Life these days is quite different from the hectic workdays and short evenings I'd become accustomed to. Having Camille in our lives has definitely made us slow down a bit and appreciate, well -- the small things in life.
When we brought our daughter home Friday, May 16th, we were so happy to have her under our roof. We had two successful nights under our belt in the hospital, and while our sleep was definitely interrupted those two nights between feedings and nurses popping in to check my vital signs, we still got a fairly good amount of rest.
That Friday night was a little different. I snapped these photos below of her napping peacefully during the day in her bassinet and wearing her Halo SleepSack Swaddle. Well, these things are amazing (and so user-friendly), but we experienced a truly wild Friday night of her not sleeping and us -- out of desperation -- pulling out all of the stops that we swore we wouldn't yet, including pacifiers and co-sleeping. The next morning we begged her to forget sleeping in our bed and the pacifier incident, and we went back to the drawing board. I pulled out the hospital blankets that she'd slept so well in the two previous nights, and that is what we used to swaddle her.
Since then, she hasn't slept in anything else! We found the "magic recipe" and I'm scared to veer from it. The SleepSack Swaddles are awesome for daytime cuddles, though, I just swaddle her with her arms out and save the full swaddle experience for nighttime sleeping.
She still looks a bit yellow to me in those photos above, but that quickly went away with time and a little indirect sunlight.
That weekend we had some very close friends to come by and visit her. We also started making outdoor time a daily priority to help her get her days and nights figured out.
Drake has been amazing. After our first night in the hospital, Ian ran home with a ziplock bag containing a blanket and two hats she'd worn and left them around the house in areas where Drake frequents so that he could get used to her smell. He is so intrigued by her, and he gets cutely agitated when she cries -- he just wants her to be happy!
After doing Friday and Saturday nights as "just us," my mom joined us Sunday evening and stayed through Thursday. Having an extra set of hands allowed Ian to return to work and was incredibly helpful to me.
With Mom in town, we wrapped up our first week as new parents with folded laundry, an unloaded dishwasher, and considerably less baggage under our eyes.
Another plus is that my very talented Mom brought some adorable pass-down baby clothes for Camille that were worn by me and my sisters. She has an arsenal of gowns and bonnets that she made by hand.
We spend a lot of our days eating and doing diaper changes, so our little Camille is right on schedule! She was back up to her birth weight by one week and feeds about every 2 hours during the day and every 3 hours at night. Ian has been a great help to me and loves speaking to "Little Pea" in the cutest baby voice you've ever heard. I don't want to call him out on it because I'm afraid he'll stop!
I can't wait to share our birth story as well as some of our newborn favorites. But for now, this mama is going to take advantage of a post-feed baby nap and go shower!
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