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!
2 comments:
yay for surviving week one! bummer the hospital staff didnt tell you about the 10% birth weight loss stuff. they mentioned it several times in my classes and at the hospital, so we knew not to worry. plus, with your IV hydrating you during labor im sure she was extra pumped full of fluids after birth. woulda been nice to give a new momma a break and tell you things were likely perfectly normal.
no kidding! i think i just ended up with a pedi that likes to freak out first time mommas. i actually read somewhere (after the fact) that baby's birth weight can be inflated if mom received fluids during labor and i had been getting fluids for about 22 hours
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