She's here!

Kylie Shaw Craig is here! Born December 8, 2011, 7oz 1lb, 21in. She is totally perfect. Everyone’s talking about her amazing hair, she’s completely healthy and she has the cutest long skinny legs.

I will eventually do a birth story post, but I’m more excited to record our first full day together. Our day started when they brought her back to me around 4am. The nurses gave me a fun surprise: a perfect mohawk! Her hair is even better when it’s clean and fluffy!

NURSING: I’ve been EXCITED all day, not just because I have a baby, but because nursing is going so well! It’s such a blessing and I’m so happy about it. She was not interested when she was first born, but I had two great nurses help me this morning. The first nurse and I struggled to get her interested, then she said that she’s never actually breastfed so she went to get someone who had (I loved that). And the second nurse got us going right away. I’m losing track a little bit, but as I’m writing this I believe we have nursed 6 times and almost every time has been 10 minutes on both sides! She latches on one side like she’s been doing it for months. I was having a little trouble with the other side, but the same first nurse from this morning was back again tonight and suggested I try the football hold. That has definitely helped – she said maybe Kylie has a soft spot that bothers her on that side. It does hurt, but lanolin definitely helps.

HER HEALTH: She swallowed a lot of gunk, but they got it all out and her blood work came back good! I am VERY glad that she doesn’t need an antibiotic and I don’t have to be walking back and forth to the nursery. And of course it’s best to have her in my room. Her temp was a little low for a while today, so we “had” to hold her constantly for a few hours wrapped in a ton of blankets. But she’s back up now. After the delivery, she did not need a diaper change all day. But sometime after 8pm she had 3 dirty diapers! (all for the nurses while I was sleeping haha!) They gave her a suppository anyway to help keep things moving.

MY HEALTH: Everything’s good – temp, blood pressure, etc. The nurses say my bleeding and swelling is pretty good considering I tore pretty badly. I’ve really been trying to mentally prepare myself for all of this – the pain of delivery, the sleep deprivation, the hormones. Um, I forgot to think about dealing with the trauma on my body. I will definitely be taking it easy for a while. For most of the day I was just taking Motrin, and they kept asking if I wanted a Percocet. I didn’t want to feel loopy or more tired, but I finally decided to take one to make showering easier. It made a huge difference in my pain. I’m really not too uncomfortable sitting in bed, but getting in and out of bed was difficult. It does make me feel funny and more unsteady on my feet, but it’s worth it at the moment.

PEOPLE: She has many facebook admirers and everyone is in love with the hair! It is, by the way, exactly like the hair I was born with. So maybe that means she’ll stay dark like me! We had 5 visitors today, and I’m kicking myself for not taking pictures. I do have one of Ashley that she took with her phone:

PERSONALITY: I don’t know what 1st day babies are usually like, but she has barely fussed at all. [added: the nurse that had her both nights said she is a particularly calm baby! whoo!] She loves being swaddled – fusses a tiny bit during the process, but calms down immediately. She always works her hands out of her blankets and holds them under her chin. She even worked off her hospital bracelet. She had a long period of awake time this afternoon and the other Ashley got her to take a binkie instead of sucking on her mitten. (would have been a good picture… bah! We should stage it later :)) She’s spit up a number of times – and always lets us know – but calms down immediately. She hasn’t christened either one of us yet, but she got a nurse. :) She is a very good sport while being burped and waiting for me to get situated when we switch sides. My best trick so far to keep her awake while nursing is tickling her ear, which makes me laugh. She makes super cute noises when she sleeps and sticks her tongue out a lot. We know she won’t always be this easy, so we’re definitely making sure to enjoy it!

I haven’t taken a ton of pictures, because she was in her cocoon most of the day. But this is my favorite one that I took this morning:

So far we’re thinking Josh’s chin, forehead, and nose and my eyes and hair. But everyone says something different!