Unlike the first few months with Aaron, the time with Averie has gone by way too quickly – I’m in shock that she’s already 10 weeks old!  We were blessed with an even chiller, more easygoing kid the second time around, and I’m definitely grateful for that.  Here are some highlights of Averie’s first month:

• After an interesting l&d with some unexpected drama, we came home with a very sleepy baby.  Because my milk took a few days to come in, she was super hungry and wanted to nurse constantly, to no avail.  I felt horrible and gave her some glucose water here and there to take the edge off, but in retrospect I wish I gave her some formula instead of torturing her with hunger pains.  She cried and fussed a lot until my milk finally came in the next evening (hooray!)
• 3 days after coming home, we went for our first pediatrician visit to find that her jaundice was getting worse, so the doctor sent us to the hospital for light therapy.  We stayed for 24 hours, where she stayed under the lights constantly except when nursing, changing her diaper, or getting her heel pricked to check her bilirubin levels. I heard that most babies fall asleep under the lights, but she hated it and cried most of the time she wasn’t in my arms.  Needless to say, neither of us got much sleep during our stay and we both conked out as soon as we came home.
• After the jaundice subsided and she got enough milk, she went back to sleeping a ton with 2-3 brief wakeful periods a day.  She was so good that sleep deprivation wasn’t a big problem for me as it was with Aaron when he was this age.
• She did however, eat a TON and wanted to nurse at least every 2 hours, sometimes every hour, which was exhausting.  Fortunately, she was able to go for slightly longer stretches at night, sleeping anywhere from 2-4 hours.  Nighttime sleep went for longer stretches on her own, and by the end of October, she was starting to sleep 4-5 hours.  Yay!
•  Breastfeeding wasn’t as painless as I thought it would be – with Aaron, I had issues ranging from lower supply to super painful, blistered nipples.  Fortunately, I haven’t had supply issues this time around (though we still do supplement a few ounces of formula before her bedtime on occasion), but I did have sore nipples that finally went away around week 6.  Since breastfeeding isn’t new to me, I didn’t think I’d have any issues, but with her voracious appetite and barracuda mouth, my boobs didn’t stand a chance to come through unscathed.

The first month was a blur, but because I was a somewhat more experienced mom and she was so good, it was much better than what I expected.  The hardest part was learning to juggle the needs of a newborn with that of a capricious 2 year old.  Hubs and I find ourselves saying, wow this would be a piece of cake if Aaron wasn’t here, haha!  Not that I’d have it any other way, though.  Posts devoted to Aaron’s hilarious antics to follow soon.