2 Weeks Old

Another week has passed and despite a very serious conversation that Zac and I had well over a week ago, he seems to be defying me and changing every day. This week, we had the joys of our first full submersion bath, screaming pains of gas, going it alone (Grammy & Gramps had a mini-vacation) and lots of bright blue eyes.

<--Isn't this a funny picture?! We call this "Crinkle Face" We see it often and it means little more than he's having a thought, or a fart, or a sneeze, or a burp, or a....

On Mon. I had my stitches removed. We had a home visit with a midwife where she checked Zac from head to toe and gave me a once over as well. She gave us some excellent advice and education and encouraged us to give Zac his first bath.

Since Zac's umbilical stump fell off, we had our first full submersion bath on Tuesday.(you can't get the stump wet, so we were relegated to sponge baths). We decided that the "Tummy Tub" was the way to go for us (see photo left - this is NOT Zac). If you don't know, this is a tub that looks like a cleaning bucket. It's actually designed to simulate the uterus. And when filled with warm water, babies LOVE it - Zac was no exception. He floated around happy as a clam...well, he is a Pisces - it's totally natural. Unfortunately his already dry skin did not get better after the bath, even though we used next to no gentle baby soap.

I mentioned gas earlier. My poor peanut is experiencing the worst gas pains in the world. The poor thing crys for almost 2 hours each evening and we do everything we can (anti-gas drops, massage, burping while nursing, etc, etc, etc) but it's still not enough. I have not been able to pin point where I may be going wrong in my diet yet, but we taking steps to find out what his triggers are. The sad part is that this process takes days and days and these are days-and-days of gas pain screaming. It's terribly frustrating to watch your child in pain, do everything that you possibly can and still have no effect. We had another visit with the midwife today (Thursday) and she gave us a few more wepons for our arsonal.

Bright eyes: Zac has been spending more time awake and eyes wide open! He has amazing steel blue eyes and I just love watching him watch stuff. In the coming weeks, I look forward to him being able to truly focus on objects. Right now, he's really just seeing high contrast and faces.

Going it alone: Grammy & Gramps took a much deserved mini-vacation Sun-Thur to Heidelberg. While there, they visited with their daughter's friend, enjoyed the sites and flavors of Heidelberg and got some needed rest and relaxation. So Stephen and I got a chance to fend for ourselves - Us vs. Zac. It was awesome!! Though we had some tough times working through the gas pains, we've all gotten to know each other even better and we've learned even more how to sooth our baby and more about what he likes and dislikes when it comes to his routines. It was an excellet opportunity to boost our confidence and get some one on one time.

We'll have a 3rd midwife visit on Saturday - Zac has not been gaining weight like he should and so she's given us some tips and pointers in hopes that we can pack on some ozs. before his next weigh in. Sadly, those tips and pointers included supplimenting breast milk with a little formula. The goal is that we will only need it for a few days until he gains some weight and energy.

Let me tell you, it was a direct hit through my heart when the midwife suggested the formula. Yes, I started crying. Stephen and I are so committed to brestmilk that not only did I feel inadequite but it was a huge slap in the face. Bottom line: we want to do what is best for Zac, so we agreed to small supplimental feedings - thankfully the supplimental feedings are few and spread out to maybe 3 a day. And like I said, we're hoping that after a few days we'll be able to stop the formula.

With that said, it is that time again, off to satisfy Zac's hunger...