We had a parenting milestone yesterday: our first unnecessary visit to the pediatrician. The baby has had some diaper rash, and yesterday I started smelling yeast when changing him, so I was afraid he had an infection. Nope. Turns out rashy babies do get a little yeasty and it doesn't mean much. But going to the doctor gave us a chance to find out that the baby has re-achieved his birth weight plus one ounce. Good for him.
Eric and I have had three good nights in a row. He sleeps, he wakes up and eats, we go back to sleep. Yesterday morning I felt so good I didn't even wake David to take his usual turn at 7 a.m.; I figured I'd let the increased sleep trickle down so that David got a full night.
Speaking of good nights' sleep, another aspect of the homey-style birthing center hospital setup which is overrated, in my opinion, is the father rooming-in. My room had a cot for David, but after the first night, which actually started Sunday morning at about 5 a.m., I sent him home to sleep. It just didn't make sense for both of us to be completely sleep deprived when one of us could have a good night's sleep in a comfortable bed in a quiet room that people were not coming in and out of every hour. It also let me take care of the baby without worrying that I was disturbing David. I figured a fully-rested David would be more use to me than a zombified one. Besides, he had a root canal on Tuesday morning, and we didn't want to reschedule it because our insurance changed as of June 1 and it would have cost us hundreds of dollars more. So he went home to sleep.
We're starting to do normal, non-baby things. Sunday we all went out to dinner--a rousing success which we managed to sandwich perfectly into one of Eric's sleep phases. We also rented videos and have been watching them, and we've been shopping. It's great except that it makes keeping to my pumping schedule challenging.
The baby is great. He likes to open his eyes halfway and look at things out of the corner of them; we call that Sly Baby. He also loves to curl up with his feet up under his butt and his arms tight to his body and be cuddled; like all newborrns, he enjoys spending time in the position he had in the womb. We call it Egg Baby because that's the shape exactly. He is also the Elf Baby; we have these great hats I bought from the company that makes my bras. They're real colors instead of pastels (the purple one is especially nice) and they're a little tall so they make him look pointy-headed. And then they slide behind his ears and it accentuates the little points they have on top. Elf Baby. We took pictures.
Eric also grunts a lot, often when eating but sometimes apparently just for his own amusement. We joke that he is like the Duchess's baby in Alice in Wonderland, that turns into a pig and is released into the woods by Alice. He also does Kangaroo Baby, when he snuggles naked under David's fleecy pullover with just his head peeking out at the neck. David and Eric like to spend hours like that, reading and relaxing.
I thought I would never care what my baby wore--after all, the baby doesn't care. But our favorite outfits, hands down, are two union-suits, one green and one red, that Adrianne got for us months ago. They're his only clothes that aren't some version of pastels, and if they're clean they're on him. I think he must have my coloring, though, because the green doesn't suit him very well. My favorite thing to dress him in is the red union suit and purple hat.
Eric definitely has the Underhill Mouth. My mother has it, I have it, my brother has it, my Uncle Louis has it, and when they were here the other day I saw that my niece and nephew both have it. In fact. Eric looks like his cousin Garrett to me, and he also looks a little like pictures of my brother when he was a baby. Despite having a thorough grounding in basic genetics, I find myself surprised that there is a family resemblence. Perhaps I am also surprised to learn that newborns have distinguishable features. Have I already told the story of going to see Eric in the nursery at the hospital? I peeked into his isolette--and recoiled. "That's not my baby!" I said. A nurse laughed. "No, your baby is over here now." I was glad to know I would recognize my own!
Eric is getting better all the time at sucking. A few days ago, he developed a technique I call Piston Sucking, which is slow, deep, and efficient, but he doesn't always use it; he often sucks more quickly, which is less efficient. But at one feeding during the night last night, he was sucking even more slowly and I thought, "He can't be getting anything." I glanced at the feeder and the milk level had dropped so much I started looiking for a leak. But it turns out he had just graduated to Super Piston Sucking, and he powered down a meal nearly twice the usual size in less than the usual time. Good baby.
I can wear my pre-pregnancy clothes, except some shirts that are too tight. And the waistbands even stay at my "waist" now, as things inside me shrink to their normnal size. But what is funny is that I can't remember my pre-pregnancy clothes. Yesterday I was getting dressed to go to the pediatrician and needed a shirt, and I just had to hunt through the pile on the shelf one by one. I finally wore a black shirt that was perfect for the outfit but which I had completely forgotten I owned.
It's nice to be wearing my regular clothes again. I was in jeans for so long it's nice to have a skirt on, and to be wearing shirts that aren't cheap maternity poly/cotton blend.
We are celebrating today because, as of yesterday, Scott has a high-paying job in the computer industry. He starts next week, so now can enjoy a lovely week with nothing to do but make sure his laundry is done. He has been working so hard for so long, first with school and then with job-hunting, that the last couple of night as I've been passing through the hall, I'll see that he is not in his office on the computer but is, say, lounging in his bedroom watching TV or reading, and I'll think, "Scott's watching TV! Is he depressed?" And then I realize that it's probably just that for the first time in months he doesn't have 27 big projects due in two days. He has had almost no leisure time this entire academic year. I hope he remembers how to relax.
He's been great, by the way, at baby support. While I was still in the hospital, he was at home doing all kinds of deep cleaning, and the other night while I took a nap, he cleaned the whole downstairs. It was like the elves had come through. We are all doing well in general; we've already gone off Paper Plate Protocol because among the three of us we're managing to keep up with dishes (though no one has cooked a meal yet--that will, perhaps, come in time), and I'd say the house is only slightly more cluttered than usual. And, though they like to tease us new parents at the pediatrician's office, David and I are both doing well with the baby. If you didn't know David had no experience with newborns, you'd never know he had no experience with newborns. We're enjoying ourselves immensely.
It's now Wednesday, and I'm just going to wrap this up with two things. One is that David signed the baby up for his first book club yesterday: the Dr. Seuss and Friends book club. We get The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, and Green Eggs and Ham plus five other books for $1.99!
Eric is still not nursing, but yesterday and today he has suddenly gotten very enthusiastic about being given the chance to try. He roots and demands his time at the breast, even if he doesn't eat there. I talked to the lactation consultant this morning, and she confirmed my sense that this is a very good sign. If he stays that enthusiastic about it, he's going to get it eventually.
Meanwhile, the nights get easier and easier. Last night he he got me up only twice, with 3-4 hours in between. I'm trying not to think, "He's an easy baby and will stay easy." I think instead, "This was a good day, and I appreciate it." [Note from 2 years later: He was an easy baby. He stayed easy. See me smiling smugly.]
Posted by Su Penn at June 5, 2003 03:08 PM | TrackBack