Well I started to post Saturday and ended up losing most of what I wrote before getting it posted! So here we go again. Let’s see, where to begin… Well in appreciation for all that Stephanie’s mom did, we bought carry-out at a really nice restaurant last Thursday night. That whole night after breast feeding, Abbie was having all sorts of tummy issues. Sue mentioned the broccoli that Stephanie had at dinner, never-mind the huge clove of garlic for her bread and the onions on the salad. So I looked up breast-feeding in my trusty pediatrician’s book, and low-and-behold of the 5 foods that the book mentioned to avoid during breast-feeding Stephanie had 3 at dinner: broccoli, onions, and garlic…3 of 5 isn’t bad! I heard an expression recently that goes something like “When you do something that produces unexpected results, you gain experience” If that isn’t the quote exactly, you get the picture. Anyway, I have been watching Stephanie’s diet like a HAWK since.
Friday morning we went to the pediatricians. Even with the stepped up feeding, Abbie only had gained 1.5 oz since Monday. The pediatrician re-iterated the need to feed every two-hours, plus give a 1 oz “chaser” after each breast feeding. Plus we were to do half the feedings by bottle, and half by breast. Let’s just say that we have been pushing the food down this kid like it is going out of style! And let me tell you, every two hours is just absolutely exhausting. There is the diaper changing, the feed prep, the feeding, the post feed cleaning, many times a change, and soothing. There are many times that one cycle ends when the next feeding cycle needs to commence. But I digress…
The other issue at the pediatrician’s was Abbie’s arm. He became more concerned about her lack of motion with it, and wanted some testing done regarding nerve damage from the clavicle. Stephanie and I are less concerned about it, because Abbie has started using her arm a lot more since then. But ofcourse there is the fear of the unknown.
So after all the happiness at the pediatricians’, we went home and actually had a lovely afternoon. Abbie’s umbilical cord fell off and we got the green light to give her a real bath. Not knowing what to expect, we turned this kid in to jelly. She loved it!!! She slept for the rest of the day, hardly even waking up to eat. Ofcourse that guaranteed that she was going to be up all night. At least we have a new weapon in the effort to get her to sleep! You can see the picture, Abbie literally started to fall asleep when Stephanie started sprinkled bath water over her.
So Sue left on Friday afternoon and Stephanie and I were alone. Not jumping for joy alone, but “what the hell do we do now” alone. The good thing was that it was Halloween and that kept us busy. Plus it gave lots of people the opportunity to stop by and visit. We not only got to show off the baby, but I got to share my pumpkin ale. For those that don’t know, I started homebrewing beer about 6 months ago. Anyway, I named this batch Abigail’s Pumpkin Ale, complete with label and everything.
So we made it through the first night completely on our own on Friday. Ofcourse Sue called first thing Sat morning to check and see what our status was. All was going well on Saturday until Stephanie ate some leftovers. She decided to eat some chicken that had been in the fridge over a week, but she didn’t know that. Let’s just say that the first sign that anything was wrong was when Abbie started pooping like crazy. Literally it was one poo after another. It was quite the messy situation. Then it hit Stephanie and it all became clear as to what happened. It never fails to amaze me how they are all connected like that.
So with all of that, Sunday evening came around and Stephanie begged me to stay home. It wasn’t a real hard sell, especially since I knew Stephanie has an appt with the OB tomorrow morning, Abbie has an appt with the pediatrician at some point, and Stephanie isn’t allowed to pick anything heavy up or drive yet. Not to mention that she’s just not ready to try it all on her own yet. So how can I say no, right?
Finally, I think I officially got anointed as a father this morning. It was around 0500 when I got handed the baby, a bottle, and got asked to feed her. In my slumber in the dark room I popped the cap off the bottle and started to give it to the baby when I heard a gush. Yeah, sleepy Matt took the entire cap off, spilling a little less than 1 oz of formula all over the bed, myself and the baby. Needless to say I woke up. But I soon went back to bed wreaking of formula and not really caring.
Ya gotta love parenthood because I’ve already been to bed and up again! With things getting a little hectic this weekend we havn’t taken too many pictures. But you will hopefully see more soon. Till then, sweet dreams, and we’ll see where this adventure takes up!
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