After a rather eventful birth day-to-day life here in the Drake household has been eventful. Our little Charlotte was inconsolable about once a day since we got her, in the realm of a couple of hours at a time. We thought she was hungry. We tried to exclusively breastfeed for a while then supplemented with glucose water while in the hospital. This glucose water has a short shelf life (and Matt asks why since it is just sugar water). We then supplemented with formula out of a 'cup' feeder (and not a bottle as I was advised by the hospital lactation consultant not to use a bottle to avoid nipple confusion). The cup was good as she was markedly less fussy but still somewhat fussy as half of the formula we attempted to feed ended up on her shirt. This feeder was mastered by my mom and no one else really. We tried this for days but the fussiness never relented. My mom and I were sleeping very little and were perhaps not of our best temperments. Charlotte started out in Matt and my bedroom but moved early Wednesday (at a week old) to her own room (being a typical first time mom, I thought I needed to be around her 24/7; I also now fully understand when people say that you sleep differently once you have a child). Moving rooms was an improvement as we have more space in her room. Matt has been working a lot as our construction project opens on April 27 to the public. Around this time with Venetian Macau we were both working 100 hour weeks 7 days a week so I understand the time commitment involved.
Monday we went to the doctor and learned she had a mild case of jaundice, had high thyroid levels based on her umbilical cord blood, and that she lost weight (she was at 7lbs 7 oz when she was born Wednesday, at 7 lbs when she left the hospital on Friday, and 6lbs 9oz at her doctor visit on Monday). I was told that since she lost over 10% of her birth weight that we needed to make sure that she was heavier for her follow up appointment on Friday. I was at my wit's end on Thursday night as we were feeding her tons of formula (she had at this point 100mL of formula in addition to the breast milk we gave her at each feeding) and did not want her to be lighter. Also she hadn't had a bowel movement since Sunday. She was predictably fussy so I relented and gave her the bottle, but asked for the teat (this is a great word, by the way) to be taken out every couple of seconds to lessen the flow and ensure that Charlotte still 'worked' for her breast milk (thanks for the tip Minjenah). That was the trick! Charlotte then transformed to the mostly fuss-free baby we have had now for two days and it has been, dare I say, idyllic (if anything can be idyllic with only 3 hours of sleep a night). We really turned the corner with the bottle feed and she still is taking to breastfeeding just fine :).
Friday was a doctor visit for me (I am fine by the way, uterus is 2/3 of the way healed), a lactation consult (which was good as I have no experience breastfeeding in public so it was good we had a venue to feed her during this longish day) and a doctor visit for Charlotte. She put on 7oz! Yay! Also her jaundice has subsided and her thyroid is fine - as her doctor had suspected, this was just a false positive reading because the cord was connected for so long (an hour). The nurses also gave her something to stimulate her bowel movements. It worked! Now she is pooing consistently much the Grandma's utter delight.
We have learned a lot about Charlotte and ourselves over the last 10 days. Things are a lot more relaxed here. Even though I am not necessarily getting the best sleep (due to construction noise next door - blah) I am much more relaxed now that her fussiness has mostly disappeared (knock on wood). Sigh :).
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