Hooray for Supplemental Formula Feeding

Since my milk had not come in yet Sophie has lost some weight. The pediatrician suggested we supplement with formula in the meantime. At first I was afraid Sophie would be confused by switching between breastfeeding and formula so early. Fortunately Sophie has this feeding thing down pretty well. It has been a blessing actually, since now she is more alert and can put more effort into breastfeeding. It's also been nice for Brian to be involved in feeding Sophie so he's not always the mean guy. Brian or my mom will give her the bottle while I only handle the breastfeeding; that helps prevent any confusion.

Once we introduced formula into Sophie's diet, she started hiccuping. She did a lot of hiccuping in the womb too.

Sorry this post is a little disjointed. I have been working on this when I can since Saturday. I think Sophie is going through a growth spurt; she has been on hourly feedings. Brian and I are very tired.

From baby whisperer to baby torturer

So when we first got pregnant, Katie and I loaded up on books as many expectant first time parents do. The first book I read was "The Baby Whisperer" by Tracy Hogg. After reading several other books it's still the one I seemed to enjoy the most. Having read it though I started calling myself the baby whisperer, which was further perpetuated by the fact that whenever Sophie was moving in Katie's belly I would put my hand on to feel and Sophie would stop moving. How things have changed.

It turns out Sophie sleeps very well during the day. Too well. So we have to wake her up every 2-3 hours for feeding. You always hear these stories of babies not going to sleep, and we've had those moments with Sophie, but there's something noble about trying to soothe a crying baby.

Trying to wake a sleeping baby is truly distasteful. Here is this precious little girl sleeping away and I have to jostle her, rub her, tickle her, and pat her feet until she wakes up. I take strong issue with all the baby books I've read that suggest "patting their back and talking to them" to wake them up. Totally ineffective. Maybe Sophie is a heavy sleeper, but a few times I've had to resort to the nuclear option of the wet washcloth. A part of my heart hardens every time I've had to do that.

To make matters worse, there is a fine line between an awake baby ready to eat, and a truly annoyed baby that wants to let you know about her displeasure. I've been thinking a lot about this post and looking forward to it. It feels like I'm confessing my sins, and clearing my conscience. As your reward for listening to my confession, here is a picture of a bright eyed Sophie. Her eyes are currently blue, like a lot of babies. It tends to change as they get older, so we'll see.

Sophie Comes Home

Getting a little behind here. I wanted to have these up yesterday, but just couldn't get to it. Katie and baby were discharged on Thursday March 25th, which was a bit earlier than the 3 days insurance allows for a C-section. We had tough nights, and the nurses were fantastic (big plug for the staff at Baptist South Hospital) that Katie and I considered staying....I think we were just being chicken and the nurses kind of called us on it. So we left the hospital on Thursday around 2:00PM. Here's Sophie's outfit for coming home. She was an angel and slept the whole way. Her shirt says "Happy To Be Me"

The first night

As you can imagine, the first night was rough on Katie and I. Actually Katie has been healing very well, and the hospital has been fantastic. Her pain has only been mild thus far. After some early success breastfeeding, we hit a wall early morning on March 24th.

Sophie was sleeping well until she went to get her first bath, and that woke her up, and made her very upset. So upset that she slept soundly from about 8:30PM to almost midnight when we woke her up for a feeding. After her feeding weakly and falling asleep for about 90 minutes, we were about to give up.....but she left me a sticky present in her diaper. Well, the cold wipes on her bum woke her up, and she stayed up. She was too lazy to latch on and really eat well, but fussy when I tried to swaddle her and she would not go to sleep. Katie and I passed her back and forth in a "here, she's tired.....no here you go she's hungry" system for the next 2 hours, and didn't get her satisfied until she fell asleep on Katie around 3:30AM. I woke up on the couch to find the nurse changing her diaper and tending to Katie. She fussed, but the nurses are very fast to swaddle her tightly....much faster and tighter than I can manage...particularly when she's fighting. Thankfully she went down around 4AM and slept soundly until after 6AM so Katie and I got a few hours sleep.

Sophie likes to have her hands free, and likes to make cooing noises. Here's a video to give you the gist.

The Arrival of Sophie

Sophie Marie Keck was born on March 23, 2010 at 9:56AM at Baptist South Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

She weighed 8 lbs - 14 oz. and measured 20.5" long.

I have some very early pictures from the OR on my phone, but these are better, taken with an actual camera....not a phone.

Sophie is on the way!

On Friday, March 19th, Katie started to show some mild signs of pre-eclampsia which prompted a trial run to the hospital that afternoon. After some tests, and about 2 hours at the hospital Katie was discharged, but put on bed rest for the weekend. Originally we were scheduled for an ultrasound on March 25th, but we wouldn't make it.

The hospital gave us instructions to call our Doctor first thing on Monday morning and make an appointment.

We visited the Doctor on Monday afternoon, and Katie had mildly elevated blood pressure, and based on the size of the baby and Katie's mild pre-eclampsia, the decision was made to schedule a C-section for Tuesday morning. Sophie was ready to see the world....and (we thought) we were ready for her.