On our 2nd day at home with Emma we had an in-home visit from a nurse practitioner (NP) to do a check up on Emma at 5 days old, and also on me. The visit started out with me, of which she checked me medically (to make sure my uterus was going back to normal okay, which it was and she said it was actually already quite small so I'd be back to my normal body in no time...fingers crossed she's right!) and emotionally. All she had to do was ask how I'd been feeling and then the waterworks began. In all honesty, the previous day (Tuesday) I had the most weepy moments, but just her asking about it made it happen again right in front of her. The good news was that it was totally normal, my feelings were mostly positive thoughts (like happy emotions about my beautiful new baby girl, but also thinking a lot about how one day I was pregnant with her and then the next she was born. That dramatic change in such a short period of time brought about a lot of the emotions for me), and that moment in front of the NP was the last time I had it happen (so it really only lasted those first couple days at home). The funniest emotional moment for me was on Tuesday afternoon when Evan was napping, Emma was sleeping, and so John and I were going to try to take nap and I was just crying for no reason at all. John asked me if I was okay and I was...I just couldn't stop crying, and was even laughing a little about it at the same time. Hormones...I tell ya!
Emma got her check up next and was doing wonderfully. The transitional heart murmur she had at the hospital was still there, but very faint. We'll have to see at her 2 week check up if it's fully gone. She weighed in at 8 lbs 11.5 oz, so almost back to her birth weight (she only dropped down to 8 lbs 6 or 7 oz at the hospital as it was)! The NP said they like to see babies regain their birth weight by 2 weeks old, so she was on track to easily make that mark! The NP also said Emma was really strong and she had a hard time believing she was a 5-day old newborn that had been born a week early. She asked if my due date was off given how big and strong Emma was!
One other interesting thing that came out of our in-home NP visit is that I get a free breast pump (thanks my insurance plan and Obamacare!), and it arrived via Fedex within 2 days of that appointment. I had looked into insurance paying for my pump last time, but was told no and therefore had to shell out a few hundred bucks for it myself. Now I have that old one and a brand new one...the NP suggested I could keep one at the office and one at home so I don't have to haul it back and forth all the time like I did before (again, like I said in my last post, having two of most things is making things a lot more convenient this time!).
Given that Emma is growing so well, she did not fit in newborn size clothes or diapers long. In fact, we went through one pack of newborn Pampers diapers and then upgraded to size 1 within that first week. While the newborn diapers say they are up to 10 lbs, they were barely fitting around her waist. And for newborn clothes, well the newborn onesies had a hard time getting over her head from the get go, and even barely reached to snap closed around her diaper, so she only wore those a few times. The few newborn size sleepers we have she can still wear (even now at 2 weeks old), but I'm about to cycle them out of her wardrobe today actually. We have plenty of 0-3 month sleepers that fit her much better, albeit a little on the big side giving her some room to grow into them still.
Wearing newborn onesies...the one time she got to wear each.
It's been so nice to spend a lot of time together as a family since Emma arrived. With me not working, and John still taking Tuesdays and Thursdays off work (as well as Saturdays for the time being), we get a lot of time to spend as a family. I'm loving it!
We took her out for her first walk already on Tuesday, our 2nd day home. I needed to get out of house for some fresh air, in part because it was such a beautiful day out, but also because I was having a bit of the weepies that day (recall I was crying for no apparent reason Tuesday afternoon, so I figured even more reason to get outdoors and enjoy the weather!). Our walk didn't get very far due to me and my discomforts slowing me down--we had just made it almost halfway around our block and then had to turn around and come back. So then we just sat out on our back deck for a bit to enjoy the nice cool weather...until we realized the mozzies were out bad (thanks to all the recent flooding I think there have been a late season resurgence in them this year). Either way, it gave me time to accept that autumn was here. The trees were starting to change color, the air was crisp and cool, and the sky was so clear and blue. Besides the dramatic change of being pregnant one day and having a baby the next, I think the dramatic change in the weather also added to some of my weepiness. When we went into the hospital it was still summer (literally and based on the warm weather), but when we were discharged it was definitely autumn (not only had the equinox occurred while we were in the hospital, but a big weather change came through and it was quite chilly and windy on Monday when we left the hospital). So the end of summer, coming so abruptly and coincident with Emma's arrival, was just one more reason for my sentimental emotions to be on high. Nonetheless, that evening on the deck allowed me to enjoy the beauty of the cool autumn day in the presence of my beautiful, and now complete, family, and I think it was a great way for me to start to accept and appreciate the dramatic change that had happened.
Emma's first walk (left) and autumn has arrived in our neighborhood (view from our back deck; right)
Hanging out on the back deck
On Wednesday, John went back to work. So far John's only going into work on MWF when Evan is in daycare, and then also on Sundays. He's working shorter hours on MWF so that he can take Evan to and from daycare, and then that allows me time to spend with Emma alone. On Sundays, however, I get to juggle both kids, and it is definitely a lot of work! While Evan really loves Emma--he loves to check on her, hold her (for very short periods at a time), sing to her, pat her, "tickle" her, and give her hugs and kisses--he also really likes to test and abuse me while I'm nursing or holding her. By abuse, I mean he likes to climb on my feet and legs and often times it hurts, but yet when she's attached to me I can't really do much about it. He'll test me by doing things he knows he shouldn't, again probably knowing I can't get up easily to really put an end to his behavior. I hope this subsides with time, or else that I find other more effective ways to respond to him in these instances, but for now I just have to threaten punishment and count to 3, and then if needed act like I'm going to start getting up to get him and that usually helps get him to stop...for the moment. Either way, juggling both of them isn't easy, and I feel like I'm constantly neglecting one for the other given they have very different needs. I'm sure I'll have more to write about these issues of balancing two kids in future posts.
On Friday, while Evan was at daycare and John was at work, my friend Jessica came by and we had a fun newborn photo shoot with Emma at one week old. I'll have a post dedicated to showing off all of those cute photos very soon.
1 comment:
Your schedule with your husband sounds wonderful right now! That's great that you have so much time as a family. Cute photos!
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