Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Last Visit

It wasn't until Nathalie was already here today that I realized that it's the 10th day past birth-- meaning her last scheduled visit. That feels a bit scary. I can of course still call her up for advice and help, but we're more on our own now... no one coming by every day or every other day to check and make sure we're not ruining the baby. ; )

She showed me how to give Donovan his first bath. I felt a bit overwhelmed, but it was also nice. He seemed to enjoy the warm water, though not to much the getting out of it part. But afterwards he fed well and is now sleeping. He's been incredible about simply going to sleep on his own a lot of the time, sometimes only maybe needing to suck on my pinkie for a few seconds to soothe, but then other times he'll need to be sucking on something for much longer or he wakes up. I've been wanting to avoid using a pacifier, but am wondering if he might need it sometimes.

Feedings are going pretty well, although I'm having a hard time gauging sometimes how hungry/full he is, and his feeding times can vary a lot. Sometimes he'll suck for only 10-15 minutes and then he'll go to sleep seeming completely sated, then other times he's still going at it 30+ minutes later and I can't tell if he's sucking to soothe or is still hungry. It doesn't help that I'm still battling some nipple soreness, so the longer feedings can get a bit uncomfortable... Nathalie did give me these silver cups today, though, which are supposed to be really good for helping heal sore/cracked nipples. I've never heard of anything like it before, but according to the website they're practically magical so I guess we'll see.

We took Donovan out on his first walk on Monday afternoon. It was a gorgeous day, so Zach put on one of the baby slings we have and we put Donovan inside, and he went to sleep almost immediately inside it. It was nice to get out in the sunshine and fresh air, and we got stopped a couple of times by other people walking who wanted to coo at Donovan. =) It was very cute. Mom got some pictures of us walking with him. Since then we've used the sling a couple more times, and I still worry a bit about him being comfortable but he really does seem to like it-- on more than 1 occasion we've put him inside it while he was screaming and he'd calm down in a minute or 2. We've had some mixed results with swaddling, but being cocooned up in the sling certainly seems to appeal to him.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:13 PM

    That's awesome. I bet he feels like he's in the womb again when he's in the sling.

    Hey, don't forget to update your heading and profile. They still say you're pregnant. :-)

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  2. Anonymous7:04 PM

    in class they mentioned babies love it at first but after a few weeks they no longer enjoy being constricted. they want to use their hands and eyes more then ever.

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  3. A hated being swaddled at home (although they did it to her for 3 weeks in NICU), but she LOVED the sling. I still use it.

    As for being on your own,it's scary at first but you'll find you know a lot more than you think!

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  4. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

    He is absolutely beautiful!!!

    Our son was born a day after yours on Feb 4. :)

    I am going through everything you are -- breastfeeding (full or not?), swaddling and trying to figure out the sling.

    we're still figuring out the sleep part....

    Congratulations again on the new addition to your family! :)

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  5. We would wrap R up in her receiving blankets and she would calm down pretty quickly. Native Americans would strap their babies down tight until they were two and carry them around on their backs - we called Ryan our baby burrito

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