We were cleared to leave the hospital on Friday.  Right before we were scheduled to “check out”, Belén’s sinuses were really plugged yet again so the nurse helped us with a last ditch effort to flush them with saline and attempt to suck out the offending boogers.  We filled out some papers and started packing up our belongings and ultimately left the hospital around 4:00 pm.

It was exciting introducing Belén to her new home even though it is all just a fuzzy blur to her.

Our pets, Ozzie and Sassy don’t quite know what to think.  I think Ozzie, the cat, is fine with her as long as she doesn’t sit on his window perch or cushion in front of the heater.  We think that Belén and Ozzie have a secret competition to see who can sleep more.  Sassy, our black lab, is much more interested in Belén. When she is indoors, she wants to be where ever she is and will follow which ever of us is caring for Belén.  We have had to be more strict with the animals and I think they realize they have lost some power within the family.

Friday night, Andy’s parents brought pizza by for us but didn’t stay.  We spent the evening eating, caring for Belén and getting our bearings in our home with a newborn baby.  The first night was rough, but great.  We again realized how noisy babies are when they sleep and there were a number of occasions where I really wanted to bring her into our room because I just kept worrying about her.  Andy stood strong and we kept her in her nursery, less than five feet from our bedroom, along with a very sensitive baby monitor.  We are still trying to figure out how to reverse her schedule from her “awake period” being at night.  Some days we make progress, but we cannot claim to have changed anything permanently yet.

Andy has captured some more great photos of our darling daughter that we will continue to post in the “Belén Rose -> Newborn” album.

Since we have been home, we have had a few more visitors and many offering to bring food, gifts and well wishes.  People are really so generous and we appreciate all of the help.  My parents brought dinner Saturday night as well as an egg casserole for Sunday morning.  Sunday night our neighbors and Andy’s aunt both brought over Italian dishes (ziti and lasagna).  We had plenty left over for lunches and dinner Monday.

It is amazing how much effort it takes just to care for a baby.  I have little energy for much else.  One concern that we have had is that it is the end of the cold and flu season, and especially with the swine flu, we appreciate that our friends with any type of sickness or exposure to others with sickness have stayed away until they are well.

Andy decided to stay home through this week and it is wonderful to have him around.  My mom will help me out next week when he goes back to work.

Each day we get more used to our child and now she actually feels like our child rather than this beautiful creature who we need to take care of.

Saturday we gave Belén her first bath.  It was more of a “spit bath” than a typical bath since her dried up umbilical cord has not fallen off yet.  She really didn’t like getting her hair washed, nor her body cleaned with a wet washcloth, but she sure looked cute when it was finished.  We used a cute robe with a hood to dry her off and calmed the post-bath crying baby with what else but a nipple.

Breastfeeding is going well for the most part but it is a continuous challenge to get a good latch that does not damage my nipples.  Supposedly after 21 days, newborns imprint how to latch correctly so that will be nice.  Belén’s instincts to suck and breastfeed are pretty amazing and she looks like a little bird searching for mama bird’s beak when she gets really hungry. It is so cute, especially since half of the time, she is turning her head with her mouth open in the wrong direction.  She will get it though.

I mentioned the engorged breasts in the hospital.  This continues to be an issue and I have been experimenting with letting them be, pumping to relieve some pressure and encouraging Belén to eat more.  I still haven’t figured out the perfect solution.  It has also been interesting having leaky boobs.  I feel like I am not only getting to know our new baby, but also my new boobs…they seem to have a life of their own now.

I weened myself off of the Darvocet on Monday and now am down to two Ibuprofen every six hours.  I am still not ready to go completely off of everything and at certain times, I am very aware that I still need the medical assistance.  I continue to have to be careful to not do too much.

Monday was Belén’s first doctor’s appointment and I was surprised to learn that the pediatrician we had chosen actually practices in the same building that I went to as a kid even though it is now under different management.  The cool, unexpected thing at the office was a “well child room” for infants so babies can wait in a different, germ-free room when they come for their “well child check ups.”  This relieved many anxieties I had about going to the doctor’s office.  Also, the more I get to know the doctor, the more I like her.

Andy started a spreadsheet to track the number of diaper changes and feeding before he found a cool application to do this exact thing on the iPhone.  It makes is very easy to designate a diaper change (Pee, Poo or Both), a feeding (Left Breast, Right Breast or Bottle) and then sleep patterns.  You can see the compiled information for any given day which makes it really easy to answer the doctors questions about feeding, pooping or sleeping patterns.  You can even send a given days info to email.  The output looks something like this (the 2 ib [Ibuprofen] is me tracking my medicine as well):

23:45:04 Activity: Baby Ate from Right Breast for 14:11 mins (0.0 oz)

23:38:27 Activity: Baby Diaper Changed

23:31:21 Activity: Baby Ate from Right Breast for 3:19 mins (0.0 oz)

21:14:43 Activity: Baby Diaper Changed

20:48:57 Activity: 2 ib

20:44:24 Activity: Baby Slept

20:35:50 Activity: Baby Ate from Left Breast for 8:25 mins (0.0 oz)

…

My belly is slowing shrinking but it still looks like I am four or so months pregnant.  It is really great to see my toes again.  It turns out that I did get a few stretch marks around my belly button.  This was disappointing, but hopefully they fade with time.

Part of the reason these blog entries are so late in coming is because we have obviously been busy, but another key reason is because I couldn’t even begin to write them the first couple of days we were home because I am emotionally a basket case.  The postpartum emotions can have me crying at the drop of a hat and even the thought of how much I love her chokes me up.  They are getting better day-by-day, but even typing that last sentence brought tears to my eyes.  What so many wise parents had told us in the past is ABSOLUTELY TRUE, you have absolutely no idea how much you will love your child.  I love spending time with Belén and Andy, I cannot get enough of it!  Who would have ever thought?

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