Abby's First Week

It's hard to believe Abby celebrated her first week of life yesterday. She's had many visitors who obviously love her tremendously. She's a lucky gal, that's for sure! Here's where she's at ESP:

Eating:
She's eating all right! Nursing is going well for the most part. Thanks to somewhat flattened nipples the latching is the hardest part, but once she's on, she's good to go. Fortunately, one side is not as flattened as the other. I picked up a nipple shield at the advice of our VNA nurse which was a huge help for the sore nipple. It doesn't express as much milk, so I have a feeling she's needs to eat more when we use it. The test will be this morning. The nurse also recommended not keeping track of time and to let her eat until she's done and to also feed on one breast to make sure she gets the fore milk and the hind milk. So, I've tossed out my list and letting her get all the nutrients of the different kinds of milk expressed from one session. She's gaining weight and that's all that matters.

Sleeping:
We've been fortunate so far to have a pretty good sleeper. She eats for about 45 minutes, is alert for about 30 and then falls asleep for about three hours. This has been pretty standard since we've been home. I'm waiting for her 10-day growth spurt, which according to the nurse she'll want to eat on the hour. Yikes. Tim and I have been working together as a team to make sure we are getting enough sleep. On most days we are getting 8-10 hours, just broken up into chunks. And, of course our peanut is sleeping well!

Pooping:
She's peeing and pooping on a consistent basis which means she's getting enough nutrition. Her poop is now the color it should be with breast fed babies. A mustard yellow color. Yum. Dad's been doing awesome with diaper duty and picking up probably 75% of the work. Thanks, Tim! He's so good....

Other notes:

• We got out of the house yesterday for a couple of hours! yeah!! I was going stir crazy! We ran a few errands and brought Abby into only one store that wouldn't be swarmed with people. She slept the whole time.
• My Dad shocked the heck out of us by calling Saturday morning and let us know he was going to "stop by" on his way home from camp. Now, camp is four hours north east of Portland, so from Burlington it was about a 7 hour drive. He called around 10am and stopped in around 6pm. I am very thankful he made the trip to meet is first grandchild. She's super lucky!

Here are some family pics:

Family Picture

Red hair?? We think so....

Grampy Dee's visit - although he may be called something different.
He thinks Grampy sounds so old.

PaPa Proctor

Gwen

Auntie Erin

More pictures to come.....