Tag Archives: new baby

Day of Birth Memories

365 days have passed since I gave birth to my sweet little boy, though it feels like mere minutes. Your day of birth was one of the most important days of my life.

I know so many people warn you that the first year (and each subsequent year) goes so quickly, but you just don’t understand until you experience it for yourself. I believe, for the most part, I took my time working hard to absorb every special moment, but I’m sure I still missed things or certain actions passed me by without noticing. It’s just so hard and until there is a means to slow down time or to travel BACK in time, we’re left with only memories.

Day of Birth Memories - Hospital

This was Sunday night, 7/22/12. We had gone in that evening to begin the induction.

I’m a really sentimental person with everything in my life. I love sitting down with just about anyone and reviewing all the memories that each of us can remember from a particular situation. Something about doing that really warms my heart and puts a smile on my face, so over the next few days you will see a series of birthday posts made for Emmett. These are for his benefit, so when he’s older he can read through them but also for me, because I love reliving everything I experienced the day he was born and the days/weeks after.

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During the C-section

Emmett has grown from a tiny baby who needed me (or Seamus) for everything to a toddler who is fairly independent. It blows my mind that something so small can change and grow so much, in only 365 days.

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The very first moment I got to touch my boy.

I remember the way his soft cheek felt against mine and I remember thinking, I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything this soft. I do not regret having a C-section, it was what was best for Emmett and myself but I often wish that we’d been able to go naturally. We would have then had the time after birth for immediate bonding. The hospital was fantastic about ensuring he got to me within an hour, so that he could start nursing, so I truly cannot complain.

The fist time I held him in my arms.

The fist time I held him in my arms.

Because the hospital was so quick to bring him to me once I was in the recovery room, his rooting reflex kicked in and he immediately started looking for my nipple. It amazed me, that a baby less than 2 hours old, had the ability to do something so important. He needed help latching but he somehow, instinctively, knew what to do. Once he drank a little colostrum, he fell into a deep, comfortable sleep. He knew he was safe and warm, back with his momma.

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The best days of my life are ahead of us, and I had no idea!

Happy Birthday, Emmett!!

More to come…

You can read all about Emmett’s first days of life here.

Baby Magic Baby Lotion vs. Trader Joe’s Coconut Oil

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When we first brought Emmett home from the hospital we only bathed him once every three days. This is what the nurses recommended but it was also because he still had part of the umbilical cord on him and he’d also had a circumcision so we couldn’t get him wet and were just giving him sponge baths. Also babies really do not get that dirty or smelly. Since he wasn’t bathing that frequently we didn’t need any sort of lotion to keep his skin soft, it remained soft on it’s own.

As he got older we decided to start bathing him every two days because he was spitting up more and it was leaving him smelling like cheese (lol). However, we noticed that on the nights when we gave him a bath he tended to go to bed a little easier and he was still spitting up pretty frequently so we decided to start bathing Emmett nightly.

Initially, he didn’t need any lotions because it was still summer out and his skin was staying pretty moist and not drying out. But as the Autumn progressed, his skin got dryer and dryer and I decided that we needed to start putting lotion on him morning and night. The first kind we tried was the Baby Magic Calming Baby Lotion because we had gotten it as a gift for one of our showers and because I assumed since it was baby lotion it would work wonders on a baby’s skin.

I was wrong.

The Baby Magic did not work any miracles and even with applying it to him in the evenings after his bath and in the morning before I got him dressed his skin did not get any better, not to mention that the smell was REALLY overpowering. Seamus and I are both pretty sensitive to smells so whenever one of us would apply the lotion we’d want to get through it as quickly as possible. Rushing through anything with a baby isn’t easy and kind of takes the joy out of the experience. I knew I had to try something else but wasn’t sure what, because I assumed that regular lotion would work about as well as baby lotion and we obviously needed something that had a lighter scent.

I did some googling and saw a couple recommendations for using Trader Joe’s Coconut Oil in place of a baby lotion. Thankfully a Trader Joe’s opened about an hour away from us and we were making the trip out for some goodies that weekend so I decided to get some to try on Emmett.

