The Druelinger Fam: Liv 1 month

Born on Oct 13th, Liv was born during a crazy time in our lives!!! Daddy came home for the birth, missing it by 2 hours, thinking he would have a couple days off to stay in the hospital with us. Turns out he had to go back to work since he was in training. Boooooo!!! So he was there the first day and night. I LOVED my hospital experience with Beck so I couldn't wait to do it again with Liv. It wasn't the same! I had bruised my tailbone somewhere in the birthing experience (Blanke says it likely happened when she was coming down the birth canal since the birth was so quick, however it had been hurting for weeks prior to birth) I thought it was from all the sitting at the hospital, so I was ready to go home. Also Jamie went to work the next morning and I only had one visitor that day, while I enjoyed the time to relax and sleep, by 5pm I was ready to go home. So I did. Liv and I stayed in the hospital for 34 hours. Blanke was actually the one to suggest it. He said since I didn't have meds for the delivery and we were both checking out ok on our tests, we could leave before the 48 hours.

Beck was very excited to have us home! He couldn't get enough of his baby sis. Kisses kisses kisses! And constantly wanting to hold her. He would try dragging her onto his lap like a rag doll. Cute and scary haha!!

Daddy had 3 more weeks in Cincy once Live was born. During the 2nd week Liv and I went to Cincy with him, while Beck stayed with Mimi, and Brooklyn stayed at Chad and Blair's (Jamie's cousins). We were VERY grateful for this time together!!! It finally gave us some time to soak up having a newborn. Liv and I would grab breakfast at Panera with Jamie every morning then drop him off at his training. We'd go back to the hotel, nap, and clean up for a day of shopping. We shopped til we dropped every day! It was funny to think about Liv being 2 weeks old and how mobile I was with her compared to when Beck was 2 weeks old. It's a whole lot easier the second time around!!! I had lots of women complimenting me on how well I was doing out and about with a 2 week old... I didn't tell them it wasn't my first! Then we'd meet Jamie for lunch and drop him back off at training for the afternoon and continue shopping until dinner. We'd all have dinner out and head back to the hotel to veg for the night. While I had every intention of resting a lot that week, I didn't. I couldn't pass up the amazing shopping Cincy has to offer!! One night we got to have dinner at Jamie's "Aunt" Lorna's (his mom's long time friend from the Philippines) She cooked us an amazing Filipino dinner. Yum!!

It's been interesting to see how different Liv is from Beck, and how differently my body has responding to this birth. I recovered MUCH quicker physically and didn't have an emotional breakdown coming home this time. Liv is a noisy breather and has had a few diaper rashes already (Beck never had one!) I decided to have Liv sleep on her belly after 2 weeks. She spits up a lot and I didn't want to worry about her choking and it helps her work out gas and spit up. I also didn't want to constantly be putting her paci in her mouth, so on her belly she can reach for her own hand. She LOVES to suck on her hand and prefers it over her paci. I also didn't want to go through the transition out of the swaddler.

The first few weeks home alone without Daddy were very trying. Beck realized Liv was keeping Mommy distracted a lot and so he decided to take advantage of those times. Once he stuffed Liv's dirty diapers in the subwoofer while I was changing her diaper. When I would feed her, he would get his stool and shove things, sometimes movies, but usually toys and paper into the dvd player. I found myself telling him "no" more than praising him because I was just trying to keep my head above water and found very little time to spend playing with him. That was very hard for me. I missed my baby and felt like he was sad I was always upset with him. It was very weird to discover these feelings. I wanted to spend time with him because he was the one I knew and had come to love for 18 months, and yet my newborn demanded all my time, and while I loved her because she was mine, I didn't have a relationship or a personality to connect with. I know it sounds harsh, but I'm assuming I'm not the only one who has felt this way and I knew it would change with time. The circumstances were just hard. Harder than I had expected. My mom would reassure me that it was all normal and Beck wouldn't remember any of it.

Liv's night schedule at 4 weeks old (I tried 2 different dream feed times)

7:00pm feed

12:30am dream feed

4:00am she woke, feed

7:00am awake, feed

7:00pm feed

9:30pm dream feed

1:45am she woke, feed

5:00am she woke, feed

7:00am awake, feed