Nicholas--2 week update

Nicholas is 2 weeks old today! It's hard to believe that it's already been that long, and yet that only that much time has gone by, but we've noticed lots of changes, big and small.

He seems to have gotten so much bigger, although our scale is not accurate enough to measure his growth.

He has established a rough daily routine, although last night he was having trouble with it. He can now pick his head up and turn it while on his belly. He did this for the first time a week ago, but that first time it seemed accidental, whereas now he seems to be able to control it.

He absolutely loves looking at lights, either looking at the window or at lamps. The chandelier in the dining room is his favorite.

He loves to be held, especially with his head near our hearts. The sound of our heartbeats, or even better, the vibrations of Joe singing, are soothing to him.

We have gone on a few errands and he loves the motion of both the car and the stroller.

He really loves his hands, but despite our best efforts we can't keep his nails short enough to prevent scratching, so he still spends most of his time with mittens on.

He has a couple of hilarious faces we haven't been able to document because they come and go so quickly. One is the one we call his "old man face," that often appears when he is stretching, and involves scrunching his face. This one usually leads us to laugh at him. The other is his "portrait pose," when he situates himself on our chests with his arms under his head, looking like a cherub.

Update

So the nutritional supplements are not going to work. Nicholas had a really rough day today and we are pretty sure it was something in the Ensure that his system did not like. I had called a breastfeeding hotline before I drank it and they said there was nothing in it that could hurt him, but apparently there was something that made him really uncomfortable. He kept starting to feed and then getting really agitated and pushing off and was staying all agitated in between feedings and was unable to sleep soundly.

Luckily I had some pumped milk in the freezer so we tested our theory this afternoon by switching him to pumped milk while I pumped and threw out the contaminated milk. He calmed down some with the bottles and by 3:30 we figured I had gotten rid of all my contaminated milk and I fed him for real. That feeding was back to his normal routine, his face got back its normal color (he had been just a tad pale), and he is now sleeping soundly in the pack n' play.

So the good news is that the problem is solved and Nicholas is back to normal. The bad news is that one more option for getting my stomach under control is eliminated. I just feel so bad that he had to suffer from the experiment.

Unexpected Trials

Nicholas is doing wonderfully. In fact, the past couple days he has been turning into the perfect baby. He has even started sleeping in 4-hour stretches at night (knock on wood).

I, however, am not doing very well. The nausea I thought I had beaten comes back for at least a couple hours each day, sometimes so badly I can't stand it. The doctors don't have any ideas, but my best guess is that it is caused by my inability to get enough calories to make Nicholas' food. The milk is fine, but basically your body takes from you to make sure the baby gets what it needs. And I don't have fat reserves for my body to turn to so my body is self-destructing. I try to snack constantly, but I just can't eat enough and I'm so sick of food and having to think about food constantly. It doesn't help that all I feel up for is crackers and fruit, which is not exactly high-calorie. I resorted to the nutrition supplement drinks and was so hopeful, but even after two of those in the last 12 hours and a big breakfast, the nausea hit again this morning. I am getting desperate and tempted to give up, even though it seems like such a shame since he is doing so well at breastfeeding and I've now gotten to the stage where I have so much milk that quitting will be extremely painful. But this is just absurd.

More photos!

We've posted more photos, and a video of our enterprising son TURNING HIS HEAD. Awesomeness. Check it out.

Getting out of the House

We'd been starting to get cabin fever, but between the never-ending rain and the host of things that seemed to pop up every time we thought we had created a few free moments, had not been able to make it out of the house. But then about 45 minutes in to Nicholas' afternoon nap yesterday, Joe's "drinking problem" provided the incentive to finally venture out. Joe had some water go down the wrong way and so had a coughing fit, which woke Nicholas up and agitated him so much that he was inconsolable (too tired to handle anything, but unable to go back to sleep). So on the spur of the moment we decided to go the mall. We had some errands we needed to run, we figured the car ride and stroller motion would put him to sleep and so not throw off his newly-emerging sleep schedule too much, and we just needed to get out of the house.

Going to the mall has never felt so adventurous. As Joe said when we got home, as long as Nicholas doesn't come down with the bubonic plague from all the germs in the mall air, the outing was a success. Mall air probably is bad, but I think it is probably better than say church because no one was within a few feet of him, touching him or breathing directly on him. And, no, there are no pictures of this first outing because we were just trying to make it through.

The munchkin just woke up from his first ever morning pack n' play nap (I am desperately hoping this is the beginning of a trend), so if he is up for it after he eats, we may try to go out for a walk since the rain has finally stopped.

A Conversation That Just Happened

Sarah: Yeah, he definitely needs a bath today.

[PAUSE]

Sarah: I dropped ice cream on his head. And I tried to lick it off ...

Joe: You tried to lick it off?!?!

Sarah: Well I did lick it off, using my fingers, but there's still a sticky spot.

Joe: You're a horrible mother.

My Beef with Nature

Throughout the pregnancy, labor, and delivery, I was constantly amazed by how perfectly engineered our bodies are for this whole process. Yes, there were definitely moments of discomfort, pain, and annoyance, but in general, it was awe-inspiring. However, for some reason I cannot figure out, the postpartum period doesn't seem to have been quite as neatly designed. For the life of me, I don't know how it makes sense to expect our bodies to do all of the extra work of producing food while not being allowed to sleep and trying to recover from birth. Really, whose brilliant idea was this?

And yes, this means we've had another tiring and draining day, and I'm a little cranky.