The New Dad Blog

One Month Old

Yesterday Jude was officially one month old. Even though the time has gone fast, it also feels like we have been parents forever. We both long for a full night's sleep, but realize that it may be a while before we achieve that. Jude is already going through so many changes - we can tell he is more mature than he was just a week ago. He has more awareness of his limbs and is starting to reach for things now, he is much more alert - he can follow you with his eyes.

In the last month I have learned a great deal about babies - things I never knew before. So today's post is going to be recalling some of the things I have learned since he was born:

1. Change a diaper - yes I had managed to live over 40 years and never change one. While I am no expert yet (and we have some pee soaked clothing to prove it), I am getting the hang of it.

2. Pooping - I had no ideas that babies, even newborns can strain so much when they poop. I thought because they are on a liquid diet and the poop is really runny it would come out easily. Not so. Many times Jude goes red in the face and grunts and groans while he is pooping.

3. Feeding - takes much longer than I expected. We are breast feeding and supplementing with formula, and this whole process can easily take an hour. Add in changing a diaper and burping him this time can easily stretch to an hour and a half.

4. Baby dreams - as I am sitting here watching Jude sleep next to me, it is curious to see the different facial expressions. He even sometimes cries out in his dreams. He is having vivid dreams similar to the we do as adults.

5. Teamwork - I don't know how single parents do it because it feels like having a new baby is a huge amount of work for two people. This evening is a perfect example. Marcy made this delicious prime rib dinner. But when it came time to eat we had a screaming baby on our hands. So we each took time to soothe him while the other person ate. This happens a lot - it is a real team effort .

6. Time - sometimes on weekends I wonder where the day goes. Before we were parents we were able to plan our day and pretty much do what we wanted. When you are dealing with a fussy baby, or even just a baby who is awake, and suddenly three hours have gone past. Of course, our own leisure time has been reduced drastically, we are happy if we can get one leisure activity in each day.

7. Joy - when he is awake and staring into your eyes there is tremendous joy for me. He is just a lot of fun to hang out with even at such a young age.

8. The Focus on Mom's - it is interesting to me how almost all of the parenting magazines and web site are focused on women. They don't even try and pretend that men read these magazines. I am very interested in parenting, but to my knowledge there is not one parenting magazine targeted at men. Looks like a huge opportunity for an enterprising publisher.

9. Sleep - learning ways to get your baby to sleep is crucial both for the baby and the parents. There are plenty of theories here, but we believe in doing what our baby considers most comfortable. During the day Jude likes to sleep in the car seat. We have a cozy sheepskin liner because it is winter and he seems to find it very comfortable. At night, he sleeps with us in bed. We have tried putting him in his bassinet next to the bed, but he doesn't last half an hour before starting to cry. When he is in bed with us most nights he sleeps soundly for hours at a time. We have a king size bed so there is plenty of room.

10. Colic - in my previous post I talked about colic. It is bane of many parents' existence, because a colicky baby is a very unhappy baby. We are continually trying to find ways to soothe Jude, he have a few that I mentioned below, but this will be something we will continue to focus on.

It is late on Christmas Eve, and Marcy has already gone to bed. Jude is asleep so I have some time for myself. This is a special Christmas for me. My first as a dad, and my first in Denver with Marcy. We have always traveled to Sydney or Des Moines for Christmas. And with the huge snowstorm this past week, it will most definitely be a white Christmas.

Here is a video we shot of Jude yesterday - it was his one month birthday. Enjoy.

Poop and Gaining Weight

We have been focused on two things for the last week - poop and weight gain. We were very relieved when we went to the pediatrician on Thursday to see that Jude had gained almost a pound in the previous 6 days. After dropping down from 7lbs even to 6lbs 3oz after three days, we were happy to see that he is gaining a healthy amount of weight now. He appears more healthy now, and he is alert for longer periods of time.

Now after 17 days, we are into a bit of a routine. We are trying to keep Jude awake a little more during he day so he can sleep more at night. Jude likes to be close to us, so at night he is sleeping with us in bed. Luckily we have a king size bed and there is plenty of room for all three of us. He sleeps for 2-3 hours at a time and then he wakes up wanting food. Then he sometimes stays awake for an hour after a feeding, so either Marcy or I sit with him in the rocking chair just trying to rock him to sleep.

The other focus of our life is poop. Jude is not very regular yet. A couple of times he has gone for 24-36 hours without a bowel movement and that is not good. He tends to get uncomfortable during these times and he cries a lot. So there is great rejoicing when he does go, because he will usually be quite satisfied for a while afterwards.

Below is a little video we shot this morning of Jude and uploaded to YouTube. Enjoy.

The First Ten Days

Well the last week has gone by in a blur and Jude is celebrating is 10th day of life. My life is being lived through a fog of sleep deprivation which is currently manifesting as cold/flu like symptons. After a restful day today, I hope to feel better tomorrow.

Jude is doing well now. The first couple of days back from hospital were the hardest. He constantly wanted to feed and neither Marcy or I got more than 3 hours sleep those first couple of nights. We went to the pediatrician and had some bad news - Jude wasn't putting on weight. In fact he had lost weight since leaving the hospital. We had been relying on breastfeeding with just occasional supplementation with formula. But we had to pump up the formula now, and he suggested a meeting with a lactation consultant.

We met with the lactation consultant and there was more bad news. Marcy's milk was not coming in with sufficient volume. So we had no choice but to use formula, and the consultant suggested we start pumping to try and stimulate the milk flow. We were both upset at this new finding, because we really wanted to have breastmilk as the staple for Jude's diet. We went back the next day for a weight check and Jude had put on 3.7oz in just 24 hours, so we knew that he was going to be fine.