Our first week in heaven: Part II

This post is an account of the basic things we're learning to do with Evan during his first week home. You know how they say that all babies do is eat, sleep, and poop? Well, this post is dedicated to us learning how to handle each of these three baby needs.

Sleeping

The first morning we were home we slept in a bit. Actually we've been sleeping in a bit every morning this first week. Since our sleep is broken up into 2-3 hour chunks, we usually try to get about 3 chunks of time to accumulate at least 6 hours of total sleep per night. The first few nights we were not getting Evan down until 11pm or midnight, but midway through the week we started trying to get him down by 10pm at least. Now, when I say put him down, that's not to say he's not sleeping in between feedings every other time of day, but really I mean that John and I go to sleep at those times and Evan sleeps in his pack n' play bassinet in our room with us. So, a typical night has been nurse Evan around 10pm, sleep til 1am, nurse Evan til 2am, sleep until 5 am, nurse Evan until 6am, and then sleep some more until 9am or so. Thus, this kind of schedule will not work for us if John and I have to get up for work, but it's been allowing us to at least get a decent amount of accumulated sleep for this first week. I guess if we need to get up earlier, we'll have to get ourselves "down" to sleep earlier then too.

Really though, Evan is a great sleeper. Sure, he tends to be fussy when we first put him down in the bassinet for the night, but after that he sleeps in between his feedings really well. We can only hope it stays that way! :)

Just one of his many sleeping poses. Of course, when he's sleeping at night in his bassinet, he sleeps on his back inside his swaddle sleepsack, but when he's lounging with mommy or daddy during the day, we let him lay however he likes under our supervision. He usually has no problem getting comfy.

Changing

John and I plan to use cloth diapers with Evan, however we'd been advised to maybe just use disposables the first few days until we got into a routine. That way we're not introducing a new hurdle along with everything else that's new. Thus, we're using Pampers Swaddlers size N (newborn) that have the little yellow stripe that turns blue when he's pee'd. It's a nice way to check him without having to open the diaper, however he always seems to have poo'd a little bit too, so it's still off with the whole thing at changing time. And as we had been warned, having a little boy at changing time can be interesting if he decides to pee during the changing. This happened for the first time on our second day home when John was changing him on the couch. I couldn't help but laugh given John's surprised reaction to the fact that he was pee'ing! That said, it's happened to both John and I a few times now during changes. We were told about these little tent-like things that can cover him, but he moves around so much during changes that I don't know if those would stay in place and help much. Needless to say, it's always an adventure when you change him as you never know what surprises you might encounter!

John changing him on the couch, right after he got pee'd on for the first time. Since then John brought down the changing table from the nursery into the living room so we not only have a better place to change him in the living room, but we also have shelves to hold diapers, clothes, blankets, etc. This is great since we're pretty much living out of the living room at the moment.

Feeding

Evan is a great eater...he nurses about every 3 hours, sometimes more often. He's such a funny kid when he gets hungry...searching for anything to suck on. For example, I'll hold him to my chest with his belly on my belly (see photo below), and he'll desperately mouth over all of my chest looking for food, breathing really fast as he expels all kinds of energy lifting his head trying to find dinner. He's also got some pretty clear signs when he's done eating too...his lips will be pursed saying they are not accepting anything else (and usually he'll be fast asleep at this point as well). Lately when he starts to nurse if he is having trouble getting the right latch he'll shake his head side-to-side real fast as he lets go, as if he's saying "nope, that's not working right", but when he's ready to latch he opens wide and just goes for it...chowing down! He often gets so excited when he first starts to nurse that he gulps and then ends up choking. :( Hopefully he'll get the process down smoothly soon, as it always makes me worry hearing him choke!

In addition to normal feedings, we were advised by our pediatrician to give him a Vitamin D supplement. However, he does not like the taste of that so we can't just give it to him with the little dropper! It smells like medicine so I can imagine why. Thus, we're trying to disguise it with the breast milk now using an SNS to see if that works...so far he's spit up most of his meal after having it, but today he actually kept it down. Let's hope that it gets easier to give to him, because the SNS is not always the easiest thing to use during nursing. I definitely need John to help with that. Other than that, though, I'm trying to become more self-sufficient when it's feeding time, so that I know that I can handle it all on my own for when John's not home. I'm getting there, but I still seem to always forget something when I sit down to nurse (refill my water, burp cloth, etc). Having an extra pair of hands to run and get me those things is sure nice. :)

Either way, there is no better feeling in the world...and I mean this wholeheartedly, than having a teeny weeny baby of your own snuggle up to your chest after you finish feeding and burping him. He just snuggles into a tiny ball on my chest and falls asleep that way. I melt every time I have him in my arms like that. I get to kiss his soft head and smell his baby smell. I wonder if he can hear my heartbeat through my chest too, and wonder if that soothes him and reminds him of being in the womb. Either way, this is absolutely my favorite thing to do with him, and I will do it as much as I can while he's this small. It's these moments that make me realize I'm in Evan heaven. :)

This is how he lays when he's on my chest, snuggled up so tight, sleeping like an angel. I love it more than anything! Now picture him in this position with his face planted forward into my chest desperately seeking food when he's hungry. Same position that I love to hold him in, but in those moments he's a baby on a mission.