This month has had a few challenges, but for the most part it's been amazing and I am so grateful for the plethora of help that we received for the first couple of weeks. So, thank you family!!
My parents stayed with us for Kira's first week of life. They cooked, cleaned, took Quinn on a few special day trips, and loved on Kira. Kira was a dream baby. She rarely cried, and when she did her cry sounded more like a whimper. She was easily consolable with a diaper change or milk, and this was such a relief for me because Quinn was requiring some extra love and care during this time. Pat went back to work when Kira was only three days old, and I'm not sure he would have been able to handle that if Kira wasn't such an easy baby. I was able to take over most of the night-time duties whereas with Quinn, we definitely treated it as a two-man job.
As my parents left after the first week, Grandma Cathy arrived. She spoiled us with a different baked good each day, prepared the meals, cleaned, and was around for what turned out to be our most difficult week thus far. Without her, I don't know how I would have made it through. I'm struggling with how much detail to go into, seeing as how this post is supposed to be all about Kira. But, my objective is memory preservation and so I'm going to digress a bit.
Things started getting difficult in the Gillette household on Monday, eight days after Kira was born. It all started when I left Quinn unsupervised for a couple of minutes to use the restroom (Grandma was downstairs with Kira at the time), and Quinn got into Grandma Cathy's medications. When I realized I immediately showed Cathy the damage and asked if she knew what was missing. There were three pills missing, and I immediately got on the phone to seek advice about what needed to be done. I waited on hold to speak to a consulting nurse for what felt like an unreasonable amount of time, and so I decided to just call poison control. The first two pills that were missing weren't a problem, but after running some calculations with the dosage and Quinn's weight, it was determined that the missing blood pressure pill, if ingested, would be quite dangerous. I was so scared and was beating myself up for leaving him unattended. The worst scenarios were running through my mind, but I tried to stay focused and productive. I was told to get Quinn to the nearest ER immediately, and that is what I did. I had been having an overproduction of milk supply and so I was needing to pump to provide myself relief. What a blessing that ended up being. I had plenty of pumped milk on hand and was able to leave Kira with Cathy at home. I knew that I needed to focus all of my attention and energy on Quinn. When I got in the car I called the consulting nurse again, but this time got through quickly because I used the emergency shortcut. The nurse was trying to console me as best as she could, but her words weren't very comforting. She said that ideally they would want me to take Quinn to the children's hospital, but that it was too far (an extra ten minutes) and I needed to get somewhere immediately. Quinn fell asleep as soon as we got into the car, and she was asking me to see if I could wake him to determine whether or not he was responsive. I was yelling Quinn's name, hitting his legs, and doing everything I could (while talking illegally on the phone and driving a stick shift) to get him to wake up. Nothing. He was out. I called Pat and told him that I needed him to meet me at the hospital because I felt myself falling apart and I knew that I couldn't handle this alone. I remember speeding on the freeway and deciding that if I were to get pulled over I wouldn't stop. I would just let the officer follow me all the way to the hospital. Luckily, I didn't get pulled over. As soon as we arrived I parked illegally in front of the urgent care (ER) and rushed Quinn inside. When I got him out of the car he woke up and was responsive and so this helped me calm down a little. Pat arrived to the hospital as soon as I did and so after he legally parked his car he ran up from the garage and moved mine to a legal space as well. Quinn was checked in right away and his vitals showed no abnormal blood pressure. Thank you, Lord. At this point they basically knew that Quinn hadn't ingested the medication, but they needed to monitor Quinn for six hours to be sure. That had been the scariest hour of my life, but as soon as we confirmed that the medication hadn't been ingested I decided to just take advantage of this one-on-one time with Quinn. I had been so preoccupied with Kira for the past week that I felt Quinn had been neglected (by me). We spent our entire afternoon at the hospital and everything was perfectly fine. I decided to treat the experience as a perfect reminder that Quinn cannot be left unattended and rather than beating myself up over the mistake I decided to just be grateful that everything was okay.
Tuesday was a new day and we wanted to make it a great day. I was feeling great physically, and so Cathy and I decided to take the kids to the park and meet Pat for a picnic lunch. Quinn enjoyed playing on the playground and I enjoyed the fresh air. I had spent the majority of the previous week inside, and so the fresh air was just what I needed. After our picnic lunch in the park, I took Quinn and Cathy home so I could take Kira to her doctor's appointment. She had surpassed her birth weight and was perfectly healthy, with the exception of her thrush. Thrush?? I had never heard of it before, but apparently it is an oral yeast infection that is fairly common in babies. She was prescribed a medication that we needed to give her every 4 hours after feedings. What a pain. In addition to her well-child visit she also had to have her heal pricked again for blood work. Kira wasn't much of a crier, and so when she screamed as the nurse squeezed her heal to get blood out, I knew she was really hurting. Sadly, Kira's blood clotted too quickly and so he had to prick her other heal and torture her more; I was devastated. I hated hearing my baby cry. We survived the visit, picked up her prescription, and headed home for a few uneventful hours.
As if we hadn't been through enough in the past two days, I came down with the worst sickness I have ever experienced that night. I got mastitis with Quinn and was feeling similar symptoms, with a terrible flu or food poisoning on top of it. I will spare you the details here, but I was up all night extremely sick and engorged. I was too weak to even pump and so Pat had to help with that. Again, thank goodness I had milk on hand because I was too weak and sick to nurse as well. I basically lived in the bathroom for 36 hours. Pat took the following day off to help nurse me back to health, and when I wasn't sick in the bathroom I was on the phone with consulting nurses and lactation consultants. We're pretty sure I had food poisoning paired with early mastitis. After an incredibly miserable 36 hours, I slowly started to feel better. It was a good week before I felt like myself again, though. It was rough.
