Well, the first few weeks were certainly a challenge.....
We came home from the hospital on a very rainy Saturday afternoon (2/4). It was really nice to get out of the hospital even though we couldn't send Meredith to the nursery for a few hours of peace and quiet anymore! My mother-in-law stayed that night and helped out a lot so that Chris and I could get some sleep, but Meredith was not a happy girl at all. There were a couple nights where we never made it to bed, just slept in the living room while she decided to sleep. She most definitely had her days and nights mixed up and I know one night she slept on my chest for several hours, so Chris just covered us with a blanket and we prayed she would stay asleep. Her bouncy seat also came in quite handy since it seemed like that was the only thing she would sleep in. Things are better sleep wise now, but those first 2 or 3 weeks were really rough, only gettig 2-3 hours of sleep at a time. Last night she actually slept for almost 6 hours, which is totally amazing. Chris and I have talked about it ever since bringing Meredith home and as much as everyone tried to tell us we would be sleep deprived, neither one of us was truly prepared for this. We knew that she would need to eat every 2 or 3 hours, but we thought that meant she would eat and then sleep for 2 or 3 hours....we weren't prepared for all of the crying that would come in between and the stress of getting her to eat at all!! I guess parenthood is really something that you have to experience to understand!
We went back to the pediatrician that Monday after coming home from the hospital and her weight had dropped from 8.3 went we left the hospital to 7.8, so they were a little concerned and wanted us to give her some formula as a supplement. She cried the entire time we were at the doctor and both of us were really stressed out. They wanted her to come back the very next day to check her weight and she still cried the entire time again and I was by myself
this time because Chris had to go back to work already and I was totally stressed out and totally sleep deprived and hormonal! She had already gained enough weight back that the doctor felt more comfortable and so did I. I was amazed at how quickly she could gain weight, but quite relieved.
Well, her weight certainly isn't a problem anymore. At her month check up she weighed 10 lbs, 12 oz and had grown almost an inch! Her weight is in the 90th percentile!
She certainly loves to eat....she got that from both her mom and dad :) My biggest problem with her eating has been that she is quite a 'snacker' meaning that she only nurses for about 10 minutes or so and either falls asleep or decides she is done, but then she is hungry again within the hour. It has been quite frustrating since I can't manage to get anything done since I am constanly feeding her. She has gotten slightly better with that over that past week or so, but it is still a challenge. We have been giving her a bottle of formula at night so that she sleeps a little longer. I wish that I could say I am in love with breast feeding, but it has been prettty tough and I'm planning on getting her to at least 2 months, but after I go back to work and start classes again, I just can't imagine how I'm going to do it. We'll see how it goes...