Packin' On The Pounds

It has now been a little over a week since Addison has joined our family.  I must say being a first time parent is definitely hard!  No one really went into great detail about the ups/downs your life would have on a day-to-day, even minute-to-minute, basis.   We are very glad we survived our first week, especially Addison I'm sure.  It seems the minute we stopped worrying about one thing, we'd find something else to worry about.  And in all honesty, Addison has been a perfect baby - it's her parents that have created the roller coaster we've traveled on this last week.  Our life has reached an all time high now that we get excited about pees & poops, burps, smiles, breast feeding success and of course weight gain.   

Tuesday was our first pediatrician visit and we found out that Addison dropped in weight from 8 lbs 8 oz to 7 lbs 12 oz.  Not a huge issue for most people but I managed to worry about it non-stop.  I knew it was normal for the most part but for some reason convinced myself she was wasting away.  Needless to say, shortly after that visit we headed straight over to the hospital to meet with the lactation consultant and figure out this breast feeding thing once and for all.  I can't begin to say how wonderful Miss Pam was.  I will now put her on my Christmas Card list - and I don't even DO Christmas Cards!!  We will tell Addison wonderful stories about her "Aunt Pammy" and how she saved all of us a lot of stress.  She showed us a few methods to help Addison learn how to latch and of course helped her Mommy a TON more.  Now that we've resolved that issue, all we had left to do was go home and fatten our little baby up.  And that we did!  We went back for a follow-up visit with the Pediatrician to re-weigh and she made it all the way up to 8 lbs.  Great results!  I was literally clapping and jumping up and down in the doctor's office when we saw the scale.  Now we only have 8 more oz to go by this Thursday.  I'm convinced with a little hard work we can get it done.  

We've had a lot of fun getting to know Addison better this week (once all the worries were gone).  She is the most laid back baby.  Because of her long luscious locks she has already had two sponge baths since she's been home.  She loves them - well she definitely loves the head rubs.  She's not a huge fan of the body washing since she doesn't like to be cold - what baby does?  She sleeps well and only requires 2 late night feedings.  She rarely ever cries - just stares at us as we change her and feed her and play with her.  She's very obedient - when Mom/Dad ask for poops/pees she gives them to us.  When the nurse asks her to wake up so we can check her eyes - she does.  She's happy to oblige.   She makes me laugh a lot with her cute expressions.  Once after a feeding, I sat her up to burp and chat with her.  She gave me about 5 different "silly faces" as if she were intentionally trying to make me laugh.  And I definitely did.  She has already smiled for her Daddy 3 times and I was lucky to get just 1 smile out of her.  We will pretend she was doing it on purpose and not because of gas. ;-)

Being first-time parents has it's moments but even despite the challenges we wouldn't trade it for the world.  We are so excited to get to know her more and more each day and see her grow.  We couldn't have asked for a better little girl to join our family.  She is absolutely adorable.  And as her mommy, I am so thrilled that I get to spend every day with her.  I couldn't think of any place better to be.  She is such a blessing to have in our home.