A Week Old!

Yesterday Ellie was a week old, and we had a really good day together. Things are getting a little easier, day by day. She's awesome at nursing and I am getting better about it. She's sleeping in her egg crate during the day (though still not at night, which makes me a tad bit crazy.) Also, yesterday we were able to go for a quick 15 minute walk - it was amazing to just be outside for a few moments - I must admit that I am starting to go slightly stir crazy, since I am chained to the couch nursing for about 20 minutes out of every hour. On average. Not counting the times that the baby decides that she would like to spend a solid hour and a half eating (like... last night between 10 and 11:30pm, when I just wanted to go to bed.) We also gave the baby her first sponge bath, which she enjoyed. The electricians had to put our heater fan on a separate circuit a few weeks ago, and I remember thinking "oh, that stupid fan, we never use it. It's useless." Umm... it is actually quite useful when you're trying to keep a bathroom warm enough for a live nude baby. She was surprisingly unfussy throughout the whole process, and now her hair looks beautiful.

This mothering stuff is not for sissies, but Tim had been an amazing help in everything - from making sure my water bottle is always topped off, to feeding me when I have my hands full and an empty belly, to reminding me to go take a nap or keep up with my pain meds. And every day it gets a little better! And the baby gets EVEN CUTER. I sometimes get a touch of the baby blues, but even as I'm freaking out, I realize it's just a surge of hormones, and that nothing is actually wrong.

This morning we had to be up and dressed by 8am to head to the pediatricians office for our first post-hospital checkup. The biggest thing is checking the baby's weight for proper growth. She was 8lbs 6oz at birth, and then lost a little weight, down to 8lbs the morning we checked out. Today she was back to her birth weight, which the doc said was great, because it normally takes babies a full two weeks to gain back all that they lost! This is even counting the fact that she pooped the second they started to pull off her diaper. She still has maybe a touch of jaundice, but nothing to be concerned about (they didn't even bring out the laser measuring device.) They want to see us again next week for her regular two week checkup and in the meanwhile, the doc gave us some tips for helping her go to sleep in her bassinet, and encouraged us to start putting the baby on her stomach for "tummy time." She's actually already pretty good at controlling her head - mostly when she's on my shoulder getting burped and wants to let me know that she'd rather be eating.

Here are some photos from our big day yesterday:
Snuggling with Beanies.

Daddy with his little girl (immediately pre-diaper change, hence her displeased face.)

Auntie Sara helped with some of the walk.

Here she is before bed, plotting some inevitable badness.