The first couple days in the hospital were spent with lots of family and friends visiting (which was so sweet- they were all so excited to meet him!) and for me, it was a lot of recovery. Nurses constantly checking on me, giving me medicine, handing me forms to fill out, and coming in occasionally to get Jake and give him shots.
Oh, the shots. The first night Jake spent in the nursery since by the time our family saw him and he got a bath it was close to 2am anyway. The next night was a little rough :/ I don't blame him for being cranky, if I had shots and was circumcised I would be cranky, too. That's a lot for a one day old to go through. I couldn't bring myself to send him to the nursery because he was fussy and crying from everything he went through and I felt it was my job as his mom to comfort him even though I was feeling pretty crummy. After walking around with him for a couple hours I woke Dan up and asked him to hang out with him while I got some sleep. Finally, around 6am I woke up and Dan had just put him in his little bed because he was beginning to calm down when a nurse comes in and says she has to draw his blood. Dan and I looked at each other in disbelief. This was not happening. Obviously, I knew it had to get done, but unfortunately, it was a much harder process than we thought. They had to prick his foot and put blood in this little tube- easy right? Well, unfortunately Jake was not bleeding well so they had to prick him 3 times and the process took close to a half an hour. After not even 5 minutes of him screaming and me trying to comfort him, I completely lost it. When I say lost it, I mean I had to walk away because I was bawling so hard... almost just as hard, if not harder, than Jake. Dan did his best not to laugh at me even though he cracked a smile as he walked over to hug me lol When he tried to comfort me I told him to leave me alone and to go comfort his son since I was in no shape to do so. The nurse proceeded to ask if I was ok and then started to lecture me on how I needed to be one of those mothers who could let their baby cry. I was too busy bawling to be upset with her lecturing and was trying my best not to hurt her because of all the pain she was causing my son. (I know I know, she didn't mean to hurt him.. I was just an emotional mess) I just told her the mix of hormones, no sleep, and the inability to comfort our child was catching up to me and assured her that in the future I would be able to let him cry.
After she left, we officially made it through night two.
Coming home was actually nice. Although I didn't have the nurses taking care of me anymore, my mom and the rest of our family could take care of Jake while I was taking baths and sending Dan out to get every medication on the face of this earth. Here were some of our phone conversations:
Stef: "I forgot that I need you to get me some pads."
Dan: "Ok... what kind do you need?"
Stef: "I don't care. The biggest kind you can find."
Dan: "Ummm... all right.. I'll do my best."
5 minutes later...
Stef: "Dan, I also am going to need a donut."
Dan: "Donuts? What kind of donuts?"
Stef: "No no, the kind of donut you sit on."
Dan: "Oh, ok.... (Dan talking to Jeff his brother) Hey Jeff, we can't leave yet I have to get Stef a donut."
Jeff: "Donuts? Why does she want donuts?"
Oh, geez.
Amidst all the phone calls, they did manage to get everything I needed- I have such a sweet husband and brother in law :)
The first couple days we spent giving him baths, putting cute outfits on him, and changing tons of diapers. Jake is a true guy- peeing all over us mid diaper change (why did I spend money to get a cute changing pad?) and he has this great ability to poop in his new diaper before we can even take him off the changing table. At least he's already in place to get changed again.
Then came his doctor's appointment. When Jake came home his discharge weight was 7 pounds 7 ounces, however at the doctor's office he weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces. They weren't freaking out, but they did want him to come in before the next week to check his weight. Needless to say, I was concerned. My poor baby was not getting the nutrients he needed! After that I had Jake on a strict schedule of nursing every 2 hours. This little guy was going to get milk whether he wanted to or not! Thankfully within 5 days he gained 8 ounces- more than the doctors expected! I was so thankful when we went back in that he was back up to 7 pounds 10 ounces!
So back to our first doctor's appointment. After the appointment we needed to make a quick stop at Babies R Us but decided to first grab lunch at Chick Fil A. I know the doctors say not to take babies out in public for the first couple weeks, but I figured we could make it a quick trip. Well, that unfortunately was not the case. The second we walked in the doors, this sweet worker (lady on the far left in the picture below) ran over to us asking how old he was. I quietly said 4 days, ashamed that the mom in the booth next to us with a 6 month old would be shunning me for exposing our child to germs so early on. She proceeded to exclaim to the rest of her co workers over the counter that we had a 3 day old baby with us. (even though Dan and I tried to correct her by saying 4... thinking that made such a big difference) Next thing we knew, the Chick Fil A workers came out and asked if they could take pictures. So much for flying under the radar. They were very nice though and gave us free dessert. Jake is still alive and well so I'm assuming he didn't get some sort of crazy virus from the attention at Chick Fil A, but it definitely made for an eventful lunch!
As far as some other details go, he actually has a pretty good routine going of feeding, being awake, and then sleeping (I'm *attempting* the Babywise schedule and he's actually been doing pretty well... we'll see how that continues to go lol). At night he normally will sleep for 3 to 4 hours at a time which is great because I can get almost 2 hours of non stop sleep. We really spend a majority of our time when he is awake cracking up at all of his faces. He has a pretty rockin blue steel look that he gives us occasionally, as well as this "old man" look when he crinkles his forehead. And on the rare occasion he'll crack a half smile/ smirk that just melts our heart :)
We really are loving every second of being with him. Dan is so cute and always asks if he can wake him up from his nap to play with him- there is nothing more sweet than seeing your husband hang out with his son. It's still crazy to me that we are parents. We have been planning for this little one's arrival for 9 months and it's still surreal that he's actually sleeping in the other room right now. I seriously could stare at him for hours while he sleeps, he is so precious and we feel so blessed and thankful. I know people say it all the time, but it's amazing how much you can love someone so much after knowing them for such a small amount of time. Heck, two days in I was about ready to take out that nurse who was drawing his blood- those motherly protective instincts already kicked in! It's definitely been a whirlwind of emotions but we're really enjoying adjusting to life with the three of us. I can't wait to share more pictures and fun stories about little Jake as he grows up :)
this is the sweetest post ever, Stef! Thanks for writing it :) It's so fun to read about your first weeks with Jake and I'm laughing about your convos with Dan at the store. Can't wait to see you next month and meet your little guy :)
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