Overall, Eliza's doing great. We're sleep deprived and even though we knew it was coming, it's REALLY hard. But the biggest adjustment is juggling 2 children...especially for this girl who works outside the home and isn't used to spending every day all day with kiddos. I am learning how to be a stay at home mom for these 12 weeks! We have lots of family willing to lend a hand and have relied on them quite a bit. I don't know how people do it who don't have family close by - they are stronger than I am! At the same time, I'm doing my best to enjoy this time that I may never have again where I can be home with my babies.
Cooper is a great big brother. He's had a few challenging days but nothing we didn't expect. The first couple of weeks he completely ignored Eliza, but now he loves on her, calls her silly names, and seems pretty enamored. Hope that lasts!
Anyway, back to an update on Eliza's first few weeks:
-She was a pretty perfect little baby for the first couple of weeks. Eating well, gaining weight perfectly, sleeping a lot. From the beginning she had her days and nights straight. She even seemed to understand how to eat more during the day so we could have longer stretches between night feedings. From the beginning, she has done 4 and 5 hour stretches completely on her own most nights...not intervention from me.
-Around 3 weeks, she started to get congestion in her nose. It was manageable during the day, but at night she would grunt and snort because she couldn't breathe well on her back. She was sleeping ok but we weren't because she was so noisy! And we were worried...Cooper had been sick and it seemed she was getting his cold. After a couple of doctor's visits that week, she was diagnosed with RSV. We've heard horror stories about hospital stays with other babies. Thankfully her condition never got too bad and she is fully recovered now. Whew.
-Last week (4 weeks of age), things started getting pretty tough. She seemed to be so uncomfortable and fussy all the time, plus she was grunting and groaning during the night, agitated while eating, spitting up more, and refusing to sleep unless held. After a particularly trying day this week where I literally held her THE ENTIRE DAY we decided to check with our pediatrician. One visit and she was diagnosed with reflux. We've been there before with Cooper and our niece was recently diagnosed...so apparently it runs in our family. Well, we're on Day 3 of the meds and today was remarkably better than the past 2 weeks! Hopefully we've found the problem and are headed in the right direction. She weighed 9 lbs. 9 oz. on Wednesday so weight gain is great!
-My sister came to town a couple of weeks ago and we were lucky enough to spend time with her and meet baby Madeline, our niece who is 1 week older than Eliza. So fun to let these sweet babies meet! I hope they are great friends even though we live apart.
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