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| Daddy's hands |
What a ride this month has been!! They say childbirth is the hardest thing you will ever do. I agree, but a close second is surviving the first 2 weeks of mommy-hood! First let me say I do not have any idea how women survive if their husbands are not home for at least the first 3 weeks! Jesse has been the best husband and father anyone could ever hope for!! I thank God for such an amazing spouse!!
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| 3 days old |
The best part of this first month is gazing upon our miracle! Each day he becomes more and more awake and alert for longer periods of time. I am watching him become not just a baby but a real person with a personality.
The hardest part of the first 2 weeks was the lack of sleep, raging hormones, being in pain from giving birth, nursing pain and not having a clue what to do. They say that babies sleep for 16-19 hours per day. They say that we should sleep when the baby sleeps. So we should be able to get plenty of sleep, right? What they don't tell you is that it is in 2 hour segments and you are holding and rocking him while he sleeps for 10 of those hours!
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| 6 lb 10oz |
Lack of sleep and hormones gave me the baby blues for the first 2 weeks. Poor Jesse. He would look over at me and see that I was crying. He'd ask why. I'd sob, " I don't know!" or "I'm so tired." I'd calm down after a while. The it would happen again later. "NOW why are you crying?" My response was, "I'm still tired." or "I don't know why he's crying." Jesse was doing everything humanly possible to alleviate my tiredness and help me by fixing meals, changing diapers, cleaning, laundry, bringing me pillows and water. Levi was wanting to nurse constantly (and still is) so it was up to me to nurse and rock him for hours and hours a day. Jesse could and did rock him to sleep frequently but I don't like to hear Levi crying so much when I am able to nurse while rocking him so he doesn't cry. So I did as much of that as I could for the first several weeks.
I have not figured out how women nurse exclusively day and night. After a week of trying to do that, I caved in and asked Jesse to give him a bottle of formula during the night. I tried pumping but I have been unsuccessful at that as of yet. That has me stressed out, which makes everything more difficult. I want to throw in the towel, but then I think about all the germs at school that we will be indirectly exposing Levi to. So I'm still trying.
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| The "ooh" face |
The picture above shows us weighing Levi in a mixing bowl on our digital kitchen scale. : )
What I love about being a new mom is watching Levi wake up. his face goes through a myriad of expressions as he does so. He stretches his arms up above his head and twists his body in the biggest stretch his little body can manage. Then he makes his "ooh" face which means "I'm hungry" and if you don't give him what he wants he'll scream. Yea he has us well trained already! Sometimes he just stares off into space and I wonder what he is thinking.
I can't wait to see what new things he will learn to do next month!
*Photos at top were done by BellaBaby Photography. Rights were purchased.
