My little girl has quite a personality all ready. She loves when her daddy holds her. He has always such a calming effect on her. Even in the womb, every time he would put his hand on my belly she would be calm. At the time, it was frustrating for him because all he wanted to do was feel her move inside of me. Now, it's so cute! Right after birth when they placed her in the warmer, he put his hand on her head and she just looked up at him and stopped crying. She's also a spitting image of her dad. I was hoping she would look like him, and I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed several features of his on her.
She also smiles a lot! I know people say that newborn smiles are just gas, but I swear she's one happy girl! After all, her name does mean "cheerful."
Since her birth she has had 2 doctor appointments with her pediatrician. She was a little under her birth weight when we were discharged from the hospital, so they wanted to make sure she was steadily gaining weight. We apparently weren't feeding her enough, poor thing. We got conflicting advice from a few nurses at the hospital on how much to feed her via bottle. After her 1st appointment we were told how much she should be eating. At her 2nd doctor's appointment (2 days after her first) she had gained 7 ounces! Then we were politely told to maybe cut back on the amount at each feeding haha! Hey, we are learning. I can happily say that we have figured out her eating schedule and she's content and getting a little chunkier.
A big challenge for us has been breastfeeding. I was really worried about it being an issue before her birth. Unfortunately, it became a reality. In our perfect world, I would be exclusively nursing. At the hospital, I nursed her directly after birth. Our nurse instructed me on how to nurse her. Unbeknownst to me, her latch was way off... which led to me getting bruised, extremely sore and bleeding. I was then told several different theories from other nurses and lactation consultants on what to do next. Some said nurse through the pain, others said only pump, some said it's okay to supplement formula, and some said absolutely no formula! So as you can see, her first day of life was filled with the extra stress of how I was going to feed my daughter.
I ultimately decided to pump what I could, and give her some formula because I didn't want her to starve, obviously. In these last 10 days I have been pumping every 3-4 hours and only supplement formula if she becomes hungry before I have a chance to pump again. There have been several instances where I do nurse her for 10-15 minutes and then she's done. She gets very impatient and and refuses to try any longer. I struggled a lot in the first few days, feeling like a failure. Why does it work so easily for some women and not others? I've prayed about it, asking God to please guide me to the answer I've been looking for. He has given me a peace about it in the past few days. He has a plan for all of this... This is the way things are meant to happen even if I don't understand them now. Maybe I would have been extremely overwhelmed only nursing. For now, I'm okay with how things are and I'm taking everything day by day. What matters most is that she is growing and 98% of the time she has my breast milk, and for that I am thankful.
Life has definitely changed for Craig and I for the better. As cliche as it sounds, we couldn't imagine our life without little Eisley Rose. She's our gorgeous little sweet pea and we'll do everything we can to love, care for, and protect her.
♥
Mommy's little girl
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