Day 6 - Rough Night, Great Day

Friday night was rough.

We brought Yarden home from the hospital and my parents went to their hotel, so it was our first night without nurses, lactation consultants, bedside delivery of pain medication and meals, and the option of dropping her off at a nursery.

First - Yarden wouldn't eat.

Backstory: All babies lose weight after their birth, but her weight had dropped precipitously while we were in the hospital and she was 1 oz away from getting put on formula. Before her weigh in that night at the hospital nursery, I pumped and breastfed incessantly and we managed to get her up to fighting weight. That's why her refusal to eat on Friday night was particularly stressful.

Seamus and I are charged with taking care of our daughter - which at it's most basic interpretation means keeping her alive. In other words, FEED HER.

In addition to not eating, she wouldn't sleep - oh, and she screamed.

This went on for hours.
Then, suddenly...she wanted to eat.
In fact, she wanted to eat every hour - but screamed every time we put her down.

But at least she had eaten.

The whole family ended up asleep on the couch as "Eastern Promises" played on a loop 3 times.


At 6 am I woke up in a panic thinking I'd missed a feeding, then realized in was 7 am, panicked even more and got up too quickly (OUCH!) and realized I had missed a dose of Percoset.

I force fed my daughter - she was back to no interest in the boob - and then we were off and running.

Saturday was our busiest day yet.
We took Yarden to the lab at Cedars for her Bilirubin test (for Jaundice).
She suffers needles way better than her mama. Then - with an hour left before her next feeding - we picked up her stroller and made it back home in time for all three of us to eat.

Seamus and I are getting good at completing tasks within a 3 hour ticking clock.

It's been fantastic having my parents here.
They brought cold cuts for lunch, including pre-washed lettuce and pre-cut onions so that their zombie kids could assemble sandwiches and get nutrition no matter how sleep deprived we get. My mom also has great breastfeeding advice and she's done non-stop laundry since she got here.

The lunch feeding went AWESOME.
She sucked for 25 minutes and then went into a drunken monkey bliss state.
My heart breaks she's so adorable - she seriously gorges herself and looks like a drunk old man.


After lunch, I spent my first 3 hours away from her.
My mom and I went on a Babys R Us pilgrimage.
Details would bore anyone who isn't me.

We went home - I fed her again (ANOTHER SUCCESS!) - and then we all went out for dinner.

Yarden only weighs 7 pounds, so she doesn't fit in any of her beautiful clothing yet.
To go to dinner, we put her in a combination of the few things that do fit her.
When she's older and asks - I plan to tell her that she dressed herself.


We went to a restaurant and actually made it in time for our reservation. Six days into our lives as parents and we proved ourselves capable of making it out to dinner and back in time to feed her again.

Well it's 11:19 and the girl is starting to rouse.
Fingers crossed for an easier night.

**UPDATE - It took me almost 20 hours to post this.
She is now better at nursing, but still not good at sleeping at night.

Early this morning we had a moment of bliss as the three of us lay in bed calm, sleepy and snuggly. This is what we've been waiting for all these months we waited for Yarden.

Yarden's Photo Album is at http://aliyahandseamus.smugmug.com/gallery/4991527_yox6V#299228734_FxH2N

Aliyah