Veronica's first swim

HAS IT REALLY BEEN 7+ WEEKS??

Wow.

My goal was to start documenting Veronica’s life month by month… but funny thing this whole being a ‘mom’ thing-- there’s not much time in the day for everything you want and need to get done! When you feed your baby 8x/day (which pretty much equals 8 hours/day with feeding and pumping), feed the dogs 2x/day, walk everyone 4x/day… you quickly run out of the 24 hours.

Sooo that said, here’s a rundown of my past 7 weeks:

Weeks 1 & 2 V is definitely your typical newborn, and we are officially new parents! After spending 4 days recovering at the hospital due to my emergency C-Section, I’m now looking down the road to 6 weeks until full recovery. My mother in law flies in from Ontario and stays with us for 2+ weeks to help us get settled in & takes care of most of the cooking, cleaning & dog walking so that Brad & I can get some sleep and just adjust to being new parents.

Our main job is to keep an eye on V’s jaundice & get the yellow out of her skin & eyes by pumping her full of fluids to get her liver working. Unfortunately the day after we are discharged from the hospital we get a call that we have to go back to the hospital ☹ overnight to put V under the UV lights because her bilirubin levels were way up which meant her jaundice wasn’t improving on it’s own. I was a bit panicked about how she would react to the session, but turns out she LOVED it in the little incubator! A real sun baby for sure. Not like her mother!

Our other job is to get V back up to her birth weight. Babies always lose up to 10% of their birth weight during the first couple of days, so the goal is to get them back up to their birth weight during the first 10-14 days (especially important when jaundiced). V dropped from 7lbs 7oz, to 7lbs 1oz, (well within the 10%) but to make sure her liver starts to function properly they made us supplement my breast milk with formula, which I was a little upset with at first. It’s really important to both Brad and I to raise V on breast milk, and I didn’t want to have to use formula at all… however after discovering the peace of mind I had after watching her down 30ml of formula in a few hungry gulps, I decided that maybe the whole bottle / supplementing with formula thing was OK ☺

I started doing a combination of breast feeding, pumping and formula feeding to top up my milk production, but also so that Brad could join in the fun & bottle feed her. (It is really nice to see your husband cuddle and love your baby…) It’s also nice to physically see in a bottle how many ounces your baby is getting, so you can eliminate hunger when she starts to cry and get you on a good feeding schedule. (PS. The other great thing about getting to use stored breast milk & formula as back up? Wine. I can have WINE!!)

I didn’t know this before, but Public Health nurses make home visits after delivery to check up on the moms! Pretty cool. So the nurse comes to visit and weigh V and she is gaining weight and is looking less yellow & doing MORE than great! Within 2 weeks she is 8lbs 1 oz! There was some concern about one of her kidneys so she has an ultrasound at 2 weeks but turns out all is fine.

Week 3 & 4 Mom-in-law leaves Brad & I on our own, and I’m grateful he’s here to help with dog walking and night feedings. We spend lots of time visiting all of our friends & showing off our baby girl to all of her various aunties & uncles around town… we also spend some much deserved patio time at our home-away-from-home the Hurricane Grill!

Week 5 Brad goes back to work and reality hits… I’m suddenly on my own with our baby & 2 dogs. I lovingly start referring to us as the “Mear Family Circus” and everything I do takes at least an hour longer than it used to! Not to mention I discover the stroller does NOT fit in the trunk of our car so it now sits in the front seat… for the record, we are getting a new car. ASAP.

Also this week one of my best friends, Sarah Bannister, throws us a ‘meet & greet’ shower at her place in North Van & Little Miss V is spoiled rotten! I can’t wait until she fits into all the cute stuff she has to wear!!

Week 6 Brad is still at work and I’m adjusting pretty OK to walking the dogs with the stroller, but luckily they start doggy daycare 2 days/wk. V starts to have some unexpected, inconsolable what they call‘Purple’ crying fits, and is having more & more “awake time”… especially in the evenings. This is particularly awesome ‘cuz Brad gets to come home after a 12+ hour workday to a screaming child when he just wants to cuddle her. However, after much research I learn that she is right on track for newborn development & apparently the crying fits will become less frequent within the next month… we just have to get through these next few weeks.

Also this week we take the ‘circus’ on a 2-day trip to Ucluelet to visit my mom’s ashes at Black Rock, introducing her to Veronica, & to say goodbye to Auntie Christina who is moving back to Ottawa this month. ☹

Week 7 V is holding her head up more and more! And her standing / step reflex is kicking in. AND she is having more awake time & is an absolute angel… 90% of the day ;p She will be 8 weeks old on Thursday, 2 months on the 29th, and on Saturday I get to finally have the baby shower I missed because V was born so early! My mom’s best friend Karen Sundstrum is hosting it at her beautiful house in West Van which should be fun. Brad finishes work this week and we get him back for 3 weeks before his next contract ☺ We have some vacation time planned in Victoria & Penticton early July which will be so nice. She’ll get to meet some more of her extended family.

Bad news is that unfortunately our puppy Petunia has to have knee surgery on both her back knees this week and will be in casts… **sigh**… ah well… that is yet another adventure for yet another blog. ;p

All in all—I’m extremely grateful for many, many things. I’m grateful for the generous gift we received of pre-natal classes that helped prepare us for delivery & parenthood; I’m grateful that I got to spend 4 days at ‘hospital boot camp’ before being sent home on my own; I’m grateful that I have been told I’m a candidate for a C-Section & get to skip that whole awful labour thing for my next pregnancy; I’m grateful for public health nurse home visits; I’m grateful that my mother-in-law was able to come visit us & help for so long; I’m grateful for all of my supportive & loving family & friends; I’m grateful for my husband’s ability to provide for his family & be a loving father; I’m grateful for soothers & breast pumps & diaper genies & baby swings & vibrating chairs … but mostly I’m grateful for this amazing gift of a new life with my beautiful, healthy baby girl.

Veronica Vogues