Home Soon
Thank you to everyone for your wishes for John and I and Zosia (pronounced zoh-sha). Today is our last morning in the hospital and soon we head for our big adventures at home. John and I are entering the "relatively exhausted" phase with a baby girl who is just premie enough to need very regular feedings every three hours and still has needs some help to get what she needs. But we're learning, and beginning to realize that there is compromise in everything (a little formula is not a in addition to natural fuel is not a bad trade to give us a little help making sure her belly is full while she figures out the whole feeding process).
There will be more pictures after we get home and get settled in. Grandma and Grandpa are coming in tonight, along with my brother and his wife (for a previously scheduled family wedding) so we're going to have some more help and a lot of extra love in the house. But I don't think there's ever too much love for a new baby!
There is something so magical about bringing Baby home from the hospital. How wonderful that your family will be with you. Let them take care of you. Again-congratulations and we can't wait for more pictures!
Congratulations! She is completely adorable! You're going to have so much fun. My little dude is a little over 10 weeks old now, and it's crazy how fast they grow and change. She's going to look super cute in all her knitted gear! :)
The very best to you all...you're right, there is no such thing as too much love.
Much love and congratulations- welcome, dear one!
I stayed with my parents when my son was born. It was great having the extra love. :)
Her name is very similar to my cousin's Dalmatian, her name was Zoysia. She was the sweetest, nicest, most loving dog and sadly passed away two weeks ago.
Zosia is a lovely name, though I'll have to train myself not to say Zoy-sha. lol
How exciting for all of you! Don't feel a bit bad about giving her formula. Yes, breast milk is best, but it doesn't always work for every baby or every family. It's great that we live in an age where there are options. The first month of no sleep is hard, but it really does get better. Take advantage of all the help that is offered.
As long as baby is nice and healthy 36 weeks isn't to awful a time to have a baby, ya may have saved yourself some extra stretch marks! All that matters is baby is HEALTHY and mommy is WELL!
Congrats!
The first day home with a new baby is wonderful and overwhelming. Enjoy it!
(And.....is she Zosia or Zofia? Last entry said Zofia....) ;-)
aw, congratulations to you all! :) Pretty name, too :)
Congratulations! I'm so glad to hear that everything went well, and she's such a cutie!!!
I avoided supplementing formula because I was worried about so-called "nipple confusion" but I didn't need to be. Hannah went from bottle to breast with no problems at all.
Hugs to you all at this special time.
Awwww! she is gorgeous. Remember to rest when she does, and let people help when they offer, it helps combat the exhaustion. Congratulations!!
congratulations! it is amazing and wonderful and i love being a mom so much more than i ever thought possible...i am so happy for you and glad to hear you all are doing well!
She is beautiful! Congrats!
What an absolutely lovely name! You will have to share more about it's origins. She looks lovely!
congratulations to all of you! i am glad that baby z is finally here.
She's beautiful - congratulations! I had a few tears in my eyes when I read today's post because my Great GrandMother's name was Zosia. She was a wonderful person - so I know your Zosia will be, too.
Hang in there....my son was 5 weeks early and it took him exactly 5 weeks to learn to nurse.
Congratulations.
Congratulations on a beautiful and healthy baby girl!!! Life with a newborn will be such an adventure. Try to sleep when she's sleeping so you can get some rest too.
You probably think we're all insane when we say "sleep when the baby sleeps." But seriously, just do it. The dishes really can be done while she's awake! And don't make the house too quiet while she sleeps. She'll get so used to it that the slightest noise will wake her. And you don't want that!!
Congrats!! She's beautiful...
Don't let anyone make you feel bad about supplementing. But if you want to nurse, make sure she nurses first so that your body knows to go ahead and produce on her every three hour schedule. It takes a few weeks for your body and her hunger to match up and she has some quick growing to do. But do sleep when you can!
Congratulations! She is beautiful. I lurk here a lot and have been following your journey. My thoughts and prayers are sent your way. WOW!!!
