First Week as Three

As you all know our lives changed dramatically on May the 4th when Miss Brinley made her arrival and as many people had told us, we soon began to realize that our lives would never be the same. After getting a little sleep the night she was born we started our day on the 5th bright and early at 6:00 am. Jennifer fed Brinley and then said that she really wanted to take a shower. After her shower, our door hardly stayed shut from people coming in and out. If it wasn't a medical staff member it was a family member or visit from friends. Brinley got to meet her Aunt Sarah, Great Granddad and Memom Clayton, Great Grandparents Nana and Poppy, Great Aunt Lisa and cousin Jayme, Ginny Fuller Watkins, and Jon and Christella Hudson. She also got to see again her Mimi and Aunt Amanda, as well as Grandpa Mike, Grandma Shelia and Uncle McKinley. Brinley also got her first delivery of flowers from Mimi, Aunt Sarah and Aunt Amanda.

Aunt Sarah

Great Granddaddy Clayton

Memom

Great Grandma Nana

Jennifer was getting a little upset with all the visitors because of course they all wanted to hold Brinley, which meant that she got less time with her. Brinley got weighed today and she had lost a little weight and was down to 6 pounds 7.5 ounces (which was the original amount that I posted to Facebook) but that is normal for newborns. She was also not jaundiced, so they gave us the option of going home tomorrow when they usually make you stay for at least 48 hours, but because we both work with children they thought we would be okay to head home a little early. So of course we said yes. That night Uncle McKinley brought us pizza and we even got a little photo shoot in of Brinley and I wearing our Michael Jordan beanies.

I already have her wearing Jordan

We offered, but she didn't seem interested

After all the visitors we were tired, so we called it quits a little early and went to bed around 9:00 pm. Boy are we getting old quick.

5/6/2012

During the night Brinley was having a lot of gas, so around 5:00 am she received her first medicine (other than her inital shots) of simthicone, or gas drops. This morning two of my former co-workers, Danyelle and Tigre showed up after night shift to see Brinley. They were excited to see her, but unable to hold her because I wouldn't allow them with having just got off work. Again we had all the health care workers stop in to check on us. They said that we could plan to be discharged at 5:00 pm today. A lady stopped by for newborn pictures and Brinley was not happy at all during the impromptu photo shoot at the foot of the bed. However, the pictures turned out great and we even got a 50% discount for working at the hospital which made it even better.

Hospital picture

I was exhausted, so I took a little nap that afternoon. Before being discharged we had a few visitors that came up from the children's hospital. Stephanie, Jess and Stacie all came by to sneak a peek at Miss Brinley. Then we packed up all of the stuff we accumulated over the 2 days and Grandpa and I headed out to pull the car up to the front of the hospital. 

Last photo before heading home

I can honestly say that I have never driven that slow in my life on the way home. I was at least 10-15 miles below the speed limit at all times. She actually slept the whole way home while Jennifer took about 50 pictures of her in the car seat and worried the whole time if she was getting enough oxygen because her head was bent forward just a little too much for her liking. We arrived home and immediately took her to see her room that we had worked so hard on the past couple of months. She immediately began crying, but only because she was hungry, so we will see in the next couple of years if monkeys are something that she likes or not. Grandma and Grandpa brought us some dinner and then headed out to a hotel, so we called it a night. We got our real taste of parenthood tonight because after Brinley would eat we would lay her down to sleep and within about 30 minutes she would be awake and having a crying fit. We attempted feeding again, but nothing seemed to make her happy. After deliberation we decided that our sanity was more important, so we gave her a pacifier. Of course she loved it. However, as I have found with most newborns, she was unable to keep it in her mouth. So Jennifer and I decided to sleep with our heads at the foot of the bed and every time I would hear her rumbling around I would reach my arm over the foot board and place the pacifier back in her mouth. Of course about every 3 hours we would both get up and change her and then Jennifer would feed her. So it made for a very long night.

5/7/12
Today we slept in until around 9:00 am. Grandma Shelia and Grandpa Mike came back from the hotel and listened to the account of our first overnight experience by ourselves with Brinley. They took Brinley and watched her for a little while so we could rest up a little. However, we were unable to sleep, so we just finished up some of the chores that needed to be done around the house. They had to get back home so they left that afternoon, but before leaving they each read Brinley a story.

