First Week

Whew! This has been quite a week. We are so blessed to get to spend time with our new baby girl. Her little facial expressions are so cute! This week has been a whirlwind of experiences, mostly good and some bad. I have been pretty exhausted, healing from the delivery and working on getting sleep. I won't go over all the details of what has occured, but I have definitely felt like I've been on a roller coaster, one day feeling like we were getting the hang of things, and the next having something new and difficult to experience. Dale and my mom have been such an amazing support, running laundry around the clock and taking shifts at night so I could just focus on feeding and healing/resting. We have all been amazed how it has taken the full effort of three adults to care for one little one.

We did have a scary experience with Faith when her diapers all the sudden started being an abnormal color on her 4th day of life. We had to go to the doctor (our first time getting a diaper bag ready and going somewhere), where we were told she had blood in her stools. It wasn't fresh, so most likely it was no problem, but of course that is still not very comforting for brand new parents (one of which who is dealing with some pretty major hormones). The doctor suggested I could pump for a week and have Faith go on formula for that week to see if it went away, but that option seemed really hard and overwhelming to me. At the advice of some friends who searched all over the internet, our doula, and a midwife, we decided to keep on with the nursing. They found that it was probably just some of the first few days' poop coming back (like she hadn't gotten rid of it all). That was a very hard night for me. I wanted to make the best decision for Faith, and it was so hard to know what was best. I'm sure this is the first of many scenarios like this in life...trying to figure out what is the best parenting decision to make. By the next morning, the poops turned back to their regular color, and we were so relieved. I never imagined I'd be so excited to see yellow poop.

Anyways, even through all the hard stuff, it has been a pretty amazing experience. It has been so fun to see Dale as a dad...he did not want to let her go at all those first two days. He just adores his little girl. We really appreciate all the prayers and congratulations we have received. We can't wait for you all to meet her and see how stinkin' cute she is. What a beautiful girl. We will update more soon, but obviously are a little tight on time right now. We love you all.
~Ashley