"Poster child"

The visit to the cardiologist last week went as perfectly as we could have hoped. The doctor actually said Nathaniel is a "poster child" for recovery from his type of heart surgery. How perfect is that? What a way to come down from that concern ... for now.

Of course there's always something new to worry about as a parent, and we're still a little concerned he's eating less than he should be. He's under the 2 oz. per pound per day minimum we've read about (he's 16 pounds now, but he's eating less than 30 oz. per day. The cardiologist, however, says it's not an issue while he's gaining weight.

And out newest concern is the heat around these parts. He's not used to 90 degrees, and he's letting us know. He's a little cranky, but it hasn't been bad.


Lastly -- here's a couple of pictures from this weekend.

First, here's an outfit that was a gift from Nathaniel's Oma:



Next, here he is in his new "Jumparoo" toy thingie:




And here he is hanging out with dad:

Hope everyone had a relaxing holiday!

First illness (really!)

Nathaniel came home from day care yesterday with a cold. He was a little crusty around the nose and, throughout the night, was trying to clear his stuffy nose while sometimes sneezing and coughing.

But he's got a great attitude through it all. When I first saw him with a crusty-ish nose, I asked if he had a cold, and he smiled really big and made a hapy sound.

We made some saltwater solution, as suggested by our pediatrician (1/2 water, heated, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; dissolve in water; drop a few drops in each nostril). It seems to clear him up for a little while, but not for good.

And just so everyone knows, he doesn't seem to have gotten sick because of me. He has no fever, and he doesn't appear to have a sore throat. All he has is a runny/stuffy nose and some sneezing and coughing. If anything, I caught this new sickness from him.

First sickness (almost)

After all of our other panic, Amanda and I have been waiting for the day Nathaniel would first get sick. We figured (and heard) going to day care would result in him catching some nasty bug or another.

It still hasn't happened.
Nathaniel hasn't been sick, but I had (have?) something. We're wondering whether he carried it home from day care but, because of some immune-boosting shots back in the day, didn't catch it himself. It's like we have some kind of superbaby when it comes to illness (I hope!).

So, Nathaniel's doing fine while I'm working on a temperature over 101 yesterday-- which is pretty dang high considering my normal temperature is kinda low (about 97 degrees). That's the highest fever I recall having since I was a child. Add the sore throat and achy joints, and things were not fun.

And they weren't fun for Amanda either, who had to take care of Nathaniel and me (I hope the taking care of me wasn't quite as stressful), and now is exhausted before heading back into work.

I hope Nathaniel and Amanda don't get what I have.

Overly concerned?

Nathaniel will be visiting the cardiogist Thursday. Everything seems to be going great ... but of course it all seemed to be going great before we found out there was a problem back when he was born (getting close to four months ago now!).
I don't expect there to be any trouble, but it's still a little nerve-wracking.

Even with everything going so well, Amanda and I still recall our feelings from February very easily and unexpectedly. Amanda said she was driving to a grocery store Saturday when a helicopter was landing at Virtua, and everything flooded back about Nathaniel being scheduled for a flight to Delaware. We see commercials for Virtua or just TV shows that involve hospitals, and we remember how powerless we felt.

But then Nathaniel starts crying, and we think of how we said to ourselves while we were in Delaware that we'd be so happy to hear him cry (because he wasn't doing enough of that at first). Or we feed him, and he lets out a tremendous belch, and we laugh about what a little boy we have.

The whole thing is still a roller coaster. And we love it.

(Pictures for this week coming soon.)

Better late than never

I don't know if it's my computer or the blogger site, but my attempt to upload the most recent pictures yesterday failed. Very annoying.

Anyway, sorry for the delay, but here are last week's weekly pictures of the little guy -- these are from Mother's Day (Amanda's first as a mom), so there's one of her with the little guy and one of the little guy looking a little exhausted.
It was definitely a nice Mother's Day, nice breakfast, time relaxing with the baby and some time with family (visiting Amanda's mother and grandmother) later on.

As for life with the little guy ... things are going quite well. Daycare seems to be taking very good care of him, although we were surprised they already needed a new box of baby wipes already.

We're also wondering whether they work through his fussiness mid-feeding as well as we do, but we figure (a) he'd let them know if he was really hungry and (b) he'd devour bottles at home if he needed food. It doesn't seem like he's having much trouble on the food front.

All in all, it seems like Nathaniel's at a laid back time right now. He gurgles at us, kicks around, plays a little, stares at himself in the mirror and half rolls over sometimes, but he has yet to fully roll over or do much to propel himself forward or write the great American novel or demonstrate a clear understanding of how to beat a two-deep zone or throw a major-league fastball (he's too young to be throwing curveballs).

We're waiting anxiously.

