My little Memorial Day baby. She’s all of one week old today! Hailey is 6 lbs 9 oz as of yesterday and is just so teeny tiny! I’d forgotten how small newborn babies were. She looks so much like Rush did as a newborn. She was breech and refused the doctor’s efforts to turn her, so I was scheduled to have a c-section on Wednesday, June 1st (duedate was Sunday, June 5th). But my water broke very early Monday morning (why do babies usually come in the middle of the night?) so we went to the hospital and they delivered her later that morning. (Do you still say “delivered” if it was a c-section?) (Do I use parentheses too much?)
I’ve been recovering quite well from the surgery – better than I expected. I’m amazed at how I can be up and moving around most of the day. My pain is quite minimal and very manageable with the drugs they gave me. Jake was home all of last week while I was in the hospital and he’s home all of this week, too. (Yay for a good company with awesome benefits like paternity leave and insurance!! Do NOT take that for granted – we know all too well what it’s like to be without those things.) He’s a good sport being my chauffer (I AM on narcotics, after all), cook, maid, babysitter, and general go-to boy for whatever I need.
We were so lucky to have our friends the Wintertons staying with us on the exact night/morning I went into labor. They stayed with Rushton so Jake could spend the first night with me in the hospital, and then they stayed for the next few days to help/entertain Jake and Rush and to visit me and Hailey in the hospital. I’m glad they were there but I’m so sad I was in the hospital almost the whole time! Guess I’ll just have to go to Utah later this summer and make up the time I didn’t get with them while they were here. 🙂
Jake has better pictures on our big camera, but I haven’t gotten around to putting them on the computer yet. Be patient, I’ll get to them eventually. The ones of Rush holding Hailey are the best. So cute!
Since Hailey was breech, her hip sockets didn’t form correctly and she has a little click in her hip joints for right now. (For those of you unfamiliar with the term “breech,” that means she was sitting upright in the womb. Babies SHOULD be upside-down so they come out head-first.) So she wears this pavlic harness – the pink velcro strappy thing in the above photo – for up to 5 months and it’s basically a guaranteed cure. It’s actually pretty cute on her, wouldn’t you say?
Hailey is such a sweet little baby with a great set of lungs. Rush was a pretty mild baby and I don’t remember much intense crying, but Hailey wakes up at full siren almost every time. Luckily she settles down as soon as she starts to eat.
On a related note, I lasted nursing her for one week. It was so excruciatingly painful that last night, after sobbing for the first five minutes of one side, I decided I just couldn’t do it anymore. Bleeding, skin peeling off, feeling like endless needles and razor blades, aching ALL THE TIME… I worked with a lactation consultant, but it still wouldn’t work for who knows why. I’ll pump, but I just can’t nurse. I don’t know how I lasted the whole first year nursing Rushton because it was almost as painful, but this time I just can’t. I was devastated, but it is what it is and I know we’ll all survive. But enough about my boobs! (I just totally said “boobs” on my blog.) (And yes, I definitely use parentheses too much.) (But it’s my blog so I can do what I want!) (Boobs.)
Anyways, we love Hailey, we’re glad that she’s healthy and that she finally got here safe and sound, and we’re so grateful for the friends and family that helped get us to this point! After the last month and a half, I finally feel like I can start to breathe again.
