When last I left you, I gave an abbreviated account of my delivery experience. Yes, my darlings, I shall go into more detail of the nuances I experienced, but not just yet.
Today is simply another brief rundown of what as occupied my days in the time I have been away.
Post delivery I had another three days in hospital while my blood pressure and such leveled out and the medical team made sure I was not likely to curl up toes and expire on them. Himself slept more deeply than either of us ever thought possible that first evening, but I was more jittery than a rabbit in a cage from the excitement of officially being a mother and the massive amount of adrenaline my body had pumped through my system to push that baby OUT.
Many, many, many people giving advice to new moms will say to let your little one spend the first night in the nursery and have the staff bring your bundle of joy to you for feedings only and take the advantage of free babysitters and sleep. If you are tired, by all means, do this. It is nice to have someone take care of the tike for you while you grab a few z's. Me? I was wide awake. And had no real expectations of sleep any time soon. So, once the nursery had Little Alex cleaned and inspected and given all his pokes and prods required, I had him room in with us every night. I was of the mind that the nurses would wake me up to feed him every two hours anyway and I would be wondering about how he was doing if he were away, so might as well just keep him close.
Friends and family visited often and everyone simply gushed over how adorable and perfect Little Alex was (and is, of course) and how he looked to be an old soul. I must admit, he did not seem a newborn at all. From the very beginning he was looking and acting much older than one would expect. Himself loves to tell the story of how he steeled himself for the oddness of how a newborn looksn how he had to keep reminding himself to keep calm and remember that newborns will have funny shaped heads, and scream a lot, and be odd colors, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. But not so with our little one. True, his head was slightly oblong during the first few hours but even that was barely noticeable. He was a healthy pink almost immediately and his skin was hardly wrinkled. He cried for a minute or two until placed on my chest and when our eyes met, he calmed.
To speak the truth, I barely remember the actual moments of delivery. I remember the sensations, the emotional reactions and being very aware. But the details of everything are long forgotten. It could be from the medications, or simply the blur of so much happening so fast. Either are equally reasonable explanations.
Amazingly, he was very easy to care for that first week. He was predictable in the feedings and had a perfect latch from the very start. There was a hitch in that my production was not satisfying his demands and Little Alex's weight dropped a little more than the normal amount. But, as both of us were healthy otherwise, the hospital sent us home under the strict condition that he be seen by his pediatrician within two days. (They would not process the discharge papers until they spoke with the office confirming my appointment to ensure this.)
Himself is lucky enough to work with a company that offers a full two weeks of paternity leave. Our intentions were for him to take the first week off and save the remaining days for holidays and such. Things did not quite work out that way. Do you know the old quote "Man plans, the Gods laugh"? This is painfully true once children are thrown into the mix.
During Little Alex's second week, his feedings became very difficult. He fussed and screamed and arched away from me after only a few minutes. I was growing confused but at our pediatrician appointments, he was gaining weight well and his latch was still perfect. I couldn't figure out what was going on.
Then the spit-up started.
Now I know babies spit up. And I know it can often look like quite a lot. But this was different. It wasn't the normal spit up, it looked like he had just held the milk in his mouth and pushed it right out. Very odd to me, but I counted it as something I simply hadn't run into when dealing with newborns and simply kept an eye on him guessing it would get more to the normal consistency soon enough. Of course, it didn't. Instead Little Alex started with projectile spit up. Spit up with so much force behind it that it would miss him, my shoulder, and the back of the couch and hit the floor a good foot behind me. THIS was NOT normal.
Himself had returned to work as planned a few days before and I called him up in a tizzy, convinced that something was horrifically wrong with our child. He was infinitely more practical and reminded me to call the doctor to get the baby checked by a true professional before flying into full hysterics.
Listening to his wise advice, I called the pediatrician's office and they had me bring in the little one for an evaluation. Himself left work early to join us being the wonderful and involved father that he is.
When all questions were answered and all explanations of Little Alex's behaviors offered, the doctor informed us that our poor bairn was suffering from Gastroesophageal Reflux Disorder (or GERD for short). Relieved that it was not a serious condition but still downhearted that our little one was in pain when eating, I had myself a little cry shelled out the $76 for infant Zantac.
Loathed to suffer my child to foul tasting medication for the first six months of his life, I also contacted my father's cousin, Kathleen, who is a lactation consultant and natural medicine advocate to see if there was something I could do to help Little Alex's tummy pains and ditch the medication.
Kathleen was our savior. I will do another article on what she advised and how we were able to get Little Alex's GERD under control and drop the Zantac altogether.
Now, Alex is coming up to the three month mark and is thriving beautifully. Himself and I are also back to feeling like we have our lives back again and not the constant chaos that comes with adjusting to the care of a newborn.
Now if only I could find a way to make time stand still for a while to truly enjoy each moment with him....
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