Today is David’s two month birthday!  We’re all doing well, though David did have his first fever this weekend.  (He got his vaccinations at his 8 week check-up.)  He’s nice and chubby – up to the 75th percentile in weight now!  (He was at the 25th when he was born.)  Here are some pics of the little guy.

He’s enjoyed some time chilling.  Chris thinks the title of this next pic should be “Dave’s not here, Man.”  I prefer to think that he’s just wishing us all peace.

And finally … below is what I call success:

Today’s story starts around 11am, when Kate woke me up about an hour earlier than I was planning.  She was holding David in a contorted way between her arms, and her left hand was grasping her right index finger.  “What’s wrong?” I said.  She replied, “I cut myself on one of the kitchen knives.”

So I held David while Kate continued to hold pressure.  After about 20 minutes, the bleeding stopped, and we tried peeling back the Kleenex that was acting like gauze to assess the damage. The wound started oozing pretty badly again, so we thought it best to take a ride over to our favorite ER for a professional assessment.  As I was packing David into the carrier, I noticed Kate looking in the sink. She pointed to what I thought was the white part of a green onion that had been cut on a bias.  On closer inspection, it turned out it was her fingertip.

Though it was smaller than the size of a dime, we wrapped the fingertip in some wet gauze, put it in a Zip-Lock bag, and headed to the ER.  The doc cleaned the wound, put a tourniquet on Kate’s finger to help reduce the bleeding, and numbed it with a very painful injection; finally, a nurse wrapped it with a hemostat dressing and sent us on our way.  We have to go back on Thursday to have the dressing changed out.

Now Kate has a wad of gauze covered by a soft plastic shell on her index finger.  It’ll probably be there for two weeks or so.

I’m fairly convinced that this was Kate’s way of getting out of various chores around the house.  Since she can’t get the dressing wet, this means no more cleaning bottles, bathing David, etc.  (Ironically, Kate was doing the dishes when she cut herself earlier!)

On top of all of this, when I came on duty for the night shift, David began screaming bloody murder and nothing seemed to help soothe him.

It’s been an interesting day.

But since you came here to see a picture of the little buggar, here’s one taken while we were at the ER:

We’ve survived 3 weeks, and David keeps getting bigger and bigger.  He’s gained 2 pounds in the last 2 weeks!  He’s also been getting much more alert during certain times of the day, which is really fun.  A few highlights of this week include his first real bath, sleeping with Grammy and Grandpa Don, and playing with Dad.

In addition, I’d like to share a few of David’s funny faces.  Hope you enjoy!

Yoda face

The grumpy old man

The turtle

The thinker

The rapper

And last, but not least – the chubby Asian baby impersonation.  Yes, Claire, this one is for you!

Well, we’ve officially survived two weeks!  Last week we thought that we had a fussy baby who didn’t like to sleep … well, it turns out that we weren’t feeding him.  Well, we were feeding him, but not quite enough.  We started supplementing with formula (just a little), and voila, our prayers have been answered!  Since then, he’s been a perfect angel.  In addition to the supplements, we invested in a new bassinet-like thing (the Fisher Price Rock and Play Sleeper), and he’s sleeping very well! We celebrated the first night when we could ALL sleep at the time time.  Granted, David still wakes up every 2 hours during the night, but we’ll take what little sleep we can get. 

In addition, we also went on our first outing this week!  (Well, if you don’t count the few doctor’s appointments that we’ve been to.)  We went to our favorite Chinese food restaurant for lunch, and David was pretty well behaved.

Some of David’s other activities this week:

Playing with Dad

Snuggling with Dad

Snuggling with Dad II

Reading a book with Mom

Having a deep conversation with Mom

Sleeping on Grandpa Don

Helping Dad work

Lifting head during tummy time

Hanging out with Dad

Happy Birthday, Baby David!  I can’t believe that he’s one week old today.  Needless to say, we’re all thrilled that we’ve survived.

For those of you who haven’t already heard this story, David had to spend a few days in the NICU.  Immediately after having a conversation with my doctor about both of us coming home from the hospital early because we were doing so well, a lab test came back indicating he was developing an infection.  Infections in newborns are taken very seriously since they have very immature immune systems.  They transferred him into the NICU and started him on a 48 hour course of IV antibiotics.  Now, you may be thinking that IV antibiotics aren’t that big of a deal, but it seems as if David has inherited his fathers veins, which are notoriously difficult to find.  He ended up needing two IV’s – one of which required seven different attempts.  After two days, his lab tests returned to normal, and the infection never materialized.  So, he either never had an infection, or the antibiotics worked.  We’ll probably never know.  Either way, we’re elated to have him home, and he was given a clean bill of health by his pediatrician during our first visit this week.

Caring for David at home as been an adventure to say the least.  Luckily, my parents flew in from Georgia to give us some much needed help.  (Thanks, Mom and Dad!)  David is a pretty good baby, but has created a few “challenges” for us.  First, he sleeps like a champ … if he’s being held.  He doesn’t like sleeping if not in someone’s arms, and definitely not in his bassinet.  This had led to quite a few sleepless nights for Dad.  Finally, he seems to have his days and night confused.  He’s awake and alert at night, ready to play, but really sleepy during the day.  I’m sure we’ll figure this out in time – but right now I think we’d all benefit from more sleep.  Hey, at this point, we’d settle for any sleep!

He looks like he’s sleeping … but this blissful face only lasted a few minutes.

We’re all hoping that he’ll like this new sleeper, at first it looks like success!

Baby Dave and Grandpa Don

Baby Dave and Grammy