We survived the first week with a newborn!! Beatrix is really sweet, but honestly taking care of a newborn is so hard. I just have to remind myself in the middle of the night that the first week is the hardest and that if we can make it through that we can make it through this next week as well.
I feel like the first few nights were easier than the rest of the week. Nursing got harder and more painful and she seemed to want to be up more at night. I'm hoping nights will start to get better as time passes. We still can't really get her to sleep anywhere but in someones arms. I know that if I just wait a month or two that will pass as well.
I had to work hard to get her to sleep in her basket for these pictures. Everyone else is at church so I had at least a good two hours to get these pictures done.
Bob had a work thing last night and so it was the first time I felt on my own with the kids for dinner and bed time. Actually, bob made dinner before he left, so we just had to eat and clean up and then get the kids to bed. The older kids did amazing! Beatrix cried a significant amount of time, but everyone was so helpful it worked out. We all cleaned up the kitchen while one child held Beatrix. She was fussy, but I knew she wasn't hungry, and she was being held so I didn't feel neglectful. Then I went and fed her again while the kids did the last bits of cleaning. Lastly the kids took turns holding Beatrix while watching TV and I took a shower. It was great! They were then able to pretty much put themselves to bed. I love having older kids to help out.
I think everyone is adjusting well to having a newborn in the family. I was concerned about Calista but she seems just fine. She loves Beatrix and is always saying "baby" and pointing at her. Calista is really a daddy's girl these days and Bob has been spending lots of time with her. I'm hopeful that she will still be ok when he goes back to work in a week.
Newborn yawn.
This is really such a difficult but special time for our family. Having a baby really forces everyone to bond together. I'm excited to see how our family dynamic changes as Beatrix gets older.
I spent the past nine months making a baby! Introducing Beatrix Dot Woestman.
I wanted to do things a little different this time around so I didn't post on any social media that I was pregnant. I'm not sure exactly why, I just felt a little more private about this baby and it felt right not to share. Now that she is here I'm dying to show everyone how cute she is. Here is her first selfie, we took it while hanging out at the hospital after she was born.
Another thing I wanted to do differently was labor and delivery. A home birth was on my mind but it would have been very difficult here in Japan. The base does not do them, so I would have had to find my own Japanese midwife and then deal with all the insurance and citizenship info because she would have been born off the US base. Bob also did not like the idea. So instead of pursuing that Beatrix was born at the hospital but with as little medical help as possible. I saw a midwife throughout my pregnancy and had a completely drug free delivery. Which was a first for me.
It actually went really smooth. I woke up to my first contraction at six am Saturday morning. I was unsure but Bob decided to come home from work pretty much right when he got to work (he left just before six). A friend came over and babysat all day. The kids were so excited for me to have the baby and for the babysitter to come over. We got to the hospital around nine, and Beatrix was born at 11:30 am. She came just a couple days after her due date and on the one day I had plans to go to a concert, but that was ok. It was actually really nice to have a baby over the weekend. The hospital was empty.
The kids all got to come to meet her on Sunday morning on their way to church. It was such a precious moment. Everyone was so excited.
Our hospital stay was just fine. I prefer our old not Naval hospital. It was strange having young naval corpsman guys do a lot of what I was used to a nurse doing. It really seemed like they didn't want to be there and could care less about this job they were doing. Not a big deal though.
Beatrix and I didn't have any complications and I felt like we were ready to go home just an hour or so after birth. Unfortunately we had to stay the full 24 hours, which is just a pain because they keep coming in what felt like every minute to take our temperature and blood pressure etc.
When it was time to go Beatrix was not happy to get buckled into her carseat. But once she was all settled she did great and didn't mind it at all. We haven't gone in the car since but I'm hoping she will like to ride around.
I took these sweet pictures of her when she was only two days old. Right now she is pretty much just a sleepy little squish ball who loves to be held fed and wrapped up tight and I love it.
Taking newborn pictures is hard! I've spent some time since she was born trying to get nice pictures. It is always a struggle though because it usually takes up precious nap time. In the end I know I'll be happy I took the time to focus on pictures, but in the moment it is hard. Here are the few that I've got edited.