Some of you stories brought back memories of my motherhood journey. Now my daughter is 5 and starting kindergraten.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. One really good thing about her taking a bottle, too is that you can have help during some of the feedings, and dad can feed/cuddle her too. It's such a snuggy love fest feeding a baby and I feel sorry for the dads that don't get to do it.
Blessings to you and John on that beautiful little girl! My soon to be twelve year old daughter Hannah (good lord, Twelve?) was induced at 35 weeks due to my health, not hers. Don't let anyone make you feel guilty for supplementing with formula. Every calorie counts for that little one right now, especially as she can only eat small amounts many times a day! It will give you some extra rest, and John a chance to bond during feedings. Miss Hannah ended up being lactose intolerant, so my milk would'nt do for her, but it's different for every baby. Most babies love breast milk way more than formula so I don't believe alot of the stuff I hear about nipple confusion. Rest every chance you get, and you and John will figure all the other stuff out! Remember, no one knows your baby like you do! Congrats again.
Welcome Zofia! Congratulations, Mom and Dad!
Best wishes to all of you. Zofia came on the most perfect day to me born! (I also share this birthdate). Get your strength up so that you can come home and start your new routine asap!
LOVE your blog.
Cheers!
Welcome to the world to Zosia! Whooo-hooooo! For all of you! I can nearly smell her newness! VERY odd how you post about any time now that it's been 36 weeks and whammo here she is! Rest (I slept a lot w/ the baby in the beginning...it was FABulous!)
I have to say "Will Mutagenize for Food" looks really weird on a new momma's blog! :D
My baby will be 8 tomorrow. When he first slept through the night at 4 months, I bolted out of my bed to make sure he was okay. Sleep when you get the chance. (Pretty soon you'll be saying it to other new moms and wondering how your baby got to be 5 or 6 or 8!)
Congrats on your new life. Check out Medela's Supplemental Nursing System - it's a formula bottle that hangs around your neck, with very thin tubes you can line up with your breast, so formula gets delivered along with what you produce and baby can't feel the difference. I used it for 3 kids for months (including 1 born @ 28 weeks). More effort than just a bottle, but it keeps the baby where you want her to be. Good luck - whatever you decide will work out!
Enjoy every precious moment as they grow so quickly, you wont realise how fast it has gone. Your little girl is so beautiful and I am sure with all the love she receives she will grow into a gorgeous girl too. I bet she already has her dad twisted around her little finger!
Congratulations! She's lovely.
So glad to hear that everything is going well! Don't be surprised if Zosia is particularly sleepy for a while ... my oldest was born at 36 weeks, and he didn't really "wake up" until around his due date.
Feeding every 3 hours is not preemie, it's just newborn. Eventually, she will sleep through the night. But get used to the concept of being sleep deprived for a while. And if you have stairs, make sure you get a gate for them as soon as she learns to crawl--ask me how I know that one. Sigh.
ONLY every three hours? Wow, that's actually the maximum I was told to go with mine, who weren't preemie! They tended to nurse every 1 to 1/2 hours while getting colostrum. And that's normal too and doesn't mean they weren't getting enough (even the smallest at 6lb9oz).
You don't need an expensive supplemental nurser system. Surgical tubing (the smallest) in the bottle of formula, taped to your breast, and placed higher than your breast works too. Check out Dr Jack Newman's books. Or, use a finger feeding syringe. Wow, I'm envious that you need to feed only every 3 hours ;) (Unless you're doing "BabyWise" by Ezzo). Can't wait to see her with her quilt!
Congratulations! She is beautiful!
Okay, I tried really hard to bite my tongue. But as a lactivist, I can't keep quiet anymore. Yes, you are doing harm to your breastfeeding relationship, by giving her formula instead of breastfeeding more often.
She won't learn to breastfeed by having a bottle, and it's debatable if even a feeding syringe will teach her. You are confusing your body and not giving it the time it needs to figure out your baby's needs. You risk engorgement and an even harder time for her to learn to nurse. You have introduced a substance her tiny body is not designed to assimilate.
