Friday: busy day

Today was a busy day, as we had another home visit from the nurse and newborn pictures.

Since there were pictures, we started the day with a bath.

"help! Im being eaten by the monster shark."

The nurse said everything is still looking great.

Isaac did a great job with the pictures. He was man-handled for three hours but only started getting fussy at the end. He didn't always do exactly what the photographer wanted, but at least he wasn't mad.

The photographs, of course, threw off any schedule that he might have and so he slept soundly for the rest of the evening.

Thursday: super Dad

So, continuing from last night. Around 1:30 I had no clue what to do. Laying him down didn't work, holding him didn't work because he would just root around, and feeding didn't work because he stopped to quickly. So Ben took over and managed to get him to sleep. And didthe same thing a few more times at night.

We have noticed that Isaac will more easily calm down in Ben's arms. He seems to have a magic touch.

The day again went pretty quickly, although not much of note happened. Yesterday I realized that I hadn't taken many pictures, so today I tried to remedy that.

This is the quilt I'm making him. It isn't quite finished, but enough for pictures.

This one is my favorite.

Wednesday: unpredictable

Last night continued to be better. I only had to get up three times during the night, which was awesome. (we'll note that they way we figured out the actual count was the swaddling blankets...the first time was monkeys, the second time I didn't get a diaper on fast enough so we ended up with plain white, and the third time there were other fluid problems so we ended up with lions.)

Isaac continued this great trend throughout the day, sleeping for rather long periods.

Ben's brother and sister in law brought over an excellent dinner and we played some games with them. Half way through games he wanted to eat. No problem. But then he wanted to eat again ten minutes later. And again ten minutes later.

This trend continued, with one or two slightly longer breaks...until midnight. What happens after midnight? You'll just have to wait for the next installment of "new parents living with a new born."

Tuesday: four days old

Last night went pretty well. Isaac still fed more often than I hoped, but the swaddling and bouncy seat meant that it was easy to put him back to sleep in between.

It was a morning of firsts. Isaac was dressed in his first cloth diaper. I was happily surprised at how easy they were and how well the plastic thing kept everything dry. Maybe surprised is the wrong word since no one would be using them if that were the case, but surprised that my first try worked so well.

Isaac was awake, so we read our first book together. However, I didn't explain to him what a book was, so he kept looking to the side of the book.

I then needed the use of my whole body, so he got his first swing ride.

Dad came to help out after that and Ben was able to come home early, so most of the rest of the morning/afternoon passed by as normal.

We were getting ready to go to the doctor when we got a call saying Isaac's great-grandmother was coming over with dinner. We felt bad that it would have to be a really short visit, but were glad she was coming and were keeping an eye out for her. Then Ben said "someone's in the driveway" as I saw a pair of legs fall to the ground. My heart raced. But on further inspection it was only the neighbor kids having a snowball fight. Phew.

The doctor's visit was pretty uneventful. We got a few more questions answered, and found out that Isaac is back over his birth weight already at 7lb, 2oz. (they like to have babies hit that mark by two weeks.). Three cheers for Isaac! But then we told him that maybe now it would be ok to not eat so often.

Monday: nurse visit

Last night went better than the previous night. Still a lot of room for improvement though, but we'll be trying more different things tonight.

Isaac's appetite was still voracious, so a lot of the day was spent feeding.

A nurse came by to check everyone at home today. We got this because we could have spent another night in the hospital but chose not to. (Our first night there didn't count as a night since Isaac wasn't born until the a.m.). Anyway, she was very happy with how Isaac is doing. His bilirubin number is low, he is strong, alert, and nursing well and he gained a tad bit of weight since being discharged (now at 6lb, 13oz). The only thing she didn't like was the lack of diaper changes needed and the stool color.

So tonight Isaac worked on increasing that number. Significantly. He also managed to get the right stool color.

Can you tell we're proud parents?

We haven't forgotten about Flurry. Mom brought over some catnip toys with dinner and she loved them.

This evening we're trying two different things with sleeping. 1) We're putting a bouncy seat in the bassinet to help him feel more confined. 2) Mom brought over some actual swaddling blankets. After Ben looked up how to swaddle last night, I was rather disappointed in what the birthing class had taught us. They just used receiving blankets (not large enough) and the technique wasn't quite the same.

P.s. To whoever cleared our driveway from snow, thank you so much. It was an awesome surprise

Sunday: hunger

The theme of today was hunger. Isaac was hungry pretty much all day. It often felt like he finished nursing just to start again 15 minutes later. Luckily, he liked being held by grandparents, so we did get a few breaks in the day.

The other thing we found out is that Isaac doesn't like the bassinet. We aren't really sure what to do about this since he is too young to just leave in it. We'll ask the nurse who comes tomorrow and have a few other things to try.

There were several fun things that happened today too...

Isaac had woken up and was wide-eyed, so both Ben and i were looking at him. He discreetly looked at Ben's face, then my face, then Ben's again.

Ben showed him, by example, how to sleep on his back.

We started to wrap Christmas gifts.

My family came over with a delicious dinner and we opened presents.

Dad found a picture of me as a baby...I look a lot like Isaac.


We decided that Isaac might become an escape artist after he repeatedly escaped from the swaddling sleep sack, in spite of Ben's best efforts to put him there very tightly.

Dec 31: coming home

To begin with, i'm happy to report that Isaac seemed to figure out how to latch on after we sent him to the nursery last night. Maybe there was a class they didn't tell us about, but we've barely had any problems today.

Therefore, Today we came home from the hospital. The day was much more relaxed than yesterday. Not as many random people, more sleep at night, etc.

So here's Isaac, ready to go home.

Oops...he had a small blowout. Back to yesterday's outfit.

Amy and Brian stopped by on their way north. They weren't able to stay for long because Isaac got hungry, but it was still nice to see them for a little bit.

Then my family stopped by after dinner. While it is always nice to see them, it was especially nice this time because they did some laundry. I hadn't washed much of the newborn clothes since I was expecting a larger baby, so I wasn't really sure what Isaac was going to wear tomorrow. Instill don't have an answer to that, but at least there are possibilities.

I was going to post this tomorrow, but this child won't stop eating. I'll think hes done because he is almost asleep and not responding to stimulus to keep eating, but then he says he's sill hungry.