The Little Guy's First Week

Now that we have a baby, we have decided to join the 21st century and set up a blog as an efficient way to give family and friends the update on the little guy.

Andrew John was born on Sunday, June 10th at 8:42 a.m. He shocked us (and our doctor, who had predicted a 7.5 lb baby) by weighing in at 10 lbs, 4 oz and measuring 22 inches in length. There were a few bumps along the road during labor, including back labor, meconium present when my water broke and shoulder dystocia. The dystocia means that Andrew's shoulders became temporarily stuck on the way out due to his large size, and we found out after the birth that the medical team has to work quickly to get the baby out without permanent brain or nerve damage. Our doctor did an excellent job of getting Andrew out by working with one of the nurses to do something called the "corkscrew maneuver," which from my perspective seemed to involve a nurse pushing down very hard on my stomach to give some extra power to my push while the doctor rotated the baby.

We were very thankful that we had an amazing doula from Chicago Doula Care who guided us through the birth process. With her help, we were able to get through the labor without pain medication. Joe was also a huge support during labor because he was the only one who could apply sufficient counterpressure to my back during contractions to get me through the back labor.

In the week after Andrew's birth, we were initally beefing up his caloric intake with a supplemental nursing system ("SNS") because the hospital staff was concerned that he needed additional calories due to his large size. The SNS system involved significant extra work at feeding time and also required me to pump breastmilk after regular feedings, so we were relieved when Andrew had maintained a good weight for his first pediatrician's appointment and we were able to discontinue the use of the SNS and the pump. We are all getting more sleep now, which is great.

Things that surprised me during the first week (other than the baby's size) included that they let you go home from the hospital with very little instruction on what to do with the baby. I was also surprised by the noises the little guy makes when he is hungry--my favorite is a snuffling noise that sounds a little bit like a pig's grunts (in a cute way). We refer to it as snorking.

We had lots of visitors during our first week to help us welcome Andrew, including all of the grandparents, Uncle Andy, Uncle John, Aunt Annie, Uncle Dave, Uncle Will and Great Uncle Roger. My mom came and stayed with us, which was a huge help. We could not have made it through that first week without her! We have posted the pictures of AJ's first week here.