Well, baby...

Rick and I took Damien to his first doctor's appointment today, also called a "well-baby check-up"! Our goal for the first two weeks was to gethis weight back up to what it was when he was born, because his jaundice caused a little more weight loss than the home nurse and his doctor wanted to see. I commented to Rick yesterday that it seemed as though Damien had gained weight since the first week, but couldn't be certain. Sure enough, Damien weighed in at 8 lbs, 6 oz, which is a little more than an ounce above what he was at birth! I was so glad to hear that we were right on track with weight gain and all other health checks. Not that I was truly worried, as I am smart enough regarding infants and children to identify when there is an obvious problem. The basic checks done at his appointment was body inspection, heart rate, eyes, mouththroat, and visual response. The only real question I had for his pediatrician was regarding Damien sleeping on his stomach.

As first time parents, we were obviously paranoid about SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and while we did our research and found that our son was at a low risk (nonsmoking household, not putting blankets around his face while sleeping, etc.), we were still worried about the potential risks involved with letting him sleep on his stomach and it caused us some very stressful and sleepless nights. Finally, in an act of despair, we let him sleep on his tummy, cranked up the heater, and to our amazement the three of us got a solid fours hours of sleep! (As a side note, I never thought I'd say that four hours would be a solid night's sleep!) So when I asked Damien's pediatrician, he eased our fears and reminded us about not having a blanket around his face. We couldn't have been happier about not having to worry as much about the many fears and horror stories that new parents seem to hear constantly! Damien just hates sleeping on his back to the point that I was sleeping with him belly-down on my chest every night, which only allowed us an hour or so of sleep.

Other than the sleep issues, we have been shocked at the amount that our little boy can eat! He seems to be hungry every two to three hours exactly to the point that we have had to supplement him with soy formula until more of my breast milk comes in. There are times that he may go about four hours in between feedings, and at only two weeks old, he'll go through at least an ounce of breast milk then another ounce of formula! If he's hungry, then of course we feed him but it still doesn't take away the suprise of his appetite!