Accidental Smiles and Thumb Sucking

Lillie, Roger, and I survived our first week home from the hospital...barely! Having a baby changes everything is the understatement of the year. Until she gets on some sort of schedule, our lives revolve around her needs, end of story. Other mothers out there would probably ask, "didn't you know this before having a baby?!" and of course I knew it, but to live it day by day with severe sleep deprivation is another story!

So onto week one developments - Lillie found her thumb for the first time! From day 1, she normally puts her whole hand in her mouth and sucks on fingers when she's hungry (it's a great warning sign before she lets out a big cry!) but on day 7, she found her thumb and soothed herself while I got settled to feed her.

Lillie also gives us smiles from time to time. While not intentional at all (she only does them as she's drifting off to sleep after a feeding!), they are still very sweet and make my heart melt!

On to serious developments, we received some slightly unsettling news about Lillie's heel prick results from the hospital. She had an abnormal test result for something called Galactosemia. It has to do with the body's inability to break down sugars found in milk. We were advised to switch her to a soy formula right away and to bring her into Children's Hospital for additional bloodwork. Having to hold my baby while someone drew a vial of blood from her arm was very difficult! I was on the verge of tears the entire time. We will find out this week whether she has the disorder or is just a carrier of the disorder. I don't know much about genetics, but I do know that it is a recessive disorder so it would take both Roger and I being carriers for her to be more than just a carrier. The majority of cases are carrier cases (meaning that one parent is a carrier and passed it onto the child). If she is just a carrier, we can go back to nursing and she won't have milk allergies for the rest of her life.

Finally, we had our one week check up with the pediatrician on Friday and Lillie is already back up to her birth weight and then some! She was born 6lbs, 12oz, left the hospital at 6lbs, 6oz and was 6lbs, 15oz at her one week check up! Go Lillie! Now that she has surpassed her birth weight, we can feed her on demand (versus having to wake her up to feed) and she doesn't have to wear a little hat all the time (which was just about impossible to keep on her head!).