Schedules, Belches, and Angel Kisses

Per my cousin's request - I will write my post today about some of the fun facts about Hailey and some of the things I loved about her.

First of all Hailey was the BEST baby a mother could ask for - honestly. Anyone who spent time with her, like both of her grandmas, could tell you she was one of the BEST behaved babies they've ever met - especially once she got out of the hospital. Don't get me wrong - she had her moments of fussiness but they were few and far between. She was pretty consistent and predictable in her behaviors and routines. She rarely cried. And this was all pretty amazing considering everything her little body was fighting to do and the problems she had...

Here's a bit of our daily routine we managed to have once we got home and settled with her - this is actually from an email I sent one of my best friends Jan 5th (the day before Hailey passed):

Our family is doing well. We've been on our own officially for 2 days now and it's going well... Josh and I each take a 4 or 5 hour shift during the night to take care of Hailey. I usually have her from 11p to 4am and he takes her from 4-9am. She sleeps in her playyard crib in our room - so we sleep but when she needs to be fed or changed in the middle of the night one of us takes care of her depending on whose shift it is. She's on a pretty consistent schedule. She eats about every 3 hrs and gets changed about every 2 hrs. She's taking about 30-40ml by bottle of formula each feeding (which is awesome considering when we first started bottle feeding her in the hospital getting her to take 10ml was an accomplishment). She gets about 50ml when we tube feed her - which we do twice a day. Usually when she's napping during the day we're cleaning or cooking or doing something. I actually feel like we have more time than I expected - like I can find time to read still and time to take Opie on walks so it's nice. We're busy but its not a stressful busy... But she's a cutie pie and is totally worth it. :) Can't wait to take more videos of her.

She does 2 really funny things - 1, she belches very loudly after eating and 2, she sticks out her tongue a lot when she's hungry - so i'm hoping to capture those with our new camcorder soon.

So Hailey's schedule was eating every 3 hrs, and we changed her about every 2 hrs. She didn't really have a sleep schedule. She did sleep a lot, as most newborns do. She was much more awake the last couple of weeks she was with us. When she was awake she'd just look every which way with wide eyes and was good at self-entertaining - so even when she was awake at night she didn't cry much or anything. She laid there contently swaddled in her little blanket.

I had gotten into the routine of waking up around 8 or 9am when Josh's night shift was over and do a feeding while he got another hour of sleep and showered. Then he would get ready for work and take over watching Hailey while I showered. Then Hailey would usually go to sleep and while Josh was gone I would wash her bottles and switch over her things from our bedroom to the living room. Then I'd move Hailey out to the living room and cuddle her until Josh got home for lunch. Once things were settled I'd work on brunch/lunch for Josh and I, and we'd eat whenever/however we could. Then we spent the rest of the day with her - feeding, burping, changing, cuddling, loving, kissing, etc.

I have to share about burping her... In the hospital burping her was somewhat frustrating for me. It was difficult to get a good position for burping her because of her stomach (stitches, bandages, etc.) - I was really afraid she would be in pain if she was put over the shoulder to be burped. The nurse suggested just patting her on the back while I held her and rocked her. The first time I tried this I was successful and did get a little burp! But after that, I was never really successful with it again. Josh's mom was in the hospital to help us, and she had more success with the burps - but it still wasn't easy. Even when we got home with her I had trouble getting her to burp while Josh and his mom became more and more successful. Of course, as a mom, I was getting frustrated with myself.

One day I asked Josh to show me how he got her to burp, and I will never forget what happened. He propped Hailey up in one of these positions (see photo) and just held her there for a minute or so after feeding - he didn't even pat her or move her or do anything - and all of a sudden a HUGE burp came out of her - I mean it was literally like a loud belch. It was hilarious. I was like are you kidding me?? You didn't even do anything and she burps like that?! But from then on that's mostly how we burped her - we propped her up, gave her a pat or two sometimes, and then these loud belches came out of this tiny little body. I loved it...



So another thing I want to share about Hailey is her angel kiss. Hailey had a sort of "birth mark" in between her eyebrows - it was a reddish mark. When the nurses and doctors were explaining all of the things "wrong" and "right" with Hailey, the NICU nurses explained that they called this type of birth mark an angel kiss (and they also explained that they called babies with birth marks like that on the back of their necks stork bites). :) Sometimes the angel kiss would disappear over time they told us, but Hailey's stayed with her. On the day Josh's family left from their Christmas visit, Hailey's angel kiss became the brightest we had ever seen it. To this day I don't know why it happened, but her angel kiss looked like a flame. It was like she was burning bright with love because of them or something! In this photo you can kind of make out her angel kiss if you look hard - I loved her angel kiss! (and she's taking a snooze in the photo if you can't tell...) :)



I could go on and on (and probably will some other time) but this post is already long enough and I need to get going...

"Thank you for all of the unique and wonderful things about Hailey Lord!"