Week One Musings

It's been a week since Elena was born. Yesterday at about 8:20 I looked at the clock and remember thinking "last week at this time I was in labor." Already labor and delivery are a thing of the past. It's kind of amazing how so much time can be spent thinking about it, and now suddenly, it's over.

We've had a lot of help this past week, which has been wonderful. My mom came and stayed overnight two different times (once when I was in labor and for the first day here at home) and then just earlier this week. Dan's mom and dad also came and spent a some time here with us.

Dan had a number of days off after Elena's birth and will have some more time off beginning tomorrow.

Overall the adjustment is going well. I'd forgotten how tough nursing can be in the beginning and I kind of thought it'd go more smoothly since I'd gone through it one time before. I didn't waste any time, however, in getting some help from the lactation consultant at The Birth Center. I went to an appointment with her on Tuesday and came away from it feeling so much better. (I also think the support of friends through facebook comments really helped - what would we do w/o social media??)

Edwin enjoys having "Baby" around and usually asks for her first thing in the morning. He definitely wasn't quite himself this week, but I know it was a combination of having a cold, having lots of people come and go and suddenly having our routine interrupted by Elena's arrival. I'm looking forward to creating a new routine over the next couple of weeks.

For now, I'm dealing with night sweats, interrupted sleep, breastfeeding ups and downs, lots of diapers, afternoon naps, wonderful newborn snuggles and the peace that comes with finally having the baby on the outside. (There were two times this past week when I had the thought: "I haven't felt the baby move in a while" only to realize that's because she's not inside of me anymore! Kind of weird, I know.)