Ahh, Contentment

Luke had his first doctor's appointment yesterday. We found out that he hasn't been getting all the food he needs. We're having difficulty getting him to latch on properly, so he's not getting enough milk.

Breastfeeding has been, in general, a pain. At first it's a struggle for everyone, but Luke still insists on having his hands in his face while feeding, which logically won't work. So we still have a tough time getting it to work.

We had to resort to syringe feeding him because he's losing some weight. The results of this first feeding were hilarious. He had this weird look on his face, which we decided was "being full". He just sat there bewildered for almost half an hour. Then naturally he relieved his newly found weight into his diaper.

Since we've started syringe feeding, he's starting to behave like what we expected. He hasn't been crying much at all, he sleeps all the time, and I'm going to have to cut our trees down to make more diapers. The naps are giving Missy and I a chance to catch up on our sleep, too.

Oh, and he definitely snorts like a pig when hungry.

First Bath, Playmat, and Cribs

We had a pretty good day yesterday. We had some family in town to take care of Luke a bit while we slept. He actually slept fairly late into the night, which is fantastic.

We had several firsts, such as his first bath. Melissa and I clearly have different opinions on what "warm water" is. Luke protested at first, but then he settled down and seemed to enjoy it. We also tried him out on a playmat. He seemed very interested in it, which was kind of surprising. My sister's baby Macy is now nearly three months old and she apparently likes these things too. It must be the bright colors or the happy music. Can you overdose on cuteness, bright colors and baby talk?

We have been attempting to make him sleep in cribs instead of in our arms to get him used to it early. He's already a lot less fussy in the transition (usually setting him down made him stir). He slept a solid two hours in cribs yesterday, which is far more than he's been sleeping.

Luke has a lot of moro reflexes. These sudden twitches have scared several people who have held him (poor Sarah). One thing we're noticing is that it actually will make him wake up a bit when he's sleeping. I am clearly a genius when it comes to babies, so I came up with the idea of swaddling him before we laid him down in a crib. It immobilizes him a bit more when he has the twitches, so I think he's been sleeping soundly when not in a person's arms.

Today we have a doctor's appointment to see how he's doing. We have a few concerns, but what new father doesn't? Circumcisions are scary.

Whoa! Those things are huge!

Luke's cluster feeding has had his desired effect. Melissa is swollen with milk and actually in quite a lot of pain. We're putting together her pump to try to make her a bit more comfortable. Luke is happily feeding away on this massive milk supply.

We are finally home. It took the hospital a long time to get us discharged. Part of it was because Luke was running a slight fever, so they had to take some blood cultures. Turned out everything was okay, but it held us up a couple hours.

Melissa and I are much more comfortable at home now. Being able to take a fussy baby to another room is a huge impact on our sleep deprivation. I'm feeling pretty good right now, but I know Missy has had far less sleep than I. She seems to be doing better. Her new milk supply actually satisfied him for a couple hours during the night, so we managed to get a little more rest than normal. If he's even slightly awake, he's difficult to get away from her. He likes those breasts.

Luke is freakishly strong. He holds his neck up on his own, which is incredibly early. He's rolling onto his side at night. For some reason, he tries to do pushups while nursing, and then after pushing himself off he gets upset about it. With his huge hands, I'm predicting he'll be a good basketball player. Melissa's grandpa predicts president, but hey, basketball players make more money.

We've figured out that Luke definitely has a long stretch during the morning and afternoon where he's completely zonked. Although we have always had guests during this time, we can finally sleep now that we have a bedroom to run off to. We're glad we're home!

"I don't control the world anymore, Matt! He does!"

Eight straight hours of fussy feeding can take a toll on even the controller of the world. Melissa was finally starting to lose patience (I had lost patience within the first twenty minutes). Luke will currently nurse for just a few seconds, then just lay there and almost fall asleep. If we tried to move him, he would complain in a loud way. We think he's trying to get the best of both worlds, but this obviously won't work too well for mom. I tried to hold him a couple times to give Melissa some rest, but my lack of milk just wasn't cutting it.

Around 1:30, we had a nurse sent from heaven who suggested she try to calm him in the nursery for a couple hours. We happily took a couple hours of rest. When he returned, his behavior was about the same. Aren't babies supposed to sleep a lot??

We had him stay at the nursery for another 90 minutes after being weighed this morning. So we're feeling pretty good with our 4 hours of sleep.

Our pediatrician said Luke looked great, so we'll be closing up shop and heading home sometime this morning.

The First Sleepless Night

Luke learns. He learned how to breastfeed in a single day. He (and we) were a little confused at first. He was definitely making clear motions that he wanted to be fed, but he definitely didn't have the patience to get any milk.

He apparently had a lot of bowels to move. He woke us up every hour under the strain of filling a diaper with a sticky black substance. Finally at about 4 a.m. we gave up and let the nursery have him for a couple hours so we could sleep.

It's now 10:00 on our second night. Luke has been feeding, but he has enjoyed it a little too much. He won't stop crying because he thinks he needs to sleep attached to Melissa.

Actually, at the moment he won't stop crying regardless. I hope he gets tired soon. Melissa apparently has infinite endurance. She's had about 4 hours of interrupted sleep in the last 72 hours, and that's not including the whole labor thing she just went through. I want to help her sleep, but he's chosen his favorite.