Audrey's first week: The Wrapup

It's Tuesday, the end of Audrey's first week "on dry land." We seem to have turned a corner and everything is on the upswing - thanks in no small part to friends and family who came to visit and help. Babies should come with warning labels: Do Not Attempt Alone!

Here's a lengthy "megapost" covering the time since we left the hospital.


Saturday:
Our first full day at home with Audrey. Lorie's mom drove in from Phoenix today bearing a large tub of delicious brownies and an arsenal of her own cookware, and proceeded to bring some order to our chaos. She did grocery shopping, prepared hearty meals, cleaned, generally helped out, and babysat while we caught up a little on lost sleep. Just in case you've never done this before, newborn parents don't get more than about 1 hour of uninterrupted sleep at this stage - so we have pretty much been walking dead since we checked into the hospital Monday evening!




Sunday:
The lactation consultant made a house call (oh, and god bless lactation consultants who make house calls on Sundays!) and she worked with Lorie and Audrey for about 1.5 hours while Sue and I hovered and observed. The consultant and I agreed it's a lamentable "sign-o-the-times" that too many new mothers today don't have the close network of experienced women around them like they used to, so they must resort to hiring a stranger to show them how to breastfeed, or they just give up and go to formula. Lorie learned a lot and afterwards she was optimistic, but chagrined that this purist consultant was disparaging of our beloved nipple shields - "they're a tool to be used sparingly, not a final solution." Later that day there was more frustration as Lorie & Audrey could not reproduce the success they had had with the consultant. sigh.

On the positive side, our Austin friends (and Lorie's partners on the Jumping Off Bridges film) Kat and Stacy stopped by this evening for a wonderful long visit. It was just what we needed to vent our frustrations to kind listeners and chat about things in general - reconnect a little with "normal."





Monday:
About 7am this morning it occurred to us to check Lorie's blood pressure again with our home monitor we bought a few weeks ago. Yikes! It was sky high, so we called Dr. Wu who told Lorie to take a valium and come to his office at the hospital right away. Damn. More stress and lost sleep. Thankfully Sue was here to babysit while we sped off to Glendale. With perfect timing, Lorie's longtime b.f.f. Ora called from Denver. She talked to Lorie during the entire drive which was a great stress reducer for both of us. It was funny to listen as Lorie's voice got more sing-songy, sleepy, and goofy from the valium. Long story short: Dr Wu checked her out, was not overly concerned, and prescribed very mild blood pressure medication. The whole time Lorie was like a blissed out rag doll.

From Dr. Wu's office we drove to midwife Tanya's office in Sherman Oaks where she consoled us both and put all the breastfeeding issues into perspective with a plan that synthesized the past instructions of all the other advisers with her recommendations. . She also gave us a bottle of hormone supplement to help stabilize Lorie's moods. Did I mention a newborn mom's hormones are going nuts and this puts her emotions in a blender on frappe? My mom called around this time with kind words and the unexpected good news that I would be inheriting a generous sum of money from Aunt Wilma (who passed away this year) and Uncle Bob (who passed away years ago.) Their kindness really blew me away and I choked back the tears. During the drive home I started to tell Lorie the good news but was interrupted by sudden uncontrollable sobbing that wracked my entire body for about 15 seconds - an obvious release of days of pent up stress. It was startling, and I definitely don't recommend breaking down while driving 60mph, but I was glad to be able to release all that toxic stress. This outburst reminded me of another in 1993: that first call home after weeks of stress, sleep deprivation, and brainwashing in Navy boot camp.

Tuesday:
Audrey's 1 week birthday! Today's big event was taking Audrey to the pediatrician in Santa Monica - the same that Kelly and Olaf Garcia use. She told us that Audrey is well on her way to regaining her birth weight. Got a prescription for some eye drops to clear up a blocked tear duct, but otherwise Audrey's perfect! We celebrated by walking across the street and treating Sue to lunch.