1. I remember the day we left the hospital; it was super warm outside. I felt like that nicer weather was meant for me because I have always hated snow. How perfect was it that I had a winter baby and it felt like spring leaving? Charli was really good in the car even though we had to stop at walgreens to pick up medication for mom. Dad cleaned the house and slept while mom spent a lot of time trying to breastfeed. My parents brought over homemade spaghetti that night.
2. We had a lot of visitors initially with a lot of food. It was super helpful in the beginning since we had a lot of adjusting to get used to a newborn.
3. The lack of sleep was probably the most difficult: baby needed to eat every two hours and would sometimes nurse up to 45 minutes at a time. We would put Charli in her co sleeper and she would just stare at us instead of sleeping. We experimented a lot with sleep. First, Charli started in a co sleeper.. then she actually slept with us. Eventually she moved to a rock and play since she liked sleeping propped up. She was really good at sleeping in the car or while Dad held her while doing chores around the house. Charli loved taking naps with mom and dad and loved her pacifier.
4. Breastfeeding was really a struggle. I didn't know that Charli wasn't getting enough milk from me initially. She was super fussy and had trouble latching so Kyle would have to walk around with her and soothe her before I could try again. I remember staying up late dancing with her to try and calm her down. Charli had a lot of doctor's appointments to track her weight in the beginning. Finally, I went to a lactation specialist when I found out you were not transferring enough milk. At this point, I was so exhausted that we switched Charli to half formula and half breast milk. I no longer trusted my body though so any breast milk she got was from pumping so I could track how much she was eating. I really hated losing that connection with her that I had with breastfeeding but I really wanted to make sure that she was fed and it had been a long 3 weeks watching her not gain weight. Charli stayed on half and half until about 6 weeks. At this time she was having tummy troubles so we switched you to hypoallergenic formula. Mom was worried about her milk affecting Charli when the new formula worked so well.
5. Mom and Dad initially watched a ton of episodes of Lost. We did get stir crazy and take Charli to the zoo where she slept the entire time. She was pretty scowly and only smiled in her sleep or when she had gas. We tried really hard to catch her smiles on camera and kept missing it. Charli started to like baths but didn't really like her swing at first. She had constant hiccups just like in the womb. We had some pretty intense diaper changes in the beginning that made us laugh in our sleep deprived states.
Dad went back to work at two weeks.
6. Mom was super emotional over everything. She cried watching Charli's newborn slideshow from the hospital because she thought her baby was so beautiful. Mom actually really missed being pregnant.
7. Mickey initially growled at Charli but become very attached and Laila liked Charli but was mostly not even interested.
Charli's going home outfit.
Wide awake while mom and dad are trying to sleep ha ha.
Charli's epic scowl.
Mom and Charli snuggling.
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