Blowouts and spit up

I knew babies pooped and peed frequently, but it has completely surprised me how much Baby Elliott poops and pees. With that, how often the diaper does not hold everything so then we have leakage in the front, back, and even out the legs holes at times. It is shocking, disgusting, and totally inconvenient. I really don't mind changing diapers (and Kev changes them frequently), but it's a whole different ballgame when you have to change their diaper, onesie, changing pad, boppy cover, and then wipe her down or give her a bath. During special occasions we also get to clean the chair (sad day this week), carpet, dresser, my clothes, and any other object that happened to be in her poop path. Takes a little longer as you would imagine.

We felt like we figuring out preventative steps, like always change her diaper after a nap because a diaper with pee already in it is much more likely to leak. Or if she goes a lot while nursing on one side, change her diaper before proceeding to the other side. Or be in a hyper alert state as you see the tell-tell signs of pooping (such as the face or the sounds). However, even when we follow all of these measures, we still fail at times. We have considered switching diapers but we got a TON of diapers from people (most being from the hospital so we can't return them), and I'm cheap and want to use them as long as possible. I guess I can't complain when we have blowouts then.

Also, I have realized there is something extremely sad when your child spits up. I know this is normal, and it does not necessarily mean something is wrong, but it always makes me sad. When she spits up a little, I'm not concerned, but she has had two occasions where she spit up ALOT and multiple times. Of course, I automatically assume something is medically wrong (pyloric stenosis), but then I have to remind myself she does this very rarely and so as our doctor said, it is really just a "laundry problem." The other sad thing is when she spits up (a little or a lot), it almost always gives her the hiccoughs. Poor girl!

First bottle from dad-took her an hour where as nursing takes us less than 30 minutes.

First walk together on Friday. I think she liked it but she gets hot in her carseat.

Just chilling after eating.

Sleeping beauty

Elliott is so cute when she's sleeping! Even though she is so little, she's already developed sleep preferences. She actually loves sleeping on her belly, so we have one supervised naptime on her tummy (do I sound like a very anal first-time mom, because I am). She also loves her hands to be up over her head. Can't tie this girl down. We tried to swaddle her at first which basically had the opposite effect of waking her up because she fought it until she got her arms out. Now we just swaddle her arms out and she is a happy girl!

Side note: as I look at these pictures, I realize her spiky hair is getting more pronounced and she is beginning to have a mullet-like look to the back of her hair. How do you style infants hair? I guess we'll find out.

So we survived our first day alone together and it went surprisingly well! She really is a laid back baby and has already fallen into somewhat of a routine. We also made our first trip out alone. We went to dinner, and she slept through the entire thing! Oh the small things in life that make me excited now...like the fact she went almost 5 hours between her feedings last night and only woke up once between her 10pm and 7am feedings. It was marvelous! I can't get used to it though because you never know what tonight holds. She keeps me guessing.

Wake time with Mimi.

Newborn pics

Thanks for all the positive feedback! It actually made me feel much better to hear others had forgotten their wallet as well and went through similar embarassing moments too. I must admit it did make me feel like I was losing my mind (I thought you were supposed to lose brain cells during pregnancy, not after your baby was born).

When Baby Elliott was 8 days old, we had some newborn pics taken and I thought I would share a couple of the samples we have gotten so far (we haven't gotten them all back yet). I thought they turned out really well and she was such a champ during the session. She slept for about the first hour then gave us some open eye shots. After an hour and a half though, she was done. Funny moment during the shoot...we wanted to take some naked pictures and one of the pictures we had was Kev holding her on his arm. Of course she chose this moment to poop all over him and his favorite shirt. It was pretty humerous...maybe not quite as funny for him. :) It's amazing to see how much she has grown since we had these pictures taken. I feel like daily I marvel at how big she is getting. She is getting small rolls and a double chin. Breast milk does a body good.

One of the last pictures that was able to be taken. She started sucking on her hands to console herself.

