Krewe de Speyrer: Emily One Week Old and "Cool" Like Her Sister

We've had our sweet Emily home just over a week and things are going great! She has continued to be super sweet and pretty laid back. We had our first couple of post-discharge from the hospital doctor's appointments last week. When we were discharged from the hospital we knew that we were going to have a couple of follow up labs and appointments about Emily's bili (jaundice) levels as well as a an appointment with an orthopedist to check her hips.

We had our appointment with the orthopedist first and were very glad to know what we were probably dealing with this time around since we needed to address Kate's hips right after she was born also. Sure enough Emily wants to be just like her big sister, decided to camp out in Momma's tummy in a breech position and decided that she wanted to be one of the "cool kids" that wear harnesses too (See our post on Kate's hip dysplasia). As a quick explanation--since she was sitting with her head up instead of down while in my tummy her hip joints are not properly formed at birth. The place where the ball should fit into the socket is loose (the orthopedist likes to say the joints are shallow) therefore they put the baby in a little harness that forces the ball into the socket like it should be and since baby's bones are so malleable the problem easily corrects itself with no trouble/pain to the baby. We quickly learned with Kate and see again with Emily that wearing the harness is no big deal at all. It definitely doesn't bother her and if anything I think that she likes being held in a position, kind of like how infants love to be tightly swaddled. So you may notice over the next several weeks (she's estimated to need it for 6 weeks) she may look a little like she has football pads on under her clothes. That's just the little harness under there.

Emily's biliruben levels were slightly elevated before we were discharged from the hospital so over our first weekend home we made a couple of trips to the lab to get her levels checked and after a little increase the numbers seemed to start to level off. So we had another trip to the pediatrician last Monday to get levels checked and check her weight. Bili levels were still slightly elevated (just in a "need to monitor" zone but nothing that the Dr was concerned about) and our little piggy is definitely gaining weight. We had things checked again on Friday and today and she has gained over a pound since birth already. That's a lot when you only weigh 7-8 lbs to begin with. Birth she was 7 lb, 11 oz, before we left the hospital she was 7 lb, 8 oz, last Monday 8 lbs, 4 oz, Friday 8 lbs, 9 oz and today 8 lbs 12.5 oz. The steady increase makes the nursing Momma feel pretty good. Everything else looks great and we aren't due back for another check up for a couple of weeks.

We are trying to start to settle into our little routine with our two girls. Makes it pretty easy with Nonna here helping with everything!! We are so blessed to have her here helping out! It will definitely be a reality check next week once she's gone but I think we'll make it just fine. We have two little girls that could not be more perfect in my opinion! It really just keeps getting better and better. Kate continues to be a great big sister and seems to be adjusting to all the changes as well as we could ask for. It is crazy to think that just a week and a few short days ago we were still a family of 3 and Emily was still just hanging out in my tummy, but now that she's here it's hard to remember what things were like without her! We hope you enjoy a few of our recent pictures.

Emily sporting her harness

This is how Emily spends a lot of her time...happily snoozing. You can also tell in this picture that she's already getting to be quite the chunky monkey