Tomorrow will be a week since Hailey has joined our family. It's been a roller coaster full of tricky situations and sweet moments.
Tricky Situation #1
Of course, having sick kids in the house makes things just a bit more tricky. On Tuesday (of last week) Hannah started to develop a croupy cough. A fever came and went. Thankfully, by the time Hailey was ready to enter into the world, Hannah's fever had broken for 24 hours.
Sweet Moment #1
It worked out, because I got a chance to just hang out with Hannah while Nathan went to school.
On the night you had a fever, Daddy went upstairs to comfort and ended up sleeping with you. As a result, he woke up with a very sore back. This made things a bit more complicated.
Sweet Moment #2
Then, Thursday morning came and our family grew by 1 member. In this picture, the midwife is taking Hailey's footprints. I know, so terrible!
Sweet Moment #3
Coming home felt great. My mom is here and I could sleep in my own bed at night. And Hailey was a great sleeper. I could've spent all day just staring at your cute little features.
Tricky Situation #3
But then day 2 came around and Hailey, you became a ravenous beast. It seemed like all you wanted to do was nurse, which was kind of expected, but I had no idea that I would have you attached to me most of the day!
Sweet Moment #4
Since Nathan, you were not sick (yet), so we secretly let you hold Hailey while Hannah was taking her bath. You were so gentle and admired all of her little features. You really love her and have been so helpful around the house.
Tricky Situation #4
Nathan seems to have caught whatever Hannah had and is coughing (with fever). Now we have to keep you away from Hailey, and you don't like it very much.
Sweet Moment #5
Hannah, you eventually got your turn to hold her, but at this point, we don't let you touch Hailey's face or fingers. Having you both sick when Hailey is home has not been the ideal situation. We are trying our best to balance bonding and not contaminating Hailey with germs.
Hannah, emotionally, you are having a tough time with a new baby in the house. You seem to be throwing more tantrums and you are more obstinate than usual. We try to remedy this by spending more 1 on 1 time with you, and now that you are better, I make sure I give you a few hugs a day.
Tricky Situation #5
Hailey, when we took you in for your 2 day check up, everything was great, except your weight. You had lost just over 10% of your body weight. It turns out that you, being constantly feeding, spent more calories than you took in, so you lost a lot of weight. Our plan was to supplement with formula for the time being as we tried to figure out what was causing this problem.
The midwife suggested these things:
- Hailey, since your head w as molded so much, there may have been a lot of tension in your head, causing you to not latch well. So to fix that, the midwife suggested that you get a cranial sacral treatment. So, on Monday, Daddy and you both saw the chiropractor. He got an adjustment for his backache and you got a cranial sacral release, which involved light pressure on your skull and along your sacrum. During the treatment, I could tell that your face just relaxed, and that evening, your head seemed to be a bit less cone shaped.
- While Nathan had a tongue tie, Hailey, you have a slight tie on your upper lip. The midwife also suggested that we go in an have you evaluated to see if we need to get your tongue or upper lip released to help with the latch.
Over the weekend, most businesses were closed, so we simply worked on having you gain weight. I would breastfeed you for 20 - 30 minutes and then supplement with either formula or pumped milk until you were satiated.
Daddy rigged up a little baby scale with a salad bowl and food scale. This system ended up working very well and saved us from having to make lots of trips to places with a baby scale.
Now that Ama is no longer sick, she can give you all the cuddles that you want.
Tricky Situation #6
So we went in today to a pediatric dentist to get your lip tie evaluated. Turns out you have a level 3 lip tie, so we got that taken care of today. This is a screen shot of a video I took of the Dr. demonstrating how to do the daily stretches after the laser procedure. The procedure took less than 5 minutes and just immediately afterwards, I could tell that you are able to open your mouth wider. I still have to manually move your upper lip out so that it "flanges," but I know that it will just take some time to re-learn how to feed on the breast correctly.
The procedure basically involved a little shot of lidocane to numb the area and then a laser is used to cut the skin, suturing it at the same time. As I eyed the little syringe, I started to become just a bit nervous for you and wished that I could take the pain for you.
Sweet Moment # 7
This took place in the dentist office as well. But it was a blessing that the procedure that was taking place next to our room took more time than expected because I actually got to sit down and just talk with my mom. At home it's so busy, with me with Hailey, Daddy playing with one of you, and Ama playing with another one of you or cooking a meal. Nathan talks so much that we never really get a chance to talk, so for 30 minutes, we got to just talk about life and what things were like before I was even born.
Ama leaves on Saturday, so hopefully in the next few days, the breastfeeding works itself out and I can start to do more things without getting too sore. I am starting to regret naming Hailey with another "Ha" name, because I'm already starting to mix your two names up...
But the alternative was Amber and you just didn't look like an Amber when you came out.
Well, let's see what adventures this week will bring us. Until next week!
Love,
Mommy
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