Sullivan at One Week

It's been a week since little Sullivan joined our family. I'll put together a post about his actual birth day soon but this is my attempt at preserving a few memories from Sully's first week with us.

My water broke at midnight on Thursday, November 13th. We were in bed, having been asleep for about an hour when I woke to the feeling of well...maybe you can imagine. I'll leave the details for the birth story but in any case, that was the beginning and 7 hours later, Sullivan was in our arms.

Sully, you made your way into this world on a cold, cold night. In fact, we experienced our first snowfall of the season on the night I went into labor. Snowflakes coated the road as we made our way to the hospital but the sun shone bright the next morning as you took your first breath of air at 7:03 am.

So far, Sullivan has been - dare I say - an easy babe. I don't want to jinx it, but this kid is one mellow dude. He nurses like a champ and sleeps like a dream. The only time he complains about anything is when we change his diaper or clothing. He has light blonde hair, tinged with a bit of red, just like Cece's was when she finally got hair around 6-7 months. His skin is a bit orange due to being slightly jaundiced but he's been soaking up the sunlight and flushing his system with lots of milk so it shouldn't last much longer.

Sully, it's a good thing you're mr. mellow because when your sister is around, things are a bit chaotic in the house. She loves you so, so much. At times, maybe tries to love you too much - as in, she constantly wants to hug (smother) you, and sit with (on) you. I suppose all that love is better than the alternative though.

As for me, I'm making a speedy recovery. Everything seemed to be easier the second time around, thank goodness. It's a good thing, too because with two babes to look after, there's hardly time to think about myself. Sullivan has been a champion nurser, just like his sister was. I'm so thankful for that. Breastfeeding can be stressful, painful and time consuming and there are no guarantee it will go smoothly. I'm just thankful my kids took to it easily. So far, so good. 

As I said, Sullivan sleeps like a dream. He has taken to cluster feeding in the evening and then sleeping for longer 3-4 hour stretches at night. He sleeps next to me at bed so I just listen for his little grunts, roll over and feed him in the side-lying position. Most nights he only needs one diaper change. Since I'm pretty used to broken sleep after two years with Cece and 9 months of pregnancy, the lack of solid sleep hasn't phased me much (yet) this time around. It was a huge adjustment for both of us when Cece was born and I can remember the first few weeks being really, really hard. I'm hoping Sully's schedule and habits stay steady, but perhaps that's wishful thinking. If there's anything predictable about babies, it's that they are predictably unpredictable and that as soon as you are settled into a "good" stretch, they changed things up on you. So...I'm just waiting for the shoe to fall. For that first really tough night, tough stretch. For my hormones to go haywire and for sleep deprivation to set in. It's coming. I'm sure. But for this week, it's been pretty blissful to just soak up the baby smells and little snuggles and to fully enjoy our time as a family of four.

Just as a comparison, here's a look back at Cece's first week with us.