Caroline's First Two Weeks

After spending a couple nights in the hospital, we went home on Thursday, October 1st. Sirron and I were anxious, about going home, but Caroline was so well behaved that we did not foresee any problems...

Our first night home was quite the experience. Mind you, Caroline had been sleeping in the nursery at night in the hospital, so Sirron and I hadn't gotten the complete experience until we were all alone. Nobody slept much at our home that night.

After that first night, the three of us developed a routine, and things went, and have gone, much smoother. Friends and family came throughout the day for the first week to see Miss Caroline, and we are so thankful for everyone who was able to come out. For the vast majority of our guests, Caroline slept. We are so thankful that we were able to get on an eating schedule of every 2-3 hours, and this schedule has typified our first two weeks. Originally, we had to wake her, but after a week or so, the majority of the time, she wakes on her own when it is time to eat.

She began eating one ounce per feeding, and quickly moved past that. At one week we were at 2 ounces, and have since moved to 2.5 at two weeks. We never had any problems taking a bottle. Caroline's hospital checkout weight was 5 pounds 13 ounces, a loss of 3 ounces since birth. At our 1 week checkup, she weighed in at 6 pounds 6 ounces.

Her favorite activity to date has been sleeping. We had to wake her up, during the day and night, to feed for the first week. This made the nights very pleasant. We kept her swaddled nearly at all times, as it seemed to comfort her. When she is not swaddled (diaper changing and feeding), she uses her hands a lot and keeps them around her face. We went through about 8-10 diapers a day the first week, and picked it up a bit to 10-12 a day for the second week.

Caroline has proved to be quite the Razorback fan. She watched her first two games with me (both wins), and when I get excited and jump around and yell, she also jumps and flails her arms and legs, strikingly similar to her reaction when startled.

Her least favorite activity has been bathing, and it was an adventure for Sirron and me. We got through the first one, but it was the first time that we heard Caroline flex her pipes and really scream. The next couple weren't quite as bad, but we still have a long way to go before baths are pleasant.

With a 10 hour car trip to Alabama coming up at the end of the week, our only indication as to how she would ride was the trip to the doctor's office on Tuesday, and she slept, literally the entire time she was in her car seat. We knew that we wouldn't be so lucky as we headed out Friday morning. The weather was awful...torrential rains fell for the first four hours of our trip, during which we only traveled 150 miles. Caroline slept almost the entire trip. We stopped several times along the way to change her and feed her, and she either had started to wake up at the time we were about to stop or we had to wake her. She traveled so well, and it was the toughest trip (elements-wise) that either Sirron or I have made yet, and took a total of 13 hours.

Sirron and Caroline will be with me in Alabama for the remainder of Sirron's maternity leave, and I will be bringing them home the first weekend of November. It was so great being home. Getting to see all of our family and friends made it that much better. Again, we are thankful to everyone who came to see us, who cooked for us, and did so much more.