Bristol is 1 Month Old!

Its hard to believe it has already been a month since our beautiful little girl joined our family, but it was a month on Wednesday!  I just wanted to wait to post until we had our 1-month well-baby check-up, which we had this afternoon.  Bristol is growing very well.  She now weighs 8 pounds, 4 ounces, is 21 inches long, and has a 14 1/8 inch head circumference.  This puts her in the 10th percentile for weight, between the 10th and 25th percentiles for height, and between the 5th and 10th percentiles for head circumference.  She's still pretty tiny, but she is growing very well, considering her weight dropped to 6 pounds, 6 ounces at 4 days after birth.  She is still wearing mostly newborn size clothes, but has been able to wear a few 3-month outfits that run a little smaller.  She's our little peanut.  :)
 
Bristol is such a joy to us.  We love to see her grow and develop her little personality.  Based on the way she was in the womb, I figured she would be demanding.  Turns out I was right, at least so far.  Kevin says she is dramatic, I say she is a diva.  But really she just knows what she wants, when she wants it, and she lets you know.  Which I don't think is a bad thing, really.  It means she is decisive and will hopefully continue this trait on and become a good leader.  :)

Bristol is developing well.  She loves to play and kick on her playmat.  She gets so excited when she is playing there and will start cooing and squealing.  Bristol is so strong, too.  Since her first week, she has held her neck up incredibly well for being so young and she is learning to control it already, though she still has a ways to go with that. :)  She really likes tummy time and can pull her knees up under her already and scoots around a good deal.  She is always rolling over onto her side from her back and tries so hard to roll from her tummy to her back. 

Bristol also loves her bouncy seat and loves to be read to and sung to.  She basically just likes to hear your voice at all times she is awake.  If you walk away for a second or get distracted and stop talking to her, she is likely to get impatient and let you know she is still there and wants your attention.  :)  Bristol tolerates the swing for a short time, but its not her favorite thing... it mostly makes her spit up.  ;)  She also is a big fan of cuddling and loves to be worn in the Moby wrap.  Sara wears her around quite often, both of them loving every second of it! 

Bristol has started to smile quite often and has begun to smile when she recognizes one of us.  Carson was the first to get a true smile out of her and he has definitely achieved the most smiles from her, too.  But Kevin and Sara have each gotten some good smiles, too.   Its just so sweet! 

We're still having some rash, poo, and reflux issues.  Poor baby girl has had an awful rash since her first week.  It turned into several raw spots quite quickly and still remains that way.  Her poo is quite runny and the pediatrician believes it may be acidic, which does not allow the rash to heal.  I still suspect the disposable diapers and wipes are a culprit, as well.  We had planned to begin using cloth diapers during her 2nd week, but can't make the switch while we're using the different diaper creams and prescription ointments on her rash.  We did stop using the disposable wipes at home now and it does seem to help.  Bristol no longer cries out in pain when we are cleaning her up, at least.  Even the sensitive disposable wipes seem to have been too much on her skin.  Since things aren't getting any better, I'm considering making the switch to cloth and forgetting all the ointments and creams and just using the cloth diaper safe stuff we have to see how things go.  I just hope it doesn't make it any worse. 

We are still trying to figure out what in my diet is causing her the runny poo, gas, and reflux, too.  At this point, I am avoiding all dairy, chocolate, caffeine, coconut, gassy veggies, and things with a lot of sugar in them.  But Bristol's poo is not improving.  Her gas is better, though.  But she still has the reflux, though it doesn't really phase her now.  So there have been some improvements.  If only we could get her poo to not be quite so runny/liquid. 

In spite of the poo, gas and reflux issues and her demanding temperament, Bristol really doesn't cry a lot.  She will get quite upset, very quickly, and gets very loud fast (she has her mama's temper, we think), but she also calms down very quickly once she gets what she wants.

So far, life with two kids is great!  Bristol has fit in almost seamlessly, really.  Of course, life is different (I am really missing my sleep - lol!), but its not as different as we/I expected it to be.  I was prepared for more acting out from Carson, feeling disconnected from Carson on some levels, etc.  But we haven't experienced much acting out at all, nor have I felt any disconnect, for which I am very grateful!   Maybe these things are still to come, but for now we are just rolling with it and enjoying life, trying to make the most of my maternity leave! 

This weekend Bristol will get to meet some of our extended family from Wisconsin.  They're coming to town for a family reunion out at Aunt Sharon's house.  Hopefully we all hold up well and are able to make it through the weekend of festivities. 

Bristol's Birth Announcement

The First Couple Weeks

The first couple of weeks of Bristol's life went by far too quickly for our liking.  Kevin was home with us for them and it just seemed like he had to return to work much too soon.  But you gotta do what you gotta do... and we did. 

