This post is meant to be pretty tongue in cheek. When reading, please don't mistake the sarcasm for a bad attitude. We're totally in love with our little girl.
This is a picture of Dave, Jen, and Claire enjoying a "Family" meal before leaving the Hospital. Believe it or not, the food was pretty darned good. This meal took place on the evening before we left (September 16th, 2012).
HEADING HOME
After our stay at the Hospital had exhausted itself, we were on our way home.
Looking back on things, when we met with the Nurse the next morning, the conversation in the Maternity Room could have gone something like this:
Nurse - "You guys ready to go home?"
Us - "Sure! This baby stuff isn't that hard."
Nurse - "OK, let's get you all checked out."
Us - "Groovy! Let's go home and be a family!"
Could we have been any more stupid and naive? Those of you who have kids are already in on the joke.
You can click HERE to see a short video of us leaving the Hospital. The video should open up in a new tab, but if it doesn't you may need to use your "Back" button. FYI.
We were blessed with a Meal Train, which was set up by our friends, Anita and Rhonda. This was a huge help because, after bringing a baby home, and after forgetting about that amazing commodity called sleep, apparently new parents really do not feel much like cooking. True story!
The Meal Train was awesome and a lot of people came to our aid to provide dinner for us. All in all, we had 8 dinners provided, but enough about food... I'm getting hungry.
We were also blessed with a steady stream of visitors, which was really awesome. Do you remember what I said about that amazing commodity called sleep?
ROUTINE, ROUTINE, ROU... WHATEVER!!!
Our general routine for the first two weeks consisted of feedings every three hours, puke, shirt changes, diaper changes, doctors visits (We'll get to this in a minute), and oh yeah, an occasional shower (maybe).
Because of Claire's clefting, she cannot feed like a normal baby, so Jen pumps and Dave does the bottle feeding. We have a special bottle that she can use, which requires no sucking, called the Haberman Feeder. It's quite the invention!
You can click HERE to see a video about how the bottle works. The video should open up in a new tab, but if it doesn't you may need to use your "Back" button. FYI.
One trick with the bottle is that you can't really "zone out" when feeding a baby while using this bottle. First, you have to hold her/him upright (sitting) while feeding, and second, you have to make sure that the bottle is positioned perfectly inside the mouth. A sixteenth of an inch off center means that she isn't getting any milk (at least in our case).
Also because of the clefting, Claire swallows a ton of air, which makes for a fussy baby, but to make feeding more fun, she (we found out later) has reflux, so it hurts her to eat (she's in so much pain, in fact, that she'll practically walk (seriously) right off of your lap during a feeding), and she spits up more than a normal baby. After feeding, because of the reflux, we have to hold her upright for 30 minutes, which helps her to deal with the pain a bit better. Feeding is VERY time consuming and tedious.
This is a picture of Clairelynne feeding from her bottle.
To give bottle feeding some perspective, we did some math... Just for Dave to feed Claire requires 8-10 hours every day.
So, at this point, Jen is in some pretty substantial pain, she's pumping, which is exhausting, and then between both of us, there's laundry, showers, visitors to tend to, insurance issues, pediatric appointments, surgical team appointments, miscellaneous errands, and tons of other stuff to do.
At the first Pediatric check-up, our "regular" Pediatrician was not available, but we couldn't pass up an opportunity for a photo-op.
This is Claire with our Pediatrician, Dr. Gareb. She's awesome!
This is a picture of our Doula, Lindsey (finally), holding Clairelynne. If you were ever on the fence about getting a Doula to help you through your pregnancy, or if you've never even heard of the term "Doula" (like us), look into it. Mad props to this lady!
THINGS ARE GETTING REAL ALL UP IN HERE
To make things more fun, on Thursday Night (September 20th), on the advice of our (previous) pediatrician, we started administering Poly Vi Sol - a thick, horrid tasting vitamin supplement to Claire via a dropper feeder. On the first dose, the vitamins went down Claire's windpipe, and she stopped breathing. After an emergency call to 911, a (this was a first) ride in an ambulance to the ER, and a lot more stress, we really did not know how sleep deprived (and stressed) we really were.
There is a LOT more to that ER story, but for our own sanity, we'll just go ahead and leave it at that. Needless to say, it was very stressful.
On Friday (September 21st), we went into the Doctor's Office for a lactation consultation, and we literally broke down in tears.
Remember that our week before the birth was all about finding out about the cleft, learning about the cleft, and getting our emergency C-Section out of the way. The shock of having a newborn during the following week, coupled with that ER visit, and all of the other stresses, we were really at a wits end. But the nurses at the lactation consultation were awesome.
Here's how that conversation went (after our nervous breakdown):
Nurse - "The Grandmas are in town, right?"
Us - "Yes."
Nurse - "And people are providing you with food for a while?"
Us - "Uh huh."
Nurse - "Put a note on the door which states 'No Visitors except for Meal Train', give the baby to the Grandmas, and go to bed."
And that is EXACTLY what we did. The sign stayed on the door until October 26th (well over a month).
