Wow!! Lily's first 6 weeks have already flown by....and it has been a crazy ride to say the least!!! Lily, Tom, Baxter and I have all been learning a lot and settling in a little more every day! For the first few weeks, Lily was like many newborns...not doing much besides eating, sleeping, peeing, and pooping! Then, at around 3 or 4 weeks of age, she really started to show us her personality!! She is definitely a red-head....and a lot like her mom - she goes from being quiet and content to wide awake...and then to seriously angry at times too! Around her 4th week, I started to get a little concerned because at every feeding she would eat ferociously for about 4 to 5 minutes, and then scream and cry like something was hurting her! This was not only incredibly concerning to me, but also frustrating for everyone!! Lily would cry and cry unless she was swaddled and bounced...and once she fell asleep she would sleep like a rock. It was so upsetting to me that my beautiful little girl was only crying when she was awake and eating...and otherwise seemed very uncomfortable. We called the pediatrician right away and she suggested that maybe I was "letting-down" too fast for Lily, or that Lily had a little gas issue. So, we started gas drops with every feeding, and I tried a couple of techniques to help slow my let-down. The interventions really seemed to help for a few days, but then the problem seemed to get worse again. I was really struggling not only because Lily was so unhappy, but also because I had come down with an awful rash all over my chest, arms and legs that was keeping me up itching like crazy every night! So, even when Lily was sleeping, I wasn't able to sleep much at all! The combination of issues was really stressful...between screaming episodes with Lily and dermatologist visits for me, we were busy and exhausted!!
Thankfully I can now report that life has improved immensely! After one day of trying to work through screaming during feedings, I decided to call the lactation consultants at the hospital. They were incredibly helpful and quickly figured out what the problem was - I was making way too much milk!! Poor Lily was practically drowning in milk when she was trying to eat...so instead of taking 10 to 15 minutes to eat 3 ounces or so...she was getting it all in about five minutes! Talk about guzzling!! Once we figured out what the problem was, we were able to try a bunch of things that started to help Lily almost immediately! What a relief!! She is now eating well, having happy awake time, and then taking nice long naps! She is even sleeping up to 6 hour stretches at night! It's been great for the past week or so and we are so relieved. Even though I know we will likely have more surprises and bumps in the road ahead of us, I am very happy to be through this one!
As for my rash...well, after multiple dermatologist visits, and a skin biopsy, we have figured out that I have hives all over my body that are caused by and unknown source! So..it could be either a reaction to medication or just a random viral hive caused by some cold virus that I may have had. Either way, I am happy to know what it is, and the dermatologist has suggested some meds and creams that seem to be helping a lot! Finally!!!
Well, it has definitely been an interesting and slightly rough few weeks, but Lily started SMILING just as this was all happening which has been so much fun!! She still looks kind of like she's working really hard to make her mouth get into the "smile" shape sometimes, but it is honestly one of the sweetest things I have ever seen! And when she looks me in the eye and gives me a huge smile - it pretty much makes all of those bad moments disappear and my heart just melts! She is a complete sweetie and I am so in love with her!
Not much else to say for now...I will try to get a picture of a smile soon and post it! I took a video today and was successful at a smile capture...but I'm not sure I can post videos on here. So...you'll have to wait! ;-) Hope everyone is well!
Lots of love,
Katie, Tom and Lily
