Harper: One Week

Hello friends (: I just wanted to pop in and give you an update on our baby girl! She is absolutely perfect and we are so in love. Hopefully now that things are settling down and we're getting the hang of the whole parenthood thing, I'll be back to blogging more often. In the meantime, let me share Harper's first week with you lovely ladies!

Weight: Harper weighed 7 pounds and 12 ounces when she was born. The day we left the hospital Harper weighed 7 pounds and 5 ounces. We took her to the pediatrician on Monday for her one week check up and she weighed in at 7 pounds and 6 ounces.  I was a bit upset that she hadn't gained but an ounce over a three day period but her doctor assured us that she was perfectly healthy and if she weighed much more than that, he'd be concerned. Apparently, a newborn shouldn't regain their birth weight until they are two to three weeks old.  Who knew?!

Medical Issues: Harper is still being monitored for her hydronephrosis. Before leaving the hospital, the pediatricians did an ultrasound on her kidneys and bladder to compare it to another ultrasound she'll have at four weeks of age. In the meantime, she's been placed on Keflex to help prevent her from getting any infections. But to our relief, Harper pees a ton so it appears that her kidneys and bladder might just be correcting themselves! Woot woot! Also, when we left the hospital, Harper had a touch of jaundice. So on Sunday and on Tuesday, we had to take her to our local hospital and have her heel pricked to check her jaundice levels to make sure they were maintaining their current level and/or going down. Praise be to God on Tuesday, her tests came back great and she was given the all clear to have no further testing. 

Sleep: Harper slept like a champ while we were in the hospital. In fact, she slept from 10pm-5am and when we'd tried to wake her to nurse, it just didn't happen. When we came home, she started waking during the night to eat. When we first came home, she pretty much was sleeping all day and night and waking every 3-4 hours to eat and then would fall right back to sleep. Here in the last few days she's still been sleeping in 3-4 hour stretches but she likes to stay awake for an hour or two after her afternoon feeding and her early morning feeding.  And by early morning feeding, I mean from 12-2am. She is just as alert and happy as can be; whereas Mommy and Daddy are exhausted but we'll still take all the early morning snuggles and laughs we can with our little girl because we know it won't be like this for long. 

Clothes: Harper is wearing all newborn clothes with the exception of her onesies which she sleeps in at night. I remember thinking we wouldn't need many newborn clothes before she was born because of her predicted birth weight. However, I was wrong and so were the doctors! Harper has very few newborn outfits and I feel like I'm doing laundry every few days so she has something to wear. 

Visitors: We have been so blessed with an abundance of visitors. Harper has met both sets of her grandparents, her great grandparents, her aunts and uncles, her great aunts and uncles, and a variety of friends, family, and cousins.  Everyone is so taken with her and from the snuggling she does with each and every one of them, I'm pretty sure she's taken with them too!

Baby Gear Love:  One: We LOVE the Aden + Anais swaddle blankets. Unfortunately, Harper doesn't particularly care for being swaddled or wrapped in a blanket, so these work perfect for covering her up. They're lightweight and she doesn't seem to mind them laying on her like she does heavier blankets. They're also large enough that they're perfect for tossing over her carseat when we're out and about in public. Two:  I wouldn't trade in my Dr. Brown bottles for the world! Harper had a difficult time breastfeeding so we had to start supplementing with formula. At first we used some regular bottles that we were given but we noticed Harper was spitting up a lot with them. I switched over to using Dr. Brown's bottles and they've made a huge difference. She still spits up occasionally but it isn't nearly as bad as it was before. Three: We couldn't survive without her Fisher-Price Snugabunny Swing. She loves to just lay in it and watch the bird mobile go round and round. She pretty much spends her whole day napping in it while Mommy gets some stuff done around the house. 

Crying: I'm hoping I don't regret saying this but Harper is not a crier. She only gets fussy for one of two things. One being she's hungry; two being her feet are covered up and she can't move them.

Likes: Harper loves her bath time. She could just soak in her little tub for half an hour and her little heart is perfectly content. I'm pretty sure she's going to be a water baby like her Mommy and Daddy. She also loves to be on the move which fits our lifestyle perfectly since we're always on the go. 

Milestones: There are so many new milestones that we've experienced in Harper's first week of life. She's experienced her first bath, first car ride, first night at home, first trip to both sets of her grandparent's houses, first trip out in public, and so many others. Kevin and I have loved every minute of watching her take in the world through her eyes. 

Postpartum: I'm doing great! My postpartum recovery has been much easier than I expected. I'm not very sore or overly tired. I've only had two issues since I've came home. Earlier this week I had some trouble with my stitches bothering me but after spending a day taking it easy on the couch, the pain went away. The second issue I've had is every now and then my back will start bothering me. Apparently it's a side effect of the epidural I received. Little did I know the medicine can linger in your body and cause back pains for a month or so after delivery. The first few days it was pretty rough and I couldn't get up and down without Kevin helping me; however, I didn't have any problem with it once I got to moving around. Now, almost a week later, my back isn't bothering me too much. I just pop a couple ibuprofen if it feels like it's going to start hurting and then I'm good for about six hours. It's amazing what medicine can do!