Wren is doing wonderfully. She doesn't cry a ton. She's starting to give us smiles (and has laughed in her sleep a couple times!). Her hair's thinned out and her poor skin has baby acne, though it's beginning to subside. She poops very frequently. She's squeaky, by which I mean she makes these really cute squeak-like sounds. She loves baths. She does not love the car seat.
Wren's a pretty great sleeper. Our first night home from the hospital was our worst. On top of Grey waking up a dozen times and even Liam once, Wren was a crying mess. Sean was up half the night with her and then I took over for the rest. It looked like she was desperate to nurse but nursing didn't help. After it clicked that, duh, she's hungry, we tried supplementing with formula. Ah, the sweet peaceful sleep that came to her once we began. So for about a day and a half, maybe two days, Wren would down 1-2 oz of formula after each nursing session. I was very grateful for the many samples my OB gave to me. Then my milk came in and formula wasn't needed any longer. A couple weeks in, she could go four, even up to six hours at night between feedings. In the last few days (she's 5.5 weeks old), she's had a couple eight hour stretches! Way to go, babycakes! Now if only, Grey would consistently sleep (he was such an amazing sleeper up until March...) and I would go to bed when I ought to go to bed.
We're getting nursing down to a good routine. Engorgement was a week+ long horror show but that's settled. Neither of us much like nursing under a cover, it gets hot and she gets sleepy. In fact, that's the biggest challenge so far- Wren is a very sleepy eater. Much of my time is spent trying to rouse her to continue eating. Although she's improving. She spits up some but I think less than her brothers did.
This has been my best recovery, I think. There's not excessive pain, I'm not feeling zombie-ish like I did with the others. This time a nurse gave me a belly band (pretty much a really wide elastic with velcro on the end) that I wore for a long while which seemed to really limit my abdominal and back pain. I highly recommend. Having had a shorter labor this time likely helped my recovery- I didn't have as much to recover from! We had help from my parents and then Sean's parents. We had many sweet people bring us meals, which was an incredible blessing (if I haven't written a thank you yet, I will! You're on my list! I'm just a little backed up.)
Liam, Dash, and Grey love love love Wren. They think about her all the time and want to be with her constantly. Head rubs abound (which we suspect may be linked to the hair thinning...). Kisses galore. We have to give reminders about head support, soft kisses, poking eyes (seriously, guys?), and sitting on her (can you guess who's the culprit for that one?). The boys do lots of baby holding. Grey's turn is pretty short, as in seconds. But Liam and Dash last for a while. Liam once held her for a half hour! They also think Wren is hilarious, particularly her poop noises. They'll often laugh and say, "Mommy, Wren made this face" while mimicking a half smile and winky eye or something. They adore her. I am SO grateful that they love her like they do. Wren's one lucky baby!
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