Dear Catherine, Weeks 1-4

If you haven't already, go read the preludes to "Dear Catherine, Weeks 1 to 4" over at How to Have a Baby, where I share her birth story, as well as stories of the time leading up to her arrival.

Dear Catherine,

The first four weeks of your life (October 9-November 5) were happy, heartbreaking, and hectic, in that general order.

Your dad and I were more excited than anything to have you join our family. So much so that we absolutely couldn't wait to leave the hospital and come home to introduce you to your new home and our puppies and kitties. This first picture of you is from when we first brought your home on October 11th, and we plopped you in your bouncey and let you look around. When we got home from the hospital, your Uncle Jerry and Lori came to visit, as did your Aunt Patti and your Uncle Don and your cousin Jamie. They were very excited to meet you!

Your first few days at home were fairly uneventful. On your first full day at home - October 12th - you got to watch your first NASCAR race on TV. You actually seemed to be looking at the TV - very cute. On day three at home - October 14th - you got to enjoy your first bath before getting ready to go to your first doctor's appointment. We couldn't wait to brag to the doctor that you were already quite actively holding your head up on your own! We also couldn't wait to brag that you were also already sleeping more than 4 hours at a clip - what a treat!

Unfortunately, your doctor would have news for us that would quickly turn happiness into heartbreak. While we were in the doctor's office, we learned that you'd lost too much of your birth weight and that we would have to start force-feeding you (or in your case, force-nursing you) in order for you to thrive. But what we learned after we got home was far scarier. You see, your bilirubin levels had climbed through the roof since you left the hospital, and were within a hair of the level thought to cause brain damage. Your mom's heart damn near stopped when your daddy took that phone call. Luckily, the doctor wanted to try to get you better at home instead of tucking you back into the hospital. So the home health folks showed up with some nifty blue lights and turned you into our little glo worm.

You had to be under those lights at all times until your bilirubin levels came down to a safer level. In addition, you had to be force-nursed every 2 hours, on the dot. Twelve feedings a day, no excuses, no exceptions. And for added fun, we had to take you to the doctor's office every single day to be weighed and to have blood drawn. We kept up that routine for a full week. At least you got to try out pretty outfits, like this one, during our doctor visits. Your daddy changed every single one of your diapers during that time, just so he could hold you, and we all slept in the living room for that entire week, so there was enough space to set the lights up around the portable crib that we brought out from our bedroom. Thank God, you gained weight like a champ (including 5 ounces in one day, which caused the nurse to accuse mommy of supplementing you!) and your levels came down steadily to a much safer zone.

Even though we weren't supposed to take you out from under the blue lights unless you were being fed or going to the doctor, we couldn't resist posing for a few pictures. Unfortunately, posing with the self-timer on mommy's camera resulted in some goofy shots - but when we were snapping directly of you, the pictures were beautiful 100% of the time! You were the most peaceful looking baby whenever you slept - and you were just the best snuggler in the world, which made it hard for your mom and dad to have to put you back in your crib and under those lights.

During your first four weeks, we didn't have any visitors, other than the day you came home from the hospital. We did, however, send lots of pictures to your Grandma Karen in Idaho, your Grandma and Grandpa Aller in Arizona, and your Grandmother Lewis in Pennsylvania.

The most special pictures we took in October were when the Phillies won the World Series on October 29th. Here's why mommy thinks that's special: her birthday is October 8, 1980, which was the same month as the Phillies' very first World Series championship. Your birthday is October 9, 2008...and just after your birth, the Phillies won the World Series for only the 2nd time in franchise history. Go Phanatics!

When you were 2 weeks old, your mommy started to make friends with her pump, and so you were introduced to a bottle. Even though you were fed breastmilk exclusively, we wanted to get you used to drinking from a bottle well in advance of mommy going back to work. In addition, your dad couldn't wait to start feeding you. Having some milk stored away in the fridge made it easier to go out on trips to the mall and the grocery store, too. You also got to go out visiting several times, including going to mommy's office and going to your Aunt Patti's house to see your cousin Zachary on Hallowe'en. You had the cutest onesie and sockies to wear for Hallowe'en - and had a terrific day that day.

During your first month, you loved swinging in your swing, picking your head up on your own to look around, looking at your mommy and daddy very closely, and turning your head to see the TV. You grew rapidly - you went from having lost more than a pound of your birth weight to being in the 90th percentile - and loved loved loved being cuddled. One of your favorite activities was waiting until we had your cloth diapers off to pee all over us - we cleaned up a lot of puddles! We also learned that you could poop, pee, puke and sneeze simultaneously. And that takes talent! You refused to even consider a pacifier during your first four weeks, but didn't mind being soothed by a purring kitty.

We love you, Catherine!

Mommy and Daddy