Friday, August 21, 2009

Our First Night with a Newborn

Our first night with Zoey was...challanging.

My first problem was that I was so overtired that my patience was very thin. This is expected, but still painful. I was trying to breastfeed and I could barely keep my eyes open.

The other problem, which I suppose wasn't really a problem, was that I was unprepared. I had read up on all types of things about newborns from prenatal to labor and delivery to how to take care of them after they're born. However, I did not read anything about what to expect the first night at home. I had no idea what to expect.

We would lay her down and not ten minutes later she would be up crying. I would feed her and still ten minutes later she would be up crying. I had no idea what to do. It seemed being close to me was the only thing that would calm her, but as I said earlier, I despreatly needed sleep.

Thankfully, Auntie Trina took pity on us and came to our rescue. She took her out of the room and I was able to get a least an hour or so sleep. Turns out Zoey's main problem was that she was cold. Makes sense since she is a newborn and was being held by warm bodies all day. Now that she was set in her bassinet she was cold. (We learned out later that our little girl does not like getting cold, or being undressed).

Auntie Trina wrapped Zoey up in some blankets and then gave her some gas drops and a pacifier. We didn't really want to give her a pacifier, but it really seemed to calm her down (and it's better than using mommy as a pacifier - that hurts).

The first night was rough, but we learned some things that first night and have used them since. It's all about learning what your little one needs because each child is different. And it's about having patience, which I did get back after a few hours of sleep.

AGM
8.21.09


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