Okay so back to the day Allie was born...that evening was somewhat of a blur, but thankfully having my sister there meant that the camera was usually in at least one person's hands to refresh our memories. After eating, the nurse had me get out of bed, make a visit to the bathroom and even take a nice bath! I felt pretty good compared to what I thought I would feel like - ahem - down there. Around 7pm we moved over to our "getting to know you" room/recovery room and got settled there for the next two days. Allie fed here and there -we slept here and there...the nurses were amazingly helpful with their every few hour check ins. Allie even got a bath that night and a new hat from the "Maple Grove Hospital Grandmas" hat donations (the red knit hat in the pictures...which I will either get a link up to or load them here eventually!). That evening, before we moved rooms (can't remember if I put this in the other post) Jason's parents came to the hospital for a little bit and if you've never seen a happy Grandpa...you would have that day! Allie-Rae is the first grand-daughter on the Cavanaugh side (first grandkid on the Jensen side) so both Grandma and Papa were very proud and excited to meet her!
Day two, we met with the lactation specialist which was an experience, but in a good and very helpful way! She noted that we should have our pediatrician look at Allie's tongue because her frenulum was attached very high and could be interfering with the feeding. This is also known as tongue-tie. When Dr. Schoeber came to visit us, she said we might want to see how the feeding and her weight go for the first week, but it probably couldn't hurt to get an appointment booked just in case -so we did just that once we got home. The rest of the Dr and Nurse visits went well and Jason went home to sleep that night (the bed at the hospital was hard and by a big cold window...and Allie got to spend some time in the nursery so I could sleep for a few hours).
Through that day we had visits from Christy (Auntie Desh) and my Mom and sister came from the airport after my Mom flew back from CO. We were happy Allie got to have snuggles on her first full day with us. That night we even had a surprise visit from Jason's Godfather and his wife (John and Heidi Mooney) which was so fun! They actually were the first to find out Allie's name!
Now...the name story - Jason and I had a few names picked out, which I think I had blogged about before, but the whole Christmas Day Birthday threw us for a loop! We liked Allison Rae and Julia June as girls names, but wanted to add or change the name to include the fact that Allie was born on Christmas day. We went back and forth with Allison Joy, Faith, Hope, Noel...and the same with Julia. We even considered changing it completely to Mary or Marion (Paternal family name from my side) or Caroline... and eventually came back to Allison-Rae as a first name and Noel as the middle name. It just felt right and we now couldn't imagine her with any other name!
On Monday, our last day at the hospital, we were anxious to get going, but not until we had met with my Dr, the Pediatrician, another visit from the lactation specialist (which I would have put that lady in my pocket and kept her with me all week had I known any better!!) as well as the routine stat-checks. Allison-Rae had her first day photos taken, but not before I had a nice warm shower and some lunch. The nurses checked us through all of our discharge to-do's and follow-ups and then escorted us down to the car...and off we were into the big scary world...just the three of us! Mom, Dad -and Baby!
We weren't as lost as I thought we would be once we got home, but I'm sure had there been cameras, they would have caught us wandering aimlessly wondering what we were to do next every now and then!
The days and nights of the first week are now a blur, but we did get some sleep and we would recommend a swing to anyone! Ours was a savior! Jason had the week off work which was great for all three of us - I definitely wasn't ready to be home alone with the baby yet! Tuesday, Massey came home and is still to this day adjusting, but progressively is getting more and more comfortable having a new baby in the house (and I say that with Allie being an actual baby, but moreso because Massey was our little baby up until now!).
Wednesday night was our first outing - we went to Jason's parents house for Max's first birthday celebration. It was emotional from the get-go, but that's pregnancy hormones for you...and the fact that Jason's sister hadn't seen her yet so we both cried...then Dave cried...we all were just so happy! The visit went well, but we were happy to get back home and rest after a good feed.
The next morning, Allie-Rae had her first Dr's visit which was supposed to be a simple 1 week check, but turned into a 3 hour adventure with x-rays, blood samples and a much needed feed in the pediatricians room. Allie's weight was down from 7.5 to 6.14 when we left the hospital and at this appt she was down to 6.10. The Dr had us on a plan to supplement some food with pumping and soy formula to help her gain some weight for next week. We had been seeing some, what looked like, blood in Allie's diaper hence all the tests. It turned out to be a non-issue although we still don't know what it was. After a trip to Target - we returned home, napped and fed...for days and days that would be our story!
The rest of week 1 (through new-years, which is when we were expecting our little peanut!) was filled with visitors, and waiting for our Monday appointment to get Allie-Rae's tongue looked at.
Feedings had been going okay now that we were supplementing, but on Monday Allie Rae did get her tongue clipped. She did just fine, a little squeak here and there, but after a small bottle of breast-milk she was just fine - I on the other hand needed half a box of tissue just to get a hold of myself! We made it back home and did just fine the rest of the day and the next...and each hour was different every day after that. She would feed well one sitting, nap well for a bit and then the next thing we know we were sleeping 7 hours one night and only an hour or two (if that) the next. I was bound and determined to stick-to breast feeding though - it is HARD! I have/had been in a lot of pain and Jason has been a huge support to me - through tears and all.
I eventually decided that calling the lactation specialists would be my next step and it was well worth it! Thankfully (for me, not for him) Jason got off work early...again because of the weather and he drove us down to Methodist for the appointment. We fed and talked through everything with the specialist and she was a Godsend! Without so much as a strict schedule, she put us on what I would say would be more of a routine to follow. Nipple shield, 3 bras and some milk supplements later...we were on our way home with renewed hope and high hopes at that!
Now here we are (and I assure you I'll probably have random posts that will fill in the blanks from the past 2 weeks) with Allie 2 weeks and 3 days old - she is healthy, happy and cute beyond words! We love her very much and we think she's pretty fond of us too. She weighed in at 7.06 today so we're hopeful for our weight check tomorrow. Still supplementing and pumping regularly...at least for the routine the specialist put us on... and we'll check back in very soon with pictures and progress!
