Thursday, October 17, 2013

our first night home

While we were in the process of being discharged from the hospital, I remember Eric and I agreeing that all we wanted to do was go home and cuddle in bed as a new family of three! We didn't get out of the hospital until mid afternoon so I called my mom and asked her to come the next morning. As we drove home I sat in the back because Mia was screaming bloody murder the whole drive home. Eric and I were super anxious, as you can imagine, especially being brand new parents. We had no idea how to console her. And I'll admit, I was dying a little inside because all the picture I'd seen of families leaving the hospital with their brand new baby, well, the baby was fast asleep in the car seat. Not Mia! We were afraid we'd never be able to take her anywhere! (No worries, Mia screamed the second time she was in her car seat but fell asleep as soon as we started driving. She's been a champ in that thing ever since!)
Once we got home I fed Mia and she calmed right down. We took turns cuddling her and made our game plan for the night! We wanted to be sure Mia go enough to eat so that she'd give us a few hours to sleep so we decided that I would feed her, and then we'd give her a bottle of infant formula. When the time came, she nursed like a champ (I think) and then we offered her the formula and she sucked it down! She ate almost the full 2 ounces! Eric took the bottle away because we realized that may have been too much for her tiny tummy but Mia was fast asleep as soon as the bottle left her lips. We tucked her in bed and climbed in bed ourselves. We literally high-fived each other thinking this was the solution to getting multiple hours of sleep :) We cuddled up real close, fed each others egos by praising our parenting abilities, proclaimed our love to each other (we were on a high thinking Mia would be out for hours) and closed our eyes to sleep.

BAM! Mia woke up screaming.

And she screamed the whole night (I think). We took turns with her. Walking around holding her, sitting down and cuddling her, giving her the bink, laying her in the bouncer, feeding her... I mean, we tried everything! I remember at one point asking myself why the heck I asked my mom to wait the next morning to come stay with us?? After hours of trying to get Mia to stay asleep, and needing serious sleep ourselves, we climbed in bed and Eric had Mia sleep on his chest. You see, before Mia I was SO against having kids sleep in our bed. We just weren't going to do it! As you can imagine, I felt like a major failure because we didn't even make it one night before bringing our baby to bed with us, ha ha (which is totally crazy because no that I can think straight? I say do whatever it takes to get sleep)! Those hormones, man! I think I got the most sleep that night since going into the hospital to be induced almost 4 nights earlier, which isn't saying much at all :)
Bear with me as I go back in time and try to recount all of my first memories with Mia. I didn't think to blog about it at the time, and I don't have documentation otherwise!
Mia's birth story
Nursing
Hospital story #1
Hospital story #2

20 comments:

carli said...

Love how honest you are about your first night home with Mia! I imagine I'll be exactly the same way when we have kids. I feel like I have all these ideas of how things should go, what I'd ideally like to do in a certain situation...etc. But then real life happens, and you just have to adapt! Sounds like you two did exactly the right thing by figuring it out as you went :) :)

Kimberly said...

With both my kids the nurses were always saying "She/he is such a good sleeper!" but as soon as we get home BAM! Horrible. I think next time I'm going to get a white noise machine since my bedroom is usually too quiet and they like the sound of a heart beat. But yeah, the first couple of nights are seriously the worst thing ever, especially since your body is exhausted and a wreck anyway. . .

RadiantKristen said...

What a tough first night! I can imagine how hard it could be to try to figure out a brand new routine for a brand new human. It seems like you got it all worked out, though!

Nicole [Haus of Harnois] said...

So fun to read about other mommies experiences. I remember with Eisley we had so many people over our first day home and I TOTALLY regret it. She was SOOOO over stimulated and basically slept all day and then slept TERRIBLY that night. Lesson learned! :)

Unknown said...

I've put mine in our bed around 6:00 to get a few more good hours in the morning. At that time though hubby isn't there so I feel more "safe" about it, LOL. But yes, I don't want babies in the bed either but you do what you have to do!

Julie said...

THat will be my biggest worry, taking the baby home - honestly! Good to hear that someone was honest about what happened at home :)

hello erin said...

Look at how LITTLE she is!! And lex screamed her first few times in the car too-- I thought we were doing it wrong the first time ;)

Lindsey said...

She was so tiny!!!! Adorable!! I love reading baby stories so keep it up, Mama!! :)

jessica said...

Haha Roland screamed the whole way home too - well almost. It was a 30 minute drive from the hospital and he decided to stop for the last two minutes.

Oh and I was against co-sleeping too. But before we left the hospital I just knew I was going to have to do it. He had a bit of reflux and gave us a scare one night while in the hospital so I did not want him out of arms reach.

I planned on doing so many things a certain way. And I think none of them worked out the way I planned. Haha but that's how it goes sometimes right?

Shawna said...

haha....my first nights home were horrible with both girls! My oldest was up all night and my husband and I took turns sleeping on the floor next to her bouncey seat so we could hold her paci in her mouth lol. My youngest slept a couple hours but the rest of the night I slept on the couch with her (horrible I know, but I was delirious! haha)

Brittany said...

Oh my gosh. This stresses me out, but I'm sure it's totally worth it! I love that you're taking the time to record all these memories. I think you'll be glad you did!

PMerr said...

That's pretty much how it was when we left! He cried the whole way home, then all night until we gave him a pacifier. He slept the rest of the night. Night 2 he got supplement and slept most of the night. Not easy coming home for the first time!

Dee Stephens said...

Good job Mama! I blogged during that time but didn't get into tiny details.
Honestly, we had it easy with Shelby for the most part. I think we had 3 nights to where she wouldn't go to sleep and that was it!

Sarah said...

wow, she looked so tiny...and adorable (still is adorbs, obviously!)

Anonymous said...

She looks so little and she is so cute!

Karina Marie Powell said...

Oh my gosh she is so tiny!!! You forget how small they are! Ryan totally screamed the whole night too. Look how far we have come:)

Karina Marie Powell said...

Oh my gosh she is so tiny!!! You forget how small they are! Ryan totally screamed the whole night too. Look how far we have come:)

Tiffany @ Austin Family Diary said...

Omg that's exactly how our first night was. I slept with Elliott on my chest on the couch. He slept the next day and then cried that night too. I remember turning on the hair dryer and that made him so crying-- I read about it in some book...my mom thought that was ridiculous but it worked!

Emmett Katherine said...

awww, she`s super cute and SO not loving the car seat in that picture!!!

Lindsey A said...

I wasn't super against Liam in our bed, it just wasn't the plan. Our first night as a family of 3 was spent in the living room, lol. I didn't know it then, but Liam has become a part of our bedroom routine. He usually doesn't wake until 5 or 6, but when he does, he cosleeps with us, because that's what works and gets us the most sleep. It wasn't in the plan, but it is what works. I think we all break our rules... at least I hope so =P.

Post a Comment

i admit it. i LOVE hearing from you!