She didn't care much for the book because she was hungry

We spent the rest of the day just relaxing and sleeping off and on as much as Brinley would allow us. Jennifer continued her breastfeeding and everything seemed to be going great. We tried to get to bed early again because we knew that tomorrow would be a big day because it was our first doctors appointment.








5/8/12
Brinley got her first bath at home today. Mommy did all the work because I was trying to capture every second on camera.

She was not a fan of the bath

After bath time we headed out to our first doctors appointment. At the Kentucky Clinic we were seen by the general pediatrics team. 

Brinley fell asleep waiting at the doctors

We started by getting her weight and she had lost even more since being discharged from the hospital. She weighed in at 6 pounds 2 ounces, which was close to 10% loss of her intital body weight. We met with a lactation nurse and then they sent us home, but wanted us to return the next day to see if we started to gain any weight. When we got home we tried to take the tips from the lactation nurse, but it was really frustrating for all of us. Brinley was falling asleep just after a few gulps, so we would have to constantly stimulate her to wake her back up. Each feeding was taking us about an hour. So, now we would feed for an hour, rock her to sleep for about 10-15 minutes and then try to lay down ourselves, only to get up about 1 and a half hours later to try and feed. After doing this process for 3 times we had enough of the insanity. We decided that Jennifer would just use a breast pump and we could feed her the milk with a bottle. So around 9:30 pm Brinley had her very first bottle, which actually happened to be formula because she was fussy and we didn't have any milk for her at the time. After she gulped down 2 ounces in about 15 minutes she was a much happier little girl. The night went much smoother after we started giving Brinley breast milk from the bottle.

5/9/12

The next morning Brinley received her very first FedEx delivery to the house. It was flowers from Aunt Andrea and Chris. They were sad that they couldn't come see her right after she was born, but they had already booked their flights to come see her at the end of May and they couldn't wait. 

Brinley with her flowers

That afternoon we headed back to the doctor to see if Brinley was gaining any weight. She weighed in at 6 pounds 6 ounces, which was a 4 ounce gain overnight. We informed them about how we were feeding her and they brought in a new lactation nurse to talk with us and to see how Brinley was actually doing while feeding. The lactation nurse decided that we should try to wait for Jennifer's full milk supply to come in and until it did Jennifer should continue to pump and we could feed with a bottle. We would have to come back the next week for a check up and to start transitioning back to breastfeeding. This approach sounded much more reasonable to us, so we set off to try again.

5/10/12

She is so precious

Today we had pictures scheduled with a friend of ours, Katie Davis, who also did our pregnancy photos. She had us meet her at her house for a little photo shoot of Brinley. The drive took about an hour and we spent about 2-3 hours taking pictures and then had to make the hour drive back home. We stopped for a little treat before heading home. We went through the drive-thru for the first time with Brinley to get an ice cream cone. After the drive home we were completely exhausted, so again we got to bed early. In the end it was completely worth it because Katie really captured some great photos of our little girl. Brinley also caused Katie a little extra work by peeing on one backdrop and pooping on another. I guess that happens more often than not when taking diaper-less newborn pictures. 

Right before she peed all over the place

5/11/12

Jennifer had a doctors appointment today and decided that it was probably easier if I just stayed home with Brinley. So while Mommy was away I thought that Brinley's hands were a little cool, so instead of putting on an outfit with sleeves that covered her arms better I would just improvise. We actually had mittens, but because her hands were so little they kept falling off, so I just put some socks on her hands. Guess what? It worked.

Our sock puppets

Jennifer didn't really approve of the accessories when she got home, but we had a good time and that is all that matters. At 8:46 pm I sang Happy Birthday to Brinley Kate because she had officially been here for 1 full week. The past 7 days seemed to have flown by and I can't believe how many wonderful memories we have already made and can't wait to make many more. Brinley has been one of the greatest things to happen to me. Jennifer and I are truly blessed to have her. Thanks for reading and God Bless!