Week Two

The past week has definitely flown by, at least for me. It's crazy that Lily is already two weeks old. She is definitely more alert, has more awake time, and is starting to figure out how her arms work. She's also been more fussy than the previous week, but still not much overall. It may just be wishful thinking, but it also seems like she's starting to figure out the difference between night and day, settling down more easily at night and not as interested in being awake and looking around.

Oma Biegansky continued to take great care of us this week, and boy did we need it. Not thinking about food or keeping the house together really let us rest a bit more and focus on Lily when we wanted to. We ate very healthy food and our patio garden and front planter have never looked better. Opa also arrived to check out his new granddaughter and they got in plenty of bonding time. At this moment they're flying back to Midway and we're facing the weekend alone. And Nicole is facing the next work week with only Lily for company. And Lily isn't the best companion when you want to do something like take a shower.

Breastfeeding continues to be frustrating. Lily's getting plenty to drink - more on that later - but it is foot-stompingly painful for Nicole. She has follow-up appointment with a different lactation consultant on Monday and hopefully it will be useful. There is some hope, the appointment is with Doris, who is known as "the boob whisperer". She handles only problem cases, so we'll see where it takes us. If there's not good pain improvement soon I see a switch to pumping in Nicole's future.

I went back to work this week, and it was definitely weird. I worked from home a couple of times when I had stretches of time with no meetings, but my mind was definitely drifting back to Nicole and Lily while I was in my cube. I am pretty much caught back up after taking about a week off, but I can definitely say it feels different now that my paycheck is going to something other than retirement savings, bills, or fun stuff.

The mental highlight of the week, at least as far as being a weight off of our shoulders, was Lily's two-week doctor visit. It was earlier this afternoon and it went really well. Our usual doctor was off, but we saw another great doctor and came away feeling reassured and hopeful. She even helped out with breastfeeding and we have a couple of new things to try to help improve the pain. Lily has not only gained back the weight she lost the first few days, she also added on a few ounces and now tips the scales at 9 lb, 6 oz. And apparently she grew half an inch to 22", but their height measurement doesn't seem to be so precise. So for all the worrying about whether she was getting enough to eat or whether she was really swallowing as opposed to just suckling, we now know for sure that she's eating very well and there's nothing to worry about other than getting her mama pain-free. And to add to the good news, the doctor said that at this point, we do not need to worry about waking her up to eat, we can let her sleep as much as she wants to sleep. So we'll see whether that has an effect on our nights.


So looking towards week three I think our main feelings are relief, exhaustion, and a bit of apprehension about being without a caretaker as of Monday. I'm sure Nicole will have more to share once we're in the thick of things next week, if not before. We'll also post some week 2 pics in the next day or two.