Annabelle is 1 week old!

...well, she was yesterday. It's taken me a week just to get photos uploaded and have 2 seconds to sit down and type something out!

A photo collage of her first week:

We were so excited and relieved when she was born! Poor little peanut was so cold, even with skin-to-skin she didn't get warm enough. I was pretty cold, too, so I'm not surprised. We got to hold her for a little bit before they put her back under the warmer.

First few minutes of life! Smooshed, swollen face from being born, but beautiful nonetheless.

Jason has been diaper-changer extraordinaire! He's great about doing diaper duty after I nurse, even in the middle of the night if I wake him up. He got some good practice at the hospital with some major meconium poops.

Daddy giving his first diaper change! She doesn't like getting her diaper changed at ALL.

Daddy loves his little girl. She has him wrapped around her finger already!

We had to stay an extra day in post-partum at the hospital because of my GBS result not being back, and because Annabelle was pretty jaundiced. We were all more than ready to come home on Sunday. Being in the hospital was more tiring than being at home, because of all of the interruptions for vitals checks and "how are you doing" checks. It was nice to have the nurses so available for help and questions, but it's nice to be home and have some alone time. On Saturday night, the nurse said that Annabelle's bilirubin levels were at a 13, which was too high. She pretty much promised us that the doctor on call would want to keep Annabelle for at least another day to put her under the bili lights, and that we would probably have to give her formula. I was so upset about both things, we just prayed that she would be fine, and that we wouldn't have to do either option. We were SO thankful for Dr. See who came in the morning. She was the pediatrician on rotation, and said that since Annabelle was otherwise healthy, she wouldn't keep her. She asked us to followup with our pediatrician the next day, just to make sure she was doing okay. We were happy to oblige, and I tearfully thanked her over and over for letting us go home!

Tired but happy mommy, ready to go home! 

While we were in the hospital, we tried giving Annabelle a pacifier. She liked it for about a day, and then just started spitting them out. It's fine with me! She's such a good baby, and only cries when she is hungry and I'm taking too long to whip the boob out, or during diaper changes.

It was so surreal leaving the hospital. I felt like time stood still, and then all of a sudden we were out in this bright new world. They gave me this kid to take home without testing me or anything! So strange that there are no requirements to meet before becoming parents. Luckily, I think we're doing an okay job. Getting Annabelle into her carseat the first time was pretty funny. The carseat is a Graco Snugride 35, so it holds kids up to 35 pounds. So, even though it's an infant seat, Annabelle looked sooo tiny once she was all buckled in. 

All buckled in and ready to go home!!

Um, guys? I'm kind of smooshed...

On Sunday, after we got home from the hospital, Annabelle went on a nursing strike. She was latching on great while we were at Carle, but once we got home wanted nothing to do with it. For a little more than 24 hours, she just screamed and screamed and screamed when I tried to put her to the breast. She was clearly hungry, but was so upset and overworked that she wouldn't eat. Jason was so wonderful and patient and helpful while I was so upset. I ended up hand expressing as much colostrum as I could, and Jason literally caught each droplet that came out in a syringe. We gave as much to Annabelle as we could, but ended up giving her some formula during the night on Sunday. It seemed so traumatizing at the time, but hello? What's the big deal? It's formula, not poison! It's actually probably a really good thing that we did give her the formula, because of her jaundice. She needed to eat to help it go away, and with our followup appointment the next day, we were worried her bili levels would be even higher if we couldn't get some food in her tiny belly. I was pretty hysterical Sunday night, calling the breastfeeding clinic at Carle twice (so much for being on call 24 hours a day! No one called me back for like 3 hours!). I called labor and delivery, and I called the la leche league leader for help. One of the nurses in labor and delivery was a mom, and she was pretty helpful to a hormonal post-partum hysterical mom...I just needed someone to understand and be calming, which she was. I left a message for the LLL leader, and she called me back first thing in the morning (more on that in a minute).

During her breastfeeding strike, trying to get our little jaundiced pumpkin to eat.

 On Monday, her pediatrician appointment went great. Her bili levels had started to drop, and the doctor didn't seem worried about her at all. He recommended we go to the breastfeeding clinic, so off we went. Unfortunately, my experience at the breastfeeding clinic was way less than great. I had been warned by a couple of people that the lactation consultants there have a tendency to just give everyone nipple shields to "solve" their problem. A lot of babies can't transition from using a nipple shield to not using one, and so it was something I really, really did not want to do. When I first got there, they took one look at me and said that my nipples weren't "prominent." I'm sorry, but they are not flat, or inverted, so I'm pretty sure they are just fine for nursing. Sure enough, they tried slapping a nipple shield on me. I told them I didn't want to use it, and their response was just gross: "Well, if it's a nipple shield or not breastfeeding, which would you prefer?" Ugh. Thanks for the help (sarcasm). I almost started to cry. They didn't check anything else at all, just basically tried to force that thing on me. I left so completely frustrated.

Thankfully, the LLL leader, Jodi, came over at 6:30 Monday evening. I thank God for her. She seriously saved us. She sat on the couch with us for two hours, working on breastfeeding. Within 5 minutes of her being here, she got Annabelle latched on to the right side. I couldn't stop smiling! We had more trouble with the left side, but she taught us how to sort of "bribe" Annabelle with a syringe of pumped colostrum every time she got close to latching on. That was Jason's job. Jodi instructed us to basically sit skin to skin with Annabelle on my chest, and every time she started rooting, help her latch on. It was a long night, but by Monday morning, Annabelle was a professional nurser! We had to use the syringe bribery until around midnight, but after that she did it all on her own. I nursed her almost straight through the night from 10:30 until 5 a.m. She finally fell asleep then, and we both slept until 9. It was heavenly. I am so, so thankful for Jodi and her help. I don't think we would have made it if she hadn't come to the rescue!

As of this morning, Annabelle is back to her birth weight, so hoorah for nursing!

Annabelle nurses every few hours during the day, and seems to want to cluster feed from about 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. I'm thankful I can stay in bed until mid morning, that's for sure. She's also a messy eater. She has breast milk coming out the corners of her mouth every time she eats. It's cute, but makes a sticky mess! We finally had to give her a bath on Tuesday because of how sticky she was.

First "bath" at home!

Dad? Can you please put some clothes on me?

Since she went on the nursing strike, she didn't have any poopy diapers for about 40 hours. It was kind of scary for us, knowing that she should have had 3 or 4, but she got through it. Her first diaper after her nursing strike was a CRAZY mess! We heard her poop, and went to change her. As we were changing her, she started pooping again. And again. And again. We got 4 diapers poopy, the changing table pad, socks, paper towels, and tons and tons of wipes. It was pretty epic. Since then, we've learned that when her bare bum feels the air, she likes to poop. And, she doesn't just casually let a little out, she squirts her poop out. Her distance record so far is a little over a foot. No joke. Poop everywhere. Ahh the adventures of a newborn!

MAJOR poop explosion. We had three more just like this.

Annabelle sleeps in our room. About 1/3 of the time she sleeps in her arms-reach co-sleeper, and the rest of the time she sleeps on my chest, similar to the picture below. She curls up in a ball after nursing, snuggles in close, and falls asleep. I love it. I sleep so much better with her on me, because I can feel her breathing and know she's just fine. It's so peaceful.

Tummy time with Mommy

All in all, it's been a great first week. We've had all sorts of adventures, and are totally loving our precious little girl. I can't believe she's a week old already...time sure flies!