1 Week later / happy due date

So we've reached our first week home AND what would have been our due date with BB (already known as Cara). Here's lessons we learned along the way already:

Exactly 1 week old - to the minute :)

• Hospitals are the greatest! Yes, the nurses check on you constantly, but mine were so considerate they told me to sleep if I could and they'd just make sure things were good. They never woke me up intentionally. I miss those nights haha.

• The first night home is rough no matter how prepared you think you might be. Ours was bad because we had no newborn pajamas except for long sleeve, thick ones (which I worried would be too warm with her with a swaddle blanket on). I wanted to put her in a Velcro swaddler or a sleep sack because she'd wriggle out of her swaddled blankets in the hospital, but those were also too big. I wasn't sure what to put her in since a onesie and socks seemed to be too little. I didn't realize ANY of this until 11 P.M. as well so it's not like I could've sent Larry out to get something that would work. Then I remembered the Owlet had to be set up before we could use it (and I wasn't sure how long that would take), but I could NOT get it to fit her foot and it was throwing a fit since she wiggled so much and I wanted to chuck the darn thing out the window and write them a very angry letter. All of this combined made it so I just couldn't sleep to save my life. I'd rest my eyes for like 30 minutes but freak out she wasn't breathing and I'd be up. At one point I was standing for an hour holding her because she didn't want to be put down, but my poor feet were still so swollen that it was so very uncomfortable. As soon as my alarm went off for her next feeding I handed her to Larry to feed, burp, and change her and told him it was my time for an hour of rest. I'm pretty sure I got by with like 2.5 hours of sleep that night...it was REALLY rough.

• As my mom told me several times "routine, routine, routine"...every 2.5 to 3 hours feed, burp, and change. Because of that it helped so that we now have a MUCH better night system. We figured out how to make the owlet work (you just have to hold the foot still for like 30 seconds and it should be good). We trade off which one of us feeds, burps, and changes her (once Larry goes back to work I'll take night time feedings and then when I go back to work we'll switch off nights). I pump every time she feeds so that I can build up a stock supply to use with her as well. It has been going MUCH more smoothly since we've figured that out.

• Projectile spit up is just about the scariest thing, especially when it seems to keep hitting at midnight each night and keeps her up until 3 AM. I was too afraid to lay her down when that would happen because I worried I'd miss hearing it and she'd choke on it (because it was projectile, but it also stayed in her mouth). Those two or three nights she had that were pretty rough. But again, it went away and we figured out how to make it work.

How we avoid projectile spit up later :)

• Spit up from a formula fed baby smells WAY worse than any diaper they have! But farts are even more funny as a mom haha. I LOVE when she'll stop eating for a second, tense her whole body up, and then you hear the juiciest fart ever...it cracks me up.

• Speaking of cracking up, learn to laugh when you get spat up on. Sure it feels gross and it smells gross and it's definitely not pleasant, but what else can you do?

• Miss Cara makes the funniest facial expressions EVER! I had 100 pictures of her faces by Tuesday! She's the greatest.

Probably my two favorite pics from the hospital

• The love you feel for a child (at least for me) is unsurpassed by anything else in this world! Everyone told me this and I expected it, but not to the degree in which I felt it. I would tear up with how much I love her. And watching Larry with her...UGH stop! I'm so in love with their bond they have and I hope it only gets better as time goes on.

• Finding newborn pants is ridiculously hard! I don't know why stores don't just sell them (without them coming with other shirts). We found out we only had one pair and I guess I thought 0-3 months would fit her better, but newborn is still a tiny bit big on her so we need smaller stuff. So basically if you're pregnant make sure you have like 10 newborn full outfits on hand and they are washed before the baby gets here (10 because they spit up a lot and you go through a couple outfits a day).

• The Halo bassinet and Owlets are definitely worth the money!! I mean I'm sure there are other bassinets that work, but I have LOVED having my swivel one. It makes things so much easier. Once we got the Owlet working I slept SO much better. We did get two low oxygen alerts last night (scariest thing EVER!), but I think they were false alarms because she was fine. But I'm so glad we have it to catch those just in case. I might be biased on these as I have night time anxiety with her (SIDS is scary folks!), but I still swear by these two products and a sleep swaddler (that velcros and lets their arms be free if they like).

• Visitors are great, but make sure you stagger them a bit. We had three "groups" of visitors at once on Saturday. While it was GREAT to have everyone come visit and see her, it was hard to keep up with all conversations and make sure everyone was okay. Plus the passing of the baby gets crazy. Keep in mind of feedings and everything...because that got in the way a couple times with us and because I'm trying to keep my body regular and keep Cara on a schedule it got a little tense for me.

• I've been so antsy to get back into working out, but I know I'm no where near being ready for that. But I wanted to get my body to see I'm ready for it to heal so we walked to the mail boxes on Sunday and I was telling Larry we should do that a few times a week...The one time we did it I think we went too quickly and I was in a bit of pain when we got back. So I learned to definitely take my time getting back into the swing of things. OH and apparently I'm more out of shape than when I was 38 weeks pregnant. I'm so much slower and things take longer to get done. That was a weird thing I didn't know happened.

• I'll say I never felt like I got the pregnancy glow, but I totally have this new mommy glow now. I see it all the time. Having a newborn isn't always easy, but I've loved each and every moment of this week we've had already. I'm sure reality will set in soon and I'll see what things are REALLY like with a baby, but until then I'll enjoy this feeling of bliss :)

Happiest Mom on the planet right here!