Lily's Third Week of Life (3/16/09 - 3/22/09)

I can't believe that Lily is three weeks old now. Paul went back to work this week but luckily my mom came and helped many days this week. Lily is a baby that pretty much has to be held constantly or she cries so it is really hard to do anything (including even trying to go to the bathroom) on my own. Lily's legs are getting really strong and her neck is getting stronger too. She loves to stare at her mommy and daddy. She is still having problems with gas, poor thing, and tenses up and cries a lot. We have had some good sleep nights and some bad ones. The longest stretch of sleep she had was two and a half hours. It was delightful! But then she sometimes alternates those with half hour stretches. Not so delightful! Lily had her first bath this week. She started out crying but then soon decided that she loves baths. We got it all on video. She has occasional smiles, probably just gas but we still find them adorable.
Here are some pictures from this week.


sweet baby sleeping on Mommy:

sleeping on Mommy again:

staring at Daddy and Rachel:

alert baby:

another angle:

staring at me:

Lily getting her first bath:

she really enjoyed the tub:

smiling at Mommy:

alert time on the Boppy:

spending time with her big sister:

hanging out with Papi Tim:

bundled up for a walk on Rails to Trails:

sleeping on Daddy:

Daddy looks nearly at tired as Lily:

laying on the floor working her arms and legs:

cute pose with a confused look:

curious baby:

laying on her musical gym:

Lily's Second Week of Life (3/9/09 - 3/15/09)

Lily's second week was full of love, lack of sleep, and amazement that I created such a wonderful little creature. This was Paul's second (and last) week home with us. Lily and I will certainly miss his help when he goes back. I get to stay home for 8 weeks total. Luckily, my mom has been coming to help a few days a week and will continue next week when I am on my own. I am so tired but am loving being a mom.
Here are a few pictures from the week.

sleeping baby:

Lily with Grandma Chris:

sleeping on Mommy:

with her welcome sign:

Lily in her bouncer:

sleeping on Mommy again:

going on our first major outing to WalMart in her sling:

Lily Meets the Lumsden's (3/8/09)

On Sunday, the Lumsden's came over for a visit on Lily's 7th day of life. Carol hasn't seen her since she was born and her kids were interested in seeing "Baby Kelly" who kept their mom from them for an entire weekend. Lily was super hungry so our visit kept getting interrupted.

Lily with her godparents, Carol and Grant:

Ally holds Lily:

Grayson holds Lily:

exhausted baby on her Boppy:

Lily Meets the LaVictoire's (3/7/09)

On Saturday, we had a bunch of family over to meet Lily. My grandmother Marion, aunt Robin, uncle Lee, cousin Ashlee, and her husband Jeremy visited. It was great to see them and Lily was an angel for their visit.

Lily meets her Great-Aunt Robin and Great-Uncle Lee:

perky baby:

Lily meets Jeremy and Ashlee:

Lily snoozing in a cute position:

four generations of family:

Lily with Great-Grandmother Marion:

Lots of Doctor Visits (3/4/09 - 3/6/09)

Poor Lily got to spend most of her first few days home going back and forth to the doctor's. After getting home late from the hospital and a fairly restless night, we had to take her to the pediatrician's to get her bilirubin levels checked on Wednesday, 3/4/09. Her weight was 3.18kg which is a 10% decrease from her birth weight and her bilirubin levels were up. They told us to continue supplementing with formula until my milk is in and wanted us to come back on Thursday to get her bilirubin levels checked yet again. If they go up again, they wanted us to check her into the hospital to undergo phototherapy. I really hoped we didn't have to do that. Luckily, her bilirubin levels were down on Thursday, 3/5/09 so they said as long as her weight goes up on her previously scheduled weight check for Friday, 3/6/09, she should be good. On Friday, her weight was up to 3.38kg which is almost to her birth weight and my milk came in Thursday night so all is good! After her weight check on Friday, we took Lily in to work to say hi to everyone then when we got home, it was such a beautiful day that we ended up taking Lily for her first stroller ride around the neighborhood.
One crazy thing that Lily is already doing is rolling onto her side. We thought it was a fluke the first time it happened but then we watched her purposefully do it many times since. What a strong little baby!
Here's a few pictures:

Lily snoozing:

Paul holding Lily in the sunlight to decrease her bilirubin levels:

my sunny baby:

passed out after a feeding:

Lily's first stroller ride:

Doing Time at U of M (3/2/09 - 3/3/09)

After our super-eventful delivery, Lily had to be on antibiotics for 36 hours and I had to be on them for 48 hours so we got to enjoy an extended hospital stay. Things went pretty well for me after surgery. I got to get up and move around pretty early the following morning so my first priority was to take a sponge bath since it had been forever since I had been clean. Halfway through the day they took out my catheter but they still wouldn't let me eat until I had bowel sounds which didn't happen until dinner time which meant that I went three days without food. My pain was not bad at all except when I had a few negligent nurses who didn't give me my medication on time. Then I really felt the pain of the surgery.
Poor Lily developed jaundice which is pretty common. She had to be treated with the biliblanket and had a ton of heel sticks to check her bilirubin levels which she hated!
We had tons of visitors at the hospital including many people from work, Paul's parents, Rachel, and my friend, Amy. Paul spent the first night at the hospital with me but had to go home the second night because there was no one who could watch Rachel. It was hard being on my own because I wasn't too mobile but was trying to tend to Lily while she was tethered to the biliblanket and we were both tethered to IVs. There were quite a few tangles!
We had the option of going home on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning but I chose Tuesday night so I could finally sleep in my own bed and would have Paul's help. We had to make a pediatrician's appointment for Wednesday to have her bilirubin levels checked but we got to go home without a biliblanket as her bilirubin levels normalized. We were advised to supplement her breastmilk feeding with formula, at least until my milk comes in, as her weight dropped 8.5% from 3.530kg to 3.230kg and the more she eats and goes to the bathroom, the faster the bilirubin is flushed from her system. We left the hospital pretty late. My mom came home to stay with us so that she can pick Rachel up from school while we are at our doctor's appointment. It ended up being very helpful having her there as Lily had quite a restless night and my mom took her for most of it.
Here are some pictures from our hospital stay:

Lily received a very late night bath and got her footprints taken:

Lily meets Grandma Maureen:

Lily meets her big sister, Rachel:

Lily and I relax together in bed:

Lily looks like a glowworm with her biliblanket on:

sleeping with her mouth open:

my adorable perky girl:

getting ready to go home:

our family exiting Mott Hospital: