Getting to Know You

It has been two weeks and one day since we left the hospital with our daughter. On the car ride home, I remember thinking, "But the hospital feels like home..." I was scared to leave the safety net of nurses and doctors and begin raising our daughter on our own.

The first three or four days were the hardest. There were a lot of tears. Luckily, Arna and I have a strong relationship that allowed us to encourage each other through the hard times as opposed to feeling stressed by each other's emotions. We made a point of cuddling before we fell asleep, giving each other kisses - even if we hadn't gotten around to brushing our teeth. Physical affection really pulled me through the hardest moments.

Bluma was a very sleepy baby. She didn't like being woken up for feedings. It felt like we were torturing her when we woke her up every three hours for feedings, like the hospital had told us to. Even when we did wake her, we would have to strip her down to her diaper just to get her to stay awake long enough to start a feeding. She would latch on and promptly fall asleep.

Arna and I would spend 20 minutes stroking her feet, cheeks, tummy, hands and head to try and get her to eat. After the 20 minutes were up, we would have to supplement the feeding with what I had pumped after the last feeding; filling little five mililiter syringes and feeding them to her one by one...usually for a total of 30ml.

After we fed her, I would have to pump for 15 minutes and then we'd attempt to soothe her back to sleep then wash all of the pump parts. This circus left us with usually about an hour to sleep before we had to wake her up again and start all over.

Needless to say, it was ROUGH. After our first doctor's appointment, I felt encouraged. She was gaining weight - so all of the hard work was paying off and they said we could let her sleep for up to five hours once a night if she wanted to. Arna and I were very excited at the thought of a little extra sleep.

That night when we laid her down, she transformed into a new baby - one who wanted to eat every two hours. We thought we had missed our window of opportunity for rest but a few days later, the concept of day and night clicked and she started sleeping better.

She eats like crazy during the day, and then at night will sleep for two or three four to five hour sessions.  She LOVES eating now, which makes our lives much easier.

Other things that Bluma loves?

1) Her Ladybug nightlight - she stares at it in the wee hours of the night, when we're trying to get her to sleep

2) Her Halo swaddle sleep sacks

3) Her hands

4) Being bounced by her dad

5) Pooping/peeing in the middle of a diaper change...several times. It's not uncommon for us to go through three diapers in a single change because she messes in all of them before we can even get them fully on.

6) Biting me during feedings if she's had to wait too long (usually due to a marathon diaper change described in number five)

Things that Bluma Hates:

1) Baths

2) Having the hiccups

3) Being set down at all if she's awake

4) Being naked

5) Socks

6) Tummy time

Getting to know our daughter has been an adventure and I know it'll keep changing every few days. Arna and I have commented on how it feels like she's a different baby when she's eating versus when she's sleeping and so on.

 I can't imagine how anyone ever has more than one child. I'd like to give her a sibling someday, but the thought of trying to do all of this and tend to the needs of an older child blows my mind. How do people do it? And then the other side of me chimes in saying, "She's so incredible. So beautiful. How could anyone only do this once? It's such a joy!"

Parenthood makes you bipolar I guess.