Kaili got her bandages off today, hooray! Her hand looks funny and a bit swollen. Some of the skin is peeling off but over all the scaring on her hand should be minimal if at all.

I love baths, I took one practically every day that I was pregnant. I hoped that Kaili would love the water as much as I do. So far it seems my wish has come true. She is a happy girl when she can splish splash in her tub. I can’t wait to go swimming!

One month old and we are getting into the swing of things.  Nights are getting easier although I wouldn’t mind her sleeping a little longer between feedings. I stick to my routine every night and she sticks to hers. Some days are better than others, yesterday was a breeze. Happy all day and went to bed easy. Today started with washing my sheets since Mrs. Kaili had a blowout at 5:30 am. in our bed. She has been fussy ever since.

She is becoming more aware of her surroundings and is starting to respond to voices. She is also starting to enjoy her swing more, thank goodness.  Even though some minutes, hours and even days are tough right now, I do not wish a second away. I love her with my whole heart and I know she will grow up so fast, I don’t want to miss a thing!

Wow what a difference some dairy makes! I re-introduced my breast milk dairy free and so far she is doing great! No more straining, grunting and crying all day long, YAY! I am hoping I can slowly start adding back a little dairy into my diet like some non-fat milk so I can enjoy the 3 boxes of cereal I just bought. It’s by far the easiest thing to eat when you don’t have the time or help to make a meal. Please don’t suggest soy milk. I do not like it Sam-I-am. “I would not drink it here nor there, I would not drink it anywhere!!”

After the past few nights of Kaili’s fussiness and not wanting to sleep in her bassinet, I decided to try the straight jacket approach. We have been semi-swaddling her since day 1 due to her hand. What I mean by that is we would wrap her tight but with her hands free. Well now that her hand is almost healed and doesn’t seem to bother her and I was desperate for a night’s sleep without her in my arms. I bit the bullet and swaddled her arms down in her Halo Sleepsack last night. After a proper bath in her new bathtub, a rubdown with some lavender lotion and swaddled tight, she went down in her bassinet at 8:00 pm. She slept until midnight, no crying, no fussing, nothing. She woke up about every 3 hours to eat and went right back down until close to 7am when she woke for the day. She was like a different child last night…it was awesome! Hopefully this wasn’t a one night thing and we have found something to help her sleep better at night.

She didn’t stay awake long, after breakfast and some American Idol she fell asleep in her favorite place.

Tomorrow she is one month old. Wow!

Yesterday was my first day all alone with Kaili and I must say things went very well. I say this knowing not every day will be like this but I will take what I can get.

Her stomach seems to be a lot better and I might finally know what was causing the problem. Since I have stopped giving her my breast milk her screaming and grunting in pain has for the most part gone away. It may be something I was eating and the nurse at our pediatricians office suggested I cut out dairy from my diet for a week or two. Fingers crossed that is what was causing her all that pain.

She was a happy little camper all day until….bedtime! I don’t know what her deal was but she wasn’t having any of her bassinet last night. We kept to our nightly routine and she fell asleep after feeding like usual but woke up shortly after being put down. This continued all night long until we fell asleep together, then I tried putting her in her bouncer and that didn’t work either. So needless to say we didn’t sleep at all last night. I refuse to let her sleep in my arms, that is a terrible habit to get into. I really hope last night was a one night thing and tonight goes better.

Miss Kaili Sloan is 3 weeks old today. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster this past week as we are dealing with stomach issues. She seems to have trapped gas that makes her very unhappy. We feed her formula and breast milk so now we are trouble shooting are way around to figure out what is the cause of it. When Kaili left the NICU we were given the ready made formula bottles which seemed to work great, then once we were home we switched to the powder form because we had so much of it and it’s a great deal cheaper. That is when we started noticing some digestive issues. I called the Pediatrician and the nurse suggested going back to the ready made formula to see it that helps. I am crossing my fingers that this will be the solution. We are also giving her gas drops after feedings along with gripe water here and there when she is really screaming. I don’t want to jinx anything but so far things seem a little bit better…cross your fingers. It’s the most awful thing to watch your daughter scream in pain and not be able to do anything for her, it makes me want to cry with her.

Sleep is hard to come by at night. She is waking up every 2-3 hours during the night. One night it was every hour or so because of her stomach. Right now I am lucky to have Shane home, he gets up with her around 5 am so I can continue to sleep for a few more hours. Unfortunately this is coming to an end on Monday and I can see that I am really going to be tired once I am all alone. If we can get her stomach issues settle down then hopefully she will begin her daily naps again so mommy can either sleep, shower, pump or eat. I will have to decide which one or two of those I will want to do the most each day.

At 3 weeks Kaili seems to enjoy:

Tummy time; she is getting really good at holding her head up!

Sponge baths and having her hair washed.

Laying on the changing table naked.

Walks in the stroller and rides in the car.

Noisy places. We took her to her first winery last weekend and although she mostly slept through it I am sure she enjoyed herself 🙂 We sat outside and listened to a band while we enjoyed some wine and cheese.

 

She has also mastered holding the paci in her mouth, she gets her little fingers inside the hole and sucks away!

Since my little munchkin’s belly button stump hasn’t fallen off yet we still have to resort to sponge bathing. I can’t wait to give her a proper bath! I captured some “after sponge bath” moments to share with you!

I just got back from my OB office for my postpartum appointment. My blood pressure was still a little high but they are stopping one of the medications today and I will go back in on Monday for a quick check to see how I am reacting to not having it anymore. I really hope I can wean off the meds without my blood pressure sky rocketing again followed by the screaming headaches. On the positive side I got my car keys back (yay) and my scars are healing up nicely.

I still can’t do much of anything more for another month, although I can start baths again in 2 weeks. I do miss taking my daily baths! I got a recommendation for a good mental health counselor from the nurse, I am hoping I can get in for an appointment sooner than later being she is apparently really popular. We also talked about birth control options which obviously made Shane and I both laugh, however it is not uncommon for the infertile to magically get pregnant  right after having a baby via IVF. How unfunny would that be? Obviously I will not hesitate to start on something soon. Other than going back for some type of birth control and my blood pressure check, I wont be back in that office until September.

Kaili is 2 weeks old today and she spent the morning being a pill! She is having some digestive problems that I think are causing the crankiness. She finally fell asleep right before Shane and I left for the Drs. and she is still sleeping now almost 4 hours later. She really wiped herself out. I am lagging on pictures but I will catch up on posting some soon.

Since I am not fully recovered, I don’t have the reins back to my normal life just yet. I am sure once I do I will find many more reasons why I don’t miss being pregnant but as of now I don’t mind not hearing the unsolicited comments! It’s amazing how rude and naive some people are!

Throwing a few back. I really didn’t mind having a 9 month break from adult beverages but it is nice to have the freedom to enjoy them again!

Crossing my legs. Who knew I would miss doing this so much?

A gazillion nightly trips to the  bathroom. Enough said!

Coffee anytime of day and as much as I want.

Sleeping on my back. I was so tired of trying to get comfortable on my side. My hips and shoulders would hurt every night.

But most of all I don’t miss not being able to see this face every morning!

We took Kaili to see the surgeon this morning. The doctor took off her splint to examine the wound and check for any infection. This was the first time I have seen the cut, I wasn’t sure how I would hold up during the appointment but she was so calm it helped me stay strong.  The doc said everything looked good and he was 99% sure it would heal just fine. He put on a new and smaller splint, wrapped it and taped it up. Lil mama didn’t make a peep the entire time. Well I take that back, she did make a noisy mess in her diaper but there wasn’t any crying out of her or me!  We go back in a month to hopefully remove it for good!