I'm not too far behind in posting about our first week home with baby Clark...besides the first week was way too crazy busy learning how to be parents and all! Clark is almost three weeks old now and I think we are finally starting to get the hang of things.
Clark skipped his two day follow up appointment with the pediatrician...to be fair, it was not our fault! at the hospital they told us he would need to see the pediatrician in a few days and they kept asking us if we had scheduled it and we told them that the pediatrician wouldn't let us make an appointment until after he was born so we would do it when we got home. well, we tried to make the appointment but the earliest they had was in a week. we told them the doctor said it should be in 2-3 days and they asked us if the baby was healthy and if there were any complications. we said no and so they told us it would be fine. then one week later when we showed up, the first thing the doctor asks is, "so he had his 2 day follow up?" nope!
it doesn't matter though because little Clark is doing just great! he has already re-gained his birth weight on the dot. and he has grown 3 inches!!! we think there may have been a slight error at the hospital or at our appointment because he started out at 19.5 inches and is now 22.7 inches long! our little superman ;) on a side note: my obsession with Clark Kent may have something to do with his name! my brother and I were super into Smallville growing up and I used to say I would name my first son Clark and what do you know? I just love that name! when I hear it, I feel safe and at peace, probably because they're always shouting "Clark!" in that show and then the day is saved, haha.
things have been going pretty good so far but the day we got home from the hospital I was an emotional wreck. we were discharged on Sunday at around 4 pm and it was raining. I hadn't been outside of my hospital room the entire 3 days we were there and once they wheeled me outside where Mark was waiting it all suddenly felt so real. we were taking our baby home to raise by ourselves! this was the start of a grand adventure and I was both terrified and ecstatic. that day though I was mostly just worried. Clark had just had his circumcision and poor baby was sleeping it off...they said he would probably sleep the rest of the day and not to wake him to eat. on the car ride home, Clark's head kept tilting to the side and I kept trying to fix it and it just kept going back. it made me so worried it was going to crack his neck or something! in fact, I began worrying about every little thing that could possibly happen to our sweet, delicate little baby and before I knew it I was sobbing. baby blues much?
when we got home my mom and sissy had dinner waiting for us, stuffed bell peppers. I wasn't even hungry and all we both wanted to do was sleep (we would later regret not taking advantage of the one time where we did not have to wake Clark to eat in 3 hour intervals and would have been able to get a solid 6 hours of sleep!) but they had gone to all this trouble so we ate. whenever anyone asked me anything I would start to cry and it was all I could do not to break down sobbing. I just felt so sad!
that first week was tough. Mark took off Monday and Tuesday but went to work the rest of the week so he could take the next week off when my family would be in Arizona. I can hardly remember anything we did those first few days...I blame it on sleepless nights and stressful days. there was so much to do all at once...schedule appointments, call people back, deal with insurance, pick up Clark's birth certificate, unpack, and just get used to having a baby in the house. and breastfeeding.
breastfeeding has been quite the journey already and I will probably devote an entire post to it at some point. the good news is I think I have finally mastered it and am able to feed Clark now with (mostly) no pain. the bad news is it was a long road getting there (I guess it was only a week but it felt like an eternity.) I loved breastfeeding right from the get go...it made me feel so close to my baby and so happy that my body was made to feed him. still, it's hard to enjoy something that is so painful. when the lactation consultant saw me she said, "sorry honey. fair skin and red hair means you're going to be more sensitive than normal." she also noticed that Clark has a small suck so even when he latches on correctly it hurts more than normal.
on top of the pain, in the beginning I had such a hard time getting comfortable. we left our boppy at home when we were in the hospital and so we were using like 4 pillows and it would take 10 minutes just to get all set up to feed. then it would take another 10 minutes to get a good latch. all of this when you're half asleep feels like an eternity. by the time I finished feeding him, burping him, changing him, feeding him, and putting him back to sleep it was time to wake him again for his next feeding! I felt like I had surrendered my soul (and sleep) to a life of nothing but breastfeeding.
luckily with a little practice and my boppy, I began to get better at situating myself. with a lot of lanolin, breast pads, and practice latching, the pain became more tolerable. and the more I fed Clark, the better I got. now I barely think twice before noticing his hunger cues, picking him up, latching him on and starting the timer all in less than a minute! I'm really proud of how far we come and I hope this is the start of a long and beautiful journey I can share with my son.
a few of Clark's favorite things this week:
♥ his most favorite thing to do by far is eat! if he is ever fussy and we can't figure out what's wrong, nursing always does the trick! even when we know he can't possibly be hungry. or if he's upset about something else (after he was circumcised) and just needs to be calmed, nursing is the key!
♥ his next favorite thing to do is sleep! just like his daddy, Clark can sleep anywhere, anytime, in any position! we love our little sleepy bear :)
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| baby buddha |
♥ going anywhere in his carseat! he has yet to stay awake for more than 5 seconds on car rides but for the few minutes before we get in the car, he loves to stare at his
milk snob cover! babies love looking at things that are black and white or any high contrast shapes and colors and it's great for stimulating brain development.
♥ he loves to be held or worn and walked around. he always tries to stay awake to see everything but usually falls asleep because the rocking calms him.
♥ having his hair washed! he is not the biggest fan of bath time, mostly because he gets cold, but at the end when we wash his hair he immediately stops fussing and just loves it!
♥ going on walks, even though he has yet to stay awake on one! we have only been on two walks so far just because it's too hot outside but I can't wait until we can go more often.
& here are some of my favorite things about Clark this week:
♥ the little sighs of contentment he makes while eating
♥ the few hours each day he spends in quiet alertness, looking all around and taking everything in
♥ his sad little whimper he makes when he cries...it makes me sad obviously because he's upset but at the same time I love it!
♥ how he tries to suck his thumb but doesn't quite have the dexterity yet to keep it in his mouth. we started giving him a pacifier after the first few days at home because he was beginning to use me as a human pacifier. he loves to suck to sleep!
♥ whenever his eyes meet mine :)
well that about wraps up Clark's first week! I wonder how much you will have changed by your first month update! please don't grow up too fast...
