Well first, but we already knew this, the kid is cute. Like, seriously cute. Kyle had the nerve to call him boring (ok, we all know newborns kind of are, but I can't get enough of this time in life...), and immediately Nolan proved him wrong, making the most hilarious faces like Elise used to.
He loves to sleep - more than his 36-weeker sisters, by a landslide. He sleeps all day long, but he also sleeps pretty much all night long, so I can hardly complain. Of course, I'm terrified to write and say that out loud, and I realize he's still just very much a newborn. But one can hope it lasts, right? Because as of now, we go to bed around 11 and wake up one time to feed him (and sometimes an additional time to pump, if he fools me into getting up earlier) until 5. And now, I'm quite sure we'll never see such a wonderful night of sleep again. Thanks a lot.
He also is a great eater, now that we've figured out some GI things. As early as the first night, I felt like something was off with his feeding. He was the spittiest newborn I'd ever seen, but not just with feeds and not because he was trying to figure out how things work. He'd spit up hours after a feed, and appeared to be really, really bothered by it - making faces and signature reflux moves I'd not seen in an hours-old kiddo, even with my uber refluxy girls. Add to this that he pooped every hour, on the hour (again - meconium from a brand spanking new baby, not the usual older, breast milk stuff that might have been more normal that frequent). That made him somewhat miserable too, and it just struck me as odd. He also only ate a few mL at a time, but we chalked that up to him being a "wimpy white boy". Not a racist phrase, it's practically medical terminology with regards to how poorly Caucasian male newborns do with eating, and breathing, and all those essential things, no matter what gestation they are born. ;)
Fast forward to days 2 and 3 of life, when he very quickly started having increasing amounts of blood in his stool, with blood and mucous making up the majority of each (still incredibly frequent) diaper rather quickly. He'd also cry in his sleep much of the night, especially for quite a while after any feed. It was pretty obvious that he was suffering from a lot of GI inflammation, and we have to assume he has a real milk protein allergy. This isn't just colic or reflux, which explained why he was so much needier the first few nights than even his sisters, who were generally terrible feeders for the first month or two of their lives. We went that night to the store for soy formula, though we've honestly given less than 2 ounces to him in the last week, now that he's getting 100% breast milk (for the time being).
And wow, what a difference an intact GI tract makes. He is a new baby, and a pretty perfect one :)
Other than that, we've also learned that he's a sucker. He loves his pacifier already, but is also relatively content to suck on a finger or two (or 8).
He really is very rarely awake, but when he is he is very quick to turn the direction of our voices, and I swear he seems to wake up as much for his sisters as any of the rest of us. And I don't just mean "woken by his sisters", as he sleeps through their chaos at this very moment, despite the fact that they're so loud my ears are nearly bleeding.
His hair hasn't fallen out (yet), but I fully anticipate it will. I'd love to be wrong. I never get tired of people making a fuss over it, and even the OB staff (who, as you might guess, see babies often) pointed it out at both births that "you just don't see newborns with blond hair like that very often".
He is pretty special, hair or no hair. We are all pretty smitten with him. The girls are so protective of him, and are such great helpers. They're so proud to announce to everyone that "baby brother is born!", and - other than thinking he sleeps too much - they can't get enough of him. And they're very intrigued by things like breast pumps and yellow stool... which has been entertaining to say the least. :)
Lots more to come, of course, since I left off without even sharing the big sisters' first reactions to him and have skipped ahead a week. More updates from his well-baby visit, a bunch of firsts, and lots of pictures. I promise. I just don't promise they'll be timely, though I'm trying....
It just turns out that Elise and Avery aren't any less busy by adding a third child to the mix. ;)
1 comment:
Glad the GI stuff is working out! He really is cute! Oh, and Sam was called a wimpy white boy too, even though Zoe was my puker until she was over 2 yrs old and now Sam seems to be a bottomless pit and will eat literally anything and swear to you that it's his favorite food! Lol!
Post a Comment