I am a mommy!

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind. I'm a parent! I am a mommy! I am... exhausted!

All in all we've had a great two weeks. Addison learned to latch well quickly so breastfeeding has been a decent learning experience for both of us... my milk came in when she was 2 1/2 days old and she's been quickly gaining weight. I had some excitement with a plugged duct around 10 days, which is thankfully when her 2-week growth spurt started early. At 16 days, Addison got to attend her first La Leche League meeting, and we've successfully breastfed in public (at Target, of course!). We are getting good at this! I still haven't found a comfortable spot to nurse in bed at night, but we're getting there. My friend Pam told me that I'd love my rocker/ottoman and I have quickly learned that this is a key place for nighttime nursing. Addison nurses well here and falls to sleep quickly. Ahh, sleep. Easier said than done...
We started out with an Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper and in the first week bought an in-bed cosleeper because Addison seems to only want to sleep on one of us at night. The therapist in me assessed that clearly the cosleeper beside the bed was too far from us and if she were in the middle of John and I, we'd all sleep... HA! My daughter is smarter than that! Next to is not nearly as cozy as on top of. Nice try, mom. Addison naps during the day in her swing, in her pack and play, I've even set her down in her crib... nighttime? No thanks. So for now, we snuggle.

John was initiated into the projectile poo hall of fame on Day 4 when we were of course, at Target. It just wouldn't stop... it was a mustardy nightmare! We have since braved 2 bath-worthy explosive poos, one of which went almost all the way up her back- where does it all come from!?

Our other notable milestone the past two weeks also occurred on Day 4. We had our first after-hours urgent call to the pediatrician! Addison did not have much tolerance for diaper changes at this point and worked diligently to notify the neighbors (and neighboring towns) of the terror which she was experiencing. She tensed up and would scream until she turned purple (at which point she'd keep screaming, while purple). I noticed that in her flailing squirms she was knocking her little umbilical cord stump with the top of the diaper, [regardless of how far down we tried to roll it] and was bleeding a little bit... I called our doula who said to watch it and call the doc if we were concerned, and called my mother who said it was too early for it to fall off, and ended up calling the doctor anyway. The doctor on call took only a few minutes to call us back and assured me that it was just irritated and it was way too early for it to fall off. She told me that it was still attached to blood vessels and she's only seen one come off this early in her career and it could result in hemorrhage but that's very unlikely. Note to all pediatricians- do NOT use the word hemorrhage with an emotional, exhausted, type A hypochondriac mother! Just don't! She told us to make sure the area stayed dry and keep an eye on it, but it wasn't coming off at 4 days old.  I did what I was doing every 20-30 minutes on day 4 and put Addison to breast... I hoped nursing would calm us both down and she would go to sleep [for 6 or 8 minutes]. I had her snuggled across my chest, nursing and not even 2 minutes later I literally lost my breath and my heart stopped... her umbilical cord stump fell off between us! It was just there, on my belly next to her belly! I barely choked out John's name and my eyes welled up with tears of sheer terror. CLEARLY my baby was going to hemorrhage tonight. CLEARLY. I stared at her belly button which was a tiny bit oozy but not at all hemorrhagic... I still couldn't breathe- I just stared. I'd love to say that after a minute or two I realized she was fine and we went to sleep, but that's just silly. I stared at her ALL NIGHT. She had an 8:30am pediatrician appointment the next day and I stared at her belly, offered to check her diaper on the half-hour so I had an excuse to open her onesie and stare at her stump-less belly button. She was annoyed, I was paranoid... and we all somehow made it to the morning. When the doctor checked her Monday morning she apologized for the on-call doctor's horror-inducing warning and said her navel looked fine, and looked as though she were several days ahead of herself- overachiever. This little non-incident made me thankful that she had her vitamin K shot, who knows if it impacted her healing or not but I'm glad she had it nonetheless.

Ok, I've been pooped on, I've cried to the pediatrician in the middle of the night, I've stayed awake staring at my newborn... I am a mommy.