First Days at Home

The welcome home crew included my parents, Brannon's parents, & my sister who enjoyed doting on the newest little member of the family. She was still pretty sleepy and was very agreeable to be held and passed around by the various members of the family. Visitors began dropping in to see her including her great Aunt Celia, neighbors Matt & Cynthia, and the Finnegan crew of the Alexanders, Ben, & Dirty.

The McKay grandparents left late on Saturday and my sister had to leave on Sunday night, but luckily my parents were able to stay with us for the whole first week at home. It was great to have them there to feed us, wash clothes, clean up, etc. as we were adjusting to parenthood & the lack of sleep!

Mackenzie was a great little baby in the first few days at home. Our one struggle was that she really had a tough time latching on for breastfeeding. She would wail at the top of her lungs just about every time we tried. That was extremely frustrating for me, since it was about the only time she cried (hard not to take it personally!). We had to supplement with formula, which had me worried she might just become so used to the bottle that she wouldn't want anything else. But, with the help of some research by her daddy - we located a lactation consultant who came by that week and helped us out. She had started getting the hang of it by then, but the coach was reassuring and offered some additional help.

With the exception of the first night when she still had her nights & days mixed up, she began sleeping very well at night. In fact, we had to wake her up to feed pretty much every time and she would go right back to sleep after feeding. Granted, we had to get up every three hours, but at least we didn't have problems putting her back to bed.