I am pleased to report that the rest of our week was spent away from doctors and hospitals. Auntie Mariah came up Thursday to spend a long weekend with us and take Cathy back home. Quinn was excited to spend time with his auntie, and Pat and I even got to go out on a date one evening. We figured it had been three months since we had enjoyed a meal just the two of us. I doubt if there are too many couples who leave their not even two week old to go on a date, but when you never get the chance you jump at the opportunity!
On Sunday, Cathy and Mariah headed back home, and Pat and I were left to figure out this parenting thing on our own. After the previous week that we had, I felt like I could handle anything! Kira lost her umbilical cord that day and so we were finally able to give her a real bath. She loved it! She's had a bath nearly every day since and has never cried. Perhaps she'll be a water baby! I hope so.
I managed to make it through my first week alone during the days parenting two. We even made it out of the house a few times (although, this is something that I hope to get better at). It's certainly easier for me to spend the majority of our days inside, but I feel so much better when I get something accomplished and when we all get some fresh air. Most importantly, we avoided all medical personnel this week. Hooray!
My best bonding time with Kira takes place when Quinn is sleeping. When he takes his afternoon nap and goes to bed at night I try and take advantage of the opportunity to just cuddle with her. We are moving in a few short weeks though, and so I have to try and force myself to be productive and get packing accomplished as well. Through our purging/packing/cleaning process we've learned that Kira is comforted by white noise. The louder the better, seemingly. She falls asleep to the sound of our vacuum cleaner and steam cleaner. There have been times when she's a little fussy and I can't easily calm her and so I just get out the vacuum and it seems to do the trick! Vacuuming happens to be one of my favorite chores and so this was a convenient discovery.
Kira got to embark on her first road trip during her third week of life. Our good childhood friend, Shane, was having an American celebration of his Korean wedding and we knew that we didn't want to miss it. The kids did great in the car, and we only had to stop once on our five hour drive. We met my parents and Cathy at the wedding, and from what I hear, it was beautiful! Pat and I made it to the general vicinity, but as soon as the wedding started Kira decided to not-so-discreetly fill her diaper, which required and immediate change. When Pat took her out Quinn was very upset and so I had to rush him out of the ceremony as well so we wouldn't be any more disruptive. We spent the rest of the time chasing Quinn around outside the church and taking turns sneaking in bits and pieces of the ceremony. We tried!
Conveniently, the wedding was only 40 minutes from Grandma Cathy's house and so we were able to take full advantage of our weekend by spending the rest of our time with extended family. We were able to introduce Kira to more of the family and Quinn was reunited with cousin Chloe. They had a great time together. It is so fun having cousins so close in age. They played a lot of "Ring Around the Rosie", and when they "all fall down" it turns into a full on tackle. They also got to freely roam the freshly harvested fields on Grandma Cathy's property, and we all took a walk down to the pond and went blackberry picking. There is nothing better than summer nights on the farm. On Sunday after church we got to take Quinn to other families house and see their brand new puppy litter. Between the puppies, Chloe, and the trampoline, Quinn was in heaven and Kira got good cuddle time in with more family. It was a wonderful weekend.
The following weekend Auntie Lolo and Uncle Matt brought baby Delaney to come and meet Kira. Baby Delaney is getting so big, and reminds me to really cherish every moment of infant hood. We went to a little farm/amusement park in the area and Quinn rode the rides like a pro. My dad had taken him there during Kira's first week of life, and it was obvious that Quinn knew just what to do. I was feeling a little disappointed that I hadn't experienced Quinn's "first" ride and so I took him on the little roller coaster so I could claim that "first". He loved it and Kira just slept like a perfect little angel our entire time there.
The rest of our month has been filled with fairly normal baby stuff. Quinn is adjusting well and loves his sister. He is taking some initiative on his own to "help her" when she's upset by giving her a binkie or rushing a bottle to her if one happens to be lying around. It's very sweet, but we have to keep our eyes on him! She is still fairly calm and content the majority of the time, but in the evenings she has been getting a little needier and likes to be held and gently shaken. In fact, we dropped her swaddle very early on (after a little over a week). Pat was taking a turn trying to get her to sleep and found that it was easier to do so when she was unswaddled. There are very few babies who don't love a swaddle, and I assume that we just don't swaddle tight enough and that's why we were unsuccessful with this trick. But, it doesn't seem to be something that she needs and so we just let it go. Sadly, we are still battling her thrush. It seemed to have gone away for a bit, but it came back. I can't help but wonder if this is contributing to her moments of fussiness.
To top off her first month, on Kira's one month birthday when Daddy got home from work and went to hold her, she looked back at him and gave what felt like her first genuine smile. It seems a little early still, but it is plausible and so we're going with it. I've seen a few smiles since then, but haven't been able to capture one on film yet. Hopefully we'll have a photo soon to share.
*The monthly age sticker turned out to be a massive fail. I carefully laid out her outfit for the day on the bed and within seconds Quinn began jumping, and therefore, demolished the sticker. My stubborn self had to get a picture anyway. Better luck next month!
Kira is an absolute sweetheart and we are all so in love with her. Happy one month birthday, little girl! We love you!
*The beautiful newborn pictures are courtesy of our good friend, Will Christiansen. Thanks again, Will!
