Well, we’re closing in on the end of another day, and I just got Caleb down for what will hopefully be a couple of hours. I should probably be sleeping too since it is so hard for me to come by sleep these days, but I just felt an overwhelming need to just sit and do something I wanted to do in the quiet.
Tomorrow Caleb will be one week old. It’s hard to believe a week has already gone by, and at the same time I can’t believe it has only been a week. Our lives are so different from what they were, and even what they will be in just a few short weeks. The first few weeks of a baby’s life are such a whirlwind, and I just want to write down a few things about Caleb’s first week. I probably won’t remember them later.
Caleb has started to follow a bit of a routine. He is relatively happy in the morning and afternoon. He sleeps most of the time, but if he has happy quiet alert time, it is usually in the morning following nursing. He likes to look around in the bathroom at all of the bright lights and reflections in the mirror. He generally likes to be held upright over being laid back. Caleb has a rough time in the evenings. He has been grumpy from late afternoon/dinner time on, and often cries most of the time until bed. This is stressful for me and Nathan, and is hard on the older boys as well. Caleb doesn’t sleep well for the first half of the night, but often sleeps very well the second half. Last night, he slept from about 5:30 a.m. to about 9:00 a.m. in the bassinet. That’s a great chunk! Unfortunately, we have to wake up at 6:30 in order to get Elias to school on time so we hardly got to sleep any of it.
All of this will change soon, I’m sure, but it will be fun to have this written down. I just stared at Caleb as he was falling asleep tonight, trying to take in every little detail. The shape of his tiny ears. The feel of his skin. The sound of his breath.
Yesterday we took Caleb to the pediatrician for his first visit. He is up to 8 pounds, 13 ounces, which is still down from his birth weight of 9 pounds, 3 ounces, but is up from his discharge weight which was 8 pounds, 8 ounces. It’s great to know he is gaining weight and seems to be as healthy as can be. Here he is on his first outing:
We’ve been trying to get Caleb to enjoy tummy time, the swing, or the bouncer chair. Anything that gets him out of our arms. We love holding him, but sometimes we just need to set him down and it would be nice if he wouldn’t cry when we do so! He enjoyed tummy time for about a minute this morning. That’s up from the twenty or so seconds it was last time….
Tonight Baba and Ama brought us a delicious meal. We got to have broccoli chicken with white rice. We discovered that Baba has the special touch. He was able to get Caleb calm during his fussy evening grumpiness. It was great to have an evening free of the sound of baby cries.
We are one week in, and we are adjusting pretty well to life as a family of five. I am slowly but surely recovering from surgery. Elias and Simon are adjusting to having a baby brother. Elias appears just fine on the outside, but he’s got a lot going on inside that he tries to hide. This evening he asked Baba to take Caleb home with him, and when Baba said he couldn’t do that, he asked to sleep at Baba’s house. Because of that I spent some extra time with Elias at bed time. We lay on the bed in the dark and just talked. He said he likes having a baby brother, but he feels frustrated having a baby brother. He sounded like he was holding back tears as he said it. I talked him through his feelings, and tried not to cry myself. Although this is nothing like the tough time he had when Simon was born, it’s still hard to know that my child is going through so many tough emotions. I know in the end everything will work out, but it doesn’t make going through it any easier.
So…one week in and we are simultaneously celebrating life and just trying to survive!