Since She Came Home

Like it said in my last post, Carrie is a very pleasant baby and hardly ever cries. If she does, it's usually a little mouse-like squeek whine. The first several days, although she was happy, she was a crummy eater. Now I know it's normal for babies to be tired and take a little while to get used to breastfeeding etc., but Carrie was completely uninterested. Of course, right before we were discharged from the hospital, she ate like a champ, so we didn't have any problems and went on home. She wouldn't wake up or cry to eat, (we had to wake her), wouldn't latch on, and would gulp air and gag like she had some serious heartburn.

Some of you may know, I had severe acid reflux as a baby and taught myself not to eat because of it. I weighed 15 pounds when I was 13 months old. According to my mom, Carrie was doing the exact same things I did when I was sick. She would eat a little bit if we "forced" her to, but was definitely not doing well. On Sunday we got a pump for me because she was doing better from a bottle. We still had to push her pretty hard to get her to take half an ounce at one time.

We were supposed to make a follow-up appointment with a pediatrician for Monday, but the secretary at their office told me because she wasn't added to my insurance (medicaid) yet, we couldn't make an appointment. Trying to add her is its own horrible story and I don't have time to tell it, but lets just say it's crazy and I hate all the hoops we have to jump through. Anyways, on Tuesday, the insurance still hadn't added her and we were worried so we called the hospital. The nurse we talked to on the phone said to bring her to the emergency room to get her checked out. We were there from 11am-3pm. She had blood work and a chest x-ray, which were both normal, and didn't show any signs of dehydration so they said, "Just keep doing what you're doing and try calling the pediatrician again to make an appointment. Carrie should be automatically covered under you (Rebecca) for 30 days."

We called, talked to a different secretary, and got an appoitnment for the next day. Easy as that... At her appointment (yesterday) she weighed 6lbs even and is in the 75th percentile for height, 50th for head and 10th for weight. ... As expected, tall skinny girl ... She got a perscription for Zantac for her acid reflux and has already been doing better and better eating. She is now taking about an ounce and a half each feeding and almost every feeding takes a few milliliters more.

*Our trip to the Emergency Room at 4 days old*

Exciting news, this afternoon, I decided to be brave and try brestfeeding using a sheild. I had pumped about an hour and a half before, so I didn't have so much milk that latching would be difficult. (This had been one of the problems we'd had before). She ate for 15 minutes with no problems at all! Woohoo! This was just a couple hours ago, so we'll see if she keeps it up :) Everyone cross your fingers!

*Her first try at "tummy-time" (Notice the cute "shoes" on her outfit)*


P.S. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to my mom for staying at our house the first three nights and making me and Justin sleep while she took care of Carrie. We were also very happy to have had Justin's parents here for a couple days when she was born. We love all our families and appreciate their love and support :)