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Saturday, April 10, 2010

One Week Old

I had hoped to start McKenna's Winnie the Pooh pics as soon as we got home from the hospital but that was a little ambitious given how busy that first week was! So her's are starting at week one instead!

(Austin's Pooh pics are taken in a diaper only, but I decided to do McKenna's in a white onesie. It just seemed more prudent to be more modest with a little girl! Tee hee)



New these first weeks...

Um...everything!

McKenna is a pretty easy baby so far! She not fussy at all - just cries for the usual stuff...food and if she's been awake too long. She does not like to have her clothes changed but she's getting more tolerant of it. She does have an impressive set of lungs when you do piss her off though! She's much louder and shriller than I remember Austin being.

She sleeps great! I really never thought I'd get another sleeper like Austin, let alone a better one! By one week she only gets up once a night. I woke her up the 1st several nights to feed her more but that was more frustrating for both of us since she just didn't want to wake up! So I started just letting her set her night schedule and at one week she would go 4 & 5 hour chunks before waking up and by two weeks she's up to 5 & 6 hour chunks! That's much more than I could hope for!! She's actually incredibly consistent for her one feeding too. Every night this week she's been within 10 minutes of 3:15. She has me trained! I wake up before she does and am ready to get her up when she starts to whimper. That way Austin is disturbed as little as possible. He woke up a couple times the 1st week but not at all the 2nd.

She doesn't like to be swaddled when she's awake, but really likes and needs it for sleeping. The only night she hasn't slept in her crib was before I realized how tight she needed to be wrapped up. That was a long night when we both slept on the couch! Now I'm getting my swaddling skills back and am doing a better job!

She's not as impressive as a pooper as her big brother was and I'm soooo thankful for that! I'm thinking there's a chance that I might not have to wash out every single outfit by hand! Little girl sure toots a lot though. Brian still calls Austin "Poops" and I have a feeling her nickname will be "Toots" for a while too. She's gonna love that when she's in high school!

She's a great little eater! I think that contributes to her sleeping so good. She's definitely getting enough milk during the day. She doesn't burb much though which is prolly why she's a tooter! Just like her brother, she doesn't spit up much either! Yay!

She looks so much different than she did when she was born. Brian is still convinced that she looks like Austin at this stage, but he's the only one. Austin was my little clone. McKenna definitely looks more like Brian. Everyone but Brian thinks so! She still has my nose and eye shape, but her face shape, cheek bones and other features are more Brian. She's got sweet little elf ears just like Austin, which I love! And it looks like she might have gotten Brian's eyelashes just like Austin. They're not quite as thick or long as Austin's were at this stage, but I thinking they'll get there. No use of those being wasted on boys only! She has long feet and big hands like Austin did too. Her eyes are blue-grey and I hope they stay that way. Austin's gradually changed to hazel by the time he was one.

She had two weight checks her 1st week. Monday we was down to 8lb 6oz but by Wednesday she had turned the corner and was 8lb 7oz.

She had two sets of blood work her 1st week too. Austin is hypothyroid so we're making sure to check her thyroid often. The newborn screening they do in the hospital came back with a TSH of 80. I think normal at that point is closer to 25! Monday's bloodwork showed she was down to 35, which is better but not great. That's still higher than Austin was. But her actual Thyroid hormone (T4) was in range, which Austin's wasn't. We saw the endocrinologist last Wednesday and he was optimistic that she'd settle into range. Last Thursday's blood work proved him right! All levels in the right range! We're praying it stays that way!

He ordered a thyroid scan for her last Friday anyway, just to double check structure and function. What a hard day for both of us!! They had to start an IV to inject the contrast dye. I couldn't imagine how hard it is to get a vein on a newborn and having watched it, I never want to have to go through it again! I held it together, but I wanted to scream right along with her! Unfortunately, they blew the vein when they injected the dye, so none of it traveled where it was supposed to and the scan wasn't helpful. Thankfully her dr has decided we'll do an ultrasound instead of repeating the scan! Phew!

She's such a sweet snuggler. She likes to be up on my shoulder with her feet tucked in. That usually calms her right down. A close second favorite is sitting upright with her back against your chest.

It feels like McKenna has been here forever! And it feels like just yesterday she arrived! I will never get my head around that contradiction of feelings!


1 comment:

Keisha said...

Glad her levels are in normal range now!! Praying it stays that way!!!!