4.21.2011

Week One

Here we are at the one week mark. Nola continues to sleep away much of the day and the night, awaking to nurse every 2-3 hours now instead of the every 5 hours during her first few days. She definitely is a good eater.

We've run the range of good nights to long nights but as a whole she is a very calm, content baby. She squeaks, coos and sometimes grunts but doesn't cry much. Being the scientist I know that correlation does not always mean causation but the two most difficult nights spicy dinners - of course another discounting factor is that this is two nights out of a grand total of 7 nights so not exactly a significantly sound sample size/data set.

Our first round of help has come and gone. Finn reveled in the time with Grandma and Grandpa and we were so thankful for all the help with shopping, laundry, cooking, cleaning, baby holding, entertaining, school shuttles.

Life at home has been eventful yet pretty sedentary. A trip to the ER the day after we returned home from the hospital confirmed a blood clot in my left calf (thankfully superficial and needing nothing more than self-monitoring, heat, elevation and ibuprofen). Since I was dizzy upon arrival the doctor ordered a series of tests involving poking and prodding and even more waiting (blood draws, EKG, vitals, IV). The test results concluded my hematocrit/hemoglobin levels were extremely low (likely explains why I blacked-out the first time I got out of bed post delivery). So per ER doctor and midwife orders I have been taking it easy, seldom leaving the couch. Chris has been impressive taking on 98% of the diapers changes, swaddling, bedtime routine with Finn, playing with Finn, refilling my water, serving snacks/lunches/dinners couch-side and keeping the household running smoothly inside and out - all that and still managing to squeeze in a little more work on getting the basement closer to ready to move our bedroom into. Did I say impressive yet?