This is a bit behind but as any parent can imagine, we've been a bit busy.
Well, much to my surprise, we survived the first week of parenthood. If I am being more accurate we loved every minute of it. During the "every 3 hour through the night" schedule we set up a leap frog system that allowed each of us 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. This has kept us (mostly) sane over the first week.
Lets rewind a bit....
After Elfie (new nickname for Evelyn. Not sure if we like it yet) was born she and Elizabeth stayed in the hospital. A few things about the hospital. First, the nursing staff was uh-ma-zing! They were very polite and friendly and at least acted like they had they cared for us as much as we did. They were very knowledgeable and spent quite a bit of time answering our questions and demonstrating any and everything we could imagine. Second, Evelyn only left the room 2 or 3 times during our stay. She slept mere feet from her mother from the moment she was born. Third, I felt it was kind of a trial run for us as parents where we were ultimately responsible for her care but had "adult supervision" as needed. It assuaged many of my initial fears of new parenthood.
As stated in our last post, Evie had her first blow-out at about 3 AM. Fortunately, this was more than 6 hours after her birth which meant she could get a bath from the nurse. Friday morning Grandma (Susan) came to visit. I picked her up that morning and brought her to the hospital. As you can imagine it was love at first sight.
Evie also had her first pediatrician's visit during the first week, which gave us a good chance to get the feel of the office we picked, and at this point (at the time of writing, three visits later) we are happy with our choice! Their nurse practitioners are all trained to help with breast feeding, which didn't work out for us (Elizabeth is pumping and we supplement with formula as needed), but it's nice to know for the future. Everything else about Evie looked good! Her jaundice went away and she is back to gaining weight instead of losing it! Overall, we would say it was a successful first week of parenthood.
Well, much to my surprise, we survived the first week of parenthood. If I am being more accurate we loved every minute of it. During the "every 3 hour through the night" schedule we set up a leap frog system that allowed each of us 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. This has kept us (mostly) sane over the first week.
Lets rewind a bit....
After Elfie (new nickname for Evelyn. Not sure if we like it yet) was born she and Elizabeth stayed in the hospital. A few things about the hospital. First, the nursing staff was uh-ma-zing! They were very polite and friendly and at least acted like they had they cared for us as much as we did. They were very knowledgeable and spent quite a bit of time answering our questions and demonstrating any and everything we could imagine. Second, Evelyn only left the room 2 or 3 times during our stay. She slept mere feet from her mother from the moment she was born. Third, I felt it was kind of a trial run for us as parents where we were ultimately responsible for her care but had "adult supervision" as needed. It assuaged many of my initial fears of new parenthood.
As stated in our last post, Evie had her first blow-out at about 3 AM. Fortunately, this was more than 6 hours after her birth which meant she could get a bath from the nurse. Friday morning Grandma (Susan) came to visit. I picked her up that morning and brought her to the hospital. As you can imagine it was love at first sight.
Later that evening, Grandpa (Harry) and Grandma came back for a brief visit. I'm told Harry has a chiropractor which is good because he was wrapped around that finger.
We were hopeful that Saturday would see the Elfs' discharges, but that was not to be. The Pediatric Hospitalist's exam showed higher than acceptable levels of jaundice. This lead to an additional day in the hospital. Elizabeth and I spent a quiet day watching movies and visiting with Sue and Harry.
Sunday came and everyone was cleared to go home! After introductions were made to the dogs we were ready to start this whole "parenthood" thing.
Evelyn got her first in home visitor Monday when her Uncle Alan stopped by.
Evie also had her first pediatrician's visit during the first week, which gave us a good chance to get the feel of the office we picked, and at this point (at the time of writing, three visits later) we are happy with our choice! Their nurse practitioners are all trained to help with breast feeding, which didn't work out for us (Elizabeth is pumping and we supplement with formula as needed), but it's nice to know for the future. Everything else about Evie looked good! Her jaundice went away and she is back to gaining weight instead of losing it! Overall, we would say it was a successful first week of parenthood.
No comments:
Post a Comment