Your picture this week is little Billy taking his first nap with his Daddy. This is the first time that I make an appearance on the Baby Blog, but this was the picture that got the vote. Its really quite an amazing experience. It was certainly the best nap I have ever taken and interesting in terms of how conscious you are of where you baby is at all times, seemingly even when you are sound asleep. Anyway, on to the blog update...
Billy is 10 days old now and already there is so much going on. Let's begin with his first doctor visit this past Tuesday. At that visit, we had some interesting info. First of all, his weight. Most babies are born at a certain weight (Billy was 6 lbs. 13 oz), then lose up to 10% of that amount in excess water weight within the first 3-5 days of life (Billy left the hospital at 6 lbs. 10 oz. at 36 hours old), and then spend the better part of the next two weeks just trying to get back to their original birth weight. This was just not the case for our little guy. Apparently, Antoinette's milk came in early and the result is a fast growing baby. At just 6 days old, Billy had already reached his birth weight and exceeded it by 4 oz. As of Tuesday, he was weighing in at 7 lbs. 1 oz. That's a 7% increase in body weight in 4 days, which is great news. At that rate of weight gain, I would estimate that today, he's probably just shy of 7.5 lbs. since the weight gain can slow a bit if it starts out rapid. He had a little catching up to do anyway. Billy is in the 75th percentile for length/height, but just the 25th percentile for weight. In other words, he's tall and skinny for a baby, so he's got a little filling out to do.
Other interesting info to come from the doctor visit was that the white residue on his tongue is not Thrush, which was our concern, but is instead the more common "Milk Tongue" often seen in breastfed babies. He's also apparently out of the woods from a Jaundice concern, which is something that afflicts 50% of babies to some degree. The likely reason is the Florida sunshine and his Mother's milk coming in so fast allowing him to eliminate quicker and more frequently, which is a primary means of the body ridding itself of the broken down red blood cells that cause the telltale yellowing of a baby's eyes and skin. His circumcision has healed and he's good to go there, and we expect his cord to fall off this weekend. The doctor showed us a technique to dry it out faster and while it is just 15-25% of its original size when we left the hospital, it hasn't fallen off just yet. Next doctor visit is this week.
We also had some interesting new parenting experiences this week. Thinking the quickly growing boy was ready to make the leap from newborn diapers to size 1 diapers due to some increased snugness, his Mother may have made the change a bit too soon. During one wonderful morning, there were some "signs" that he was using his diaper (#2), which wound up on my pants. That's right, I was pooped on. I'm sure it won't be the last time. And just for good measure, while taking baby pictures with his Mother and Grandmother, Billy wound up peeing in quite the impressive arc....all down Mom's shirt. Pooped and peed on all in the same 24 hour period. Oh well. Back to newborn diapers for the rest of this week.
Speaking of the baby's Grandmother, Charlotte flew home on Thursday night after 10 days of helping out with the baby and around the house. And she was a huge help. By the time the two of us very sleepy new parents woke up, Charlotte spent nearly every morning cleaning the house, doing the dishes, and making breakfast. Then she was more than willing to take the baby so Antoinette could get back to sleep and catchup on what she lost during the night. Ultimately, she was a great crutch to rely on in our first week and there will no doubt be some adjusting that needs to be done without that third set of hands helping. And we need to adjust fast, because Monday I'm back to work and Antoinette will be down to just her own set of hands for 1/3 of the day.
Let's talk about some newborn development. Eyesight is still fuzzy on a 1 week old child. It is limited to just 8-15 inches from their face (not surprisingly the exact distance from their eyes to their Mother's during feeding) as the muscles in the eyes allowing the baby to focus are nowhere near fully developed. Billy could take 3-6 months to have his eyes develop fully. Newborn babies tend to look at eyebrows, moving mouths, and hairlines, but they do seem to have an affinity for faces over other inanimate objects if given a choice. Throughout the first month, the amount of eye to eye contact will increase. Billy is already able to lock onto your eyes, but unless you are talking (or singing to him), his attention span is very limited. He does seem to enjoy the song my Father used to sing to me as a baby, which is "My Rifle, My Pony, and Me", although I butcher the words sometimes when I'm tired. He doesn't seem to mind.
While feeding or just mutual staring, we move hands and fingers across his line of sight to help him strengthen his eye muscles. The next advance for him in this department will be the ability to see high contrast images, like checkerboards. For the first month of life, its very common for his eyes to lose control and cross up during these exercises, which they do from time to time. Despite these limitations, the little guy can see in three dimensions already and his eyes are very sensitive to light due to his limited ability to squint and keep his eyes in this position. More often, he will simply blink immediately when the lighting changes and then cry if they continue to bother him.
Even this early in life, while a baby seems like they are only eating, sleeping, and soiling diapers, there is really so much going on inside of their heads. They are creating enormous numbers of connections inside of their brains as they constantly experience new things. On the outside, you often see a blank stare, but the baby is learning and processing at all times. Playing games like sticking out your tongue, bouncing your eyebrows, making faces while talking to them, etc. are being constantly processed and soon will be outwardly reflected back at you. It is often too easy to forget that Billy is developing in more ways than just weight and length.
This week, we are likely to begin Tummy Time, which is more or less the time the little guy needs daily on his belly where he can practice strengthening his neck muscles, arm muscles, and shoulder muscles. In the beginning, this need only be a couple minutes at a time a few times a day. In time, he'll grow to the point where a good 5+ minutes of consecutive time on the belly works best. Its all a issue of time and development. I'll tell you this much though, the scariest part about having a newborn to me is that noodlelike neck of theirs. My kid doesn't seem to have a particularly large head, but it freaks me out every time I see it shift to an awkward angle in his car seat or stroller, etc. The day he can balance that sucker won't come fast enough for me.
Last couple of things on the baby I wanted to tell you about from last week. He had his first bath (sponge bath until the cord falls off), loves going for car rides in his car seat (he's been on two), was quiet as a mouse for 95% of the time we were in a Target (until he got hungry), absolutely loves his swing (it has a cradle mode, not just a front to back), doesn't seem to like his vibrating chair just yet, and is sleeping fairly well during the night (up about 2-3 times for 20 minutes a pop).
Regarding Antoinette, she's already down 21 lbs., which means she's only up 9 lbs. from prepregnancy weight. She's feeling much better and as long as she doesn't exert herself too much, her soreness is very mild. We've been able to get out of the house for a couple of short laps around the neighborhood with the stroller, which Mom, Billy, and the dog seem to love (I like them, too). And on top of all of that, Antoinette has been fantastic. Every time she's touching that baby, whether its to change a dirty diaper, to feed him, or just to calm his fussiness, she's always smiling. And as a bonus, he's recently begun to smile back. Not sure if his smiles have meaning just yet, but they still have plenty of emotional value for Mom and Dad, so even if they don't, we can still pretend they do.
Over the course of the next two weeks, Billy has some very daunting challenges on his plate. He will lose the leftovers of his umbilical cord, he will get his first bath in the baby bathtub where he actually lays in water (that should be fun), he will get his first Tummy Time, he should begin staring more intently at faces, should begin responding more to sounds around him, and should see the soft spot on the back of his head close up (the soft spot on the front could take up to two years to close). Judging from the size of this entry, I imagine there will be much more, including another trip to the doctor to go with it. Plus, he recently got a host of Ohio State memorabilia from his Great Aunt and Uncle from Ohio which he will be testing out in future photos, including an OSU Binky and a tiny, soft OSU football. Start 'em early, folks. Thanks Uncle Dean and Aunt Chrissy.
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