The first week of life with little baby Henry has been a great one! It seems I made a super-positive post like this one shortly after Charlie was born and then things got a little harder, but I'm going to do it anyway :) We just love our little guy. It is amazing how the instant you see your new child your heart's capacity to love increases amazingly. The love you feel for your other children isn't diminished in any way; it just grows. I just love to look at his tiny face and look into his eyes. And, I have been greatly rewarded by smiles! Henry first smiled at me at two days old. I know many people would not believe a baby so young will smile and I was skeptical the first time he did, but he was fully awake and looking at me as we were waiting for our car to be pulled up when we were leaving the hospital and he smiled at me. And he has smiled at me every day since, always when I am talking to him.
In addition to the smiles, Henry is a great nurser. He is very picky about his latch, which he knows how to do well, and I am greatly benefitting from it as I have experienced no soreness, which I think is amazing. He also is on a very good 3 hour nursing schedule that I haven't had to force.
The first two nights (in the hospital), Henry had a hard time sleeping because of a bunch of congestion in his nose. He was always sneezing trying to get it out and his breathing was very loud, bordering on snoring. Sometimes it would keep me awake just with the noise. His discomfort at sleeping made him think he wanted to suck all the time so the first two nights I got a pretty small amount of sleep. During the second night I called a nurse in to see if she would suction it out but she wouldn't! She just said it was natural that the baby had this drainage since he was just immersed in fluid. Ugh, I wished I had brought my own. But finally in the morning of the day we left, his breathing was clear and he sunk into a very deep sleep. I think he was so exhausted from not sleeping well those two nights.
Thankfully the better sleeping continued once we got home and he has slept most of the day, like most newborns. On days 5 and 6 he started having 1 to 2 waking periods about an hour each during the day and today on day 8 he had 3. He times them well, staying awake after nursing and then dozing for another hour or so before waking to nurse again. (I point this out because it is the "Baby Wise" way - the cycle to eat, then wake, then sleep - to teach them how to fall asleep on their own, not nursing - and he's doing it much more naturally than the other two did.)
Once we were home, however, he started having fussy periods at night, from about 1 to 4am. Dave, thankfully, took these on the first three nights but the poor guy got so little sleep since I have been unable to do much for the older boys during the day due to so much pain. So I said I'd try to handle the next night and then he slept for 6 hours straight! 10pm to 4am! And the next night again! The following night he was fussy again until about 2am but then slept until 7 this morning. I'm just hoping this continues!
Davey and Charlie have done well with having a new baby around (and not having much of a mommy for them) so far. Davey is a little disinterested mostly but certianly shows no ill-will. I was most worried about Charlie but he is very interested and gentle with the baby. The only sign I've seen so far is that sometimes he is very forceful that he needs Dave or me to hold him right now. So we're trying to be sensitive to that. Hopefully soon I'll heal enough to get off the couch and can give him more of the attention he needs.
Overall, a very good week!
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