The night Natalia was born, she ate and ate and ate. Newborns typically don't eat much during the first 24 hours. Birth is just as hard on them as it is on the mom. (Can you imagine having your house crush you and force you out?) This was certainly true for Ree. She freaked me out by sleeping for 8 hours straight her first night. (She then more than made up for it by screaming until after 5:00 the second night.) But Natalia didn't get that message either, and so she cluster fed, meaning she would eat for awhile, take ten or fifteen minutes off, and then eat again, that whole first night.
And I certainly didn't want to stop her from eating. Natalia was born just before midnight. She had low blood sugar shortly after birth, and it was being checked intermittently until 4:30 a.m. If she could make in through that time without any problems, she would be left alone. If not, it meant more monitoring and a possible trip to the NICU. I don't think it's necessary to say how much I did not want her to go to the NICU.
So I fed her. And fed her. And fed her. She wanted to eat, and it kept her blood sugar stable. But I did start to get tired as the excitement of having a new baby wore off. Jeff and the kids left the hospital around 1:30, and Natalia and I got to go to our room around 2:00. Once Jeff got the big kids tucked back in, he and I texted from about 2:30 - 4:00, and that's when I really started to crash. We made it through the last blood sugar check with no problems, and I was ready to pass out. Natalia was in her bassinet next to my bed, and she started to fuss a little and root around for some food. I looked at her, told her those cries weren't serious yet, and passed out. I woke up ten or fifteen minutes later to the sounds of her still fussing a bit, and had a good giggle. Did I really tell a few hour old baby her cries weren't serious? And that's when I really realized that things really are a whole lot different with baby number four than they were with baby number one.
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