I am seriously IN LOVE with it’s effectiveness and it’s light coconuty scent. It is very greasy and it doesn’t all get immediately absorbed into the skin like lotion does but it doesn’t seem to get absorbed by his clothes either because none of his clothes have grease spots on them. I mentioned above that before I would rush through the application process but now I can actually take my time and give Emmett a little massage while I apply the oil. In the beginning he wasn’t a big fan but now he really loves it (as long as he’s not too tired), I sing to him and rub the oil in and he just relaxes and stares at me, it’s really a wonderful experience.

I have also noticed a huge difference in his skin. His cheeks that were so incredibly dry before are now the softest baby cheeks I have ever felt. He does still have dry elbows but I think that might be because the oil doesn’t have enough time to sit on his skin before we’re getting him dressed but in the Winter you can’t really leave a baby unclothed for too long because they get cold so fast. We’ve been using the coconut oil for a little over a month and I am not even a quarter of the way through it, so it will probably last forever.

It’s really easy to put on too, because it’s a solid oil in the container but once it hits your hands it quickly begins to melt and rubs onto the skin very easily. I’ve also personally benefited from applying the coconut oil to Emmett. Since it doesn’t all come off after I put it on him, it remains on my hands and I rub them together and let my skin absorb some of it too. I typically have really dry hands in the Winter but I haven’t had to deal with it at all this year. I also want to mention that the scent is very very light and after it’s on him for awhile you can barely notice it, so it’s not like he’s wearing a perfume.

I would absolutely recommend someone switching from regular lotion to coconut oil, if you are looking for a way to keep your little one’s skin moisturized. I’m not sure where else besides Trader Joe’s that you can get the oil but feel free to share other possibilities below.

**This is not a paid review and all opinions are my own.

Emmett’s First Days – 3

For the most part, the remainder of our hospital stay was uneventful. Emmett’s blood sugar was finally above the borderline and it was staying above so they weren’t constantly pricking his little foot and I was up and moving around. I no longer had my catheter or IV so I was free to shower and wear REAL clothes, I felt almost human. 🙂

The worst part about being in a hospital is that the nurses are coming in to do their checks at the most inconvenient times, just as we had put Emmett down for a nap or just as I had decided to rest, they seem to have that radar for that. I do realize it is a necessity that they check on us and take our temps and my blood pressure, I just wish they had scheduled times so that you knew when to expect them and could plan for it. I hated the middle of the night checks, they made me twitchy but again, they are necessary.

We had one nurse, who overall wasn’t bad, but she wouldn’t allow us to turn all the lights off in our room. Seamus and I are used to sleeping in a very dark house, plus we were trying to teach Emmett what night and day were and they wouldn’t let us turn all the lights out. It was very frustrating, as if sleeping wasn’t difficult enough. Seamus was sleeping in a reclining chair and not a lazy-boy reclining chair, a plasticy hospital-like chair and I was in a hospital bed with a mattress made of plastic (for obvious reasons), so we weren’t sleeping well anyhow, add the light and a crying baby and sleep was difficult to come by. BUT we made it!

We didn’t have many visitors, but we wanted it that way. We wanted time to get to know our son before we were overwhelmed with people trying to hold him and asking how we were doing. My parents did visit while we were there and it was so touching to see them holding Emmett for the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since I had a c-section, our hospital required me to stay in the hospital an additional day for a total of 4. That’s a long time and if Seamus hadn’t been there with me, I think I would have lost my mind. He was amazing, though and I am so thankful for him! Finally after 4 (long) days and countless nurses bugging us it was time to go home. I was ecstatic! I couldn’t wait to get home and take care of my baby, in the place where he’d be living, away from the watchful eye of the nurses

I loved his going home outfit, adorable plaid overalls and a blue polo shirt. He looked like such a big boy even though he was so very tiny.

What was the first thing we did when we got home? Take pictures, of course!

Looking back, you can see how yellow he was. He had a very mild case of jaundice, so mild that our doctor didn’t even mention it to us until we were leaving and just said to keep doing what we were doing and it would go away all on it’s own. I wasn’t worried and it definitely did go away, I just didn’t notice then his fallow skin tone.

