4weeks

First Four Weeks

The phototherapy was discontinued when Etta was ten days old, and I was so glad because I wasn’t sure how much longer she would tolerate lying there nearly naked with her arms and legs flailing. I knew that babies were supposed to sleep flat on their backs to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), but it seemed such an unnatural pose for someone used to being curled into a little bundle within the womb. Now that she no longer needed the therapy I could at least keep her tightly swaddled so that she felt more secure.

I celebrated freedom from the bilibed by getting both Etta and myself dressed for the first time since we left the hospital. It was nice to lounge around in a robe and blankets, but it was also fun to get dressed, especially with as many cute clothes as Etta had. My wardrobe was another story. Perhaps I should have stayed in that bathrobe after all.

Etta’s first outing was a trip to the pediatrician at 11 days old. Although I was very comfortable with newborn care, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that Etta was especially fragile, given her scrawny appearance. Upon examination Etta weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces, up from just 6 pounds, 7 ounces the previous week. The target weight gain for newborns (after an initial loss of up to 10%) is an ounce a day, returning to the birth weight by two weeks of age, so Etta was doing exceptionally well, having gained over a pound. Etta’s blood work came back in the normal range, so the doctor said no further care was needed – we could come back when she was a month old. I could no longer consider her sickly; she was obviously thriving.

Etta got her first bottle feed at 15 days old. I expressed two ounces of breast milk straight into a bottle with a manual breastpump, which wasn’t as powerful as the electric pump at the hospital, but also wasn’t as painful. My husband gave Etta the bottle so that she wouldn’t be rooting around on my chest when she smelled the milk. Etta was a little confused by the bottle at first, even with the Avent nipple which was designed to be as similar to a breast as possible. Hunger took over, though, and Etta was soon sucking the bottle dry with confidence. Although I hoped to breastfeed for a full year as the medical profession recommended, I wanted to introduce a bottle before Etta got too attached to the breast. I have some major dental work coming up for which I will have to be away from Etta for several hours and it would be nice for her to already be familiar with a bottle in case she gets hungry in my absence.

Etta had her first hard cry at three weeks. We were driving and as soon as we got on the freeway Etta started crying inconsolably. It only took us about eight minutes to get to the safety of a parking spot at the mall where I could comfort Etta with the breast, but every minute of crying felt like a year. Etta’s eyes were all red and wet with tears, so we knew her tear ducts were fully functional (it’s usually a few weeks before the tear ducts produce tears).

I used to think that if I could always respond to Etta’s whimpering before it became a throaty cry, she might never "learn" how to cry hard. Now that she knows how to really cry, will she cry more easily and often instead of whimpering? We’ve been really lucky in that she’s not colicky and is usually easy to soothe.

Etta is now staying awake up to four hours at a stretch, and sleeping up to four hours sometimes. During her wakeful times she is much more alert, starting to look at things and make eye contact. She has an amazing array of facial expressions, and they change rapidly. She can go from smile, to scowl, to alert concentration, to sad face, and back to smile all within a minute’s time. It’s hard to know which expressions are connected to her feelings, and which are just random.

She’s starting to really focus on our faces, too, and respond with a smile. Since Etta is now smiling, I find myself talking to her more. I have to watch out when I do it though. If Etta is nursing and looking up at me, and I look back at her and utter sweet sayings, she’ll smile, which breaks her latch and cuts off the milk flow. The smile is usually followed by a confused look and a frantic search for the nipple which slipped out of her mouth when she smiled.

It’s funny to watch her with the pacifier when she’s active because her arms will be waving around and then suddenly her hand will catch on the pacifier and propel it away. Etta is always so stunned… she can’t understand why someone would be so cruel as to take her pacifier from her, and of course she doesn’t realize that it was her own hand that did it!

At three weeks Etta weighed in at 8 pounds, 8 ounces. Etta must be in a growth spurt because she’s crying for the breast every hour or so and sleeping only briefly in between feeds. She’s also more fussy, perhaps frustrated that my breasts are not keeping up production with her sudden increase in demand. I put away two little outfits that she’s already outgrown and she’s suddenly too big around the tummy for the preemie size diapers. She has a definite double chin forming and her little cheeks are chubbing up. Her bottom remains petite and her arms and legs are still thin, but the skin doesn’t hang off in wrinkles anymore.

Etta wears a cap on her head whenever we go outside, and sometimes even in the house if it is chilly. When I took her cap off upon returning home from errands one day I was startled to see a thick fuzz inside the cap. Etta is losing her hair, especially the fine, blonde lanugo which covers most of her body, including her shoulders and back. Within days she lost all the hair on the top of her head, but the hair on the sides and in back remained thick. Her skin is peeling on her face, especially around her eyes. The poor little babe looks so strange with the pimples on her nose, the scaly flakes of skin around her eyes, and the lack of hair on the top of her head. She wouldn’t look quite so odd if she were entirely bald, but I love my little sweetheart no matter what she looks like!