One week!

Kylie is now one week old! Well ok, I meant to do this yesterday. She is actually 8 days old today =P All three of us have learned a lot over the last week and things are going pretty smoothly now.

Temperature

The first day at home we had it at 75F in the apartment, which is pretty standard for us. Kylie kept crying when she was put down for a bit, and she would feel a little cold, even with blankets and clothes on. Since she was technically a little bit preemie and they have trouble with temperature regulation, we figure she was just cold. So we made it 80F in here. After that she seemed much better! We decided that we will lower it by one degree a week starting next week until we get back to normal temperatures in here. It might seem weird to some people, or like we are being crazy, but it seems to work and it doesn't bother us. =)

Big Smile!
02-04-14

Sleeping

The first 2 nights Kylie was home, we put her in her crib at night. When she would cry we would pick her up and calm her down and then put her back. About 30 minutes later she would cry again. Halfway through the 2nd night I gave up and put her in the bed with us. George and I were both getting sleep deprived and that was no fun. We sleep with only a sheet now, because it's 80F in here, so there is little risk of Kylie being suffocated by that. She sleeps at a level below the pillows and between us. The only potential risk would be one of us rolling onto her, which is not really possible. George doesn't ever move in his sleep and I become aware and awake when I move around at night. There is also something really satisfying about waking up to looking at and smelling your baby beside you <3 We still practice self-soothing in the swing a few times each day, and we plan on transitioning to the crib over the next 2 months or so, starting with things like 3 hours a night, then 6 hours a night, etc.

02-02-14

Clothes

We have a bunch of really cute baby clothes we bought or people gave us. I think she wore 2 outfits before I decided that was a silly idea. First of all, she gets everything gross and changes clothes a lot during the day. Second, a lot of those cute outfits are long-sleeved. Long sleeves does not mean "warmer" like you might expect. It means "colder" because they are covered in slobber all day. Unless it's a sleeper at night, she doesn't suck on her hands much then. Third, a lot of them include pants. Pants are OBNOXIOUS with diaper changes. We don't wear pants. At nighttime, Kylie wears a sleeper with a wool sleep sack over it. In the daytime, Kylie wears a T-shirt (not a onesie, those make her look weird with her cloth diaper butt, but sometimes she just wears a onesie unsnapped) and socks. The socks fall off 10+ times a day, but we just put them back on her. We have some plain colored shirts from American Apparel that she wears. Clothes just need to be soft and functional. I also don't like hats. When we are outside and it's cold, sure. But I like seeing her hair and smelling her head too much to wear hats inside =) Kylie also hates being swaddled. I thought all babies were supposed to like it, but she really likes her hands.

Missing a sock... again.
02-02-14

Feeding

After the disastrous incident at the hospital, we figured out a system. (At the hospital I let her sleep too long and she was too hungry to sleep and too sleepy to eat, which was terrible.) Every 3 hours Kylie gets a diaper change and then nurses. To make this simple for us, it's just every multiple of 3: Midnight, 3am, 6am, 9am, noon, 3pm, 6pm. 9pm. I tried nursing first, but she is usually too sleepy. The diaper change usually wakes her up enough to want to eat, and it's always wet anyways. 

02-02-14

Schedule

Our diaper/feeding schedule is above. Kylie and I go down for the night between midnight and 3am, depending on what I am feeling like. George takes her from bed at 3am and 6am and changes her diaper and gives her back to me to nurse and go back to sleep. He goes to bed after the 6am change. We started this because sometimes she gets really fussy sometime between 3 and 5am, so this way George is awake to rock and soothe her back to sleep. Depending on who is more sleepy/awake, we take turns doing the 9am diaper change. Then at noon I get up and take my meds, get food, fill my water bottle, and go to the bathroom before getting Kylie up. That is when we start our "daytime," which means she goes from the sleeper in bed to a T-shirt in my lap/her swing. I let George just sleep until I need him or he decides to wake up. Sometimes I put Kylie back into bed with him so I can take a shower. 

02-03-14

Awake Time

Babies sleep a LOT. Kylie does have some awake time each day though. It tends to be after her noon, 6pm, and midnight feedings. But not the 6am one. So I guess she has some sort of 24-hour schedule? Anyways, she likes to make faces and look around during awake time. Depending on what we are doing, I usually either put her on her playtime mat for some "tummy time" to help strengthen her neck muscles, hold her black and white striped letter G 10 inches away from her face to promote eye development, or stare at her and talk to her so she can learn my face and voice. 

02-03-14

Mommy vs Daddy

Mommy is better at- face snuggles into boobs, feeding, being a human pillow, and bedtime snuggles. Daddy is better at- diaper changes, helping with burping, guessing what Kylie wants, and having infinite patience with a screaming baby.

02-04-14

How is Mommy/Rachael doing?

I am doing well. I am still really sore all over, particularly in the nether regions. I only had one small tear though, so it's not too bad. I find that Kylie's smell is a very addictive drug. I cannot really function when she is in a different room from me, I NEED her near me. It also makes me nervous when other people hold her. George carried her in the moby wrap to the store yesterday, so it's getting better! My boobs are very full of milk, which feels weird, but it's not too bad. Latching sometimes hurts, but only for a few seconds. Most of my remaining discomfort is due to my hips and back re-aligning, which gets better each day.

02-02-14

How is Daddy/George doing?

I wish I could get him to post himself, but he never seems to want to. He seems to be doing great! He keeps saying things like, "Why do people say changing diapers is so bad? Does it get harder? This is not bad at all." Sometimes he steals Kylie from my lap so he can cuddle with her for a while. He is really good at soothing her when she is upset, unless she just wants me, in which case he can't do much. He has already started talking about when we can have another one! So overall, I think he is really good at this whole "dad" thing and we both still want lots of kids =)

02-05-14

Overall

We are all doing really well, no one is sleep deprived, and we both get to change clothes and take showers every day. I don't know if we just lucked out with an easy baby, or we are just really good at this, but I don't feel like it's that hard being a new parent. It's different, and we had to learn Kylie's signals for what she wants, but after day 3 we pretty much had that covered. We had to get over the fact that you sometimes have to drop whatever you are doing to take care of her, but we expected that. We have walked to the store with Kylie in the moby wrap most days since she has been home, and she is always really calm and content. I thought pregnancy and labor were both way easier than people made them sound as well, so maybe people just exaggerate a lot =P

Moby wrap for outside exploration!
02-02-14

02-02-14

Rachael