It has been a while since I last wrote and a lot has happened. As you can imagine, life with a newborn is pretty busy on its own but we had sickness thrown in the mix as well. On Monday after Jacob's family left, Jacob had to return to work. I would have loved for him to be able to take another week but he needed to get back since he is taking a lot of vacation time throughout the rest of the year. He left for work and sometime after that I woke up to feed Chrisily. I was a little chilled and kind of achey. As the morning went on I noticed other symptoms that encouraged me to call my OB- like a fever, sore breast, etc. I had read about mastitis and self diagnosed myself before ever talking to the dr. but I knew I needed to be seen. Mom was coming over later that day to help me with Chrisily because we had to take her to get her weight checkec, etc. The doctor squeezed me in that afternoon and I was correct- mastitis on the right side and developing on the left. He gave me an antibiotic and sent me on my way. I also got a call from Chrisily's doctor that morning, he wanted her to have one more set of blood work done just to confirm that her bilirubin levels had come down. So even though I was feeling horrible, mom drove us to have Chrisily's weight checked and her blood drawn. Have I mentioned that it is horrible to watch your little girl be stuck with a needle and then squeezed for blood?? We did this four times and I was so glad when they said she was cleared for good! It broke my heart to watch her scream. After taking my antibiotic, getting lots of rest, and my mom and Jacob picking up my slack with Chrisily, I began to feel much better. I finished my antibiotic a week after starting it. I was starting to get the hang of this mom thing. I was feeling more confident and we had a good routine in place. Wednesday of that week Chrisily and I went to have lunch with Jacob and show her off to his coworkers. They ooooh'd and ahhhh'd over her and Jacob enjoyed seeing us during the day. He is an amazing dad and I love to watch him light up when he sees Chrisily after being at work. The next morning I woke up and noticed a rash across my arms and chest... I went in to see the doctor. We thought it was an allergy to a new detergent I had used (the baby one for Chrisily's clothes). She gave me a cream and a steroid to help calm it down. The next morning (Friday) when I woke up I was chilled and achey again. I attempted to feed Chrisily but it was too painful. I somehow convinced Jacob that I was fine and he could go to work... I just need to get some more sleep I told him. He reluctantly left and Chrisily and I headed downstairs to nap on the couch. Within an hour my fever spiked and I was miserable. I texted Jacob and told him he needed to come home. I was pretty pitiful when he got home. The doctor wanted to see me again so I had an appointment at 12:30. We went in and discovered that my mastitis had returned. I was given another antibiotic (a different, stronger one) and told that I would feel much better in a couple of days. Again, after a lot of rest, taking my medicine, and Jacob and mom helping, I started feeling better (not great, but a little better). I was still really tired but I thought it was just my body fighting the infection. On Tuesday, I went to the doctor to have cultures done and to check on my progress because I was still in a lot of pain. They scheduled ultrasounds to rule out an abscess and we did the cultures to rule out MRSA. At this time I had stopped nursing and was pumping and giving Chrisily bottles of breastmilk. I was afraid that if it was MRSA that she shouldn't be getting my milk. On Wednesday, mom and I were out running errands and doing some shopping. I was feeling pretty good... until I got home that evening. I was wiped out and thought I just needed to take a nap.. then the chills and aches came. My fever spiked to 103 and I was having horrible pain in my left breast. Mom came over to take care of Chrisily and Jacob took me to the ER. I was there for most of the night. They ended up diagnosing me with acute mastitis (duh!) and starting an IV of antibiotics. My rash that I had a week and half prior had also returned. We came to the conclusion that I was allergic to the first two antibiotics (one of which I was still taking). I was discharged at 3am and sent home with pain meds and a new antibiotic... I was very sick. I could barely walk. I couldn't stay awake for very long. I was in pain. I just didn't feel good. When I got home I went straight to bed and that is where I stayed for the next two days. My mom stayed at night to relieve Jacob so that he could get some rest. Jacob was beyond awesome and took care of both Chrisily and myself. It took a few days but by Sunday I was feeling a good bit better. I was still very weak and tired but I felt way better than I had Weds. night. Mom was a huge help with Chrisily during the day and Jacob took over the nights so that I could get a good rest each night. By this time we had switched Chrisily to formula because of all of the medicines I was on (the OB added a second antibiotic on Friday after my trip to the ER). Those antibiotics were strong and Chrisily didn't need to be exposed to them. I was also over the whole breastfeeding thing- I was tired of hurting and being sick. I wanted to enjoy my daughter not be laid up in bed for the first month of her life. Thankfully those last two antibiotics knocked out the infections. It turns out that I had 4 different bacteria to fight off. I am so thankful that I am finally healthy and back to my old self.
Long before Chrisily was even born Jacob and I had decided to take a small beach trip in early August. This had been up in the air since I had been so sick but since I was feeling much better (probably 95% better), and the doctor okay'd it- we went. Mom, Jared, Chrisily, and I went down on Weds. and then Jacob and my dad came on Thursday after work. We knew it wouldn't be a 'relaxing' trip but we wanted a change of scenary and to at least pretend that we had a vacation this summer. :-) Chrisily did pretty well with traveling- especially being so young. We had a good a time and enjoyed getting away. We only went to the beach once the whole trip (Wed-Sun) but that was okay with us. Although we had a good time, we were ready to get home and back into our routine. It took us a couple of days to get Chrisily back into her routine but we managed it. We got home on Sunday and my friend Christina and her boyfriend were flying in on Thursday for the weekend. We were excited about their visit (me especially since we hadn't seen them since Oct. when we went to Savannah with them). They arrived Thursday afternoon and were leaving on Sunday. While they were here we went to dinner, had family over for dinner, and we even went to a Carolina Panthers game. Jacob got tickets from one of the partners at his work and they were great seats- 18 rows up on the 50 yard line. We had a great time with them and it was good to spend some time with them. After they left Sunday we enjoyed a lazy day. Jacob was back to work on Monday and it was just Chrisily and myself at home. I started reading Babywise on Sunday and we began to tweak our routine a little to make it more like what Babywise suggests. Monday (yesterday) was the first day of doing so and last night Chrisily slept from 10:30-6:15am without waking up. Incredible! Jacob woke me up this morning and said, "what time did you get up with her?" and I said, "I didn't." That is when we both realized she had slept through the night. We are on day two and we will see how tonight goes. I must say that I am not being super strict with the schedule/routine.. afterall, she is a baby and there needs to be some wiggle room. It also wasn't very different from what we were already doing, so it is good to know that we were on the right track. We have a week and a half before Jacob's mom comes to visit- maybe Chrisily will be able to show her what a big girl she is and how she can sleep through the night on a consistent basis. :-)
I must say that being a mom is the best job in the whole world. All of my friends are preparing for school to start back. They have workshops and open houses and a lot of work to do in their classrooms. I am so glad that I do not have to put Chrisily in daycare when she is 6 weeks old and return to work. It would be incredibly difficult anyway but after being sick off and on for the last 4 weeks, I just don't think I could do it. I am soaking up every minute of this time I have with my sweet girl. Everyone tells me that time will fly and to treasure these moments with her. I am doing just that. Jacob and I are beyond blessed to have been given this precious child from God to raise. I am also blessed to have such a wonderful and loving husband. He hasn't complained once throughout any of this. I know he loves Chrisily and I so very much. She is one lucky little girl to have such a loving and caring dad that can't wait to interact and play with her. We are all three very lucky to have each other.
Here are some pictures from the last 5 weeks.