Bristol had a lot of visitors during the first couple of weeks.  Lots of family and friends.  Grandma, Grandpa, and Carson were our first visitors in the hospital the morning after Bristol was born.  Carson was so excited to meet his little sister.  You could tell he was totally smitten with her immediately.  He was such a proud big brother and he just adores his sister. 

Carson stayed up at the hospital with us all day that first day.  Grandpa and Grandma went home in the morning and we were able to spend some time together as a family of four.  Carson was so well-behaved all day at the hospital and was just loving our new little family.  We all were.  :)   We had a lot of visitors on that first day... Great Poppy, Papa and Nana, Aunt Lindsay and Dave, Uncle Danny, Aunt Sharon and Uncle Reno, Uncle Jason, Aunt Julie, Anna, Joel and Jonah. 

On Tuesday afternoon around lunch time, the room we were staying in started leaking from the ceiling near the entrance.  So we were switched to a new room.  The new room was like a palace compared to the other rooms.  It was so huge, spacious, bright, and wonderful!  It had a whirlpool tub, even!  It is the old water birthing suite, I guess.  But it was so nice to be in such a beautiful room! 

Tuesday was a tiring day with all the visitors and trying to figure out breastfeeding and getting to know our little one, but we were so excited for everyone to meet Bristol, too.  She actually still did not have a name for the entire day.  We knew her middle name and last name, of course.  But we could not decide on a first name.  Throughout the day, we narrowed it down to Bristol, Liliana, and Harper.  By the time we went to sleep that night, we had narrowed it down to Bristol and Harper.  But we still had no idea what it would end up being.

On Wednesday, we had to decide on her name.  We ended up choosing Bristol.  It just seemed to fit her best and we both liked the name a lot.  We had just been hesitant to commit to it because we feared too much association with Bristol Palin... whom Kevin and Sara cannot stand.  But we figure our Bristol will make the name look good.  ;-P 

We were discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, just after lunch.  We were anxious to get home and get settled and to get Carson back with us!  He had spent Tuesday night with Grandma and Grandpa again so Kevin could stay at the hospital.  Sara was finding it slightly challenging/painful with the stitches to scoot in and out of the bed to get Bristol from her bassinet when she woke, so it was nice to have Kevin there to help out. 

We settled in at home pretty well.  The nights were rough at first, as Bristol had her nights and days mixed up, but that is pretty normal.  She's still adjusting now, but she's doing pretty well, I think.  We had lots of visitors during the first two weeks - Aunt Jeri and Uncle Mike; Kyle; Megan, Marty and Haleigh; Dianne; Great Poppy and Marion; Becky; Aunt Mary, Uncle Justin, Rebecca and Abram; Great Grandma Jackie; Lina, Sean and Vayla; Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Van; Uncle Chuck and Aunt Marcia; Bev and Brian; Aunt Ann, Michelle and Tyson.  And of course, Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Papa made several repeat visits during the first couple of weeks, too.  :) 

We are very fortunate to have such a wonderful family to welcome our little girl into.  We are so thankful for all of the love and support everyone has expressed towards us and her.  We couldn't ask for a better family and group of friends! 

We made quite a few trips to the pediatrician and hospital during the first couple of weeks, too.  At the 24-hour newborn screen in the hospital, Bristol's bilirubin levels were only 5.6.  When we went for our first pediatrician appointment on Friday, when Bristol was 4 days old, her bilirubin level was 14... which meant she had developed breastfeeding jaundice.  Most likely due to my milk not coming in until Wednesday night and not really fully coming in till Thursday afternoon.  So Dr. Akrawi wanted us to feed Bristol every 2 hours and to start supplementing 1 or 2 ounces after every breastfeeding... starting Friday afternoon and ending Sunday afternoon/after we got her bilirubin checked again.  After speaking with the lactation consultants, we decided to supplement with pumped breastmilk, rather than formula.  This meant that Sara was to nurse Bristol, then go pump immediately while Kevin fed Bristol 1 or 2 ounces of pumped breastmilk.  And we were supposed to start this routine every 2 hours... which meant by the time she finished feeding and then the bottle, Bristol had only 20-40 minutes "downtime" before having to wake her and start all over.  She handled it well at first, but eventually just was plain not hungry and was refusing to eat so soon.  It was an exhausting weekend for all of us, to say the least.  We went up to Hurley hospital on Sunday morning to have her bilirubin checked again.  It was still 14.  It wasn't coming down, but it wasn't going up either (which is very good).  We were able to stop the supplementing and return to nursing on demand, which was very much a relief.  We then had to go back to Dr. Akrawi's office on Wednesday to have it checked again - it was down to 12.  We went back the following Monday to have it checked again and it was down to 11.  We haven't had to go back to have it checked since it was going down steadily, but slowly. 

We also made some time for some fun stuff during Bristol's second week.  We wanted to make the most of our time together with Kevin home.  So we did some shopping, made a trip to a local park, played outside as much as possible, and did lots of swimming in our pool.  It was so fun and Bristol did awesome!