First Mother's Day

I must have a bad reputation at work. I don't know how many mothers there asked me what I was planning on doing for Amanda for Mother's Day. That's not a big deal, of course, but they asked me in that motherly "I'm sure you remembered, so I'm not reminding you ... I'm just asking what your plan is" kind of way.
I had plans. I had plans figured out weeks ago. Of course, they're those cliche breakfast-in-bed type plans, but they still count as plans. And it's what Amanda asked for, as well. I also had a leatherbound book made with about 50 photos I picked and captions I wrote detailing Nathaniel's first 10 weeks of life. She sort of expected that gift, but she definitely liked it a lot.

Sadly, Nathaniel didn't seem to have any plans for how to celebrate Mother's Day, so I just told Amanda that Nathaniel had a hand in my gift. She bought it this time, but he's going to have to get his act together for next year.

Coming soon -- this week's picture(s) of the little guy. They'd be posted here now, but I'm still trying to get into a proper routine involving getting Nathaniel to day care and getting me to work at a reasonable hour.

Day-care fun

Going to day care isn't easy. Amanda shed a few tears and felt like we were abandoning Nathaniel to a bunch of strangers. I tried to be certain for Amanda while I wondered, inside, how we could abandon Nathaniel to a bunch of strangers.

But he has done pretty well so far. He's eating OK. He's not sleeping really well at day care (so much new stuff to see! plus, it's kinda loud), so he's been sleepy and fussy upon returning home. The fussiness has made Amanda feel even worse ... upset because Nathaniel's obviously very sad from day care.

But, really, it's been going OK. Except the day care did just about the worst thing they could have done on the first day. When Amanda and I went to pick him up, the workers noted that his hands were a little blue.
Amanda and I immediately went into panic mode. We thought: They're blue? Why weren't we called? We remembered all the terrible things that happened three months ago when Nathaniel was born. We remembered the bluish skin. We remembered the cold toes. And this happened on the first day in day care?

Then, the caregivers continued their thoughts. They noted that Nathaniel, and all the kids, had made something special for Mother's Day, and he still had some traces of blue paint on his hands. It wasn't until we got back into the car that we could talk about what happened ... or breathe again.

Oh well, I'm sure this whole thing gets easier.

Busy (long) weekend

Sorry for the delay in posting. Friday was Amanda and my 5th wedding anniversary, Monday was her birthday and we also were getting everything in line for Nathaniel to start day care. That made for a busy, celebratory, sad weekend ... and not much time to blog. We went down to the Shore for the weekend, spending time at a beach house owned by Amanda's uncle. It's not quite swimming weather, but the ocean is always relaxing ... not that Nathaniel seemed to notice it all that much.

As my time on "paternity leave" winds down, there seems like so much I intended to do that I never got around to. I planned on taking Nathaniel to the museum several times so he could view these classic paintings from a very early age. I also planned on taking him to an afternoon baseball game in Philadelphia. Pretty quickly, however, I learned it was much easier to think about taking a baby out for extended times that it was to actually do it.
About the biggest trips we took were to Babies R Us or the grocery store.
I guess he'll have to check out the hit-or-miss nature of the modern art wing of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Phillies some other time.

It's hard to believe tomorrow will be the first time since mid-January that both Amanda and I will be working. And it's hard to believe that what has become the center of our universe in recent months will be handed over to a few people we've met just a few times for a number of hours every day. It's pretty scary, as I'm sure most parents already know. But it's reality these days ... two salaries is almost a requirement for home-ownership and such.

I'll fill everyone in on day-care excitement in coming days. In the meantime, as my weekly Nathaniel growth-chart pictures, here's a pic from the Shore and another from home last week:

Long-haired baby

For the most part, Nathaniel is a little fuzz-head. New hairs are growing, filling in the empty space on his scalp, but the ones that were already there aren't getting much longer.

For the most part.

But there are a few hairs on his head that are probably five times as long as the rest of the hair. It looks ... interesting.

But Amanda refuses to let me do any hair cutting (and considering how nervous I am when I trim his nails, perhaps I should vow to never try to cut his hair).
I guess we'll leave it as is for now, and see how long his hair gets.

Suddenly, sleep deprivation

Nathaniel had been doing an unbelievable job of sleeping regularly. Amanda and I almost felt embarassed when people would ask if we were getting much sleep, and we'd tell them we weren't having any problems at all. It felt like we were letting people down when we told them Nathaniel would fall asleep around 8:30 p.m., and sleep until 6:30 a.m.

Well, he's decided that won't do. For the past two days, he's decided he wants to be fed around 4 a.m. That's a tad early ... and I hope it doesn't become a pattern. Especially considering I'll be headed back to work next week, so neither Amanda nor I will have the luxury of sleeping later in the day to make up for his early-morning feeding.

We'll see how this goes.

Diaper update
We've moved back to Pampers Swaddlers. After trying regular Luvs, Huggies Supreme and Pampers Swaddlers, Amanda and I are 100 percent behind using Pampers for Nathaniel. They might be more expensive, but we've almost never had any leakage, and they appear more comfortable because of the stretchiness of the straps used to tape the whole thing together.

Weekly picture
Nathaniel and me ...