Okay, so you know how most moms are filled with joy when their baby is born? they anxiously wait for the green light
to go home with their new bundle of joy. That is totally true, my husband and I were so excited to be handed our
discharge papers, especially after being in the hospital for 1,000 years (I had a very long labor). Well, my friend buckle
up and stay tuned to read about my wild first-night experience with my baby.
The day we were leaving all the moms decided to go into labor, and we were practically rushed out of our room.
Table of Contents
Leaving The Hospital with Baby:
Apparently, women were waiting in the hallway yikes! I was more than willing to quickly exit because you know….
Empathy. However, I do not remember being offered a wheelchair, and as you can imagine I was exceptionally sore
after pushing for three hours and tearing in a very awkward place. So, I walked very slowly almost wanting to drag my
feet to the car, and a very uncaring, or unnoticing family parked where the labor and delivery area was, and I had to
walk even further to get to our car. The nurse who accompanied us made sure to berate the family, who again either
didn’t hear the nurse or just didn’t care and continued to walk off. Throughout this whole time, our daughter was
soundly asleep, and peaceful just like she was when we were still in the hospital. We foolishly thought we had this in
the bag, and we were headed for a peaceful night.
First Night Home with Baby:
Okay! We are finally home, and we eat dinner after I haven’t eaten in practically four days in the hospital. Our baby is
still very peaceful during all this time. We don’t go to bed just yet we decide to relax a little bit, and I eat some ice
cream (yes there is a reason that I mention this). Shortly, after we happily decided to go to bed thinking we would at
least have 2-3 after her feeding, just like everyone tells you. “Oh, you will be waking up every 2-3 hours to feed the
baby.” I thought that was a fair deal because I didn’t get any sleep for four days while in the hospital, I was already
severely sleep-deprived (stay tuned for my labor and birth story) so a solid 2 hours of sleep off and on throughout the
night sounded great. BOY! Was I wrong, I will say about 30min-1 hours after we put her down, she woke up screaming
at around midnight, and didn’t stop until around 6 am! YES, you read that correctly! Our precious peaceful baby girl
screamed the first night we brought her home for 6 hours!!! We tried everything to console her, but nothing worked.
During this whole time, as I mentioned I was severely sleep deprived now going on almost 5 days without sleep,
feeling weak was an understatement. I felt as if my body was breaking down, it was by the grace of God I was able to
survive that time, I will always be grateful to the lord for that seriously. Anyway, after about 6 hours of crying, I was
convinced to take her back to the hospital because I thought something was wrong. I was kind of right.
What we found out :
We didn’t take her to the hospital, she did have her routine appointment the next day with her pediatrician, and she
calmed down around 6 a.m. We found out about the “second-night syndrome”, which in my opinion is a real thing and
you can read a little bit about it here https://www.carsontahoe.com/assets/Baby%27s%20Second%20Day%202016.pdf However, take your time to
investigate this girly or man (if you are a man reading this). I also found out that my daughter had a milk protein
allergy, my daughter was exclusively breastfed, and remember I mentioned I had that ice cream. So pretty much a
combination of my daughter being in pain from the milk protein allergy, the second-night syndrome (trying to adjust
outside of the womb), and two new parents freaking out was a PERFECT recipe for a disaster of a first night.
What will we do differently the next time?
Okay, after that hoopla of a time, can you believe we decided to have a second one? Well, yes, we did, I am currently expecting our second child.
So what will we do differently?
1. Since most babies experience the “second-night syndrome”, I will spend more time creating a similar environment to the womb for the first night home. Noise machine, maybe a vibrating feature on their bassinet, ensuring the perfect temp experts and my doctor told us 68-72 degrees F, swaddle wraps.
2. Preventative measures for gas buildup that newborns are susceptible to whether they have a milk allergy or not, breastfed, or not. I used gas drops used …. I also believe my daughter got a milk allergy because of the antibiotics I had to get while in the hospital because of GBS (Group B Strep). I was on a routine Penicillin every 4 hours for 30 min while in labor, my labor was over 30 hours …. so, my daughter’s good bacteria were wiped out, and so was mine but it harshly affected her. I will do a separate blog about how I will go about it differently if ever positive again.
3. I will enforce sleep shifts; I give my husband and me grace because we are first-time parents. Sleep shifts are important, so you have at least one functional adult, which is what I really needed.
Encouragement
Having a baby is one of the biggest blessings God can allow us to experience. There are very few things that you can
compare to being a parent, it is a monumental experience. Although my first night was rough, I keep those memories
close to my heart because it went by so fast, and my baby girl is so big now. I would love to experience my first baby
all over again with my husband. I wanted to share this with you all because there are many people on the internet that
glamorize the newborn experience and sometimes that is not everyone’s story. My friend, I want you to be excited!
Prepared! and have realistic expectations! so keep in touch with us, and congratulations! Leave us a comment, and let
us know what you would like to talk about next, or any questions. If you are having problems putting your baby to
sleep read our last post.
