Caleb's First Week

So Caleb is now 9 days old and doing good! He's had a couple issues eating - he's what the lactation people call a "tongue thruster" - meaning he likes to take his tongue and mash my nipple to the roof of his mouth pinching it. Not only is this HIGHLY painful for me its like trying to drink through a straw that you're biting closed. No bueno. But thanks to the efforts of my sainted lactation consultant mother he's doing MUCH better in that area, but he is still part barracuda - he likes to give me a couple good chomps while he's getting things situated. So he'll suck perfectly for the rest of the feeding but it starts with a big fat "OUCH!" *sigh* Hopefully, this too shall pass. 

He had is first doctors appt on Monday. I really like our pediatrician - Dr. Curran. He's very thorough, and gives clear and detailed explanations. On Monday, Caleb's weight was 7 lbs 12 oz (it's normal for a baby to lose up to 10% of their body weight right after birth) and at 21 1/4 inches long he's in the 90th percentile for height, just over 50th percentile for weight and about 75th percentile for head circumference. The doc thought he looked just a tad jaundiced so he ordered a blood test and said Caleb looked great otherwise and wanted to see him back for a weight check on Friday. 

Caleb's bilirubin levels came back at 12.6 which was within the normal range for his age and on Weds we took him to Donni's office (Adam's mom is a pediatrician as well) for his circumcision. I actually attempted to stay in the room with him, which was stupid. Part of me was curious b/c I've never seen a circumcision so I wanted to know what exactly they were going to do to my son, and part of me wanted to be there so that maybe I could comfort him.... He was fine in terms of pain. Donni numbed him up good so he wasn't feeling a thing down there but Caleb was TICKED about being strapped down for the procedure and it was very, very hard to watch him be that upset. I had to leave the room and go sit in the waiting room and bawl my eyes out before they'd even started. This probably has something to do with my currently being a giant ball of hormones... I was fine holding him in my arms for the heel stick for his bilirubin test but two days later I couldn't even watch him be ticked off about being held still. I blame hormones. 

My mother, who's an RN as well as a lactation consultant assisted a bit in the circumcision and said that Donni did the neatest, most meticulous, nearly bloodless circumcision she'd ever seen. So I'm grateful for that. Caleb hasn't seemed to show any discomfort at all or even been particularly crabby and its already looking so much better. 

So Friday we went back to Dr. Curran for a weight check. Caleb, at 8 days old was still 7 lbs 12 oz, which is good in that he hasn't lost any more since Monday but Curran wants him to be pretty much back to his birth weight by the time he's 10 days old, so he's having me supplement my breast feeding with formula and wants me to pump twice a day to see how much milk I'm actually producing. Also he was still a little more yellow than Curran wanted so we had to do another heel stick. His bilirubin level came back at 11 (so I was right when I thought he was looking a bit better) and my wonderful parents rented me a hospital grade breast pump. 

After two days of pumping and supplementation we all think his color is looking much better and he's getting plumper by the day. We also have him sunning in the window a couple times a day, so we have our next appt on Monday morning and hopefully then the doctor will be happy. He really is doing great otherwise - he's VERY active and amazingly strong. We can't believe how good his head control is.  

I'm sure you all want pictures but right now since I'm sleeping in 3 hour increments that is not the highest thing on my priority list for some strange reason. Here's some pic's my Dad has posted and I'll get some on here when I can. 

http://gallery.me.com/jwdavis#100179