1 month completed, about 288 more to go!

Week 1 - I stayed in the hospital for 4 days. While I was there, Andy became Mr. Mom...faster than he had hoped. I couldn't get out of bed for the first couple days and he had to learn to pick up a newborn and change diapers by himself. He got to see poop of every color and was thrown into the fire rather quickly. We were getting her up every 2-3 hours to breastfeed, but I don't think my milk was coming in quickly because she was not very satisfied. On the second day, I was helped out of bed and it took me about 10 minutes to get to the bathroom. I had never been so grateful for a catheter and wished I could live with it forever. A nurse (or Andy) had to help me to the bathroom every time. I was completely helpless and couldn't do anything myself. It is an awful feeling. We continued to breastfeed and had also started to pump, in hopes of getting things going. Katie went from 8 lbs, 3 oz at birth to the mid 7s. Her lips were very dry and they were afraid of dehydration, so we had to start supplementing with formula. On Thursday, we were discharged and my mom stayed the night to help me. I continued to pump and feed her, but had to continue using formula as well. On Friday, my mother-in-law came to visit through the weekend.

Week 2 - Both Andy and my Mom stayed home with me. I'm glad they were there to help, although I felt like I was abusing everyone. I was very emotional and had trouble getting Katie to latch on. The baby blues hit me, just like most other mothers. I guess hormones are really out of whack after labor, which is a shame. You want it to be the happiest time of your life, but you can't hold yourself together long enough to enjoy anything. We were feeding Katie every 3 hours and it was taking an hour each time. Having 2 hours in between feedings was rough and stressful.

On a happier note, we gave Katie her first real bath since her cord fell off. Luckily, she didn't have one of those gross oozy stubs and it just fell off in her clothes. Her bath wasn't so bad. She fussed a little and I just concentrated on holding on to the slippery 8 pound worm.

Week 3 - This was my first week alone and towards the end of this week, I gave up breastfeeding. I went to a lactation consultant and we tried a shield and other techniques. It wasn't working. It was hard, but it was the best decision for us. We didn't want to deal with the cost of formula and wanted her to benefit from breastmilk, but it just wasn't possible. You eventually hit a point where your happiness (and your baby's), outweigh the benefits of breastmilk. It happens, oh well.

Week 4 - I'm still adjusting to being a mother. Can you ever really get used to it? As everyone knows, we love routines and schedules. Even though Katie arrived on her due date, she had some work to do. I was starting to get lonely, but luckily she slept a lot and I was able to chat and email during the day. I took a lot of pictures and sent almost hourly updates to friends and family. When you are home all day with a baby, what else are you going to do?

1 month completed! I didn't think I'd ever make it and I can't believe our little baby is one month. Of course, I had to do a photo shoot to celebrate the occasion.