Grumpy

sleepybathcloseup, originally uploaded by laughograms.

Jack has been interesting in many ways, and especially in terms of his sleep/feeding cycles. Mostly, he doesn't wake us up; we have to wake him up.

His doctor said today he wouldn't care, if it wasn't for the jaundice; steady, timely feeding is important to eliminate it. So we have been waking Jack up -- which sometimes is a hilarious struggle. Usually we try some gentle cajoling; some mommy-cradling; some stroking with a wet washcloth; and then we proceed to a little parade through the house, to some Grateful Dead music with Dad singing along as we march. Most of the time, this will not even wake him up! Usually he gets kind of annoyed and reacts in a "leave me alone! can't you see I'm sleeping?" sort of way.

As a last resort we turn to a full-body spongebath as seen above. This is always enough to piss Jack off so that he is awake and aware, and usually we can get him feeding then. But he sure does make us work for it.

The jaundice doesn't help with the sleepiness, and the fact that under doctor's orders we are stuffing him full of milk at every feeding helps make him sleepy. It's all about him flushing the bilirubins, and putting on weight; he had lost rather a lot, though not enough to worry about, as of Friday; but as of today he had put a bunch of that weight back on.

So in short, Jack is doing well, only pretty common newborn complications vexing him (or us, more than him, I suppose). You will frequently find G or myself standing around his bassinet smiling and just kind of marvelling. I often take some time to sit by him when he's sleeping and just watch him. He's a miracle and we are both absolutely crazy about him.