Baby Story: Baby H comes home (Take 2)

To mark Baby H's official 2-week birthday, I'm writing today about Baby H's official homecoming! After an initial 2 nights in the hospital, a short night at home, and another night in the hospital, Baby H was finally able to come home for good!  In total she was in the hospital for 5 days, just like her big sister.

Unfortunately, we started having some challenges with Baby L (I guess I should probably stop calling her a baby now that she's a big sister!  She'll always be my baby...and I can promote her to just L) and some jealously for Baby H, particularly at bedtime.  When Baby H would cry, L would yell, mimicking Baby H, and at bedtime when I would read her books, she would look at Baby H and squirm out of my lap to run around and create general havoc.  So G and I have started to dedicate one on one time time with L daily to make sure she knows she's still loved, and at bedtime, we remove Baby H from the living room during stories and only bring her back in time for bedtime kisses and hugs.  It seems to be working mostly ok, and within a few nights, L even asked to kiss Baby H right before bed.

Baby H, just chillin' on the sofa while daddy is playing basketball

It's so interesting the ways in which the two girls are alike, and the ways in which they are different.  For one, Baby H has very very different eating patterns than L did - and it took me a few sleep-deprived nights to figure this out. For nursing a baby, I have a very strong let-down, meaning  my milk comes to the baby very fast to start.  L used to take it like a champion milk guzzler, and she would finish eating within  10-15 minutes.  She  only needed one side per feeding, and she ate frequently - maybe every 90 minutes to 2 hours during the day, and then every 2-3 hours at night until she started sleeping through the night.  Baby H struggles with my let down, and she only nurses for maybe 3-5 minutes at a time before she needs a break.  And her breaks are anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes.  And she needs to eat 3 or 4 times before she sleeps for 3-4 hours - she  is a serial cluster feeder.  So now that I've reset my expectations at night that feeding her is going to take about an hour each time I wake up, but then I'll get a longer period of sleep, nights have gotten a little easier for me.

L was terrible at burping and also had some minor acid reflux as a newborn...H is a champion at burps. Sometimes I don't even have to pat her back, I just sit her up and she'll let out a belch loud enough to make a grown man blush!

Baby H, passed out in between feeds

Another way the girls are different is how they are pacified.  L never took a pacifier, despite many efforts and many different kinds of pacifier.  L, however, needed to be swaddled to get any kind of decent sleep because her moro reflex was so strong - and she was pretty content to be snuggled up, even if she could figure out how to break out of most swaddles.  Baby H loves her Mam-branded paci, but prefers to be swaddled arms-out...to the point where she wakes up in the middle of the night angry that she doesn't have access to her hands.  We still swaddle her arms in at night because ours it's easier for me to feed her and she sleeps better, but I can tell she doesn't love it.

H is NOISY. She's a noisy eater (G has commented that she sounds like she's choking the whole time) and a noisy sleeper. She grunts and sputters and sometimes cries both while eating and sleeping, so I've had to adjust my mommy radar so I don't wake up at every little sound she makes. This was surprisingly easy for me since I can't nap with H during the day like I did with L...so I'm usually pretty exhausted by bedtime.

The girls are similar in that they both hated their first few baths, but then started to relax into bathtime...which is great, because seriously, what is cuter than a naked baby relaxed and cheerful in the bathtub??

They both also hate diaper changes and clothing changes. I've known babies to cry as soon as their diaper was soiled - and NOW L will ask to change her diaper after she poops, but as newborns, both Baby H and (then) Baby L were perfectly content in their poopy diapers, and both would cry bloody murder while I changed them.  Oh, and both of them projectile poop towards me mid-diaper change, despite my best efforts to avoid getting pooped on.

Because of her time in photo therapy, Baby H takes a bottle and formula without any issue.  All the things that breastfeeding mommies write about nipple confusion and preference for bottles turns out (in my case) not to be true - Baby H nurses just fine, other than the cluster feeding (which is the same for her regardless of breast or bottle).  This is a huge relief for our family since it took L forever to get onto a bottle, and also forever to get her onto formula.  This will also make going back to work, and eventually back to Basra, much less stressful for me, knowing that my baby can drink formula without any issue.

L is finally warming  up to Baby H

We're slowly settling into a routine with the two littles.  I took Baby H to the doctor a few days ago, and she has a clean bill of health - her eyes will still be a little yellow for a few more weeks, but otherwise no need to return to the doc until her 2-month vaccines.  L warms up to Baby H a little more every day, kissing her on the head, gently touching her face, and giving her fist-bumps (with a little help from mommy).  We've even been able to have some company over - my boss and his family, our friends who introduced us to Miss J, and our friends from L's swim class have all come over to meet Baby H and love on L. 

It's been a great two weeks with Baby H, and we're excited to see her and her big sister continue to grow together!