The Williamson crew is loving life at home with sweet little Cal. Our first week has been filled with visitors and my mom came and stayed with us for the week (THANK GOD FOR HER!). Here are some recaps:
Saturday, we left the hospital. Eddie's sister came in town from D.C. so she came home with us and stayed until late Sunday afternoon. Eddie's mom came into town on Monday and ended up staying at our house. She was originally going to stay at my parents house across town so that it wouldn't be too crowded in our house, but my mom ended up freeing up a bed by sleeping on the nursery floor! (more to come on that in a minute!)
Monday night we had an appointment with our pediatrician. She is a family friend...well, sort of. I taught her daughter a few years ago and we became close through her. She had us come at 8:30 at night so that we would avoid all of the sick people. She is not a worrier, but she said Cal should not be anywhere that germs could be. He had such a traumatic entrance into this world and the last thing we need is for him to get sick! So, no doctor's offices, no schools, and he is not allowed to be around his cousin, Jackson, for a while either :(. That is a bummer because we can't wait for them to meet! Other than those things, she said he is doing great! He lost some of his birth weight, but was already starting to put it back on.
Cal is quite the good eater! Oh my! I had a lactation consultant help me in the hospital learn how to breast feed. It is something I have wanted to do and something I feel pretty strongly about. I don't think there is a thing wrong with not breastfeeding, but for me, I really wanted to. SO, in the hospital, he was latching on and was eating, but he needed some more calories since he was in the "special needs nursery" (even though he looked like a line backer in there!), so they gave him a little bit of formula. I kept on pushing for the breast feeding and by the time we came home, he was CHOWING down.
Our instructions for him feeding were to wake him every 3 hours until he had 2 "real" poops (they described them, but I won't go into detail here....), then never wake a sleeping baby. Well, the first night home, we had to wake him to feed him, and then he had his two dirty diapers and it was like he couldn't eat enough! We are trying to find that balance of "is he hungry?" or "is he just trying to soothe himself?". Eddie tends to want to feed him every time he cries, but I do not think I could produce enough milk for that, not to mention our kid would be the size of a real line backer by the time he is 3 months! So we are working on that...
Cal had several outstanding nights sleeping. I would feed him at 11:30 ish, 3:30 ish, and 7:30 ish. Not bad! Then, we hit a bit of a wall. He was waking up every 2 hours starving. He was sucking on his hand so loud I could hear it in the next room. My mom was sleeping on the floor of the nursery so that she could get him when he started to stir and change him before getting me up. After I would feed him and rock him, I would change him again and then hand him off to mom, who would then get him to bed. It was quite the system! Now you understand why I say my mom is a saint! He is still getting hungry every 2 hours, but we are trying to soothe him a little and hold out for at least 2.5 hours.... like that makes a big difference!
We have had a TON of visitors this week and it has been wonderful for all of our great friends to meet Cal. My friends have organized dinners for us so that we have a meal delivered to our house everyday for the next 3 weeks. It is SO nice to not have to worry about meals! I owe them all big time and I will be doing that for them when they have kids!
Now, here's where you can call me a baby. My mom went home today (she goes home everyday for a little bit)...but she isn't coming back tonight. When she left, I started bawling. I know, I know. I am SUCH a baby. She lives 10 minutes away and will be back tomorrow! We are on our own for nights now, which I am so not worried about, but it was soooo nice to have my mom here. She just knows what I need before I even ask for it or realize that I need it. Eddie and I are going to be so fine, but I appreciated having her here soooooo much and it makes me sad to know that when I get up in the night with Cal she won't be there helping me when he throws a fit. At least I know I get to see my sweet baby... that makes it all worth it!
I think this is it for now. I will try to be better about posting. We are just so in love with Cal and I don't think I can kiss him enough. He has had 2 sponge baths and did not enjoy them very much! He is rocking in his swing right now so I am going to get going on the thank you notes! We have more visitors coming in an hour.....
