Sonneborn Family- The Next Generation: One Week!

Our big man, Adam, is a week old today! Here's a recap of his first week.

Being in the hospital was hard. It was difficult to get any sleep between trying to nurse Adam and having so many hospital employees come in: the nurse, nurse's aid, OB, pediatrician, lactation consultant, nutrition, literacy promotion, child welfare callback program, housekeeping. I'm probably forgetting a few. And most of these people come into the room several times a day. I felt like whenever we had a little downtime and were trying to rest, someone knocked on the door. The hospital is not a restful place.

It was nice to finally go home, but a little daunting. If I had questions I didn't have the nurse or doctor to ask. However, I've been pestering Hannah with most of my questions and she's been very kind to answer all of them :)

Adam has been having more awake time as the week progresses. At first it was just cry, eat, sleep. Then we had a half hour of awake time without eating and no crying. And then an hour. And then a few times a day he is awake and is not eating or crying. Wow, this little guy is fun to be around!

Breastfeeding is challenging. In the beginning, I was establishing my milk supply. Adam would nurse but only received a small amount of nourishment. As this was new for both of us, I had no idea if Adam had a good latch or not (which is essential for good breastfeeding). On the first day I asked the lactation consultant to come by three times. She also came by every day we were in the hospital. It is just so hard to know if breastfeeding is "working" and if we are doing it well. The other difficult part is that I'm the only one that can nurse Adam. I can't have Jeff feed Adam in the middle of the night in my place. Roughly we feed every three hours for an hour at a time. At night that means I can get an hour and a half or two hours of sleep before an hour of being awake.

Adam had a fantastic check-up yesterday. Adam was 8 pounds 5 ounces when he was born and was discharged weighing 7 pounds and 11 ounces. It is normal for babies to lose up to ten percent of their body weight and for them to take up to two weeks to regain it. I was hoping that Adam was 7 pounds 14 ounces. Nope! He weighs 8 pounds 8 ounces! He is a champion nurser!

Yesterday's fantastic appointment was followed by Adam's first super fussy night. He cried and screamed after each feeding and refused to fall asleep. We were up for about an hour and a half to two hours between feedings. That means we got about an hour of rest between feeds. This made for a very tired Adam and mommy today. Good thing we also both excel at taking naps.

It has been such a relief and joy to have my mom with us this week. She lets me sleep longer in the morning and takes Adam. A win-win for both of us. It's great to have company during the day and an extra set of hands. Plus she has been providing us with lunch and dinner every day.

We love having visitors. It's been so nice to have people come by and say hello to Adam. Here are some photos and highlights from the week. Please come visit us!

Adam with Oma and Grammy Sue