I can’t believe the last time I wrote about my pregnancy, I was 12 weeks pregnant… and now I’m 2 weeks postpartum! I made it through the whole pregnancy, well, 38 weeks and 3 days. Plus the 2 and a half weeks that our miracle has been with us.
At times, it felt like time was standing still. And now it feels like it just flew by in the wink of an eye! Here’s our little man, less than 24 hours old.
Zander David Serres. Zander is short for Alexander (his daddy) and David is for his Grandpa David Serres. It was hard to pick his name because I wanted to name our first son Zander and my husband wasn’t into it. So we have Ethan. I actually felt bad naming our new baby Zander because that was supposed to be Ethan’s name! But you know how people say, “when you see them, you’ll know”? Well, I guess it’s true!
Ethan is blond, like me, and he looks like the Francis side. And Zander looks exactly like his daddy! So it’s perfect that he’s named after him. He’s got a lot of fine dark hair and he has the Eastern European complexion. My husband was adopted from Russia when he was 10 and we have no baby pictures. So it will be interesting to see what Zander looks like when he’s 10. Maybe the mystery of what my husband looked like as a baby will be solved!
Back to work
I didn’t even take 2 full weeks off. It’s bittersweet. I work from home, and I don’t get paid if I don’t put in the time, so I needed to get back at it. But I wish I was just napping all day with my baby. Thankfully I’m nursing and I have plenty of bonding time.
My body in the first 2 weeks postpartum
How can I help you? I’m a 3rd-time mom, yet I still seemed to forget what happens when we get home from the hospital. So here it is…
- Swelling. It gets worse before it gets better. I got sooooo lucky and didn’t swell before or after with this pregnancy. But I do remember the painful tingling in my feet! Keep them elevated and drink lots of water!
- Leakage. Ugggg. This was bad this time. All of the muscles get stretched and basically ruined, hopefully just temporarily, but it happens. It was bad this time because I had a cold, so every time I coughed, I basically wet myself just a bit. Thank goodness we have pads readily available! And now 2 weeks later, I am in much better shape! So don’t fret, it does get better! But one thing that would have helped would be if I had done kegel exercises prior to delivery.
- Night sweats. I totally forgot about this one! Like I said, I had a cold when Zander was born. And to top it off, our daughter was home with a fever! So I thought I had gotten the fever virus from her. Then I remembered! This is something that happens after delivery and it’s your body’s way of flushing out the hormones and getting back to normal. Actually, when I started sweating at night, I dropped more baby weight, so I’m going to call it a good thing! But it can be alarming at first if you don’t know it’s coming. Nothing to worry about, just your body getting back to “normal”.
- Itchy and uncomfortable. Thankfully I had minimal “damage” this time, but if you have a vaginal delivery, you will have stitches and the healing process can be uncomfortable. There’s a numbing spray you can use. I was given this at the hospital after my first 2 kiddos. But I delivered Zander at a different hospital and wasn’t given this to use. But you can buy it yourself and it totally helps! I was also given these Tucks pads after my first. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t even tell me about these products after Zander was born. If I hadn’t already used them, I wouldn’t have known they were available! I highly recommend getting at least the spray!
Back to birth weight
The goal is to have baby back to birth weight when he’s 2 weeks old. Zander was 7 pounds 4.9 ounces at birth. At his 2 week appointment, he was 7 pounds 4.8 ounces. His doctor said we would call that even! Phew!
He needs to have about 8 good feedings in a 24 hour period. He’s spitting up almost every other time he eats, but his poop is still yellow so that’s good. Red in his poop would indicate a protein allergy. It would break my heart if I couldn’t nurse him, so I’m thankful that he seems to be just a “happy spitter”.
Binky
We found a good little pacifier to give him and he finally took it last night! This is the one we got. It’s a small and narrow nipple, probably most similar to the shape of my own nipple. We’re happy about him taking it because I think sometimes he is nursing for comfort. You want to wait until he’s latching without any trouble. I think with Ethan they told us that 2 weeks was good. He wanted to eat 24/7, so the binky was critical! Zander isn’t quite as bad, but when he wakes up after just an hour, he probably doesn’t really need to eat again!
Clogged tear duct
After about a week, I noticed that Zander’s eye was forming a crust over it and practically sealing it closed. I used a warm soft wet rag to wipe it away but it would always come back. It was like a really bad eye booger. It’s mostly just in one eye. The thing to look for (and be cautious about) is the possibility that its conjunctivitis. That’s “pink eye”. You can tell by the whites of his eyes. If it’s red (fire engine red, according to our pediatrician) then it’s probably pink eye.
In Zander’s case, his eye isn’t red, so it’s probably just a clogged tear duct. The doctor said this will correct itself over the next several months. But if I want to help it, I can rub breast milk in the corner of his eye. Basically, express a couple of drops in the palm of your hand (clean hands, of course!) and dab it in the corner of his eye. Lightly massage it, not on his eyeball, but in the corner and just below, by the bridge of his nose.
I’ve only done this twice and already see an improvement. Here’s an article I found that was also helpful.
That’s all that’s coming to mind in the 2 weeks postpartum. I hope something I’ve shared helps you with your new baby journey!
I’m just so so happy to be holding my miracle baby!
Thanks for reading! Please join my mailing list if you haven’t already!