Hey y’all! I hope everyone enjoyed my last post. I know
there are things I forgot to put in there (I’m kicking myself in the butt for
not writing it when it was fresh on my mind).
It truly was the best day of my life. The days following seem like a
blur. I will write what I do remember.
After everyone left the hospital I don’t think Lucy laid in
her bed once for the first several hours. We just couldn’t get enough of her. I
can remember calling the nurse every time she showed signs of being hungry
because breastfeeding was very new to me and I was scared I was going to
somehow mess up. I felt like her and I were both doing well with it. She would
latch for about 5 minutes on each side. The nurse assured me we were doing
something right. Lucy would do really well latching on during one feeding and
then the next feeding she wouldn’t, so, I would have to hand express my
colostrum. I would only get a few drops in a spoon (I remember thinking “there
is no way I will ever be able to fill up a bottle”) and give it to her that
way. She was eating about every 2 hours. The nurse gave her a bath and we got
her dressed for the day (in my favorite gown). We started getting visitors,
which made it hard to hand express/nurse every time I needed to (don’t get me
wrong, we enjoyed seeing everyone). We had lots and lots of visitors (I will
post some photos now). Joseph also changed her first poop diaper! (Picture
below). I was trying my hardest to get out of the bed and do it but by the time
I got up he was already done! (picture posted below)
I thought this was so sweet
Is this not the cutest!?
Daddy talking to his little girl
Daddys first diaper change
I could just eat her up!
I don’t recall getting much sleep on the first day. I do
know I would be sitting there and I would doze off and wake myself up. For some
reason I felt like I wasn’t supposed to sleep while Lucy was in the room. That
night I was having a hard time getting Lucy to stay awake during her feedings.
With this being my first baby, I just thought that was normal and went with it.
Joseph and I decided we would let Lucy go to the nursery for a few hours so we
could rest. Well, this momma couldn’t sleep. 2 hours into it I was calling the
nursery wanting her back in my room.
The next day my midwife came and checked on me. She told me
I was getting around a lot better than she thought I would be (and that’s one
thing I regret a little.. I wish I would have rested more, but I thought I had
to be up and do everything for myself). A little later Lucy’s doctor came in
and said that had tested Lucy for jaundice (they didn’t tell us, but I guess
they don’t have to?) and her levels were really high. They advised us she would
have to be under a special kind of light. Well, up until this point my emotions
had been fine. When she told me she had jaundice my mind started racing. I told
myself it was my fault, that she wasn’t getting what she needed from me. I was
able to hold it together for a little bit, and then my mom called (I don’t know
if I’m the only one that does this, but if something is bothering me to the
point I may cry, hearing my moms voice
just brings it all out). She was just calling to see how things were going and
she could tell in my voice something was wrong. I started crying before I could
even answer her question. Poor Joseph was sitting on the couch holding Lucy, he
looked up and I’m so upset that I can’t even talk. He kept saying “Lauren, what
happened? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I finally calmed down enough to tell him
and my mom both that I thought it was my fault she was “sick”. My mom was
telling me it wasn’t, and that a lot of babies get jaundice (which I knew, but
it’s a lot scarier when it’s your baby). While my mom was calming me down
Joseph grabs a camera and starts taking pictures of me while I was crying, he
said he wanted proof that I got a little “crazy” there for a minute (don’t
worry, those pictures were deleted!). That day we spent at least 4 hours with
the lactation specialist trying to figure out why Lucy wasn’t latching. It
turns out she didn’t know how to suck (which kind of assured me that she in
fact, wasn’t getting what she needed from me.. which hurt even more), that’s
when we decided to start supplementing with formula. Her daddy got to feed her
for the first time. The specialist told me I needed to pump every 2 hours for
at least 20 minutes to get as much colostrum as I could and to help my milk
come in. She also told me to do skin to skin as much as possible. Once again,
that’s hard to do when you have so many visitors (like I said earlier, we
enjoyed our visitors) so I hardly got to pump while in the hospital. I don’t
think it understood how important pumping every 2 hours was to my milk supply.
I feel like I’m still struggling with my supply because I didn’t do what I was
told. Lucy was only under the light for less than 24 hours. We were able to go
home the next day.
My aunt holding Lucy
My friend Jerriann and her daughter Averie
My sister-in-law and my nephews
Milo loving on Lucy
Daddy needed a nap
Joseph feeding Lucy for the first time
This broke my heart, but she still looks so sweet
That’s it for this blog! Hope y’all enjoy it!
Until next time!
Momma S.
