Emilia - 1 Week

Well... this week totally flew by. My mom reminded me today that we need to take Emilia's photo with the bear. OH YA!

I think she looks quite a bit like her big brother. Definitely got his lips... We're in trouble!

Dom at 1 week

Before I start, in case you're wondering, Emilia is pronounced just like you would pronounce Amelia. We've had a few people ask, so there you have it! :)

Everyone told me going from 0-1 kids is way harder than 1-2. Well my experience supports this 100% so far. I keep waiting for shit to hit the fan; like it's been too smooth. 

So far my experience with Emilia is totally different than with Dom's first week. I am WAY more relaxed, much better rested, and 20x more confident. Em is also a more relaxed baby. She feeds pretty well, has been sleeping great (don't jinx it Renee!), and is generally pretty content. The only issue we've been having is that she doesn't like the soother. I've been working on it, but she won't take it from me; she much prefers the real thing. I never nursed Dom to sleep, so it pains me a little to do it now, but when she won't take a soother and I want to sleep I'll do what I need to do! Besides, now I really understand how quick the newborn phase is over. 

We went to the midwives on Monday for a weigh-in. She's gained a little bit, but not as much as they wanted to see. She had also gone 4 days without pooping (no real breast-milk poops yet). I didn't have an appointment, but just decided to stop in because I was curious. The midwife who was there happily took a few minutes to talk to us and answer questions and help me with breast-feeding latch**. She ended up going almost 6 full days without pooping, and we were worried she wasn't getting enough to eat. Then today she finally had a big poop. First poop, first blowout, first leak onto the beluga baby wrap... I was so excited that she'd pooped I didn't even care. We have another midwife appointment tomorrow and we will do another weigh-in. Hoping she's gaining a bit more since we've been working on her becoming a more efficient nurser. 

** To anyone having a baby in the near future: UTILIZE LACTATION CONSULTANTS!! If baby's latch hurts, it's not right. I thought I had it all figured out, but I was wrong! **

The first couple days Dominic was VERY sensitive to the new addition/change. Anytime she cried, he would cry. If someone looked at him the wrong way, he would cry. If he thought he hurt the baby or did something wrong, he would cry. It was a lot of crying. Now he has turned into quite the little helper and nurturer. I don't know where he gets that from. If Emilia starts crying, he will walk up and try to help; doing whatever he can think of. Some of the things he's tried are giving her the soother (which she did not take, and that made him very sad), bringing her a blanket, giving her his water bottle, tickling her toes, bringing her a book, and turning the music on on her swing. It is so cute to see how he interacts with her. I can't wait to see their relationship develop. 

I could go on forever about her first week at home, but mostly it was just a routine of... feed her, put her to sleep in the swing or the wrap, play with Dom, get a chore or two done, eat, repeat. 

My postpartum recovery has been smooth-sailing as well. I felt better the day after I had her than I did at 40 weeks pregnant. I've even made it out for a walk and to Costco in the same day already!

We haven't done any official newborn photos, but here are some we took today and yesterday using le camera. 

I transferred her from David's chest to the couch flawlessly, but she was hugging this burp cloth that really didn't match her outfit. Thank goodness B&W is an option!

Not Emilia, but he's so huge and cute I couldn't resist

Our attempts at some photos of Dom & Em together. I tried placing Em right next to Dom, and he kept scooting away on the couch. Fine... we will settle for this for now! Haha 

Nervous chuckle as she lays on HIS blanket.