LIFE WITH KENNEDY…

November 6, 2016

I would have to say bringing our newborn Kennedy home for the first time from the NICU was one of the best days of my life. I couldn’t be more grateful and happy that she was healthy and able to be with us after 10 days of being there. Seeing all the other babies in the NICU that had been there for weeks on end completely broke my heart, and I couldn’t imagine what their parents must have been going through. But I did miss the sweet nurses and getting some great advice on taking care of her from them! They were such a big help for us first time parents- especially since we had no family here in Texas to help us!

 Having her has been the most amazing, fun, scary, and fulfilling thing I have ever done! I seriously don’t know what I did before she was born. She is my whole world and pretty much my every thought of every day, besides my hubby! I always felt like I was never “super” good at anything in life. I was never great at sports, school or had an amazing talent. Those things took a lot of effort from me and in order to succeed in those things, I had to put in more time than others because they didn’t come naturally for me. But being a mother is the only thing I’ve ever done where I feel like I’m finally good at something. Everything about it comes natural to me. This is what I’m meant to do in this life. Nothing makes me happier or feel more confident than being a mother!

To be honest, Kennedy is overall such a good and content little baby. She does get fussy and cluster feeds in the evenings, which stared happening around week 4. I usually have to feed her every hour from around 5pm-9pm. Some nights she will get more fussy and cry longer than others. I started giving her Gerber Soothe once a day a couple weeks ago, and it has helped a lot cut down the crying in the evening. I think she was a little colicky. During the day she will almost always eat every 3 hours like clockwork! In the NICU, they put her on a schedule of feeding her every 3 hours to the tee, so now I think she is used to that feeding schedule.

Talking about schedules, I have gotten lots of messages from you guys about how I get Kennedy to sleep through the night! So I am going to share with you what I do and what works for her. Now remember, every baby is unique, so what I do for Kennedy to get her to sleep through the night might not work for your baby. When I was pregnant, I knew I wanted to get Kennedy on a good sleeping schedule. Some people will argue that it’s impossible to get a newborn on a sleeping schedule, but I don’t believe that is true! That included nighttime sleep and daytime naps. When I brought her home, the first night we started implementing her bedtime routine. Note that we didn’t start giving her full on baths until her umbilical cord fell off! Around 10-11pm, I will turn off most of the lights and start talking to her in a soft voice. I want her to calm down and start to recognize that it’s bedtime soon. She will start to get sleepy when I do this.

Next, I get her bath ready and make sure I have everything ready for her bath. We bath her in the 4Moms tub (which I LOVE) and use Noodle & Boo Newborn Body & Hair wash and lotion. I make sure the bath is the hottest it can be without the temperature alarm going off. She LOVES it when I make it nice and warm! The first few baths at home, Kennedy cried and hated her baths. Then I would get a washcloth soaked in the hot water and drape it over her belly and she started to finally enjoy them. So I make sure to always have a washcloth over her body so she won’t start crying. I will bath her for about 10 minutes and then dry her off and do a baby massage on my bed. I love the Noodle & Boo lotion because it doesn’t irritate her skin and it smells so amazing too! I will turn on some calming baby music and give her a massage and put the lotion on. Again, at first she hated this but got used to it and now loves it!

I put her in comfy pjs, a white onesie, and put on her Owlet, and swaddle her up in her Halo swaddle sleepsack. I love using this swaddle while she sleeps because it keeps her warm and wrapped up tight! I think her not being able to break free from it and get her arms out has a lot to do with how well she sleeps because she won’t wake herself up! Then I get her bottle ready. I love love love these Munchkin Latch bottles! She takes them really well and they are anti-colic which means they have a valve inside that helps her not take in as much air when she drinks. Usually she will eat around 110-120 ml of milk before she goes to bed. I try to make sure she drinks more than usual so she won’t wake up hungry. So this is where it could be different for moms who exclusively breastfeed. We give Kennedy breastmilk and will supplement with formula sometimes, and she will breastfeed occsionally and also will drink from a bottle just fine. I usually pump every 3 hours during the day and give her my milk in the bottle. She latches perfectly fine, but for some reason after I breastfeed her, she spits up a TON (like a small puddle) and screams and cries from the acid reflux. But if I pump and give her my milk in a bottle she does a small burp and hardly every spits up or cries!!! I don’t know why that happens. I’ve talked to a couple different pediatricians regarding this issue, but they don’t have any answers or explanations! Anyone else have this issue with breastfeeding? It is extra work to pump and bottle feed her, but I’m willing to do whatever to make sure she isn’t in pain from acid reflux and spitting up ton. Also, I like giving her a bottle before bed because I know exactly how much she is getting and I know she will stay full!

By the end of drinking her bottle, she is usually almost asleep! I put her in her Halo bassinest in our bedroom (right next to where I sleep), turn on her white noise machine, turn on the shusher (haha it shushes for you!!), I also make sure the ceiling fan is on! For some reason, the combination of all of these things and the “routine” that I do everynight with her helps her stay asleep! It’s almost like she knows its bedtime and likes the routine of it! At first she was sleeping around 5-6 hours straight a night, and now at 6 weeks she is sleeping around 7-8 hours straight. She will wake up around 7am and Alex gets up to feed her a bottle of milk while I pump. After she eats, she always goes back to sleep for about another 3-4 hours! This is so nice because I’m able to eat breakfast, clean and do some laundry, get ready, and get work done for my blog! Because if I don’t do it then, it most likely won’t get done during the day when she is awake!

For naps, I was trying to get her used to falling asleep in her bassinet around the same time in the afternoon, doing the same routine but without the bath. It was working fine, but now I’m trying to carry her in the carrier during the day more and she will just nap in the carrier on me. I’m starting the use the carrier for her more during the day because I noticed a week or so ago, the right side of her head is starting to slightly flatten!! She sleeps at night facing the right side most of the night :/ I will wake up throughout the night and try to rotate her head now. So during the day, I don’t want her on her head as much as she can. So I will carry her most of the day in the carrier (I love this one) and she will fall asleep in there or have her lay on my chest. If anyone of you guys have any tips of preventing flat heads on babies or have an experience with that, I would love to hear your advice and tips!!! We might start physical therapy soon to correct it back to normal and get her neck to want to face the other side too.

In addition sleeping a lot (haha), Kennedy loves playtime and tummy time! She loves meeting new people and gets excited and lights up when daddy gets home from work. She is so happy when she wakes up in the morning and always smiles! One of the most heart melting things she does is when she recognizes me and smiles super big! It is seriously the most amazing feeling in the world if I can make her smile!!!

On the other side, one of the most difficult things hands down of being a new mom has been not having any help or family here in Texas and my husband’s work schedule. All of our family lives in California, so we don’t have anyone here to come over and help or give us tips for her. Also, Alex works until usually until 11pm and sometimes later everyday and Sundays, so it’s been hard to go ALL day and not have a break until she falls asleep. Trust me, I’ve had nights I just cried because I felt like I have no one to help me or turn to and I literally felt like I couldn’t do this alone for another day. I was so envious of other moms who’s husbands get home at 6pm everyday and they get at least a small break, but I am trying to look at these moments as temporary and trying to be positive. I know she will only be a newborn for a little bit and it I’m trying to remind myself it will get easier! Also praying for help from Heavenly Father for strength and guidance has helped me get through “those days.” My goals for this week is to go somewhere alone with just her and me (besides the doctors office haha), and try to be more positive and not compare myself to other moms out there! Everyone has their ups and downs, and now with a baby our days are full of them!

Thanks for stopping by and reading! XOXO