Ada's 1st Week

Miss. Ada is already a week old. Having Madelyn makes this experience with Ada even more emotional. I know how quickly the time goes by and I just want to keep her little forever. On the other hand, I can't wait to see what an awesome little girl she is going to become. Ugh - hormones....they are making this mama weepy!

Anyway, we only spent 24 hours in the hospital. We could have stayed a second night but those hospital beds are not comfortable so Nick and I decided to head home. I don't know if it is a 2nd baby thing, vaginal birth thing or provider thing but we had significantly fewer staff visits during this stay than we did with Madelyn. We also had the same nurse immediately after Ada's birth that we had immediately after Madelyn's. It was pretty cool that we remembered each other and she was happy to see that I was able to VBAC Miss. Ada since she tries to keep her c-section rates low with her patients. One of the students I saw early in my pregnancy was also our nurse at one point and she enjoyed seeing the finished product, if you will.

Hospital visitors included grandparents, my brother (poor Molly was working after having rearranged her schedule for the past 2 weeks waiting for Ada's arrival), friends, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and most importantly - Miss. Madelyn and Ben.

My mom kept Madelyn and Ben on Friday night so it was just Nick and I at home with Ada that first night. She did a great job and we were all able to get some sleep.

Day 2 brought more of the same - sleepy newborns are fantastic! It was also our first day with the whole family back.

Later in the week, things got a little challenging. Miss. Ada decided that eating every hour would be a great idea only at night. Madelyn also woke up during the night and was not happy that Mom couldn't cuddle her and had to finish feeding Ada first. It seriously broke my heart and poor Nick couldn't really do anything for either of them.

We are still working out the kinks but have found that if Nick tends to Madelyn (when she wakes up - hasn't been every night) she tends to have an easier time. We have also found that she doesn't sleep well if we bring her into bed with us but actually tosses and turns and can't get back to sleep for several hours.

Other than the one night of constant feeding, Ada has been giving us pretty good stretches of sleep. I have been told it is a "big baby thing". Whatever it is, I'll take it!

When we left the hospital, Ada had dropped to 9lb 3oz and at her doctor's appointment she was up to 9lb 5oz. so we are on the right track. One thing we are getting used to is the baby vom. Man alive, is this girl a spitter. We can easily go through 4-5 outfits and 2-3 blankets a day. Finally, we wised up and have been putting a bib on her but we have officially become those parents that are covered in baby vom. all day long.

I've also discovered that I am going to be abandoning projects halfway through for awhile. Saturday afternoon, Nick headed to the store to pick up some things we needed and I stayed home with the kids. I started to put the car seat adapter on the stroller so we could walk later and about 20 min in, Madelyn decided she'd had enough of playing with Ben and came in for a snack. While I was getting her organized, Ada woke up and needed to eat. Then Madelyn started melting down since she had played about an hour past nap time so I put her to bed. Then Ada....then Madelyn....etc...etc...etc.... it was a good 3 hours before I even went near the stroller project again. Sigh...we'll figure it out.

The girls had their photo shoot on Wednesday afternoon. Ada's newborn and Madelyn's 18 month. I can't wait to see the pictures. Ada did NOT want to cooperate but Amy was amazingly patient and I think we got some great shots.

Sadly, Miss. Ada's cord fell off just before we started the shoot so I don't have any pictures with it. I was really surprised it fell off so quickly since Madelyn's took over 2 weeks to fall off.

Madelyn just loves Ada and is doing a great job with her. Other than the one night of jealousy, she seems to just be fascinated by her. We are working on gentle and soft touches and trying to keep her little fingers out of Ada's eyes and mouth but considering it has only been a week, she is doing a great job. She loves to give her kisses and love. I was interested to see what would happen with the pacifier since Madelyn can only have her's in bed. At first, she took Ada's pacifier and put it in Ada's bed. Now she will give it to Ada but she doesn't seem to want it for herself.

In terms of recovery - c-section vs. vaginal, I will take vaginal all the way. Granted, you are still sore but you're functioning. I was pretty much useless after the c-section for a good 2-3 weeks. Plus, I couldn't imagine not being able to pick up and play with Madelyn.

All in all, a pretty good week. 

Side note: I think it is going to get harder and harder to separately keep posts for each girl. I am going to try but already Madelyn is all over Ada's post. I guess that's life with 2 babies!