Hi Friends! I can’t believe it’s already been one month since we bought the baby girl home.
The time seriously seemed to fly by. Thankfully Mr. Hungry was able to take three full weeks of paternity leave off which was a really nice time for us to adjust to being a family of five. He went back to work last week, and on the first day, the boys came down with a stomach bug, but luckily, my MIL and sitter were still willing to come over and help during the week.
Unfortunatley, our weekend was also kind of crazy too. For those of you not following on the gram, baby girl had an episode called a BRUE. It was pretty scary and required monitoring in the hospital overnight after the event. And unfortunately, right when we were about to get discharged, she started spitting up a lot more than usual. She usually spits up 1-2 times max after a feed, but she spits up 4-6 times out of nowhere. The hospitalist was concerned she caught the stomach bug the boys had this week and ordered an IV, so we stayed until about 10 pm that night. Luckily, she seems totally fine now, and I’m hoping we are past all that! Thank you to everyone who sent prayers and well wishes on Insta!
In the past, I’ve always done monthly updates for my kids, but in these initial months, I’ll focus on my experience postpartum than the milestones the baby is hitting. However, I will say that the pediatrician said she was growing great and is perfectly healthy when he saw her for a 1-month well check about 48 hours after the hospital. At 9lbs, 7 ounces, and almost 22 inches, she is now as big as KK when he was born! She’s about 75th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight and head circumference. A pretty similar growth pattern to her brothers!
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is going pretty well. Initially, I had a ton of pain and sought out the same lactation consultant I saw for KK (Stephanie at Modern Milk.) My insurance covers six visits with her which is so nice because last time, I paid out of pocket. There was some concern about a possible tongue tie since I was having so much pain and really bad cracked/bleeding nipples. She helped work on the little one’s latch and prescribed a prescription cream that did wonders. But even when I had healed, I was still having a lot of shooting, burning pain. It felt very similar to the thrush I had with KJ, so I called my OB with concerns about thrush, and they prescribed one dose of fluconazole. Within 48 hours, the pain was gone but started to creep back up. I did a virtual consult with the LC, and she prescribed a longer dose of fluconazole, which I took for about a week, and all the pain totally went away. So glad to be past that!
At first, her weight gain was a little on the low side, but in the past couple of weeks, it has caught up, and she’s now gaining more than either of the boys ever did. I’m very thankful for that! She does have some symptoms of reflux (weird cough), spits up and swallows it, and the BRUE also could have been related to reflux. Her poop is also a weird green that reminds me a lot of what KJ looked like when he was diagnosed with MSPI. Because of that, I went ahead and pulled dairy out of my diet since both the boys had issues with it. It’s only been 48 hours, and I’ve noticed less coughing and fewer poopy diapers. It seemed like every time we changed a diaper. There was a small amount of poop. Now, she’s having more regular 3-4 poopy diapers a day. (This is the same as what happened with KJ.)
I started pumping 3-4 times a day when she was just a few days after feeds to help build and maintain a good supply. After KK was born, I pumped after every feed to get my supply up, but my LC thought that 3-4 times a day would be enough to give my supply a boost without driving me crazy. So that’s been good. Usually, three times a day and once or twice the night, especially if she sleeps a longer stretch.
I use my motif Luna at night and my Elvie stride or Elvies during the day. And I recently purchased a sterilizer which has made staying on top of cleaning pump parts so much easier than ever before. I can’t believe how much time I was wasting using sterlizer bags.
Sleep
I never like to talk about baby sleep, haha. I feel like it jinxes the situation. Baby girl is a decent sleeper, though. Like KK, she won’t really take a pacifier, but she doesn’t seem to need it. She can occasionally fall asleep on her own and typically sleeps 2 to 4 hours a night. I was previously waking her up every 3 to 4 hours at night to feed, but we got the okay from the pediatrician to let her sleep. She naps during the day in her bassinet or on her snuggle-me pillow. I usually put her in the snuggle me pillow when she seems to want to be held or feels a little fussy. We use an ollie swaddle and the hatch sound machine. I know that baby sleep is forever changing and has its ups and downs, though. The one certain thing about babies and baby sleep is that it will change! But right now, I’m not complaining!
Mama’s Recovery
I took my recovery this time around seriously and cautiously. After KK, I had so many issues with my back and tailbone that landed me in the chiropractor twice a week for six weeks. It was miserable. I also couldn’t start working out until way past the six-week mark, closer to 10 weeks, actually. So this time, I was cautious. I followed a foam rolling pelvic floor recovery circuit from my chiropractor and did the expecting and empowered guide recovery for the first 3 weeks until I could get over to see my chiropractor. I was having very mild tailbone pain and didn’t want it to escalate. After seeing him, I modified the circuit I was doing based on his advice by adding press-ups and a few other things. I also kept doing the expecting and empowered postpartum pelvic recovery guides. I started walking slowly in the last couple of weeks following the E&E guides, but for walking, I’m on week 2. This seems to be working, as I only occasionally have mild tailbone pain.
I didn’t have any stitches during delivery (although a small superficial tear), which has made a world of difference in my recovery. So much faster and easier! Unfortunatley, hemorrhoids came for me this time around, which took me by surprise because I escaped them the last two births. Lovely right? Just keeping it real over here. That also seems to be on the mend, though, thank goodness.
Emotionally, I seem to follow the same pattern as I did with my last two births. Just so thankful to not be pregnant anymore and to have a healthy baby that I’m practically on cloud nine. I have had to process some of the trauma that went on when I hemorrhaged after birth, but overall I’m feeling really great. A far cry from the depression I felt during most of the pregnancy.
I find myself with occasional overwhelming feelings of happiness. I always wanted two boys and a girl, but of course, I never thought it would work like that. And I just feel so blessed to have three happy and healthy children. Sometimes, the feelings take me by surprise, how grateful I am and how deeply I feel happy and grateful.
New Family Dynamics
Baby girl completes our family, and I feel like since we brought her home, she was always supposed to be here. Like a hole has been filled. But does it feel match how the boys feel? Well, KJ is OBSESSED with his baby sister. He thinks she is the best thing that’s ever happened. I’ve honestly been shocked by how much he’s taken to her and how much he simply loves being around her. He is definitely different than he was at 2.5 years old when we brought his little brother home. KK was a little slower to come around. He was mildly interested in her presence at first but then kind of ignored her and me for a couple of days. But, eventually, he came around, and now he loves to tell me when she cries that she’s hungry and needs to eat. He also says, “It’s okay, sh sh sh sh,” when he cries or fusses until I pick her up. Both boys were a little sad when we had to leave again to stay overnight in the hospital with the little one, but of course, no one likes that.
LIFE SAVERS
In addition to my go-to items from my must-haves post for new moms and newborns we added a few products that have been HUGE winners in this first month:
- Elvie Breast Pump
- Snuggleme Pillow
- Hal0 Bassinet with newborn insert
- Ollie Swaddles
- Hatch Rest + (gifted to us)
- Doona Carseat –> the one big purchase I did for baby 3!
- Baby Brezza Sterilizer
Many of these products are on my 10 Things I used with Baby 2 (that we didn’t have for baby #1.)
If you are newly postpartum or pregnant and trying to figure out what the process is like, it’s different for everyone but, you may also like my fourth-trimester updates from my first baby or the 1-month update from KK!
Newborn Photos
I haven’t gotten all our newborn photos back yet, but here are a few favorites from the sneak preview!
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