Where has the time gone?

I thought my maternity leave was going to be a nice, relaxing time at home with my baby girl.  I thought I would be able to catch up on housework, get things organized, keep my blog updated, keep up on pictures...boy was I wrong!  Macy will be 5 weeks old tomorrow, I have had 5 weeks off work and I feel like I have been off about a week!  Christmas is a complete blur, did it really happen??  We have been so busy and I feel like we are just getting into a routine, barely...  So here is a little update of what I remember from the past 5 weeks!

When Macy was 4 days old we had to bring her to Children's Hospital Heart Center to have an EKG and an ultrasound of her heart.  While I was pregnant with her her heartrate was always very high and after she was born she had a murmur, so her doctor wanted to be sure that it was a normal murmur and nothing to be worried about.  Macy did really well hooked up to all those machines and in the end it was found that she had 2 small holes in her heart, but they are nothing to be worried about.  It's possible that one of the holes will close over time.  We go back when she is 2 months old to have her checked again.  Another thing that happened while we were here - they measured Macy and found that she was 18", but she was measured 21" at birth... so yeah, pretty sure that her length listed on her birth certificate is wrong.  At 3.5 weeks she is only 19.5 inches, oh well...

While we were at Children's we also had to go to the lab area to have her blood drawn to check her bilirubin levels since they had been elevated.  The results came back very high!  Her numbers went something like this from the day she was born 8.5 - 13 - 16.4, so they were rising, and rising pretty quickly.  It was determined at this point that she needed to have a biliblanket to help break down the bilirubin in her system, so a biliblanket was delivered to our house that night.  We hooked her up to the blanket and had to go back to the hospital on Saturday (the following day) to have her blood drawn again.  Let me tell you this - having blood drawn from your tiny little newborn baby is the hardest thing to watch!  And she had to have it done day after day.  So we stopped at the hospital on Saturday hoping for a real quick in and out visit.  First of all, we couldn't get to floor 3 where the Children's lab was.  No one mentioned to us that the Children's lab was closed on Saturdays.  After wandering around trying multiple elevators and not being able to get to the third floor we finally found some people to ask and found out that we had to go to the lab downstairs.. ugh!  Why do things have to be so difficult?  Her levels from this day were up to 17.8 - so she got to stay on the biliblanket for at least another day.  She ended up being on the blanket for almost a full week.  Finally on the following Wednesday her levels were starting to go down, so the doctor decided that she could come off the blanket.  Saturday was also the day of the Adams' Family Christmas - so after our adventure at the hospital we drove out to Ramsey to celebrate Christmas and let Macy meet the Adams' Family.  Christmas was a lot of fun and both Macy and Kara did great - thank goodness for Aunty Em keeping an eye on Kara for us!! :)

Macy in her biliblanket

At 6 days old Auntie Emily came out to our house to do Macy's first photo shoot.  Of course this is the day that Macy decided she didn't want to sleep, because we wanted a sleeping baby in pictures.  It's ok though, cause Emily got amazing pictures as always!

One of my favorite shots from the photo shoot

You can view all the images here

At 8 days old I had commented to Joe that I was so proud that we hadn't had to supplement any formula for Macy, she was 100% breastfed - which was huge cause I had some serious troubles breastfeeding Kara.  I was really proud of the fact that breastfeeding was going so well.  Yes, it was hard when she wanted to clusterfeed and be attached to me for hours at a time, but I knew that that was an important part of supply and demand, and I knew that breastfed babies should be fed on demand, so I dealt with it.  Then day 9 rolled around.  I had horrible chills to the point that I was shaking uncontrollably, my whole body ached, I felt completely miserable.  I would go from having the chills to being incredibly hot and sweaty, it was horrible.  After the second day of feeling like this I knew that I had mastitis.  Mastitis is what made me quit breastfeeding with Kara.  I got it when she was about 4 weeks old and it killed my supply, I tried for 2 weeks to build my supply back up, but it wasn't happening, so I gave up.  I was able to continue breastfeeding and pumping with Macy and made it through the 10 days of antibiotics and was still breastfeeding.  We did have to start supplementing with 1 or 2 bottles of formula a day, but for the most part she was getting breastmilk.  And then 1 week after finishing the antibiotics I started feeling really sick again, it came out of nowhere, but I knew instantly that it was mastitis AGAIN!  UGH!  This happened on a Friday night, I figured I would just call the on call Dr the next morning and get an antibiotic, well guess what, apparently the answering service for my doctor's office doesn't take messages on the weekend for prescriptions.. WTF?  They wouldn't let me leave a message, they told me I could go to the ER or wait until Monday.  I am still a little pissed about this and plan on talking to my doctor and the clinic manager, but I haven't had time for that yet.  I am almost done with my second round of antibiotics, and I'm really scared to be done with them, I just have this feeling that I am going to get sick again right when I come off them...

Other than all of the above, life has been great with two girls.  Macy is a great baby.  She really only cries when she needs a diaper change or needs to be fed, she sleeps good at night, she is just a good baby!  I really love the newborn stage, they are so cute and snugly, I could snuggle her all day long!

Kara is an amazing big sister.  When she came to the hospital to meet Macy she couldn't get in the room quick enough - she couldn't wait to hold her, it was adorable!  She loves to hold Macy, help me wash bottles, she brings Macy toys, blankets, pacifiers, etc..  She calls her 'her baby' and you can't just say that Kara is her sister, you have to say 'big sister'.  She does great with Macy, but has been acting out towards Joe and I.. for the most part she is good, but she definitely has her bad moments, which is to be expected I guess.

At 5 weeks post partum I have lost about 18 of the 50 pounds that I gained.  So now I get to try to lose 30 pounds, that should be fun!  I want to try to get into running again, I'm thinking I'll start the couch to 5k program as soon as I can.  I don't have a gym membership anymore, so I will have to run outside, and that's no fun when it's cold and icy.  Eventually I will get back into all my pre-pregnancy clothes, until then I will continue to wear the one pair of jeans that fit me every single day :)

Me and my lil babe

Joe will be laid off as of Tuesday.  It will be nice having him home more, but it will be hard living off two limited incomes.

Joe with Macy on her first visit to Surly Brewing Co. 

Macy in her Surly shirt