Human milk is all she needs. Really! They are supposed to nurse very often (much more frequently than every 3 hours usually), especially while getting just the colostrum. My third was only slightly bigger than Zofia/Zosia. It took her a few days to figure out nursing, and like almost all babies, lost some weight and had some jaundice--totally normal!. I nursed more frequently rather than give a bottle that would teach her nothing. It can be hard for an adult to go 3 hours without food, her tummy is the size of a walnut!
But Mother Nature is an awesome power, and you have it in you to provide her with ALL she needs. I highly recommend Dr. Jack Newman's book. Even the World Health Organization lists formula as the 4th food of choice--b.f. first, then expressed b.m. then donated expressed b.m. then formula (bovine breastmilk). If she has nursed some, then she CAN do it, she just needs practice, and bottles/syringes won't give that.
Off my soap box now. Just had to speak up for Zosia. She wants your human milk (and would prefer to nurse, but ebm is good too). :)
Wow! She's gorgeous. You two make beautiful babies! I'm so glad everything went well and you have this lovely new addition to your family.
Congratulations!
Beautiful name!! Does it mean anything or is it just pretty??
Glad all went well-she's not so little for a premmie!
It's probably a good thing that she is taking a little formula too-it means she will be flexible and soon you and your hubby can have an evening out-babies that will only nurse can be a nightmare-I had a niece that was so rigid about feeding that my sister-in-law was a virtual prisoner.
but, no worries, just go with the flow and you will do great. Use your instincts and don't listen to 90% of the bull advice we give you!!!LOL
Congratulations!
Never too much love for a child -- baby or grown up. And nothing wrong with some formula supplementation either. Using a teensy bit of formula at the beginning actually worked out better with #2 because the Yarn Sniffer had a better "ah, nursing is great because my belly is full and I feel better" experience than #1 (Zee wasn't ever able to get full in the beginning so he dropped nursing early in favor of the fast-fill bottle, LOL.)
Glad you're doing well. Thursday night I ended up in preterm labor and hospital monitoring for about 18 hrs overnight. They stopped it so now I'm where you were a few weeks ago -- in bed for the duration! We can compare notes :)
gorgeous name. can't wait to hear the backstory on how you chose it, how you knew so early (baby z). I love to hear "name" stories....
Oh I have wet eyes...my baby girl just turned one; yours has just joined us! congratulations to you and John.
oooh what a cutie! Congrats!
Congratulations! She's beautiful.
Congratulations Theresa! What a lovely name and a beautiful little girl. I hope you get some sleep soon (The Barenaked Ladies song "Who Needs Sleep?" always went through my head when my kids were getting up at night...who am I kidding..my 4yo still gets up routinely. sigh)
lots of hugs
Oh, and the thing other people keep mentioning about "sleep when the baby sleeps" only works if the baby will actually sleep when she's not laying on you. That happened with my son. I should have invested in a good babycarrying pouch at the time, but I didn't know better. I am sure he would have slept on me and I wouldn't have worn my arms out or felt like I was stuck on the couch.
Congratulations and all my best wishes to the whole family!!! What a wonderful surprise, I've been following your story all along and am very much looking forward to follow the stories Zosia will give you in the future. What an adventure it will be for all of you!
Congratulations! Isn't it amazing how hard you fall for a baby when she arrives? Of course, you know you'll love her, but the sight of her just brings on waves of love that would have been unimagineable before her arrival.
Congrats! De-lurking...when I had my now-12-week-old girl, we had some "learning to breastfeed issues"...hours of her screaming trying to feed when neither of us knew what we were doing. I agree with breast is best, but there's nothing wrong with a little help to make your baby strong enough to learn how to nurse. In my own experience this worked really well and it wasn't long before we both figured things out. Good luck!
PS...my peadiatritian says he doesn't believe in nipple confusion...I'm not sure but interesting to hear from a Dr.