Addison 1 Month

I am about a week behind on posting this but I did take the picture on her 1 month birthday! One of these days I will get back into a good routine.

Weight: Addison weighs 8lbs 2oz as of this week, so at 1 month exactly she probably was 7lbs 15oz. That’s my guess. She is my tiny baby. I had said I wanted a baby that stayed little longer and boy am I getting what I asked for. 
    
Height: Addison is only about 20inches long. She hasn’t really grown since she was born in weight and height.

Clothes: We are still wearing newborn clothing and newborn diapers. I feel like it might be weeks before we are out of them, which really put a damper on her summer clothing wardrobe. This Mama might be taking a few shopping sprees to get some holiday attire for the 4th, since she most likely won’t fit into the ones she has hanging up.    

Eats: Addison is eating about every 2 hours during the daytime, and at night she is going 7-9 hours between feedings. 

Sleeps: We have a great sleeper. Knock on wood for me that this continues. We don’t sleep less than 6 hours at night, most night she eats last between 8:30-9:00pm and then is awake for about an hour. She then wakes up between 5:00-6:30AM. It is wonderful, but crazy at the same time.

What she is enjoying: Addison is smiling. She especially likes to smile for everyone BUT me. She has been giving the best smiles for my brother and he loves it. I will say I am slowly getting smiles from her. She is really good at holding up her head and looks around. I am surprised at how alert that she has been from the beginning, but she spends a large amount of time during the day awake and alert. Not complaining, because I think that’s helping her to sleep great at night.

I think this picture is funny. I sent it to my Mom with the caption. Insert food here!

Just a little side by side comparison of Mason and Addison. I just don’t think they look alike, but they do have the same chin and nose.

Update – Post Baby #2

Life has been crazy to say the least lately. Adjusting to 2 kids is not easy, but we are surviving. The hardest part to the last 3 weeks has been all of the doctor’s appointments. I am going to share some fun pictures from the last few weeks and give an update.

During our first pediatric appointment we learned Addison was not gaining weight, in fact she had lost 13% of her weight. This hit me very hard. Addison has been a nursing baby. She latched great and would eat all of the time. So, I really thought things were going great and to hear that wasn’t true was quite hard to take. Mason had problems because he was tongue tied and so I knew something was wrong with his nursing. Addison was completely different, so I was sure it was going to be good. In the office we did a nursing session to see how much she was getting. It was ZERO. No gain. BOO. They told us my milk, even though it was in was not in in. I was told to drink Mother’s Milk tea and Fenegeek and then come back in two days for another weight check.

We went back on Wednesday to learn Addison had no weight gain again. The positive was that she had not lost anymore. I immediately started crying. Poor Michael and the poor doctor. The doctor reassured me I was doing everything right, but it still hurt. So, we started supplementing with formula more. I would nurse and then give her formula every 2 hours. This routine is exhausting for both me and the baby. We went back again on Friday and learned Addison had gained a lot!! I was excited. They said I could start cutting back on the formula. We had to go in the following Tuesday for our first REAL doctor’s appointment for her and my first postpartum appointment. The week following my c-section you go to have staples removed but that appointment doesn’t count.

I was so ready to hear how much Addison had gained and get a check of approval that my healing was going well. During my appointment my blood pressure was a lot high. I almost started crying again. When I was pregnant with Mason my blood pressure problems continued after delivery and it killed my breastfeeding. I had to take a max dose of BP meds and it dried me up. So, as soon as the doctor said we needed to start BP meds I thought bye bye breastfeeding again! My Mom was with me for this appointment, thank goodness. We then went to Addison’s appointment. I was hoping for good news. We got her weighed in and she was up to 7lbs!! YAY! Her birth weight was 7lbs 6oz so I knew we were going to have to come back one more time to make sure she was back up, but increasing was good. The doctor came in and checked her over really good and felt a pop in her hip. Grrrr. She ordered an ultrasound to check for hip dysplasia. BAM BAM! Just when I thought everything was going great…high BP and possible hip problems.

We are both doing good I am happy to report. My BP is under control with the help of medicine. And it didn’t kill my breast milk! Addison is officially back up to her birth weight as of this week…Just took 3 weeks. And we had her ultrasound and her hips are completely normal!! YAY! Things are on the up tick for us. Mason was so excited. It’s my baby sister. Papaw is happy to have another baby to spoil and love on. Nana is super excited to have a Granddaughter. Nana and Mason holding sister. Grandma Sperry meeting Addison. Gabby meeting her baby sister. She was just as excited as Mason. Give me that baby. He loves her and wants to hold her all of the time but just for about 2 seconds each time. Giving sister kisses. Another of his favorite things to do. Uncle Eric meeting his first and only niece. And my parents dog meeting Addison.

Birth Story

I am getting back around to doing things. I thought I would start back with Addison’s birth story.

During my 38 week check up, we moved up our scheduled c-section. I was having contractions like crazy and I was getting eager to meet my little girl and eager to start the healing process that comes post c-section. I was already feeling like I was neglecting my toddler and I was ready to stop that. So, we moved the date up by one day. My parents came up Monday night to help take care of Mason. We had to be at the hospital bright and early at 5:30 in the morning with an 8:30 scheduled section. I was extra nervous in the morning. We got to the hospital and they started hooking me up to all the machines and started an IV. And then we wait. They had an emergency c-section come up and it pushed mine back a little bit, but it gave time for my parents to get to the hospital. We have a nanny staying with Mason, so they made it in time to tell me bye. I got wheeled into surgery. The anesthesiologist, who came to speak with us earlier, gave me a spinal block. It was quick and easy and I started feeling numb right away. Things went very quickly at that point. Curtain was up and they were checking to ensure I was numb everywhere. Michael was finally allowed into the room. That immediately made me feel better as I was really starting to get nervous. The anesthesiologist was awesome and kept letting me know what was going on. I asked her to do that, because the last time I felt in the dark. I knew we were getting close to meeting or hearing our little girl. The doctor told me my stomach muscles were strong and they had to stand(not really) on my chest to get her out. About as soon as the pressure on my chest ended, I heard her cry. Not for long though. She was pretty content being out. They took her and wrapped her up. I told Michael to go to her. They then brought her to me so we could do skin to skin contact. I am pretty sure she would have eaten right then and there, but about that time, I started feeling very sick. I told the anesthesiologist and luckily is wasn’t from my blood pressure but from the pitocin they had started. They grabbed her and took her away and I started vomiting. It was awful. Every time they pushed on my stomach it made me sicker. I had the doctor go ahead and tie my tubes so closing took a little longer than normal. The rest of the surgery was spent with them trying to get my nausea under control and even into recovery. Once I was in recovery, the medicine to help the nausea started to take affect along with me being raised. I also was having the normal shaking that occurs post surgery, and with the nausea, they waited a longer time to start that medicine. They quickly brought Addison into me and we got to start nursing. She was a natural. It made all of the pain go away holding her. Michael switched out with my Mom to allow her to come in and see Addison. She was shocked at all the hair Addison had. Michael was starving so he ran to get a bite to eat while my Mom stayed with Addison and myself. I had to spend 2 hours in recovery and Addison spent 1.5hours with me. They then took her to give her a bath and they took me to a room, where we spent the next two days soaking up every single second.