I [daddy] took 4 weeks off of work to be with you and mommy after you were born. This week was a reality check for me because 2 weeks have gone by and going back to work in another 2 weeks would be tough. You're still sleeping and eating a lot, but we're seeing changes to your behavior now. Your cries are louder now and your naps are getting a little shorter in length.
Mommy finally got to leave that house last week to just go out to the grocery store. Your feedings are more "on demand" now that you have regained all of your birth weight. So, sometimes you can go a couple of hours between feedings, sometimes you can only go an hour. This week, whenever mommy went out, it seemed, you were hungry and there was nothing daddy could do! I tried to rock you back to sleep and one day, I even sang to you. You seemed to be soothed and fell back asleep, but it wasn't long before you got back up and wanted food again. Luckily mommy came to rescue just in time.
Your feedings took an interesting turn this week. As mommy's milk was coming in, you were having problems with the flow of the milk so almost each time you started to feed, you started to choke because there was too much milk. There was spit up afterwards and we were worried that we were doing something wrong. So, we decided to make an appointment with the lactation consultant back at the Saddleback Hospital. They told us to bring you hungry and that made me nervous. It's tough to see you cry and the faces you make, so we were trying to adjust/compensate your nursing times to coincide with the appointment time. When we got there, it was like you were right on cue. When the consultants came out, you started to cry because you were hungry and you nursed really well. The consultant saw that you choked and suggested that mommy can lean back and have gravity help her or express some milk before you feed so the initial flow isn't so much. They also said that you would learn, in time, to adjust your feedings to take in to account the milk flow. During that appointment, they weighed you again and you were 7 pounds 12 ounces! Wow, you are really growing now. You also took in 2 ounces of milk and at the end, you were satisfied and you went to sleep. We were really relieved that you had gained so much weight because as parents, we are always worried that you're not taking in the milk you need or gaining the weight you did. And we're also learning how to give things up to God, that He alone has all that you need to survive and grow. We're still struggling with that and I think it's something we'll continue to struggle in for a long time.
After the appointment, we all decided to take you to the grocery store for the first time. You made it through the trip and slept all the way back home. Mommy asked me to take this picture below because it was the first time we had all gone out together with you in the stroller [yes, you're in there!].
We also got you a bouncer this week. It's a Fisher-Price Rainforest Bouncer with vibration button built in. You like it enough, but you don't like it enough to sleep in it [yet]. We're still holding out hope that you will like it enough to one day be able to sleep in it.
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