Stella is officially 2 weeks and 3 days old today! Above is a collage of her second week of life. I have been very negligent with my blog, but for good reasons:) Taking care of Stella takes up all of my time, as I knew it would, and when she sleeps, I sleep, clean, organize things or just sit still and browse Facebook. That is a BIG stress reliever for me...is that weird??
Anyway, my Stella is growing up so fast and I cannot believe it! Our first 2 weeks home from the hospital have been filled with doctors' visits and family and friends' visits, which we love! Stella is one popular person! Everyone wants to meet her! I am so touched by the outpouring of friendship from everyone who came by, called, texted, sent happies, meals, flowers, etc. They have meant so much to us and we are so thankful for everyone in our lives! Stella is so loved and we are so blessed!!!
Our 2 week doctor's appointment for Stella went so very well. We discovered she gained 6 1/2 ounces in 7 days, which is amazing. She was not gaining weight very well during her first week because I am nursing and my milk supply was a little late arriving. Now, since we see she's gained a hefty amount of weight, her doctor says we have nothing to fear and we can continue nursing as usual. We were worried we'd have to start permanently supplementing with formula or even switching to full formula instead of nursing! Thankfully, we do not and we are nursing full force now!
...about the nursing...while I love it, I can totally see why people start nursing and then stop. It is PAINFUL when she doesn't latch on properly, and she is hard headed, let me tell you. At 2 weeks we introduced a paci to help her sleep, since the only thing that calms babies at this age is the act of sucking. While she is at a good age to determine the difference between her paci and me, she has started to latch on to me differently because of the paci, which causes TONS of pain for me, so we have to spend some corrective time re-teaching her how to latch on if she strays away from the preferred initial maneuver. We do not want to forfeit the paci, because if we do, that means I turn into the human paci...which only equals more pain and sleepless nights. For those of you who breastfeed or ever breastfed, you know what I'm talking about. It takes lots of latching on, removal, and re-latching on, which means lots of hot salt water soaks for me and an endless supply of lanolin ointment. I haven't done the cabbage compress, but I fear I'll try them soon if she continues this:) All in all, it is worth it to me to continue through this rough patch if it means giving her the best nutrition at this age.
Other than her doctor's appointments, I've gone to my post-op appointment and the doctor gave me the go-ahead to drive and start low level exercising, as in brisk walking with weights if I like - but I need to avoid any abdominal movement/exercising for a few more weeks. I've really rebounded well from surgery, due in part to my nurse who got me out of bed to walk to the potty less than 24 hours post-surgery! From then on I wanted to be as mobile as possible, which meant I got to spend more time with Stella now that I was able to sit up by myself and thus walk by myself! Matt and I have a new found obsession with walking the block and a half from our house to the lake front (Lake Pontchartrain) and strolling Stella at dusk in her super stroller when this Louisiana heat is bearable with a nice breeze off the lake. Stella LOVES being outside and gets very calm when we stroll or even when we take her outside on our screened in front porch. Just last night we took her on the porch to witness her first summer rainstorm - Matt and I stood with her outside and let her listen to and smell the summer rain on the tin roof. She loved it!
My Mom spent the first week and a half with us, followed by a great weekend visit from my Dad, and then we got to spend a few days with Matt's Mom. Mae Mae is going to spend a week with us starting Monday and we are looking forward to visiting with her and enjoying lots of good food!
More to come - keep checking our Picasa web albums for more pictures of Stella - look for the link at the right!! Lots of love and kisses from Stella!
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