Michael's First Week

Week One Summary

 March 8^th - March 14^th

Nursing:

Michael was born via C-section so it was 45 minutes after he was born before we could try breastfeeding, he did great! He was eager to latch on. I was so happy. Breastfeeding was one of the major goals I had for Michael and me. I don’t know how long we'll go for but I definitely wanted to give him the best start. Once we were moved into our Mother/Baby room I would nurse whenever he showed any hunger signs. His most often is sucking on his hands. He would get so frustrated if he didn’t latch right away that he would start to head butt me with his mouth wide open! He did that for the first 3 days and then started to calm down and not get frustrated so easily. My milk started to come in on day 4 and I was extremely sore but it only lasted about 36 hours and required one pumping session and then things were back to feeling better. I have been lucky up to this point and I haven’t experienced any lasting soreness or cracking on my nipples. He will nurse for about 10 minutes on the first side and then 5 minutes on the second side then he would be content. He was eating around every 2.5 hours for his first week.

Sleep:

Neither one of us slept well at night in the hospital due to the nursing staff coming in around the clock. It seemed liked if one of us was getting ready to fall asleep someone would come in and need to do a vital sign check or give me my medicine. He slept well during the day in the hospital because he was getting lots of cuddles from family and friends visiting. 

Once we were home we tried him in his cradle by the bed and it was awful! The space just seemed too big for him. He would be startled awake anytime he moved a body part. I also didn’t sleep well because I couldn’t stop checking on him. I was so nervous.  The third day my mother in law went and picked us up a Rock n’ Play Sleeper. It put him at a slight incline and also seemed to have him snuggled up a little more than the flat cradle. He slept much better once we got it set up. Dad was also thankful since he had to go back to work. On day 4 he started sleeping better for naps in his pack n’ play so we will probably transition soon back to the cradle that way when it is time to move him to his nursery the crib will be a smooth transition.

About Michael:

He was born at 4:15 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and was 21 inches long! He was born with a head full of brown hair! My two sisters and I were born bald and I thought he might be the same but he proved me wrong! He has deep blue eye which I hope stay that way. His dad wants them to change to brown so that they will have the same eye color, we shall see. He is also covered with blonde hair all over his body!

 

 

 His nose is covered in little white bumps that the nurse said was his oil glands and that they should go away soon. He has long fingers and big feet! He hates to have his arms swaddled. He prefers to have them up by his face. So much so that he scratched a good sized gash on his cheek on day 2.

 He peed and pooped well the first day in the hospital (1^st time was as soon as the pulled him out of me). After his circumcision we saw a decrease in wet and poop diapers. On the second day home he finally couldn’t hold it in anymore and completely soaked through his diaper and onesie with pee. It took another day and half for him to finally poop but when he did it was a good one! He made a funny noise and within 10 seconds the back of his onesie was soaked through with poop!

Overall he is very calm and only cries when he is hungry or in need of a diaper change at this point!

Postpartum:

Soon after getting to the mother/baby room I was ready to start moving around. They wouldn’t let me get up until the next morning. I was sore at incision site as well as my right shoulder which is a common occurrence in C-sections but with log rolling and using my upper body I was able to maneuver around in bed mostly by myself. They took the catheter out the next morning also which I was glad of to be able to get up and go to the bathroom! I was able to shower on my own which wasn’t as great I as had it worked out in my head to be. The shower head had really low pressure as most of it was coming out of the bathtub facet instead but clean is clean. We had lots of visitors which I enjoyed! My husband let me sleep through the visit with the pastor from his church! I was quite embarrassed when he told me when I woke up.

Once we got home things continued to get easier. My pain was manageable by ibuprofen only which I was happy to not need the narcotics while breastfeeding. My stomach still looked 6 months pregnant except for a hard baby bump it was a squishy bowl of jello, not nearly as cute! The good news is that I lost 20 lbs the first week!

 

 

Over the course of the week I had help from my husband, mother and mother-in-law which has made the initial shock and recovery from bringing a baby home much easier. I had a few visitors come by which was lovely as well! The only part that bothers me (but that I totally understand) is not being able to drive. I don’t like having to rely on people and plan out special trips just to go run a quick errand but I know that the time will pass quickly and we will be out and about in no time!

Baby Krause, coming soon (real soon)!

So better late than never, right? I am 39 weeks pregnant today! Whoop Whoop, Full Term! I am due on Tuesday March 10^th. I wanted to do weekly updates but thankfully my pregnancy was relatively uneventful so I decided to just do an overall recap.

My Symptoms:

Week 1-8: completely symptom free. I would forget from time to time that I was even pregnant.

Week 8-20: bloating with the occasional once a week throwing up session in the morning but once I got it out of my system I was fine for the rest of the day.

Week 20-26: Bloating was gone but heartburn took over, I have never had heartburn and I truly feel sorry for people that have to deal with that on a regular basis. I finally started to feel consistent movements around week 22.

Week 26-36: Multiple runs to the potty at night. Dad was able to feel baby move for the first time around week 27.

Week 36-Today: Heartburn has come back with a vengeance! No rhyme or reason to it, hoping the old wives tale is true on this one and the baby has lots of hair. Extreme thirst even though I am drinking at least 80-100 oz. of water a day. Still getting up every few hours to potty, which I am sure the feeling of thirsting to death has something to do with it! 

Weight/Belly: I have gained 40 pounds! Which I am not too worried about. I have stayed active the entire pregnancy and made healthy eating choices so I think that that is just what my body needed for helping grow baby. It has also been really itchy the last few weeks; everything is stretched to the max. I had a few stretch marks on my love handles and thighs that popped up around week 25 but over the last 2 weeks I have had some light lines show up on the underside of my belly.

Sleep: I am a horrible sleeper when not pregnant so no surprise this has been my biggest struggle. I toss and turn to get to sleep and then I have trouble staying asleep. Maybe my body is getting ready for the midnight feeding sessions and overall sleep deprivation of having a newborn.

Cravings: No weird cravings. The only thing that has really changed is my increase in milk. I CANNOT get enough milk. I go through an average of a gallon a week by myself when before I would be fine to not drink any.

Work Outs: I set a goal for 10,000 steps 3 times a week and at least 5,000 steps all other days and I hit this most weeks. I also incorporated weight lifting and stretching when I could fit it into my schedule. I have also worked up until today, some weeks being 6-7 days between my regular job and helping out at my husband’s restaurant.

Highlights: I have been extremely blessed this pregnancy. My symptoms have been minimal and I have been able to keep up with my normal routine for the entire time.

We (I) decided to not find out the gender! I think there are few true surprises in this world and this is one time we can truly be surprised! So that has been interesting hearing everyone’s guesses and predictions.

We were blessed with 3 awesome showers from friends and family and received so many amazing gifts.

Pregnancy has truly been more than I could have ever hoped for. I have learned first hand what an amazing process the body goes through and I have enjoyed most of it. I pray we are able to have a natural labor without complications sometime in the next week or so. I pray that we will always look to God for guidance as we make this transition from husband and wife to mom and dad and never take for granted the blessing we have been given the ever so important job of raising. We are so excited to meet this little bundle of joy!