The First Few Weeks

The first few weeks were a blur. Penny is a very good baby, but it was still overwhelming since everything was new! What got me the most was my own recovery though. Man oh man, I would rather go through labor 10 times than go through recovery again! It was really rough. I think in part because I didn't really prepare myself for it, I was just focused on the whole getting the baby out thing!

My mom came out right after Penny was born and stayed a whole week. It was fantastic! I honestly don't know what we would have done without her and I cried so hard when she left! It was scary being all alone with a new baby!

The first week we had to deal with Penny's jaundice level being too high. We took her into our clinic on Sunday, the day after we went home from the hospital, to have her level checked again. It was sad that her heel had to get pricked at only three days old, but the results came back a bit lower than when we were in the hospital (at 11 instead of 12. They hospitalize at 13)! Our doctor told us to get her in sunlight as much as we could and we'd check it again the next day at her appointment. So again at four days old we took her to a doctor appointment. She was supposed to get her heel pricked again to check the level, but our doctor finished her examination and told us that she could tell her levels had dropped dramatically (no more than an 8 she said) and that we didn't need to prick her heel - she was fine! Yay!

Other than the jaundice, everything was pretty smooth with Penny. We had so many people give us such great baby gear, especially Katy who gave us a rock n' play and swing (among a lot of other things) that were total life savers! Penny basically won't sleep in anything that isn't "cozy" and moving (aka her bassinet!). My mom helped a lot at night so Steve could sleep enough to function at school. I spent most nights out on the couch with the rock n' play next to me because it was just too hard to get out of bed every hour or so to take care of Penny - sleeping on the couch made it a little less traumatic to get up! :)

Stats:
Four day checkup:
6 lbs 6 oz (doc came in saying "how about that weight gain?!" - they just want them to be back to their birth weight after two weeks - Penny was one ounce off at four days!)

Two Week:
6 lbs 14 oz
20.25 in
13.5 in head circumference

Pics aren't in order (don't even want to mess with that right now), but here's the overload:

Snuggling on the couch right after we got home

First walk!

I love those bright eyes!

Baths were kind of traumatic for everyone at first - this is how we'd get her to calm down afterwords.

So cute even when she's sad!

After her two week doctor appointment - her heel was pricked for genetic tests

First pacifier

She fell asleep like this on my lap while we watched TV

She's a big finger sucker.

Getting her vitamin D

Penny never wanted to lay her head on Steve's chest, she just wanted to stare at him all the time!

This pic just makes us laugh!

Out in the sun for her jaundice - 3 days old!

Newborn pic!

Mom took her out in the sun one day and she came back in completely passed out! I LOVE this pic!

8 days old!

Apparently this is the outfit that Grammy brought Randy home in when he was born!

Hi Matt and Alexa! 3 weeks old.

The only way Steve could get little P to sleep one day.

Trying out her bottle for the first time at 3 weeks. She took it no problem!

1 Month!