Heeeeeeeeere's Katie!

Before...

After.

JooYeon was amazing again. :)

 

Welcome to the world, Katherine (Katie) Marie Showalter!

Ellie has enjoyed having a new member of the family. If nothing else, she somehow sensed that she moved up one spot in the maturity pecking order of the family.

 

One hazard of having a second child is that everyone (yourselves included) assume that you remember everything from the first time around so there is much less guidance. Somewhere amidst the mantras of the extreme exclusive breastfeeding circles, we missed the message that you should probably eventually feed your baby if they're not getting enough milk. Or I missed that message anyway and convinced Joo not to give Katie formula regardless of how much Katie cried. "The milk will come in eventually." "Mothers fed their babies for thousands of years without supplement." "The colostrum is all they need right now." "Most mothers think they're not producing enough milk." Yadda, yadda. Long story short, Katie ended back up at the hospital under the blue light and with an IV in her arm. Poor girl. :(  Incidentally, five weeks in, she is exclusively breastfeeding, but now I know that there is a time for formula (if only Pete Seeger had included that line in his song, we might have avoided the second hospital stay!)

That said, this time around was much better than when Ellie had been under the lights. As soon as her bili levels stabilized, we knew it was just a matter of time, and so Joo and I relaxed and tried to enjoy the stay. Mom and Dad took Ellie, which gave Joo and I some time alone to bond with Katie.