First Week Home

We are 1 week post-delivery, and we've been home 6 days...and we're all still okay! Haha. And a lot of it is thanks to my mom - she's been coming over and helping with everything...washing dishes, cooking, cleaning up the apartment, and looking after the baby so Ralph and I can catch up on sleep. If it weren't for her, I think Ralph and I would've lost our minds over the weekend. Thanks, Mom!

Owen is doing great, except that he lost 13% (1 lb, 1 oz) of his birth weight when we took him to his first pediatric appointment on Sunday. We found this surprising because I THOUGHT I was breastfeeding him just fine; but the nurse practitioner told me that my milk might not have come in yet, and I felt like a total failure and mentally beat myself up over the whole thing. The NP gave us a bottle of formula for the baby and scheduled a weight check-up for the following day.

On his way to the doctor's!

I have nothing against formula, but I wanted to breastfeed exclusively...but, of course, I can't let the little guy starve to death either. So before we went home, we stopped by Target to get more formula (just in case) and some ingredients to make "lactation" shakes to help me produce breast milk. The key ingredients are oats and flaxseed (seriously, what CAN'T flaxseed do?!).

That same day, I began to use my Ameda dual breast pump. The first time I used it, I was horrified because barely anything came out, and the feelings of failing to feed my son came rushing back. So I chugged down a lactation shake, which seemed to work because I was able to get a little bit of breast milk the next time I pumped. I've been drinking a lactation shake daily, and I'm getting more and more breast milk each day. When we came back for the weight check-up, Owen had gained 5 ounces back - yaaay!

As far as how Ralph and I are doing, we're doing great. Neither of us feel comfortable sleeping at the same time, so we've created a system where one of us is always awake to watch the baby. While I'm awake, all I do is breastfeed the baby and pump as much as I can - that way, when I'm sleeping and the baby is hungry, Ralph is able to feed Owen whatever I was able to pump. I'm just waiting for that moment where the milk is literally pouring out of me because a full baby is a happy baby...and in hindsight, Owen WAS pretty fussy the first two days at home. :(

But Owen IS eating and sleeping more, which allows Ralph and I to do things around the apartment. One of the things that I wanted to do was to take some photos of the baby. I kept seeing all these newborn photos on Pinterest that I wanted to just try my hand at it. I put a blanket on top of my Boppy Pillow, which I put on the rocking chair...so whenever the baby got fussy, I just rocked the chair, and he'd calm down. *Thumbs up*

Big feet like Daddy's!

Owen waited long enough to be born in the Year of Sheep...and he has a sheep-themed rocker/sleeper.

I thought the pictures turned out okay! And it was fun to do too, though the baby didn't seem to think so...lol!

I also wanted to do one more chalkboard "update" with the baby included! Of course, there won't be a survey to accompany it, so I decided to just list down some fun facts about Owen. (Maybe I'll do monthly chalkboard updates for Owen...)

• The name Owen is a Celtic name and means "young warrior"
• Born on the same day as George Harrison (Mama's favorite Beatle)
• Peed on the doctor that performed the C-section and the nurse at his second pediatric appointment (guess he dislikes healthcare professionals...wait a minute...)
• Dislikes being on his left side when being breastfed
• Has already been introduced to Disney's Greatest Hits and music by Michael Jackson and Murder By Death

Until next time!