So hopefully you can understand my absence from blogging recently....but thanks to my co-blogger and best friend for announcing the birth of my little girl, Waverly! It will be a month this Friday and man, does time fly with a newborn.
I'd like to share my birth story with you, so here it goes....NOT. haha :) I will spare you the lovely details of how my little one came into this world. It was an amazing experience though. I got induced the night after her due date and after 16 1/2 hours of labor and only 20 mins of pushing...she came into this wonderfully crazy world! I gave birth at Morristown Memorial Hospital and was overall pretty happy with our experience there...my doctor and the nurses were great. There were a few not so great moments at the end of my labor, but that goes with the territory and is definitely part of the experience of having a child.
Waverly Rose Gupta was born at 5:24pm on August 24th...she was 5lbs 13oz and 19 inches...so much tinier than we thought! She is perfectly healthy which we feel is such a blessing. You may wonder about her name since it's definitely unique. Nick and my's favorite tv show to watch together is "Friday Night Lights" and there was a character named Waverly on the show...that was the first time we heard the name and really liked it. Then when living in NYC in the west village we found a winding tree-lined street called
Waverly Place. We love the name and love that it reminds us of our time spent in New York. Rose is after my mom, Rosemary. I really like the way the two sound together...Waverly Rose...but we're just calling her Waverly.
My husband, Nick has been nothing short of phenomenal. You know you're with your perfect match when they truly take care of you and go above and beyond to do whatever it takes to make life easier during this crazy time. He was awesome in the hospital and there every step of the way. He even helped with the delivery! But it was when we came home that really counted...I needed a lot to be done for me so I could stay off my feet and take care of feeding Waverly. Nick took care of my every need and has jumped into being a dad without hesitation. We've always been a 50-50 couple...I clean, he cooks, he does the bills, I take care of family logistics (like rsvping to weddings...)...same goes for the baby. He is changing diapers, burping, consoling her when she's crying, cuddling with her and doing as much as I am, except he obviously can't breastfeed. Everything about how he's taken on his new role as daddy makes me emotional...I cried at least 5 times in the first week we were home just from being so appreciative of him.
Nick...I know I've told you this, but I love you...thank you for everything you've done for me in the past month and for already being a great daddy :) I couldn't imagine starting this journey without you.
So how has the past month been??
Crazy. Whirlwind. Wonderful. Full of love. Emotional. Hard. Stressful. Tiring. Worth it.
We had a wonderful welcome home with my family and Nick's mom...everybody got to meet Waverly and it was a great way to arrive home. The following week and a half were very hard. Everyone says it's the toughest time, but you really don't understand till you're in the trenches. No sleep is an understatement...I literally got NO SLEEP and not because she was waking up crying...because I had to wake her up every 2 -2.5 hours to feed her which took close to 2 hours leaving me with a max of 45 mins to sleep. The reasons this week was so hard is because I was recovering from giving birth, trying to figure out breastfeeding while also making sure Waverly got enough to eat so she could gain weight. She lost too much weight between the hospital and her first day home so the pediatrician wanted to make sure she didn't lose anymore. Thanks to constant feeding she gained 3 oz in 24 hours so the drs didn't have to worry and at 1 week had re-gained her birth weight! At 2 weeks she was 6lbs 2 oz...I'm excited to see how big she is at her 1 month appointment this Friday.
first week...
second week...
Breastfeeding is very hard which makes the beginning much more stressful. My friends had told me their struggles, but I didn't think twice about how truly stressful it might be. Waverly didn't latch on properly from the beginning so I had a whole week and half of trying to teach her to latch. I also had to pump to get my milk supply established and give her some breast milk in a bottle to make sure she got enough to eat. This is like pulling double duty....double the amount of time. After a lot of research, phone calls to a lactation consultant, and conversations with friends and family, I figured out how to get Waverly to nurse properly...yay! In the grand scheme of things, a week and a half wasn't that long. We're still figuring things out...she gulps, so she becomes very gassy and spits up so I'm still figuring out the best positions for her, how to get her to burp enough, and how to semi-control how much milk I'm producing. It's all trial and error...I'm just so happy she's breastfeeding in general and know it will all work itself out.
Here are the things I love about our little girl....her sweet soft cheeks that are so kissable...dark hair and dark eyes like her daddy...little smiles as she's falling asleep...alert eyes that focus on my face...the way my voice can calm her...the way her tiny little body curls up in our arms...how much she stretches out her legs and arms while kicking and flailing around (swaddling is not her favorite)...the squeaks she makes even when sound asleep...how her hair is all fuzzy and sticks up after a bath...how she grabs my hair or shirt when I hold her...
smiles...
first hokie game!
first walk!
We are so in love with our little Waverly and incredibly happy that she is part of our lives now. Life is truly remarkable.
