Jude Alexander - Week 1

Our baby celebrated his one week birthday yesterday. It's hard to believe that we've only known him for a week - it seems like so much longer! After his birth last Friday, we spent the weekend in the hospital. It was great to have the nurses and doctors around to ask our new-parent questions, like "Why are his hands blue?" (it's normal), "Why is his whole body bright red?" (it's normal), and "Why does he sneeze all the time?" (it's normal). The first 24 hours were very busy with tests and procedures, and we finally had some down time on Saturday night and Sunday morning. For a birthday present on Sunday morning, E Ben let me take a two-hour nap while he played with the iPod, making a few mixes for the hospital. I woke up refreshed and ready for a heavy schedule of visitors.

Sunday evening we found out that Jude lost a little too much weight, so we started feeding him every 2 hours around the clock. That was kind of exhausting, but much better than the alternative of supplementing with formula, which was the initial suggestion from the medical staff. After another small dip on Monday, his weight has been on the upswing, gaining an ounce a day since Tuesday. We're still feeding him every 2 to 2.5 hours during the day, but his nighttime feedings have stretched out to almost four hours, which has really helped my energy level. Between a few good stretches of sleep at night and an hour nap in the late afternoon, I'm feeling much more rested than I expected at this point.

Jude is such a good baby. He does have some fussy periods, but he rarely cries without a good reason - mainly if he is hungry, has a dirty diaper or gas pains, we're changing his clothes (he doesn't like being naked), or if he's bored. He responds pretty well to the 5 S's (swaddle, swing, side-lying, shush, and suck) and as a last resort we can always strap him into the sling and take him for a walk, at which point he passes out in about 30 seconds.

I'm going to try to do weekly updates and I'll post a link to all of our photos as soon as I get them uploaded. Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes, e-mails, and phone calls. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up and get back to everyone soon!