Sawyer - 1 Week Old

This past week has kind of been a blur.

The hospital stay was pretty nice. I was really impressed with Hoag. I had two nurses who were wonderful and I was so thankful they were so nice and caring. The food people were a little annoying though! They kept bugging me for my menus when I just wanted to rest. The food wasn't bad though. I didn't realize how sore I would be and how hard it would be to move around afterwards though, so that was a shock.

Since I had gestational diabetes, they had to test Sawyer's sugar levels every few hours. They came in our room every few hours and pricked his heel. It made me so sad because he would do that silent scream, where he was crying so hard, barely any noise would escape and his face would turn bright red. He ended up having a few low scores, so we needed to stay an extra day for monitoring. Everything is fine though; it was just precautionary.

My hospital is big on breast feeding, which is great, because I planned on breast feeding. Sawyer decided to refuse my right side though. We had help from the lactation consultants and they ended up saying he just wasn't comfortable on that side, but to keep trying and eventually he would take it. Since we started feeding doing skin to skin, which is his bare skin against mine, he will only eat that way now. He will fuss until I have my belly exposed for his skin to touch me! Hopefully this changes as he gets better at eating.

Our last night at the hospital, Sawyer developed jaundice. This is pretty common in babies period, but more so with breast feeding and gestational diabetes babies. They had to take so much blood from him! We had to return to the hospital on Sunday for more blood work. His pediatrician ended up calling us that day and said he wanted Sawyer to do photo therapy for the jaundice which consisted of being on biliblankets all day. The biliblankets are these two paddle type things that strap around his body; one on his back and one on his belly. They glow a blueish color and give off a little heat, like a heating pad, because he has to be naked under them, except for the diaper. We call him our little glow worm! The lights cause him to have diarrhea, which is how the biliruebens come out, I guess. We had to go to the hospital for blood work each day to check his bilirueben levels and on Thursday, we went to the doctors who informed us that his levels had dropped, so we could stop the photo therapy on Friday! We absolutely love his pediatrician! He has been so friendly and very hands on, making personal calls to us and even on the weekend.

Sawyer has been a pretty good sleeper so far, at least in my opinion. He eats between 11pm and 12pm and then sleeps until about 4am or 5am and then sleeps again until about 7am. This isn't too bad for me, but Ian is having a hard time with it, because he has to wake up at 5am for work and if Sawyer wakes up earlier than that, Ian is up too early and has lost sleep.

We tried taking photos of Sawyer and he has been my hardest baby yet! I like to do them within a few days of birth, because the baby is still curled up and sleeps soundly enough to be moved around without waking up. Well, we got a late start because of he needed to be in the biliblanket and then he got a clogged tear duct and looked like he was in fight! Not pretty for pictures. When we finally tried, he cried because he was cold as soon as we got his clothes off. We ended up needing to use a portable heater to blow warm on him while he was naked! Then he peed all over himself and that would wake him up. When we would finally get him back to sleep, it would start all over until we lost the light and couldn't take pictures anymore. I am hoping he will cooperate soon, because I have so many ideas I want to try out, plus I want some neat photos of my baby!

Ian has been so awesome this week. I couldn't have asked for a better husband and father for Sawyer. He helps as much as he possibly can and hasn't complained once! He offers to change diapers and actually wants to. He is so sweet and talks to Sawyer whenever he is holding him. He always wants to feed Sawyer from a bottle too, so that he can do it. He has been the one to worry though, which is so cute! He is always worried about if the baby is breathing or what each cry means. He is going to be such a great dad and I can't wait to watch him grow as a dad!

Some cute things that I want to remember:

• Sawyer's loose skin all over his body - we call it puppy skin, because it is wrinkly and loose just like puppies!


• When he gets frustrated, he shows his top gum and throws a quick huffy puffy fit.


• He really likes the green hospital pacifier and throws a fit without it, but looses it quite often.


• Likes to have his hands up by face when he sleeps.


• Also grabs his face when he throws a fit, which has resulted in many scratches.


• He has a bald spot on his right temple area that has no hair; it may be a birth mark.


• He is a wiggle worm, just like when he was in my belly.


• He has milk breath and it is such a precious smell.


• And of course, his ultra soft skin and hair.