Samantha Lavay’s Story Part 2 Meet My Baby

Sammy entered the world with a brief scream that let us know her lungs were just fine, but after that brief moment passed, she eased into a calm she has rarely left.

After our mommy meets baby snuggle, she was taken by the nurses to be examined. They cleaned her up a bit while my midwife took care of me. Once Sammy was given a clean bill of health, she was weighed and measured. At 8lbs, 1 oz and 20.5 inches she wasn’t my biggest baby but she was by far not my smallest either.

After the nurses were done with her, we all played pass the baby. Sammy was alert and calm, doing her damnedest to hypnotize us all with her eyes and charm. It wasn’t a hard battle on her part. We were all immediately hooked. My sister, who was there for the event, was able to get her hands on fresh baby for the first time and she fell just as hard as the rest of us.

After a couple of hours in recovery, Sammy and I were taken up to our room. Once there Pat and I were briefed on a few things and then Sammy was given her first sponge bath. Along with this, Sammy treated us with what her lungs are fully capable of. It is safe to say, she does not enjoy being naked and wet.

Once clean, she was dressed and wrapped up, and we treated her to her first bottle. My daughter is an excellent eater. She can down her food quickly and burped with ease!

Soon our family was allowed into the room and we all visited. A little later in the evening, after family left, my best friend Stacy and her momma came. The next couple days were filled with visitors. Lots of my family in and out. But also my adopted mom Brenda came for awhile on Wednesday. Everyone agreed that my baby was pretty much perfect.

So, her personality? Pretty damn sleepy. In the hospital, I was supposed to feed her every 3-4 hours, like clockwork. That was fun. I had to literally force her awake for each feeding. And that was no small task. At one point, Brenda and I had to literally torture her for an hour and a half to try and wake her up. It’s pretty funny looking back. At the time I was well aware that I had a nurse waiting to hear she had eaten. Which, really is kind of annoying. But I do understand it is their job to make sure she is healthy and can eat, poop, pee, etc. So it’s very important for them to track all that stuff. But at the time I was highly annoyed to be forcing my baby awake at 3 AM to feed her when with her being my 3rd, I was well aware when she was hungry she’d wake on her own. I was very glad to get home, in those respects. Even the “instruction guide” sent home by the nurses agreed to let her sleep at night until she woke on her own. Not that I needed their approval.

Once we got home, she settled down into a bit of a routine. She still slept, I’d say 20-21 hours a day, but during the day she would wake every 4 hrs or so for a bottle, and at night every 2-3 hours. I wish it was reversed, but at night she was going right back to sleep, so I couldn’t complain too much. During the day, most of the time she goes right back to sleep, but we could usually count on her staying awake after a couple of bottles for an hour or so before passing back out. Overall, catching a glimpse of her eyes is pretty rare.

Now, in the past 24 hours, there has been a slight change in her schedule. I’m not entirely sure where it’s headed. 2 nights in a row, she’s struggled going back to sleep after one of her late night feedings. In both cases, there was a period of roughly 2 hours where she wasn’t screaming but was definitely fussy. It doesn’t seem to be an “I’m awake and don’t want to sleep” issue, though. So I’m not entirely sure what’s the matter. I think last night’s issue might have been gas bubbles, actually. Plus also possibly an increase in appetite. Every now and then she wants more than her standard 2oz. Either way, at not even a week old, she’s allowed her moments of being complicated. During the day yesterday, she was awake more frequently, to demand a bottle, and then right back to sleep. Though overall, she was borderline fussy. Now, mind you, when I say fussy, it is in NO WAY comparable to your average fussy baby. But for a baby who usually sleeps 20+ hours a day, she was fussy by her own standards.

I’m starting to think the issue might maybe be gas bubbles. For the first 4 days, she burped with ease every half oz like clockwork. If after a few minutes, if that, of burping her she didn’t burp, then she honestly didn’t need to. We seem to have reached a point where she’s no longer as easy to burp and where we use to be safe to assume there was nothing to bring up, we now need to persist. I think once we get that squared away, we might be back to a less fussy state.

So, speaking of burping issues, what about spitting up? She doesn’t. Well, she has. Exactly 3 times. The first was about 5 minutes after I twitter bragged my baby never spits up. The second was random. The third was late night, I was topless, had forgotten the burp cloth, and said “Fuck it, she doesn’t spit up anyways.” Sure enough, right down my bare shoulder. Luckily she had only eaten half an oz at that point so it wasn’t like it was much. Or the first time I’d been spit up on. But needless to say, Murphey’s Law applies to my child. (Which means that now that I’ve typed this, she is due for a massive belly unload.)

The routine we are trying to establish, though the feeding and sleeping itself is of now baby led, is that during the day she is upstairs with us surrounded by noise and light so that we can encourage the concept of daytime is playtime. At night, she is downstairs in the dark with me where it is quiet and peaceful. When she wakes for a bottle I change her, feed her, and then put her right back in her crib so she can sleep. If she doesn’t go back to sleep and fusses instead, I tend to her by checking her diaper, giving her her binkie, turning on her mobile, etc. If enough time passes, or she’s acting hungry, I’ll go ahead and offer a second bottle. But overall I try to make it brief so that I can encourage her sleeping and not “playing” at night. Luke had day and night confused for a while when he was this age, so I’m trying very hard to prevent it with Sammy. The trick is, since she sleeps all day and night, I have no idea where this is headed.

On a final note, there is one other aspect of my baby, I’ll mention. Only because it leads to a funny story. My daughter is a very good pooper. I mean, almost every diaper change is a poopy one. She poops mid-change. She can sense a clean diaper within minutes and proceeds to fill it. She poops. A lot. So one afternoon, I’m changing her diaper while being observed by the boys, who are pretty much all up in her business no matter what she is doing. During the diaper change, I called her my affectionate little nickname I have for her: Princess Poopy-Pants. To which Thomas chimed in, “Is that her nickname? Princess Poopy-Pants?” To which I informed him that only the person changing her pants is allowed to call her that. So he then, of course, followed it up with, “So when do I get to change her pants?” Uh… I think it’s possible calling her that in front of her brothers may have been a mistake.

Overall though, at 6 days old, even with her brief periods of fussy as of late, she is overall a very sweet, sleepy, warm, soft, cuddle bug. I’m pretty sure we have all decided she is a keeper.

2 thoughts on “Samantha Lavay’s Story Part 2 Meet My Baby

  1. She might actually beat Luke in that. He was a great cuddle bug. But he was awake more than like 3 hours in the day.

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