The 1st Month

Wow! Everyone always says time flies once you have kids. I've never really understood it until now! It really really does! (It's hard to see, but her onesie says '1 Month').

Let's see...where to start. Jordan's 1st 2 weeks were a bit stressful. She was born during our heat wave and was extremely lethargic and was absolutely impossible to wake up to eat. She lost 10% of her body weight in the 1st 5 days of life, which is the max amount that the nurses/docs want to see. So we had to start supplementing. I pumped breast milk, we would fill a syringe with the milk. The syringe had a teeny tiny tube connected to it which Brian would put on the tip of his finger and insert into Jordan's mouth. He would put his finger on the roof of her mouth to stimulate her sucking reflex which basically forced her to eat. It was such a hard time for us to go through this. I was so emotional and crazy from all the hormones and all I could think was, "I can't feed my own daughter! I'm a horrible mother!" Which I know isn't true but that is how it felt at the time. Brian had a very difficult time as well since he was the one that did the feedings like that, while I held her. We would sit there and hold back our tears while we fed her. We had an appointment with the pediatrician when Jordan was a week old to do a weight check and she still wasn't gaining enough. The nurse suggested we find family that has AC in the house, or even stay in a hotel for a few days until the heat wave passed. We are so lucky and grateful for my sister Beth and her husband Darryl. They brought over an AC unit that we set on a side table and stuck in our sliding door in the living room. This helped SO MUCH! Almost immediately Jordan started waking up more often and feeding more often and started gaining her weight back. At the 12 day weight check she weighed 8lbs 10oz, just 5 oz shy of her birth weight! That was a long story, but it really was what consumed our lives those first 2 weeks.

We had many friends and family bring over food and snacks, which was AWESOME! Seriously, the next time a friend of mine has a baby I will totally sign up to be chef because it was very helpful! Otherwise we would've been eating fast food for 2 weeks! Gross!

Brian went back to work after 2 weeks which was very difficult for him. We went and visited him at lunch a couple times and that was fun! I have been attending weekly Parent-Baby classes at the hospital which are free for new moms until babies are 3 months old, which is when I will be going back to work anyways. The classes have a topic each week that we go over and talk about and then we go around the room and introduce ourselves and our babies and it is like an open forum to discuss milestones we've achieved for the week or problems we are having. It's a great excuse to get out of the house and be around other women with new babies! It's very relaxed too, so we can feed or change the baby, and if the baby fusses it's no big deal.

Jordan isn't on any sleeping or eating schedule yet so every day is a little different. She sleeps pretty good most of the time. She will do 3 hours stretches and even did a 5 hour stretch one night! She is starting to grin and "coo" which is absolutely adorable! We play on her playmat a little everyday and she likes her penguin friend the most! (See pic below) We try to get out of the house even if it is just a walk next door to the grocery store. We are visiting my sister and nephew at least once a week to help my nephew get used to her being around since my sister is the one who will be providing daycare when I go back to work.
We just purchased a baby carrier a couple days ago so we can carry Jordan around when we go to the store or on walks, etc. I used it while walking around Costco and loved it. She totally falls asleep after 5 minutes of walking around! I even wore it around the house last night and was able to do some cleaning/organizing.

A funny story to leave you with. About 2 weeks ago I was picking up Jordan and she was flailing her arms about and scratched my cornea. It got so bad I couldn't even open my eye and it hurt so bad. I went to the doc and had to wear an eye patch for 24 hours! It totally sucked, but it was a funny experience. Brian put some stickers on my eye patch for decoration so that was fun, haha.

Jordan's next checkup is towards the end of September so we will see how much weight she has gained and how many inches she has grown. She no longer fits her newborn clothes and we are now in Size 1 diapers so that is exciting!

PS - I'm still not done with the nursery, which is OK because she isn't in her crib yet. Hopefully I will finish it before I go back to work!

Thank you everyone for checking in on baby Jordan!