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First thing in the morning I had a lactaion specialist come in to help Lottie and I figure out this whole breastfeeding thing. When she first was born she latched on both breasts for a good 45 minutes – in hindsite I wish I would have known what I was doing because within 24 hours she had successfully chomped up my nipple pretty bad. We needed to learn to latch fast for mamas sake!

For the rest of the time in the hospital I took full advantage of the lactation team at IU North and had them come in pretty much every time I fed Lottie to make sure we were doing it right and offer any and all tips to make this process a success.

Other than learning to breastfeed, we pretty much just spent the day with freinds and family in love with this little bundle of Joy.

Luckily, Lottie let us sleep on the second night. One of the nurses swaddled her tight and she fell asleep faster than Josh and I. The hard work of being born finally caught up with her, so we started the routine of waking her up every 3 – 4 hours at night to make sure she is eating enough.

Eating enough she was! This mama has milk and the nurses let us knoe she was the doing the best in terms of weight, only losing 4 oz, where they usually lose up to 10%. Good to know we have the eating thing diwn, even though we dont have the latch thing down yet.

So many of Lottie’s friends came to visit!

We both hadn’t slept in 36 hours and were running on adrenaline. We could have taken the nurses up on their offer to take Lottie to the nursery so mama and daddy could get some sleep, but as new parents we figured we might as well go through the sleepless nights and first diaper changes and feedings with the great night staff. This way we could ask all of our questions now and not be totally lost when we bring her home for the first time.

The day was filled with family visits, lots of cuddles, ooo’s and ahhhh’s. We were in love, but still a little in shock that we would be a forever family of 3. After dreaming about that moment for 10 months it’s hard to comprehend, even when you are holding your new baby in the hospital.

When everyone left that first night, Josh and I knew we needed sleep, but Lottie was wide awake and ready to get to know us. We spent that first night passing her off every hour or so.

I remember holding her as long as physically possible until I felt myself unable to keep my eyes open, and then I would walk over, wake Josh up and pass her off. He would then repeat, hold her until he physically couldnt keep himself awake any longer and then wake up me to hold her. We tried numerous times to put her to sleep and calm her down but she was awake and ready to meet this world!

So, needless to say the first night was rough, but all through day 2 we were still running on adrenaline and just completely in awe of our new miracle we had made!