Sadness

Today has been a sad day. Yes, it didn't help that Elliott had an off night and woke up several times and then refused to go back to sleep. But it was especially sad because my mom left today. She was here all last week and then she left this evening. All day, I felt teary eyed just knowing she was leaving today. I honestly think this past week brought our relationship to a whole new level. She was definitely a huge help-cleaning, changing Elliott's diapers and clothes multiple times (she has developed a not so great habit of pooping through her diaper...fabulous), running errands-but she was also great company, a wonderful sounding board, and it makes my heart so happy to see how much she loves and cares for our sweet little girl. I've always had friends say that it is a huge blessing when other people love your kids, and obviously, I would expect her to love Elliott (I mean, how could you not), but to see that love demonstrated this past week was such a tremendous blessing.

Now Miss Elliott and I get to try it on our own (since Kev went back to work Monday). Kind of a scary thought. To make the day even more sad, I had a total forgetful moment. Kev and I got to go on a lunch date, and I decided to pick up a few groceries afterwards since my mom was watching Elliott. I got my basket-full of groceries, made it to checkout, and after all my groceries were bagged, realized I left my debit card in my diaper bag, which of course was at home. That's right, I had no way to pay for my groceries. Fabulous. I let the cashier know the situation, trying to lamely explain how I'm a new mom, etc and have to run home to get my wallet. Of course I was already feeling emotional, but I nearly lost it when I made it to the car. I ran home then back to Walmart to purchase my groceries, no harm no foul, but it was an exhausting experience.

What people don't tell you about AFTER baby comes:

1) You still walk slow-Maybe I'm alone in this one, but towards the end of my pregnancy, it drove me crazy I had to walk so slow. I literally felt like I had one speed because of the heat, and because it felt like if I walked any faster, it might tear my pelvis apart. I remember thinking, "I will be so glad to be able to walk faster once I have baby girl." Unfortunately, after Baby Elliott was born, I walk just as slow (maybe slower) with different yet ever present pain. Now this is getting significantly better, but I still walk slower than I would like. :)

2) You can't sleep-Again, this may just be me, but I guess because of the drastic hormone shift combined with the constant noises a new baby makes that makes you jump out of bed, I feel like I didn't get sleep when I laid down for a good week after I delivered. I was expecting to obviously get shorter segments of sleep in between feedings, but I was not expecting to be unable to fall asleep.

3) You constantly are searching for the "right" solution-How long to feed, do you feed less if they spit up, do you swaddle them or not, tightly or loose, do you rock them to help them go to sleep, when do you change them...oh the list goes on and on and unfortunately there are endless solutions and no "right" answer. I didn't expect people to always look to me for the "right" answer for our child...does it look like I know what I'm doing?

4) People stop asking about you and just want to know about the baby-One of my pet peeves during pregnancy (which I actually blogged about), was the fact that people constantly asked, "How are you feeling?" So you go through this life-changing event (having a baby), your body feels completely turned inside out, your hormones are crazy...and no one cares about you anymore. Don't get me wrong, I want people to be concerned and care about Baby Elliott above me, but it was a weird realization that I was now second fiddle.

Well, these are some of the ones off the top of my head. I had some maternity pictures taken when I was 37 weeks so I thought I would post some of our favorites! It's so weird to see myself now with the big belly and to have now seen what was in that belly.

Happy Birthday Kev!

Today is Kev's 30th birthday, which I'm sure from today on will forever be overshadowed by Elliott's birthday...poor guy. He actually doesn't mind and would have preferred she be born on his birthdate (even though I was exceedingly thankful she decided to come a week early). We celebrated his birthday several weeks ago, but our sweet friends brought over balloons and cheesecake (his favorite) on Friday to celebrate again.

Amy, my sweet friend, who actually helped during Elliott's delivery (she is a labor and delivery nurse)

Such a cute couple!

Such a sweet face!

Sweet kiss!

We're so thankful for our friends!

1 week old

It's hard to believe our little girl is already one week! It has been a crazy week of firsts (nursing, being awake more than sleeping, changing countless diapers), but it has been absolutely wonderful! I am not a night person to say the least, but I love to see her in the middle of the night (I would however like to see her and then her fall into a deep, peaceful sleep but unfortunately that is not always the case). Here is some more pics of our little girl. Kev has really enjoyed being Mr. Photographer.