BABY AT HOME BY THE NUMBERS
Since Leaving the Hospital on September 17th:
45 - Days since the birth of Clairelynne
20 - Visits to the Doctor's Office (Including the ER Visit)
3 - Different Reflux/Heartburn Medicines tested on Clairelynne
1.5 - Number of Quarts of Milk Jen Pumps Every Day (WOW!)
1,000 - Miles Driven in the Truck
30+ - "Congrats" Cards Received (Thanks, by the way)
20 - Loads of Laundry (no kidding)
39 - Days it took for Jen to get to her Pre-Pregnancy Weight (Wow, again!)
3.5 - Pounds Claire has gained since leaving the hospital
A NOTE ABOUT FOOTBALL
In our primary bathroom (It's a Notre Dame themed bathroom), we have a song hanging above the doorjamb titled "Why Did You Have To Get Married On The Day Michigan State Played Notre Dame?"
The above picture is of the song above the door jamb, and just in case you didn't believe me, here are a few pictures of our Notre Dame Bathroom in all of its glory (below)!
Jen is VERY understanding.
Anyway, Clairelynne was born on the weekend of the Notre Dame/Michigan State Game (a game that Notre Dame was expected to lose, mind you), and since her arrival, our beloved Fighting Irish have not lost a game.
As a matter of fact (and I'm trying not to get too ahead of things), but Notre Dame is still undefeated and ranked #3 in the BCS Polls.
The only thing that can be made of this is that Claire is a good-luck charm. When you see her, make sure to rub her head for good luck (but not too hard because we don't want to lose her hair)!
How is THAT for some hair!!!
The first picture is of Dave and Claire watching their first Notre Dame game together (Michigan/Notre Dame). She is obviously very into the game. The second picture was Jen's idea.
VISITORS ARE GOOD...
We've had a pretty nice stream of family coming out to visit.
Grandma Lynda and Grandma Kathy were out first. They got to witness all of the excitement with the ER visit, the sleepless nights, and the nervous breakdown.
Pop Greg came out next. We actually got to play some cards with him - trying to stick to our plan of a baby NOT changing things. We're still the same fun couple as we were before we had a baby (Yeah right!).
This is a picture of Pop Greg trying to play cards while holding Claire.
This is the evidence that WE are still fun, albeit a bit distracted.
After a little bit of a break, Aunt Michelle came out, and we actually started braving the outside world. We took Claire to Church, Bible Study, a Restaurant, Softball (Dave plays in an Intramural Softball League), Wal-Mart, and, of course, more Doctor's Visits. Things finally started calming down a bit, which was really nice, specifically for Jen.
Here are a couple of pictures of proud Aunt Michelle with Clairelynne.
The name of Dave's softball team is The Righteous Fielders. Claire is ready to root for Daddy. He is #14 (because of his birth date in August), and coincidentally, Clairelynne was born on the 14th of September. How about that?
Finally, as of this writing, Grandpa Merle and Grandma Suzy came out.
Apparently the baby isn't the only one who needs sleep.
Grandpa Merle and Grandma Suzy are having fun trying to figure out the Haberman Bottle. It's not as easy as it looks.
A few weeks ago, the Space Shuttle Endeavor flew all over LA in commemoration of all of the many businesses and people who worked on the Shuttle, and then it was towed through the streets of Los Angeles - quite the site!
Unfortunately, we missed the whole event because Claire was just newly born and Jen was really suffering from residual pain from her C-Section.
The retired Space Shuttle found its home at the California ScienCenter, and was unveiled on October 30, 2012. Grandma and Grandpa Milhoan, Jen, Dave, and Claire decided (Claire didn't really do much deciding though) to make the trek down to Los Angeles to see the Shuttle.
Claire has found her calling... Flight Chief Brunsman!!!
The trip to the California ScienCenter was Claire's first "real" outing since being born (aside from Doctor's visits, shopping at Wal-Mart, cheering for The Righteous Fielders, or going out to eat.)
A DOG AND HER BABY
Peyton (named after Peyton Manning), our dog, is a bit unsure about what to make of Clairelynne, but she is curious. Every time Claire cries, Peyton is right there, looking into the case. Peyton loves to lick Claire's hands (giving her kisses) a LOT (don't know if the baby likes this though).
We are pretty sure that Peyton's attentiveness to Claire is really her way of saying, "Hey, pay some attention to me too!".
This picture, of course, was staged.
This was not.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
The general consensus is that Clairelynne is a total bundle of joy.
We agree!
In the next post, we'll write about the upcoming surgeries for little Clairelynne, which, as of right now, have been postponed. We'll also provide a LOT of photos and we'll write about Halloween (we have a very cute costume for Claire and wait until you see our pumpkin!), bath time, belly buttons, rolling over, and a beautiful Baptism (hopefully with video to boot!).
In the meantime, and as always, thanks for reading!
Love,
Dave, Jen, Clairelynne, and Peyton (the dog)
No comments:
Post a Comment