Our sweet baby Evan is continuing to grow and adjust to life outside the womb. He continues to be in that sleepy newborn phase (I'm okay with this, for the record), but has gotten a little better about nursing and sleeping on a more predictable "schedule." He will go 2 - 3 hours during the day, but will sleep 4 hour stretches a night most of the time. He does seem to have a little bit of a "witching hour" from about 8 or 9 pm until 11 pm where he just wants to be held and rocked. He's so new right now, I really don't mind indulging him a little bit, but hopefully this will get better as time goes on and he becomes more familiar with a routine.
We went back to the pediatrician today and everything looked wonderful according to Dr. Ezekiel. Evan weighed in at 8 lbs 8 oz, meaning he had regained anything he lost and has surpassed his birth weight (8 lbs 6 oz). He had also grown an inch since our initial visit the day after he was born. Way to go, kiddo! The doctor also said his color looked great -- which is nice because Noah and Samantha both struggled with jaundice issues -- and that he was doing excellent as far as muscle tone and newborn development. He lost his cord stump yesterday (yay, belly buttons are much better than dried-up cord stumps!) and she said that looked well, also. He did have to get his first immunization and his second newborn screen, which made him not so happy.
all full after a meal, ready to drift off to sleep
This week brought a few more visitors, namely my friend Kelsey and then a visit from the Childers family for dinner on Tuesday. And on Wednesday we got to enjoy some swim time (well, everyone except me and Evan) with all of the cousins and Grandma Sharon. Noah and Sam really enjoyed having someone to play with at the house, since their only other interactions recently have been going to church the past two weeks.
Speaking of, even though it was nice that Matt was able to take a full 5 days to stay at home after Evan was born, his birth unfortunately coincided with the beginning of Matt's busy Summer season at work, which meant that when he went back to work it was for 10 out of 11 days! :P ick. And one of those days was Sunday, which meant I had to decide between taking three kids to church by myself or just staying home. Now, most people would probably choose to stay home, but I decided it was best for me and the kids to get out of the house for at least *one* day during the week. So we loaded up and headed to church. It wasn't easy, especially after having Matt's help last week, and I didn't get to hear all of the sermon because I was trying to handle a squishy, hungry newborn for part of the service who wasn't really content to nurse but also wasn't really sleepy. However, I'm still really glad we went because the trip out of the house was nice, and it was great to see friends at church.
Evan has continued to eat and sleep well, and I realized that part of the reason he was only wanting to nurse on one side is because I seem to be producing more milk this time than I ever did before. It's good and bad for different reasons, but at least I know he's definitely getting enough to eat, and I've already started pumping occasionally so that we will hopefully have a really great stash by the time I have to go back to work.
I think that's everything for now, check back soon for more updates!
trying the paci for the first time
Sam wanted to help :)
he was fussy, so Noah and Sam wanted to help calm him down
checking out the activity mat
Noah helping out again :)
