Thursday, September 27, 2012

Our First Week

Holy cow this has been a long, stressful, scary, and AMAZING week! Lili and Daddy are napping, so I figured I would update everyone on what exactly was going on. Here we go.....this is going to be LONG!

Lili was born on Thursday, September 20. She was 7lb 7oz, 19 in., and absolutely perfect! We had a pretty rough labor. I was pushing for 4 hours. She was right there. We found out later that her cord was wrapped around her neck twice. The midwife was able to unwrap her before she came out thank goodness! When she came out, she had A LOT of bruising (especially on the crown of her head).

After we got moved to our postpartum room, everything seemed pretty great. She was pretty lethargic, but that's to be expected in babies under 24 hours old. She did a bunch of sleeping. She also got a bunch of snuggles from her mommy and daddy :)

We came home on Saturday afternoon. Her jaundice levels were on the border of being treated. So, we got to go home. Her weight had dropped to 6lb 12oz which is normal, but her loss was on the higher end of average. The pediatrician wanted to us to take her back to the hospital on Sunday to get her jaundice levels checked again. So that's what we did. Lili was really lethargic all day on Sunday. We got a call from the pediatrician in the afternoon saying that her levels had jumped from 13 to 17 and she needed to be treated. The home light was not available so we had to take her to get her admitted to the hospital. I was devastated because I didn't realize we could stay with her. When they admitted her, she was down to 6lb 10oz. They put her under the lights from about 5 on Saturday afternoon through 11 on Sunday morning. The pediatrician came in and said that her jaundice was clearing (she was back down to 13) but he was really concerned about her weight. Lili hadn't eaten for 6 hours and all we could get her to do was suck on our finger. She seemed to be comatose. It was really scary. The pedi immediately wanted to put her on a bottle and start feeding her. We REALLY wanted Lili to at least have breast milk because we feel that's what's best for her in the long run. He was really resistant until the most AMAZING nurse stepped up and advocated for our rights. She told him that I would pump and then we would supplement whatever I didn't get with formula. He agreed and we started the feeding marathon of 2 oz every 3 hours no matter what. We weren't allowed to get her riled up to latch on to me because the pedi didn't want her wasting what little energy she had. So we were allowed to try quickly. If she didn't latch, she was to get finger fed with a tube. If she did latch, she still got the tube with the supplement of breast milk and formula. My milk hadn't come in yet because she wasn't demanding it from me. So our feeding sessions took us an hour. We had to feed her (Mark and I wanted her to have my taste and smell still so I did the finger feeding while he inserted the tube and held the bottle). After we fed her, I had to pump. It was very scary and LOTS of hard work.

When the pedi came to us on Tuesday, he was happy because she had gotten up to 6lb 14oz. That was a 4oz jump in less than 24 hours. Lili was more active, but there was still room for improvement. They discharged us Tuesday at 2. We came home and continued the 2oz every 3 hours. We really wanted to get Lili to latch back on to me like she had in the hospital right after birth. She had started showing some interest, but we didn't want to make her work too hard for food yet. So she got finger fed most of the time. The good news, though, was that my milk had FINALLY started coming in! She was getting mostly breast milk and very little formula at each feeding.

We had to schedule our first pedi appointment for Wednesday. Mark called at 9:15 and the only time our pedi had available was 10:30....we had to leave at 10.....we hadn't gotten ready yet. Lili then decided that it was the PERFECT time to latch and feed on me for the first time in days. It was INCREDIBLY exciting, but horribly timed :) We ended up making it on time and should get some kind of prize for getting completely ready and feeding an uncooperative baby in 45 min.!

Lili has now started to initiate most of her feedings. When she feeds on her own time and terms, she latches and eats VERY well! If we have to wake her to hit her 3 our mark, she isn't always as cooperative. But we still need to make sure she's getting a little more than she needs right now. She's having some latch issues which is NOT fun for Mommy, but we are going to see a lactation consultant tomorrow to try and rectify it.

Our little Lili has been through SO much in this week! She is definitely a strong little girl to already have made the progress she's made. She is SO much more active now! Mark and I can finally play with her without feeling like she's wasting energy. She will be awake and alert for long periods of time. She's finally like a normal newborn. Now we are just learning how to take care of her all over again.

Thank you to everyone who has lifted us up in prayers. They were definitely needed and appreciated.

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