The Bergeron Experience: Ellie's First Few Weeks

....were hard!!! I never thought having a newborn was going to be easy, but oh my word it was much harder than I expected. At the hospital, right after she was born, she had some blood sugar issues and they called the pediatrician in at 5am. He then ordered a blood sugar test before every feeding...so my poor baby was pricked every 2 hours. It was horrible. That made me so anxious about feeding her, which sounds terrible, but I knew if it was time to feed her she would also be getting her blood taken. Breastfeeding was also hard, partly because of the c-section, and partly because I had no idea what I was doing! I think I must win some prize for the most visits by the hospital's lactation consultant! Seriously. Bless this lady's heart! I tried to joke later, as I had 4 people hovered around me, that it takes a village to breastfeed a child. Ha!

Looking back now, I think part of the problems I had with breastfeeding had more to do with the hormonal imbalances of just having had a baby. I was very emotional. I cried over everything. My mom stayed a week after Ellie was born, thank goodness! I was a wreck! At our first pediatric appointment, Ellie had lost more weight and they thought she looked more jaundice. We had to take her to get blood work, and I started pumping to give her more food. We took her back for a weight check at the end of the week and she still hadn't gained weight. I was devastated! It took over 3 weeks for her to gain weight, and 4 weeks for her to return to her birth weight. I was so stressed out! We supplemented with formula, and as much as I hated doing that, it really did the trick. After 6 weeks she gained weight like a pro! Looking at her now, I cannot believe we ever had weight issues! She is my little chubster!

My OB told me I would be emotional for the first two weeks after delivery, but I didn't think it would be that bad. It was awful. I don't think I have cried so much in my life. I was worried and scared all of the time, and every little thing made me cry. The lack of sleep didn't help either. When my mom left I thought life was over. Ha! Not really, but I think that is how I acted. I cried about her not being here for weeks. Occasionally I still do! Probably around the 3rd or 4th week my emotions settled down. I was still a nervous wreck, but I wasn't as emotional about it.

Ellie had horrible reflux...I didn't medicate her for it, but I was terrified about her sleeping on her back. She hated it anyway....she hated being swaddled, and she hated sleeping flat. We think she hated the swaddle because she was never cramped in my uterus...she was free to move and swim until the very end! So we bought a Nap Nanny, and that worked really well for us until week 6. At that point she just decided she didn't like it....she made so many noises, almost like she couldn't settle into a deep enough sleep. I think she would have slept a lot better if I wasn't constantly hovering over her! At almost 8 weeks we moved her into her bedroom, and without me being there, and in her own crib she started sleeping like a champ! She slept two nights in there before we had the scare of our lives and spent the next 10 nights in the hospital....but that is for another post! Here are some pictures of our sweet baby from her first month...