Once we were home, we quickly realized that we had no clothes that would fit him at his current size. Throughout my entire pregnancy everyone kept telling me what a big baby I was going to have and to not bother buying many newborn outfits bc he wouldn’t ever wear them. So I didn’t buy ANY newborn clothes, we had his going home outfit and 3 plain white onesies that were given to us by Grandma and Grandpa M last Christmas. Emmett wasn’t super tiny but he definitely was too small to fit into 3 month sized clothing. Thankfully my wonderful husband was willing to run out and grab some newborn sized clothing that we could put our boy into. In the meantime we put him in one of the plain white onesies and covered him up good. We settled him in his bunny chair and I laid down on the couch, while daddy went and ran some errands. Emmett took a nice long nap, so mommy did!!

If you’ve never purchased baby items before then you have no idea how easy it is to go overboard. Everything is so cute and tiny and would be just perfect for your little bundle of joy. I say all this because Seamus came home with bags of new stuff for Emmett, not all clothes but lots and lots of stuff.

The rest of that first day home was pretty perfect. I was still flying on the bliss of new mommy-hood and all of my pregnancy hormones hadn’t yet left my body, I was feeling good, happy.

In case you missed it… Part 1 and Part 2.

Emmett’s First Days – 2

When using our hospital, after the baby is born, they give you a packet FULL of information. Some are things that they’ve given you in the Birthing Classes or Breastfeeding Class but some are new and definitely a good read. One such item in the folder was about how on (typically) the second or third night of a baby’s life (in the outside world) tends to be a restless night because the baby begins to cluster feed. Basically, they’ve run out of their excess calories that they had gotten from you in utero and need to start stocking up in the outside world.

Cluster feeding, also called bunch feeding, is when babies space feeding closer together at certain times of the day and go longer between feedings at other times. This is very common, and often occurs in the evenings. It’s often -but not always- followed by a longer sleep period than usual: baby may be “tanking up” before a long sleep. For example, your baby may nurse every hour (or even constantly) between 6 and 10 PM, then have a longish stretch of sleep at night – baby may even sleep all night.

Emmett’s cluster feeding began on his second night. They were still doing glucose testing on him so it was important to ensure he ate whenever he wanted it, even if he had JUST eaten, so that his blood sugar stayed above our target. This was taking a toll as it was because he was eating almost every hour and I was so so tired because I hadn’t really gotten any sleep. Once nighttime rolled around, they took Emmett to do another blood test and brought him back in a really awful mood. He was screaming and crying and nothing was calming him down. The nurse even tried taking him and shushing really loudly, it worked for a short period of time but he was right back at it within minutes of her leaving.

Being new parents we tried everything. We had read and were very familiar with the 5’s, swaddling, side/stomach position, shushing, swinging and sucking, we tried all of those and he kept on wailing. It was a real shocker because he had been so laid back up until now; we thought we had given birth to a sweet and silent baby. The only thing that calmed him was coming to my breast and nursing. This went on ALL NIGHT LONG! I’d get him latched, he’d eat for a short period of time and fall asleep, once asleep, I’d remove him and attempt to put him in his cradle but within moments of being laid down, he’d be up crying again. We repeated that same scenario umpteenth times; I was frustrated with the situation and didn’t know how to fix it.

Being a new mom I immediately jumped to my milk supply. I assumed I wasn’t producing enough, that he wasn’t eating enough and since he was starving couldn’t sleep, so he’d wail. I had a horrible awful time that night and if it weren’t for Seamus, Emmett would probably have been formula fed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with formula but it wasn’t what I wanted for Emmett.

I was crying and begging Seamus to allow me to feed Emmett formula. Saying that we’d know his tummy was full and that we’d then be able to rule out hunger as the reason for his sobbing. Seamus was loving and gently persistent, he reminded me how important breastfeeding was to me, that this was Emmett’s night of cluster feeding that they’d warned us about in our breastfeeding class, that it wouldn’t be like this forever, that I should ask for help from the lactation consultant if I was concerned with my milk supply. I was frustrated with him, he wasn’t allowing me to do what I so desperately wanted to do at that moment but I went along with it, I continued to nurse Emmett and eventually sometime in the very early hours of the morning he fell asleep latched to me and when I removed him he actually remained asleep, we were finally able to get some rest.

When I awoke several hours later, feeling more human than I had in 3 days, I realized that Seamus had been right. Breastfeeding was so very important to me; it was what I wanted to give to my son. I thanked him and told him what a wonderful and supportive husband (and now father) he was.

