was fun. One of the nights, I was ready for her! I decided to just plan on being awake all night so when she woke up at 2, I moby wrapped her arse and got to work doing the things I normally try to accomplish when she naps during the day. I cleaned my kitchen, emptied the dishwasher, wrapped ebay packages, clipped coupons, checked my blogs and got a load of laundry done! The best part was the next day, when she was napping I was able to nap too - guilt free napping because I had finished everything the night before.

Her cord finally fell off as well! It took a solid 3 weeks which seemed like a long time but considering she was a week late and took foooorrevvverr to get here, I'm getting used to operating on Madelyn time.

The dropping of the cord meant real baths! My mom gave Madelyn her first bath and she screamed bloody murder the entire time. Like a mean mommy, I videotaped it for future blackmail and embarrassment purposes. A few days later we decided to try the shower method and she LOVED it! I don't see us ever giving her a bath. It is much easier to have Nick hold her in the shower and I give her a quick scrubbing!



We also took her stroller on it's maiden voyage this week. My mom came over and we went to the mall. She slept the entire time! The stroller was amazing to push and turns even the tightest corners! My only complaint is that the basket doesn't provide much storage space and because I'm still new at this packing for a baby thing, I bring a lot of crap whenever we leave the house!

In mommy news, I took the sticky tabs off of my scar this weekend but still couldn't bring myself to look at it. After careful inspection, Nick says it seems to be healing well but still looks a little raw. Lovely.

Madelyn's Second Week

Well Madelyn's second week pretty much sucked, but not because of her. She did great! My grandpa died exactly 1 week after Madelyn was born with absolutely no warning. It caught everyone off guard and we all spent the next week reeling and trying to figure out funeral arrangements, celebrate Thanksgiving, take care of my grandma, and attend the funeral. Doing this with a 1 weeker made the whole process a little more challenging. My grandma kept saying she was go grateful my grandpa got to meet her!

We decided to go ahead and still get together for Thanksgiving. We figured, we would all be together anyway so we might as well eat turkey. We gathered at my parents' house and spent the day with family and friends.

We spent the rest of the weekend going to Grandma's everyday and working out funeral arrangements, putting together photo boards, organizing music and spending time together. It was nice to spend so much time with family but we never managed to get home before 11pm. This made her 2-3:30am playtime (she decided) a bit difficult to manage but Nick was awesome about switching on and off with me. It also made the whole "sleep when she sleeps" concept about impossible. Still, we managed and the family loved being able to spend all that time with her. I think she was a little ray of sunshine and happiness in an otherwise pretty glum time.

The viewing was Monday afternoon/evening and the paranoid mama in me didn't want to play pass the baby with all the people that were showing up. I decided to keep her in the Moby which discouraged touching and it worked like a charm. She ended up sleeping the entire time, only waking up for feedings. Sadly, most of my family hadn't met her yet and this was their introduction. It was a little strange and I don't think most people knew what to say to Nick and I. Do you congratulate us for the birth of our daughter or tell us you're sorry for our loss?

The funeral was Tuesday and again, Madelyn spent the day in the Moby to discourage germ passing.

Overall, she was a trooper and did very well considering all the stimulation for a brand new baby. The whole experience left me looking forward to week 3 where I could sit and cuddle my baby on the couch and keep her all to myself!

Miss. Madelyn's First Week

As a result of the c-section, we spent the first few days of Madelyn's life in the hospital. She was able to room-in with us and we kept working on nursing. She took to it like a champ but wowza did my nipples pay for it! Luckily I thought to throw some lanolin in the hospital bag and it was a lifesaver.

We had plenty of visitors and lots of generous gits! Tons of girly clothes! Georgette, Jen, Julie and Missy even brought a fantastic dinner one night!

Madelyn and I were discharged midday Friday. As Nick and I walked out of the hospital with her, I couldn't believe they were actually letting us leave with this perfect little baby! It took more paperwork and interviews to bring Ziggy home.

The pediatric team that was looking in on her had gotten a little concerned over her weight loss so they scheduled an appointment with her pediatrician on Saturday morning. She was 8lb 9oz when she was born and when we left the hospital she had dropped to 7lb 15oz.

Friday night was rough! Fortunately, Molly spent the night and was a welcomed extra set of hands when Madelyn decided sleep was not going to happen that night.

Saturday morning we got ready for her pediatrician appointment and in true new parent style, showed up 45 minutes late. I guess it's pretty common as the receptionist didn't seem the least bit phased by it. She had lost another oz and the pediatrician talked about supplementing formula if she didn't start gaining weight. I guess the cutoff is if the baby loses 10% of their birth weight. Fortunately, my milk had come in that morning but it didn't help me from freaking out! Since her delivery had turned into such a disaster, I was clinging to the ability to breastfeed and was terrified I was going to lose control of that as well. We spent the rest of the day, basically force feeding her in an effort to put some of the weight back on. Saturday night was a blessing but we didn't know it yet. She slept most of the night and we were waking her for feedings! Of course, being new parents I thought something must be wrong with her since babies are supposed to be up all night. Turns out, I'm just paranoid.

Sunday we had a visit from the home nurse. She weighed Madelyn and she was back up above 8lbs! She also said it was okay to go a 4 hour stretch at night between feedings. It was music to our ears! The nurse also checked out my incision and removed my staples. She replaced them with what look like sticky tabs and said to take those off in 2 weeks.

Fast forward to Monday and her follow up pediatrician appointment. We were only 20 minutes late for that appointment. My mom went with me since Nick was at work. Miss. Madelyn was back up to her birth weight!! I breathed a huge sigh of relief and promptly texted Nick to tell him the good news. The pediatrician was surprised my milk had come in as quickly as it did. I guess the 3 days they give you as an average on google is a bit skewed and most moms don't get their milk for 5 or more days. He also said that because she looked so good, he didn't feel the need to have a 2 week appointment and we could go ahead and scheduled her 2 month well baby. Yay!

We survived week 1!