Out With The Old, In With The New

This morning Susanne felt very weird not having to get up to go to the hospital. It was a relief to say the least, however, her new schedule was going to take some getting used to for sure. She thought pumping was exhausting by itself, but she had no idea what she was up against. The new schedule was a little bit trickier because there was a lot more to juggle. Every three hours, Susanne had to prepare and set up Paxton's NG feedings. The prep time to do this was about fifteen minutes. During the hour that it took for him to receive his NG feeding, Susanne pumped to try to utilize her time most efficiently. After the feeding was complete, the clean up took another fifteen minutes. Oh and don't forget the other responsibilities that may come up like dirty diapers, giving multiple medications, laundry, and snuggle time. Depending on the time of day, the other children may need tending to like the dogs may need to be let outside, the animals may need to be fed, the litter may need to be scooped...etc. After all was said and done, Susanne managed to get about an hour to lay in bed and rest up between each feeding. During the day, she tried to get the energy to do something productive. This had worked beautifully thus far. Despite being extremely exhausted, she would not trade these moments for a second. She was loving every minute of motherhood and it already had brought her tremendous joy. Paxton was such an angel.

Paxton did well overnight especially with it being a new environment. Unfortunately, when the morning rolled around he started vomiting. This continued to happen a total of three times within the next two hours. He appeared to be feeling nauseous. It was difficult for Susanne to watch him dry heave and gag. She felt so helpless. As the day progressed, Paxton continued to vomit multiple times. The worst episode had to be when Susanne was working on tummy time with Paxton two hours after his last feeding and he had a large amount of projectile vomit that also came out of his nose. It reminded Susanne of the movie, "The Exorcist". Poor guy. Susanne had talked to two different nurses throughout the day looking for some guidance. They recommended that Susanne adjust his feeding schedule a little bit and to only feed him in an elevated position.

Paxton continued to make one huge mess throughout the day. Susanne changed a total of fifteen diapers within a 24 hour time frame in which eight of those contained more than just urine. Susanne went through more disposable underpads than anyone could probably imagine. Paxton's sleep positioner was broken in by his initial episode of vomiting. After Susanne had spent time cleaning that up, she put it back in Paxton's crib to use. This was short lived because Susanne ended up plugging Paxton's NG tube with the wrong part of the stopper. When she went to check on him an hour later she noticed a large area of yellow liquid in his crib, which meant that some of the contents in Paxton's stomach had leaked out. Of course it got all over the sleep positioner that Susanne had just cleaned. The nurses informed Susanne that this happened all of the time and even they had made that same mistake. The good news was that once you have made that mistake, you usually never repeat it. Paxton went through a total of four outfits and four receiving blankets in less than 24 hours. Susanne was definitely going to have to do a load of laundry soon. Susanne thought that if he wanted to try on so many of his clothes, he should have just asked. Paxton did a great job of breaking Susanne in to the wonderful world of motherhood. After a day like today, Susanne would like to give props to all of the single mothers out there. This job is underestimated. It is not as easy as it seems, but well worth the hardwork.

Scott decided at the last minute to come home for the evening. It was so nice for Susanne to have some extra hands for the time being. Scott was able to spend some quality time with the little man. He was also able to practice some infant massage on Paxton. He tried focusing primarily on his abdomen to try to help move things along. Paxton seemed to enjoy this one on one time.

Scott and Susanne spent most of the evening sorting through all of Susanne's breast milk that she had been pumping and storing since Paxton was born. They decided to try to organize it all by date so when it was time to start giving it to Paxton it would be ready to go. Surprisingly enough, the brand new deep freezer that they just bought was full. Unbelievable!

When Paxton woke up from one of his many cat naps later in the evening, he got to stay up late and watch a movie with his parents. They watched "Monsters vs. Aliens" which Paxton thought was entertaining. During the movie, Paxton got to do some good old fashioned skin to skin contact with his mommy. They were so warm and cozy just like the dogs who were laying in front of the fireplace.

Today was a very long day for Susanne, but she loved every minute of it. Bring it on.