Things are starting to settle down after getting home from the hospital on 9/16. Almost 2 weeks after the birth of Kai, I’m starting to feel more like myself again and not have too much pain from the surgery. I’m weaning myself off the pain meds, and actually I was able to go most of the day without a problem. Nathan goes back to work on Monday. I’m a little nervous to be all by myself with the kids! Nathan has been so wonderful taking care of both me and the kiddos while he’s been home. I wuv him soo much!
We’ve gone to the hospital lactation clinic a couple times this weeks due to Kai’s weight issues during that first week. As of today, he is only 1.5 ounces shy of his birth weight and is gaining very well. I no longer need to supplement him with formula either, so I’m pretty happy about that. The first week he was born, the docs were concerned that he lost almost 10% of his birth weight. They even had us stay 2 extra nights because of it. 10% is the cut off of where they suspect there may be an “issue”, so when we left the hospital, I was instructed to nurse him and supplement with formula as needed. Our latest appointment was today and he has gained more weight this week than they had anticipated, and he is nursing just fine. After doing some research and talking to the lactation consultant, I learned that when a mom receives lots of IV fluids before a c-section, this can also raise the amount of fluids the baby gets as well. So after birth, the baby no longer needs all the extra fluid and promptly pees it out. Hence a rapid loss of weight. So it can appear that the baby is getting dehydrated and not getting enough to eat (based solely on weight), when in fact the baby is just fine and had just gotten rid of water weight. I think this is what happened with Kai. When we went in for the surgery, they put an IV in first thing, but we ended having to wait almost 6 hours before the surgery due to 2 emergency c-sections popping up unexpectedly. During that time, they had been pumping me full of fluids. So there you have it.
In other news, My hubby and I will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary next week on the 29th! It’s been a wonderful 10 years. The traditional 10 year anniversary gifts are tin and aluminum, so perhaps we will be exchanging these as gifts. Actually, we said we won’t exchange gifts because, really, how can you top a new baby as a gift?? 🙂 Or maybe we’ll make tin foil hats for the whole family.