24 Days Old

Well this is my first post since the big day. Lots has happened and I must say I am finally feeling more in control. The night we delivered was a huge blur for me, I didn't get to have Fay in the room with me until 6am on Dec 3rd because I was not with it after the birth. I had hypertension, couldn't pee and had to be catheterized (twice), ran a 102 fever, and could not stop shaking. It got a little hairy there for a while and we even thought they might have to do a blood transfusion or page the Doctor at 4am. But finally I started to mend and Fay got to come see us in our room.



The hospital stay was amazing, our nurses and doctor couldn't have been better, and I wish we could have stayed at least one more day, but low and behold they kicked us out. The day we left the hospital it was snowing, and Fay wore her snowman outfit home for the occasion. When she was born she weighed 6 lbs 3 oz and when we left the hospital she was 5 lbs 14oz. So we had some work to do in order to gain her birth weight back.



The first night home we introduced Harper to her and he did great! In fact he is very protective of her and even barks now when someone is at the door, which he never did before. Needless to say we are still obsessed with the dog, we don't understand how people just stop loving on their pet after they have a baby, because now more than ever we appreciate what a good dog he is.



In the beginning the breastfeeding thing seemed to be going pretty well, I clearly had enough milk, because we went for a weight check 3 days after we left the hospital and she had already gained her birth weight back, but she was having some serious digestion issues in the late night hours, and in the end was diagnosed with acid reflux. We had to start preparing bottles and that is when I decided to stop breastfeeding. It was a hard process to dry my milk up but she is doing SO MUCH BETTER on the formula than on my milk. And I am much more emotionally stable. When I was breastfeeding she would get so upset and be in obvious pain, and it definitely took a toll on me. I cried every day for the first 7 days. Once we started on the bottle she and I were both totally different people.

Now we are starting to get into a routine, and I feel a lot more confident in my ability to make her happy. It makes me feel really good when she is upset and all I have to do is pick her up and her whole world changes. Dave is amazing with her, one of her favorite places to sleep is on his bare chest, when all else fails he can put her there and we pretty much have a guaranteed happy baby.

I was worried that I would be bored, and I haven't been. Raising a newborn is tough work, and not for the light hearted, but she is a very good baby, and only cries when something is wrong. We have already taken her to the ranch and Austin and she did great. All in all parenthood is great. We are learning along with her and it gets better every day. I can't wait for her to start smiling and really interacting with us, she is starting to focus better already, and she holds her head up really well.

I can't believe that Dave and I are her parents, she is really neat.