Sophia's first week!

Clearly, she's thrilled!

Sophia's first week was from May 1-May 8

Weight: Sophia weighed 7 lbs 9 ozs at birth and 7 lbs 2 ozs when we left the hospital. At her 1 week well visit, she was back up to 7 lbs 14 ozs!

Health:  Her pediatrician said everything looked great at her appointment.  She checked her billie levels because she was borderline jaundice in the hospital and even though they were still a little high, they had gone down so she wasn't too worried. We're still waiting for her umbilical cord to fall off!

Sleep: Her first week, Sophia fell into a pretty set schedule of waking up to feed every 4 hours. She slept pretty good during the day for naps and at night.  We made sure to not pick her up if she was already asleep and we could tell early on that she likes to sleep undisturbed in her swing the most. We had her in our room this week and we left the TV/lights on during her day time naps and nothing while we slept at night (obviously).

Social: Not much to report here, although she did get a few visitors this week! Most of her awake time happens the first 5 (if that) mins of nursing, or during a diaper change so she's not that big of a social butterfly yet. :)

Sophia did have her first photo shoot this week.  Originally, we were going to have our wedding photographer do pictures for us during labor and after delivery.  When I realized how long my labor was going to be, we decided to do newborn pictures with her instead.  It was quite a hot mess while Heidi was here because Sophia did not want to sleep like all those sweet newborns you see in pictures.  She peed and pooped all over Matt and I multiple times.  I think we went through every blanket we had in the house!  I did get a sneak peek at two pictures and somehow Heidi made the whole shoot look like it was easy peasy!  I am super excited to see the rest!

Diet: All breastmilk! This week, I had some engorgement issues, but things have tapered out now for the most part.  She is still latching on like a champ and doing great with nursing.  She loves to fall asleep while nursing so I have to work to keep her awake most feedings.

Learning all the different things about breastfeeding has been interesting.  I had no idea what letdown was, or the difference between hindmilk or foremilk and how everything effects baby.  I also didn't know that you could leak milk as much, if you hear baby crying it can cause letdown, or that baby can smell my milk if we're in the same room.  It's been a learning experience for sure!

Clothes: We had to go out and pick up a few newborn size sleepers for her because the ones we had were a little too big.  Sleepers and onesies are pretty much what her wardrobe consists of these days..

Baby Gear Loves: Loving the swing and swaddles this week, along with my Baby ESP app that helps me keep track of everything. Also, my Medela breast pump and Lanolin cream have been my BFFs when dealing with engorgement.

Crying: As soon as she wakes up when she's hungry.

Likes: Eating and sleeping, cuddles with Daddy, looking at lights and the gallery wall above her changing table.

Post Partum: The first week was a doozy for me! Trying to get settled in with a newborn is exhausting enough in itself.  Then you have to worry about not overdoing it and healing from giving birth.  Nobody told me much about the recovery aspect of the whole thing.  You think about how anxious you are to meet your little one that you don't think about what it's going to be like for you and your body once they actually get here!  I did have to get a couple of stitches, so I was in some pain this week and it was difficult to find time to soak in a bath and do everything that the Drs tell you to do to relieve pain.  I wasn't taking any hardcore pain meds...just ibuprofen because I didn't want it to get to Sophia through my milk (I'm not even sure that it can...but better safe than sorry!) so I was just toughing it out.  My hormones this week were also out of control! In addition to being sleep deprived and trying to figure out Sophia, I was feeling a lot of anxiety alll day long.  It was hard for me to sleep at night because I couldn't turn my mind off and any whimper that she made would have me on high alert. It was very overwhelming to say the least.

I've also been having night sweats this week.  GROSS! Something else nobody tells you about! I wake up for night feedings drenched in sweat and I have had to change clothes on more than one occasion.

On the bright side, I am happy to report that I am about 7 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight this week!  I think I ended up gaining just under 20 lbs total and I think some of that was water weight at the end.  Breast feeding has definitely helped me loose the baby weight! I was pretty swollen when I came home from the hospital..more so than I was towards the end of my pregnancy and I think it had to do with the fluids they gave me during labor.  It gradually went down throughout the week. My belly still looks a little funky.  I feel like I got a pregnancy mask on my BELLY instead of my face! I have a really dark linea nigra above and below my belly button and a dark "halo" around my bellybutton.  Right now, it looks like a really bizarre tan.  We'll see how long it takes for that to disappear.  I did manage to avoid getting any stretch marks, so it's a fair trade off.

Matt was such a HUGE help this week, he made sure to have dinner cooked every night, always kept my water bottles filled when I was nursing Sophia, kept the house clean and took care of the dogs so I wouldn't have anything to worry about.  He was able to take two weeks off to help out and it was so great having him home! I lucked out in the husband department big time!

Milestones: Sophia got her first bath, had her first dr's appointment and photo shoot, took her first trip to Target, and had her first trip in her stroller all this week!

First sponge bath at home

Daddy/daughter matching in Hurley gear!

At the Dr's office