At 40 weeks and a day I was starting to feel like I'd be pregnant forever....ok, at 39 weeks I was starting to feel like that. The last three kids were all early so I was expecting her to be born early as well. I guess Calista was just a little too comfy in there because she didn't want to come out early. Here is a picture of me the morning she was born (technically, because she was born just after midnight this picture was taken the day before, but it felt like the day she was born).
I had contractions all day, but nothing regular until we got to pack meeting that night. I really didn't think I'd be going to pack meeting, but I was there still pregnant. There were so many things that I didn't think I would go to because I thought for sure the baby would be born before then. Scheduling and planning can be so hard when you don't know when the baby will be born. I was worried she would be born before Easter! Thats funny considering she was born way after that. I think knowing what day she was going to come would have made the last couple weeks much easier for me. Waiting is hard!
Anyway, we left for the hospital just after 9pm. Once I got there the contractions started getting pretty painful and things seemed to take forever. I wasn't admitted until around 10 and then it took 45 minutes to get the IV in. That was so horrible. It took 6 tries and 3 different people to get it to work. They were moving the needle around in my arm and flushing veins trying to get one to work. It was pretty bad because the whole time my contractions were really hurting. I had previously wanted to try it natural, but the pain was too much. I didn't last long before I decided a natural birth wasn't for me.
Once they got the IV in we had to wait for the anesthesiologist to come. That went ok, but I was surprised that the epidural took so long to start working. It was about midnight when it started working, but even then I could still feel a lot. A couple minutes after that the doctor came in to check, he broke my water super easily with his fingers and said that I should probably just push the baby out now. That only took a minute (although I could feel more than I'd liked to have) and Calista Mae was born. It was three really rough hours and I'm glad it is over.
She weighed 8lbs 6 ounces and was 20 and a half inches long. Everything looked great and there were no complications with me or her.
She looks so tiny when Bob holds her.
One thing I do like about the hospital is the food. I made sure to order a lot.
The next day my parents came to visit with the kids. Scarlett was definitly the most enthusiastic about seeing her baby sister. She really wanted to hold her a long time and even when others were holding her she was trying to touch her and be close to her.
Tucker was the second most interested. I wasn't sure how he would act, but he seemed pretty excited to have a new baby in the family. He was actually the one who really wanted her to be born. It was almost every day for at least a week that Bob would fake the kids out and tell them that it was time for mom to have the baby. He was always the most disappointed to find out that bob was joking. He even asked how to know if it really was time or not and I told him that he will know because I'll say it is time and not Bob.
Penelope seemed hesitant to hold her. She was also and still is the most cautious with her. She makes sure to wash her hands and she makes sure everyone else does also. The first thing Penelope wanted to know when she saw me was about the IV in my hand and how much it hurt. When I told her that the IV did hurt she said, "That is why I'm not going to have babies," I hope that doesn't turn out to be true.
Leon liked her, but just wanted to hold her for a minute and then was ready to go to Grandma's house. My parents took them for a couple days to their house so Bob and I could rest and adjust to having a baby. It was great!
Here she is laying in her bed. She spent a whole of five minutes in there the whole stay. I couldn't and still cannot get her to lay down on her own. She insist on being held 24 hours. Even the professional nurses couldn't get her to sleep or lay down by herself. I can get nothing done.
This is how I spend my time now. Actually while in the hospital she wanted to eat most of the time. So I probably fed her once an hour for the first two days. It was rough, now she likes to eat every two hours, but I still can't put her down.
I think she is a loud cryer for a newborn. Sometimes she reminds me of a squeaky toy. Some of the nurses were commenting on how loud she was.
Bob was a huge help and stayed even though the couch was supper uncomfortable for him to sleep on.
We left Friday afternoon and Calista cried the whole way. It was kind of embarrassing walking out with a screaming baby. She continued to scream the whole drive home until we got her out of the car seat and picked her up.
I'm happy we made it through the first week and am hoping that things start to get a little easier from here on out.
