Life With The Lobdell's: Our First Month At Home!!

After we came home from the hospital on Thursday May 31st (my due date) we were scheduled to go see our pediatrician on Saturday. After thinking a lot of who we wanted to use I am so happy we chose Dr Dudgeon at Greenvale Pediatrics. It is downstairs from my office so very convenient and they are open on Saturday and Sunday. Of course your doctor is not always on call but someone is there. For our first visit we saw Dr Stone because he was on call. He was very nice. Harper was not a fan of the doctor. Good thing we packed our diaper bag good. On our first doctors visit we went through like 4 diapers, 2 bibs, and 3 outfits. We were struggling. At the end of our appointment we found out that his billirubin was a high. The doctor told us that it was the day that it is normally peaking so he was okay with it even being 12 but it came back and was 15. He said he would just do nothing since it was in fact the time that it is at its highest but he didn’t want to get us back in the next day to check it in fear it be 24, which would take much longer to get back down. I knew that everything would be fine and everything but I had a breakdown after the doctor left the room. I did not want to not be able to hold him except to change and feed him while he was on the light. Of course Trevor was super supportive and even though I am the nurse and supposed to be telling him it will be fine the roles were reversed. So…we ended up having to get a nurse to come to the house after we got home to set up the billi light. Harper did pretty good on it during the day. I think I did worse than him. When it came night time he decided he had enough of laying flat on the light. He cried and cried for a long time. Finally after going back in forth we decided to take him out and let him sleep on us for a little while. It wasn't my plan but he ended up sleeping on me for around 3 hours before I put him back in. After that he was fine. The nurse came back on Sunday morning and checked his blood work and weight. He was down to 6lbs 13oz. She told us he would probably be on the light at least one more night. To both of our surprise, when she called us back with the results they were so much better that she said we no longer had to use it. We were the happiest parents in the world.

The next week he did pretty well waking up every two to three hours to eat but not sleeping great. I am breastfeeding and my milk had not come in good yet. We were supplementing some with formula after I would feed him, due to him being hungry. We did his newborn pictures with Michelle Schnader that week. You can see that post HERE. That weekend Trevor left to go to Mobile to play in his state tennis tournament. He left early Friday morning and did not come home until dinner on Sunday night. My mom stayed with me for the weekend and helped out a lot. We went on an outing each day Friday and Saturday. We just went to buybuybaby and Kohl’s one day and Walmart and Target the other day. It was nice to get out of the house for a couple of hours. He did very good both days on our outings, slept the whole time.

He started getting really fussy all the time during the day the next week. He wasn’t really sleeping at all during the day. If he wasn’t nursing he was screaming. It got pretty rough. After him crying all day that Monday and half a day Tuesday I decided to call the doctor. They wanted us to come in so we brought him in that Wednesday. They said they thought it was colic and reflux. The good thing was, he was doing good on his weight. He was up to 8lbs 4oz a pound up from his birth weight in 2 1/2 weeks. They said they could do testing on him or they could just give him zantac that was safe and see if it would work for him.

After starting the medicine he did well for about 5 days. Trevor’s Aunt and Cousins came in town from Atlanta to see him on this weekend. Harper and I met them at his parents house on Saturday to visit and eat lunch. We really appreciated you guys driving to meet him. On Sunday we went to watch daddy play in the Hoover tennis tournament and he slept the whole time we watched. Apparently he enjoyed sitting in the shade when it was 100 degrees outside. At least we had some company to sit with. His parents came and my friend Lindsey and her daughter Aniston. Lindsey’s husband Jason was Trevor’s tennis partner. After they got finished we went to lunch.

The next Monday he started crying a lot again when not feeding. You could tell he was exhausted just wouldn’t give it up. After doing that for two days I found out that I was not producing the amount of milk he was needing. We would give him pumped milk and he was great but when I would feed him he wasn’t satisfied. After lots of help from two consultants and a friend (thanks Allison) I tried to do a few things to help me produce more. My life has been consumed with pumping when not feeding him. Not fun but I have tried. We will see how everything works out. Since I have figured that out he has done so well. He is like a normal newborn now.

Over the past few weeks we have had so many sweet visitors and dinners from great friends and family. My mom and Trevor’s mom have been awesome too. They have cleaned our house twice since he has been here. We could not have asked for more love and support. Thank you everyone!!