The first full week with our newborn daughter has been amazing!
She’s a little angel who sleeps well, cuddles like a pro and drinks liquids like her daddy……she guzzles a bottle down in minutes and burps and farts like an old man.
We had a slight run-in with jaundice when we first brought her home that had me worried to death…..the day we found out she had jaundice was the day the Danish study was released linking jaundice and autism.
As if I didn’t already have enough to worry about.
We stripped her down and put her in the sun frequently….and let me say that the little diva already knows how to sunbathe. As soon as she hit the sun, her arms went above her head and she stretched her little legs out….and fell asleep.
A visit to the lactation consultant at the hospital revealed that because of my blood type and an enzyme in my breastmilk, I am unable to breastfeed without formula supplementation. I have a lot of Native American blood, and apparently it’s pretty common to have this particular enzyme that prevents the baby from getting rid of the jaundice. My mother had it, and was unable to breastfeed me…..and other members of my family have it….so I have it, too. My son had a terrible case of jaundice as a newborn, and his pediatrician never jumped on it, so I wonder if his little body has some damage from the jaundice that he had all those years ago. We will probably never know, but I didn’t breastfeed him very long either. I guess it was mother’s intuition……or the fact that I was very young when I had him and not very determined to breastfeed.
Anyway, we’ve been watching my daughter like a hawk. When you have a child with autism, their siblings have a greater chance of having autism as well. My son is from my previous marriage, so there are different DNA factors…..but I’m still worried. The good thing about my daughter is that she is very interactive….she looks at my face when I’m feeding her. She searches my face, and she turns her head when her daddy talks to her….which is something that my son never did.
Now that I have another baby, the memories of my son’s newborn days are coming back to me and I am able to make the distinction between the two. I am beginning to see that my son had all the signs of autism from birth….and that all of the vaccines and environmental factors seemed to make him worse and worse. Maybe he would have had Asperger’s (a mild form of autism) if his immune system had not been assaulted from such an early age……
Anyway, my son is wonderful and as I’ve said many times before….I wouldn’t change him for the world….I would just make his life easier to live. He is a WONDERFUL big brother. He gives my daughter more kisses than I’ve ever gotten from him….and that is a miracle!
As for me, I only gained 15 lbs during this pregnancy….and it was almost ALL baby and fluid. I am back down to my pre-pregnancy weight and fitting into all of my old clothes….which is something I couldn’t do after I had my son. I gained 70 lbs with him! I can’t believe I’m actually thinner now than I was before I got pregnant….now I just have to keep it off!
Another way that I am blessed is that my husband is a wonderful daddy…he holds her and talks to her….and he does the middle of the night diaper changes and feedings so that I can catch a few winks. It warms my heart to see him holding her in his big arms and being so gentle with our little bundle. I’ve fallen in love with him all over again!
Thanks to Mimi, my hubby and I still get mommy and daddy time….even if it just consists of nap/cuddle time together. We are just so blessed to have her with us……just knowing that she is downstairs is such a comfort.
So….it’s a great report for the first week postpartum. We are so blessed to have such a sweet little girl in our lives. She truly is our little miracle. We are thankful every single day that God has blessed us with her after our devestating loss last September.
