It's been a week today since Celerity was born. Oh, what a crazy week it's been. C-sections, late nights, early mornings, trying to nail down a feeding schedule, first bath, and more.


Dodi - Rockin' and Rollin'
Over the last week Dodi has gone through many changes.  She has been completely exhausted by the labor and surgery, overwhelmed by having a new child, worn out as she recovered, alternately trepidatious and frustrated by the mysteries of breastfeeding, thrilled by the little joys of parenting, and confident that she can be a good mother.

A big challenge for Dodi was learning to deal with Celerity crying.  At first she found it very upsetting and, the more Celerity cried, the more anxious Dodi would get.  I had to explain to her that crying was just Celerity's way to communicating to us.  It didn't necessarily mean she was in pain or hurting, just that she wanted something.  It is important that we remain calm so we can attend to her needs.  Once she accepted this, she was able to interact with a crying Celerity much more confidently.

Actually, dealing with Celerity with confidence has been a challenge for both of us.  As new parents, we're pretty clueless about exactly what we're expected to do, so we have to fall back on what the Doctors and Nurses have told us we need to do.  Beyond that, there are plenty of more hours in the day where we have a BABY and we're not always certain what to do with it.

We had been concerned that, with Dodi's illness, she would have a much higher predisposition to Postpartum depression, or even (as we only just learned about) Postpartum Psychosis (eek!).  So far she is doing fine.  She has  regular appointments with her Psychologist, and I will be watching her closely over the coming months.

There is a steep learning curve on motherhood, but with each little learning and each little victory, Dodi grows more confident and self assured.  She rocks!

Breastfeeding
Once Dodi recovered from the lack of sleep and was on the road to recovery from her surgery, our biggest challenge has been breastfeeding.  Babies can lose up to 10% of their birth weight in the first week after they are born.  Until she regains her birth weight, we have to feed her 8-12 times a day, which is every 2-3 hours, even if she is sleeping.  Feeding Baby has become the center around which our days revolve.

Before we could deal with the schedule, though, we had a number of challenges with feeding itself.  At first, the milk didn't come in for one of Dodi's breasts.  She had to use a breast pump to stimulate that breast for a couple of days before the colostrum would come in.  After that, we've had attach issues.  Right after she was born, Celerity would not open her mouth far enough to get a good attach.  Combined with the size of Dodi's breasts, this was a real problem until she learned to open her mouth farther.  Dodi had to just shove Celerity's face in boob to get a good attach.  The ergonomics of breastfeeding are also difficult.  Because of the size of Dodi's breasts, just about the only position that works for her is the "Football" hold, although once we purchased a Boppy we've had a bit more luck with the belly to belly hold.  Only in the last couple days has Dodi been able to consistently get a good attach.  Sometimes we simply can't get a good attach and I have to feed her with some pumped breast milk or with some of the formula we got from the hospital.

We have been having a lot of trouble maintaining that feeding schedule.  Initially it was hard at the hospital because we were so tired.  All we three wanted to do was sleep.  Once we were better rested, though, we still have to wake Celerity every 2-3 hours to get her to feed.  Putting aside how guilty we feel about waking this poor child, sometimes she just doesn't want to stay awake.  We've starting changing/checking her diaper before each feed which gets her roused most times.  Other times we have had to strip her naked and tickle her to wake her up enough to feed.

The natural result of all this waking up is that we're plum tuckered out.  I've been trying to spell Dodi at night with either a pre-pumped bottle, or formula, but that hasn't always worked out.  Two night ago we had it all planned out so Dodi would feed her at 2am and 8am and I would fill in at 5am with a bottle.  It would would have worked great, except Celerity REALLY wanted to eat at 2am and had such a hard time attaching, Dodi was still awake at 5am!  My alarm went off and, darn it, there was Dodi with babe to teat.  Finally, last night, Dodi did a feed at midnight, I picked her up at 4am with a bottle of formula, and Dodi was able to sleep from about 1am to 8am straight.

Baby's First Bath
I would consider Celerity's first bath to be a peak experience for me.  On Wednesday we gave her a sponge bath.  We're not able to do a proper bath yet because she still has her umbilical stump in place.  Celerity absolutely loved the bath.  We had her on a sponge bath pad covered by a towel and used wash cloths to wet, soap, and rinse each body part. 

It's very much a two person job, though.  One of us was always holding her while the other was rinsing and washing. 

She was very quiet and really seemed to enjoy the experience.  I loved it.  She's so soft and pudgy.  Of course, we took a bunch of pictures of her, which will be useful as blackmail when she gets a boyfriend.

And so it goes
Our chief priority is getting Dodi ready to take care of Celerity once I return to work in about two weeks.  I think we're coming up with a solid plan for getting her ready.  The key thing is to increase her baby knowledge and confidence.  I am considering working part-time from home once I return, if only to be available to Dodi.  I'm not sure if I'll do this, since it may not be practical, and is probably not fair to my work.

Happy Baby, Mellow Baby

I know it's still early, but so far Celerity seems to be a pretty happy and mellow baby.  I know these thing change over time, but right now I couldn't be happier.

That is, except when she is surly baby: