These photos were taken after our first night in the hospital.... this is important to say because there is no way I would have been this happy after night 2.
The primary thing I wish someone would have told me about the hospital is that night 2 can be a nightmare. Every baby is different but it took until about 4 am after literally hours of uncontrollable crying for me to finally consider this may be a trend and to Google it. Thankfully Google put my mind at ease this time (rather than telling me my baby had some long extinct illness )
The first night at the hospital was just hard enough to think "hey we got this down" without being too easy that I thought "wait...could this be too easy?"
The second night...oh my goodness. It was night and day. She would not...stop...crying...
We learned babies often cluster feed or atleast find crazy amounts of comfort that second night by being at your chest. They are so exhausted from birth that first night that they sleep pretty well....but the second night they realize they are outside of the womb and less than thrilled.
This is portrayed by her constant fussy crying (then crazed lunatic crying), you questioning your parenting abilities, and lots of attempts to nurse, but her not really trying.
We learned this can be a good thing because of your milk hasn't come in, sucking helps. Just let her suck. Pun intended....it sucks because it hurts. However your emotions hurt more when she is bawling and you can't do anything.
We kept questioning what was wrong because she was eating way more frequently than the nurses said (2-3 hrs is what they told us to feed her). The nurse came in a couple times and suggested she was hungry (but gave no indication this was normal or to throw the 2-3hr suggestion out the window) and I kept saying "but she just ate!"
After Google I decided to just let her suck, and when she stopped and fell asleep to LEAVE HER there rather than put her in the bassinet. It worked instantly. She just wanted to feel safe and close. We fell asleep together like that until a nurse came a couple hours later and offered to take her to the nursery for a hour.
I vowed then that if I could help one other new mom by sharing this story it would be worth it..because apart from the horror or contractions it was my ultimate worst eye-opening hospital experience of my stay.
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