Our First Week

This last week has been very eventful. We got home and immediately people started coming over to visit and help out. Our family has been so great with all the help during the days and nights. This first week has been really hard. With the c-section and lack of sleep, recovery has been difficult. I have been trying to do a lot and get naps in and visit with people, all of which is difficult to do when you have an incision all across your bikini line. Jordan kept asking me why I was so tired. I keep telling him that he didn't just have surgery and that my body is physically tired as well as me being tired from lack of sleep. When we were at the hospital, just before leaving to come home we were told by the pediatrician not to worry about waking her up to feed her and allow her to wake us up. For the first couple of nights that's what we did and it was miserable. The next day I decided to forget what he doctor had said and started attempting to wake her up to feed every 3 hours. She wouldn't want to wake up and eat. I would try and feed her and she would eat for about 5 min before falling back asleep or other times she would eat really good, it wasn't consistent. It was really frustrating. She also wasn't on a sleeping schedule. The doctor's had told us to allow her to make the schedule and then after the first couple of weeks, we should begin a schedule for her to go by. I thought this sounded strange but being a first time parent I didn't know any better. When we woke up the day of her newborn appointment with our pediatrician (last Thursday) I noticed she was yellow. I got worried, we had only been home for 3 days and the night before she had looked good. It is crazy how fast they can change. I went and got my staples out while Jordan took Greer to the doctor. I met up with him laterat the doctor and we were told to stay by the phone, we might have to go to the hospital again and get her checked in to decrease her bilirubin. I thought, great... already she is having to go back to the hospital and all we did was follow the ped's instructions. Again, very frustrating. Later that day we got the phone call telling us we needed to get checked in and stay overnight. I started crying, I was so irritated! We hadn't been home long and we had to again leave our house. The room was at least really cute. It was decorated in animals and her bed looked like a tanning bed.


(She is so lady like! lol)

Staying at that hospital was a blessing in disguise. We had delivered at ETMC and there is not a lactation consultant there to guide you. At Trinity, they have several to help out and inform nursing mothers. They came in and talked to me about all that I was supposed to be doing and how to hold her to keep her from going to sleep, how to wake her up if she did fall asleep, and helped us get a schedule going. They helped me out a lot with questions I still had. They kept coming in and checking on us periodically throughout the night making sure all was going well. The next morning, we were told the good news. Greer's bilirubin count had gone down and we could go home. The lactation consultants came back in and went over things with me again. They gave me their number to call anytime if and when I had questions. I felt more comfortable going home this time, like I was more prepared. Since then, Greer has been waking up or has been easier to wake up to eat. Her color is back to pink and she is now tanner than momma. :) We are going to try this week to work more on the feeding schedule. She has been really good at nursing so we are going to try to bring in a bottle a day. I will nurse at 11 before both of us going to bed. Jordan will get up with a bottle at 2 to feed her and then I will get up at 5 to nurse. We are really hoping this will be better for us and for her. All 3 being able to get some sleep. She is also doing some things really early. She has already started picking her head up and leaving it up for several seconds at a time. She has also started throwing herself back! We have a smart kid on our hands. We went to the doctor again on Saturday for her follow up. Her bilirubin count was still really good, thank goodness. She was measured and was found to be in the 80th percentile for heighth and was at the weight she needed to be. Great news to hear after a really long and tiring week!