Little Briony is 3 weeks and 1 day old. I’ve been spending a lot of time on the internet lately, but rarely do I have my hands free, so I haven’t been writing much.
First of all, Briony passed her two week weight check with flying colors, weighing in at 5 ounces more than her birth weight. They had been somewhat concerned about her weight when we went in at 6 days, so this was a big relief and a welcome contrast to how things went with Isla. I haven’t weighed her since, but to my eye, she’s chunking up nicely.
Briony almost never cries as long as you hold her and nurse her or walk with her when she’s cranky. She definitely has a bit of reflux or something, and she gets cranky when she’s trying to digest (which, of course is a large percentage of the day), but so far, I am always able to comfort her. She nurses what seems like constantly, day and night, perhaps every hour or so during much of the day. At night, however, she generally sleeps between nursing, which is so, so nice. Isla had to be held and often walked all night; at this point, B and I were pulling all-nighters in shifts to deal with it. Briony is a wonderful sleeper by contrast. I do worry that she will regress, however. Last night she had a cranky spell from about 2 am to 5 am. Hopefully it was a one-time thing.
Overall, I have been enjoying the newborn period. So far, I’ve had continuous “help.” B took two weeks off, and we had N working the first couple weeks as well. Now, my parents are here, and my Mom has been watching L and cooking, so all I have to do is watch the baby. This has meant that I’m watching Briony literally 23 hours a day, which does get a bit wearing from time to time. It’s hard to believe we’ve been doing the nurse, change, repeat cycle over and over for three weeks now. It’s kind of a blur. Was I really working a mere 3.5 weeks ago?
Briony had a bit of trouble regulating her temperature in the hours after her birth, so she never was bathed at the hospital. We finally gave her her first bath the day before yesterday, when she was almost three weeks old. She completely enjoyed it! For L’s first bath, there were many tears, but Briony fussed a little bit, then settled back and relaxed in the warm water. Unfortunately, she has very sensitive skin which starts flaking and peeling easily, so I think we’ll probably only bathe her once a week for a while. After the bath, I could see her skin had dried out a bit.
As for me, I had a second degree tear (or tears?) and lots and lots of stitches. It seemed to take the doctor forever to stitch me up. I was pretty uncomfortable for the first couple weeks, but right at two weeks, it was like a switch flipped, and I started feeling much better. I’ve been feeling pretty good for the last week, better, really, than I’ve felt in a very long time. Weight-wise, I’m sitting at 136-137 pounds, which means most of my clothes don’t fit, which is irritating. I have no plans to diet or exercise in any way, however, until I hit six weeks. Until then, I’m going to continue taking it easy.
Love the pics! How’s Isla adjusting to little sis?
Overall, she’s been doing well. However, she’s been getting lots of attention from grandparents, the nanny, and Jonathan when he was off work. Things may change when it’s just me.
She has been very cranky the last couple days, but she has a cold, so that may be a factor.