It's been one week already! Time flies when you're sleep deprived. But I can say that this week has been amazing. After waiting and waiting, we finally got to meet our little man. Already he has so much personality! I wanted to do a nice weekly and then monthly updates for my own personal records and to keep family and friends who care to know informed. So, here's our first update.
Likes: Mommy and daddy cuddles. His favorite place is curled up in a ball on one of our chests. In fact, that's his favorite position to sleep in. He's slowly warming up to his monkey bouncer. We put him in there for a few minutes the other night while we tried to eat dinner. We tolerated it for about 30 minutes before he was done. I suspect that he will grow to love it, but right now he just wants to be held all the time.
Dislikes: Bright lights, loud noises, dirty diapers, gas, not being held.
Sleeping: Since coming home from the hospital, Arthur's been sleeping about 2-3 hours at a time. In general, he's a good sleeper. He eats and then goes to sleep. We haven't had too many times where we had to soothe him back to sleep (yet). The other night was a bad one. He couldn't be consoled and just wanted to sleep in someone's arms. That was a rough night. Hopefully we don't have too many of those.
Eating (bit of TMI this time): To be completely honest, breast feeding is not going well at all. While in the hospital, he latched but in the process totally messed up my nipples. We had to start supplementing with formula so that he could get something to eat. Since coming home, I have been pumping and attempting to heal my nipples. We're hoping that once they heal, we can start breast feeding normally. Pumping is still very painful and not very productive. But my output has been increasing, so that's a good thing. We have another appointment at the Newborn Club to weigh the baby and check on feeding progress. We're taking it one day at a time right now.
Playing: He has a few times throughout the day and night where he's completely awake and alert. During those times, he mainly just looks around at things. The other night he had an awake episode in the middle of the night. I didn't want to force him back to sleep, so I started reading to him from my book. He seemed to enjoy a chapter or two from The Angel's Game. I'm thinking it's about time to pull out the activity gym. He might actually enjoy playing with toys. Plus, we are going to start tummy time this coming week. He's already trying to lift his head.
Medical Milestones: Not much, but the baby can recognize our voices. He definitely turns his head towards us when we talk. So cute!
Schedule: We don't have much of a schedule right now. Mostly Arthur sleeps for 2-3 hours, eats, and pees/poos. Repeat.
My Recovery: I'm still sore but slowly I can feel myself healing. I'm still reliant on my pain meds to get through the day, but soon I should be able to decrease how often I take them. This time I didn't require staples, only dissolvable stitches. The incision looks good. I can finally sleep on my side again without grimacing in pain. And it's getting easier to get in and out of bed. As my strength improves, I hope to start being able to lose the weight I gained.
