My first thought after I had Chloe was, "boy, that baby is small!" After my 9 lb, 8 oz first born, this baby seemed TINY! She was 8 lb, 4 oz, and 19 in long (Brooke was 21 in). She actually fit in newborn clothes! Brooke never once wore a newborn sized outfit. The next thing I remember thinking was that she had such a delicate little cry compared to Brooke's full fledged scream. Don't get me wrong!... Chloe can throw a screaming fit... just not at the same decibel that Brooke did (does).
I tried nursing Chloe right away, and gave it a good attempt for 30 min, but she just couldn't figure out the whole latch on and suck technique. Finally the nursery nurse came and told me they had to take her for awhile to bathe her and such. It was at least an hour before my delivery nurse came in and told me that "Chloe was having a little trouble with her breathing and her blood sugar." Yeah... heart sink to my toes. The nurse went on to tell me that she was grunting a lot and her blood sugar was in the 30s, so the nursery nurses had to give her a bottle of formula. She was "probably" fine but they wanted to observe her for awhile. Not on oxygen and O2 sats just fine. So another hour goes by and finally they bring Chloe back. Her blood sugar levels are now fine but still grunting. Long story short: over the course of the night, they took her back and forth to the nursery for "observation" 3 or 4 times. Finally by morning, they decided that the grunting was just Chloe's little baby noises and nothing to worry about. Her O2 sats were 100% the whole time. So praise God for that... I had myself convinced she had a congenital heart defect (they kept hooking her up to EKG's to make sure everything was okay).
The other stand out from this delivery was the discrepancies about feeding. Chloe basically slept for the first 24 hours of her life. I couldn't get her to nurse. When she finally DID wake up to nurse, I didn't have enough milk (colostrum) to satisfy. So I supplemented with formula through a syringe. The nursery nurses frowned on me because they thought it best to supplement with a bottle (but couldn't tell me why it was best). The lactation nurse frowned on me for supplementing at all ("your milk will not come in well. And besides, your body makes plenty of colostrum to satisfy a newborn"... yeah, right. Tell that to a screaming, rooting Chloe!) Finally, I just told everyone that I had to make my own decisions about what was best for Chloe, and I felt this was best. And my milk DID come in! And she DID finally learn how to latch on and suck. And she regained almost all her birth weight by her 1 week appointment. So I'm glad this time around, I made up my own mind and didn't stress about what everyone around me was instructing me to do.
As for being a mother of two, I love it! I've adjusted much better than I expected. Chloe is an angel, and Brooke loves her. And in the difficult moments (like today when Brooke screamed hysterically about taking a nap), I remind myself that my joy is in the Lord. And that every moment won't be difficult just because this moment is. Thanks for everyone who has prayed for us and supported us as we've been adjusting. I'll write more later... Matt just got home so I'm off to kiss him hello! Bye for now...
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