So much about a new little person changes so quickly in these first few weeks! I just wanted to jot down some thoughts (and share some precious photos)...
Samuel came into the world as a giant baby! Literally - he has "large for gestational age" permanently installed in his medical record. Of course there have been much larger babies born in the history of the world, but we were shocked to see his weight an hour after birth! 9-10! Stuart and the L&D nurse both thought that couldn't be right, so Samuel was re-weighed on another scale just to be sure. Yep! 9lbs 10oz! It was right! I did not have diabetes, and actually gained less weight this pregnancy than with James (who was only 6-15 at birth), and it's not like Stuart and I are giants or have giants in our family... So, we really have no idea where our big babe came from!
Stuart and our midwife, Meg, both estimated the baby would be about 7.5lbs by feeling on the outside of my belly. We can only figure that the huge discrepancy is because Samuel has a giant head (14in circumference at birth) and he was sitting super low, so no one accounted for that in their weight estimate! At the hospital, Samuel was put on the cupcake protocol - he had a little cartoon cupcake sticker in his bassinet - which means they monitored his blood sugar for several hours to make sure it didn't drop too low (a problem that large babies can have sometimes after birth). Thankfully, he passed with flying colors and was able to stabilize his blood sugar just fine. He's already in size 1 diapers, so getting started in cloth soon shouldn't be a problem!
He has mostly been in the newborn sleepy cloud since birth (though I know he will really wake up any day now...), except for a handful of nights that he spent bright eyed and cluster feeding. The first few times were in the middle of the night, like between midnight and 6am - those were rough. We've been working on helping him switch his days and nights, and recently the cluster feeding is happening more during the evening hours (5-11pm). We are grateful he has (mostly) made that switch!
Stuart has been the most amazing, supportive partner these past few weeks (but who's surprised - he's always so great!). The hardest thing for me has been watching James struggle with the adjustment (mostly ramped up temper tantrums and being a good bit more clingy to me), and I am so thankful for Stuart's patience and care for both of us. He even asked for a few extra days to stay home from work, and I was so grateful. In fact, today is actually my first day on my own with both littles by myself (it's going ok - just trying to control the hormones so James and I don't both cry when he throws a tantrum!). This morning, I was thinking back to two weeks ago when we were in the hospital with new Samuel, and it was really kind of like a date (except for the frequent feedings and sore nipples and tiredness around the clock). It was just fun to be together for a while, because we don't get to have that often. Anyways, what I mostly want to remember from this season is how very well Stuart loves me and how grateful I am for him.
And breast feeding! Wow what a different experience we have had this time! I need to write down how it all played out with James... But needless to say, it was just awful. I don't know where to give credit - second babies usually increase supply, having babies close together (and therefore lactating recently) increases supply, seeing Dr. Steube during pregnancy and taking these crazy herbs may have helped, but more than anything, I think just being able to have Samuel with us continually from the get go (instead of the NICU) and truly being able to feed on demand has made breast feeding so much more successful this time. There is still the possibility that at some point my body won't be able to keep up with Samuel's nutritional needs due to hypoplasia/IGT, but for now he is gaining weight and happy! He was 9-13 on day 12 (3oz higher than birth weight! Before two weeks!) and has had some really good night sleep (current record of 4hrs 45min!). So I am just trying to enjoy every second of it. We were able to push through some shallow latch issues that resulted in cracks and bleeding, and I do have some vasospasm pain, but we're exclusively breast feeding! And I am so, so grateful.
Samuel Smith, we are so very happy that you have joined our little family!
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