That night was probably the most difficult night of my life. You hear all the stories about babies not sleeping through the night and the stories of babies who have colic and cry incessantly but you never really think it’s going to be that bad or that it will happen to you but I want you to know that it CAN be that bad and that it CAN happen to you.

I loved Emmett through all of it. We had an impossibly arduous night but I loved him, I wouldn’t have gone through it if I didn’t. It is amazing what the love for someone can give you the strength to do.

I write all this, not to scare anyone away from having children, quite the contrary, I want everyone to have babies if they want them, it’s a beautiful, amazing, fulfilling thing but I want you to be prepared. I want you to know the truth of how demanding it can be because I wasn’t aware, it hadn’t been shared with me. Sure I’d heard the jokes but no one ever truly sat me down and shared what could happen. I don’t blame anyone, it’s no one’s job to educate me but I wish there were more “real” life stories out there that share what REALLY happens the first days of a baby’s life. I wish the hospital had given us that packet of paper during our childbirth class (a month earlier), rather than AFTER Emmett had been born. So I hope this helps, I hope someone reads this and is better prepared for those first few days of their gorgeous new baby’s life.

In case you missed it Part 1.

Emmett’s First Days

The first few days with Emmett went by so quickly and at the same time dragged by so slowly. Spending day and night in a hospital is absolutely no fun. I was lucky enough to have decent nurses but you are just not able to relax when you have people constantly poking in and out of your room.

After the first nurse had gotten me settled, Seamus and I had some alone time before they brought Emmett back to us. They had taken him back to the nursery for a few more tests, a bath and to get warmed up. We both kind of just sat there going back and forth; in awe that we were finally parents. We were definitely still in a bit of shock.

When Emmett finally returned, they shared with us that he had been born with low blood sugar and because of that he would need to be checked every couple of hours to verify whether it was continuously rising. They advised me to nurse him as frequently as he was interested, to assist in the escalation of his blood sugar level. It was no problem to try and nurse him constantly because he wanted to either eat or suckle the entire first night we were together.

It was hard work and I really struggled to stick with breastfeeding in the beginning. Emmett had latched pretty well but I still needed help ensuring he was on correctly and not latched to shallowly which can lead to painful or cracked nipples. In the hospital it is impossible to maintain any of your modesty, the nurses come in and grab your breast and tilt the baby’s head to get him latched right and honestly without their help I would have continued to struggle.

As the night wore on, Seamus and I did not get any sleep. I think we were both too wired from the realization that we were new parents but also because we needed to keep waking Emmett to feed him so that his blood sugar would go up. When it came time for his next Blood sugar test, the nurses came and took him to the nursery, when they returned with him they shared the bad news that his blood sugar was still low and that they had called his pediatrician and they were advised to feed him formula since my Colostrum wasn’t doing enough.

I was very hesitant. I even said no. I did not want to feed my baby formula! For me and my family, formula was not an option unless I was completely unable to provide nourishment. Since I knew I was producing colostrum, I knew I was producing what I was supposed to, it was just that his blood sugar wasn’t going up quickly enough for the nurses. They persisted, saying that if his blood sugar didn’t go up, Emmett would possibly need to be admitted to the NICU. After they said that I relented. I was disheartened and depleted but didn’t want my baby away from me, so I gave in. They hooked up a Supplemental Nursing System to me and filled it with some formula. The goal of feeding him the formula this way is that Emmett would still continue to stimulate my milk production and also provide him with the calories he needed. It worked, he ate it and his blood sugar increased but I felt defeated, like I’d failed my boy. Seamus was very supportive telling me that there was nothing I could have done but I still felt like a failure.

When the lactation consultant from the hospital came in for the next day, she stopped in to check on how we were all doing. She asked about us supplementing formula and asked whether we wanted to continue doing this, I shared with her how we were pretty much forced into feeding Emmett the formula and that we had tried to resist but they threatened to place him in the NICU. She was a feisty little thing and said straight out that they should never had done that and that she would ensure they were spoken to. In the meantime she said that if we had no interest in feeding Emmett any more formula we did not need to, that if any of the nurses came in and tried to hassle us to send them to her to deal with.

Throughout the day, we had different visitors who were checking to see how Emmett was doing but his blood sugar continued to remain above 60 mg/dL with just having colostrum. I was thrilled and felt so much better knowing that I was feeding my son and he was getting everything he needed. Little did I know that I was in for a treat that night….

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