Ava's First Four Nights

Ava's first night was spent in the hospital nursery. Yes Avester, your parents handed you off. We were beat. We tried to trade an hour watching over you, but we couldn't hack it. I was so afraid of breaking the little Ava that I watched her the whole time. After 36+ wonderful and dramatic hours we needed some sleep. Ava got some formula her first night. We got some sleep.

The second night we sent Ava off to the nursery as well. But we had the nurses bring her back at 3:00AM for some breast feeding. With Heather's milk not yet here and Ava a little picky about her latching on we decided to supplement with some formula. The formula is easy food. Formula has a big, long, synthetic nipple with dreamy flow. Ava loved it. We were a little delerious about the whole 3AM thing. It was a shock.

The third night was Ava's first at home. We put her into the Pack 'n' play next to the bed on my side. I watched over her like a hawk. Worried about her temperature. About her suffocating. About her feeding. About her hands being too tightly swaddled. About her choking. You name it, I worried about it. I was exhausted, but I stayed up. She was a little fussy, but we weren't sure why. From midnight until 3:00AM she was crying a good bit. At about 2:00AM I took her into the nursery to let Heather get some sleep. At 3:00AM we did another feeding, but she was still fussy. By 5:00AM she had settled in. By 5:00AM I was wide awake for some reason. So I got little sleep, but I learned about Ava.

By mid-day on the 13th (yesterday) we realized that Ava hadn't pooped in about 22 hours. We weren't sure why but assumed it had something to do with her feeding. We've had her on a three hour feeding schedule which generally stretches to 4.5 hours or so. We were feeding her 1oz of formula and she was getting a little colostrum from the breast feeding, but not much.

So I went online and did some reading. We should be feeding her 2.5oz per pound of body weight per day. That's the guideline. Which boils down to 2.1 oz per 3 hours for Ava.

Doh!

Sorry about that Avester!

For the last two evening feedings we increased to some colostrum and 2 oz of formula. She was more content after feedings. And last night she rocked two massive poops. Good work Ava! It's tough having parents like us.

Her fourth night (last night) was wonderful. We fed her at midnight... a proper amount now. She slept in the pack n play next to the bed. I woke her up at 3:30AM and fed her, finding a big poop surprise. Yay! Heather and I had agreed that Heather would sleep through the night feeding but I woke her up to give her the good poop news. After that Ava slept solidly until 7:00AM.

We knew that she'd be perfect once we got the nutrition plan working. She is. At this point any sleeplessness is caused by my own fears. My confidence level in Ava's ability to survive is growing. I'm not yet able to just sleep when I'm on Ava watch. But I can nap a little. Ava's not crying... I'm fretting. And I'm fretting less and less each night. I'm sure there will be good and bad nights, but it looks like the general trend is for Ava to be a perfect little baby!

I'm tired, but it's self-induced right now.