the first month

Most of the content in this post was written a couple of months ago right around the time Eliza turned 3 months. Hence the mixed up tense usage :) Also, each photo is captioned underneath and not necessarily related to the rest of the post!

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(I put her here and took this picture to see just how small she was! So teeny tiny! Can't believe how short of a time that was)
These first 3 months with Eliza have been all I ever wanted, and a lot I didn't expect. Each month has come with changes and challenges. It has been hard for me to reflect on a regular basis about how I've felt and how things have gone because it seems to me that it almost takes a little distance from each stage to see things clearly... at least when it comes to newborns ;)


(one of my favorite pictures... how I loved that feeling of her snuggled up under my chin like that)

The first month, I was in rough shape. I didn't even realize how rough! Well, by the end of it, I was feeling significantly better. But there was a lot more to recovering from birth than I prepared myself for. I guess I thought once the baby was out, everything was normal again. Oh no. I was a hot mess!


(a teeny tiny nap for a teeny tiny stink-a-stoo!)

Immediately after giving birth to Eliza, I was sapped. Completely and totally. That's what 45 hours with no sleep plus having a baby in there will do to you. The nurse tried to get me up to go to the bathroom a couple hours after she was born, but I couldn't do it. I remember trying so hard, but just sitting up made the room begin to cave in around me. I ultimately passed out and we decided to try again later.


(this picture makes me feel so snuggly. so many snuggly days we had :) I wouldn't trade them for the world)

Not long after that, Eliza was crying and crying. Steve had gone home to get an air mattress to sleep on and Mom R was staying in the room with me. She was holding Eliza and told me she thought she was probably hungry. I remember thinking, "I'll feed her," but basically had zero capacity to do so. I laid on my side and tried to nurse her because when I raised the bed to sit up I passed out again. I couldn't even hold her and kept falling in and out of sleep pretty much involuntarily. Mom held Eliza to me and she sucked away and was happy. I barely remember it...


(the hat she is wearing is the one they gave her in the hospital nursery. it started out being rolled up once, then within a week or so it had to be rolled down and then within maybe 3 weeks it just didn't fit her at all anymore)

The next morning, the nurse wanted me to go to the bathroom... since I hadn't been since actually giving birth. And I had been drinking quite a bit. It's amazing how much my bladder can hold when there isn't a baby sitting on it! It took two nurses to hold me on each side so that I wouldn't fall over. I think the biggest part of my problem was that I was dehydrated and hadn't eaten enough... since I hadn't eaten almost anything while in labor.


(the band aid on my finger is because it was sooooo dry in the house because of winter and all the excessive hand washing that occurred my skin was actually cracking and bleeding there, crazy!)
I remember thinking that I needed to take a shower or a bath that day or they were going to think I wasn't well enough to go home the next day. HA! So that afternoon with a lot of help from my mom I was able to take a bath. I was really glad that discharging me wasn't an issue, I had this fear that it would be for some reason.


(Eliza and her Daddy have had a specialness between them since the very beginning :)
Looking back, I don't even remember what Eliza was doing those first couple days! Probably sleeping :) I don't remember feeding her at any kind of regular intervals. In fact, I hardly remember even feeding her. I know I must have though. She went to the nursery at night and they did bring her to me every 4 hours. I would wake up about 5 minutes before the nurse came in with her :) One of the times I was feeding her, she was all done and I just kept outlining her face and her nose and mouth. Eventually she woke up, but went right back to sleep ;)


(Grandma S and Eliza taking a snoozer... while I was too :)

She had a very raspy cry that kind of cracked the first week probably. It didn't last very long. Though, when she was about 10 weeks I heard it again. Though it was a little more grown up version ;)


(I feel like this picture is a good representation of how things are in the beginning... sleepy. haha)

From day 1 Eliza was very strong. I knew she would be fiesty since when she was in my tummy she was all over the place. At night I would get ready for bed and lay there waiting for Steve to come in. She was totally calm and still until the lights would go out and then she would start rolling around! What a silly girl :) It didn't even make sense since often I would have the covers over my belly so I don't think she could see the change in light. There was a photographer that came in while we were in the hospital to take her pictures and she put Eliza on the bed on her tummy. We looked over and Eliza was doing push ups on the bed! I could hardly believe how strong she was at so little!


(it's like a sleep mask for babies, just pull the hat down over their eyes ;)

The first month consisted of a lot of nursing, napping, cuddling and just trying to figure each other out :) Eliza was pretty consistent eating every 3 hours from about 2 weeks on. Before that she was working her way into a 1.5 hour eating schedule ;) we had to fix that! She was a willing participant thankfully. We also saw some first tiny smiles during that first month. The first one was she was about 2 weeks old. I had no idea babies could smile so young! By the time she was 5 weeks smiles were rampant :)






(Grandma S actually taught Eliza how to power nap. Sometimes that comes in handy, sometimes it doesn't... but this is the power nap chair lol)