Tuesdays With Henry - Week Two

Henry's second week was his first week at home (a fact that has me constantly trying to remember how old he is. That first week in the hospital is such a blur). Since he was in the NICU we didn't get to introduce him to as many friends and family members as we wanted to during his first week so this week was marked by lots and lots of visitors and it was great.

I don't want to jinx myself but, so far, Henry has proven to be a very laid back baby. He only cries when he's hungry (or occasionally when we change his diaper and he gets cold) and even when he's crying it doesn't last long. He's having more and more awake and alert periods every day. When I'm done feeding him he'll spend almost an hour just staring at me. It's awesome. He's not the best sleeper but he's not the worst. He sleeps for three hours in a row during the day and only two hours at night. But he doesn't struggle to go back to sleep at night (in fact, I can finish feeding him, swaddle him, and put him in his bassinet while he's still awake and he'll go to sleep. I'm wondering if this is due to his time in the NICU. He couldn't be rocked to sleep for that first week so maybe he got used to doing it himself?). The first couple of nights he was out of the NICU he struggled with the dark and the quiet and was up every hour or so but he seems to have gotten used to the fact that when we sleep at night at home that there aren't florescent lights shining in his eyes, nurses gabbing away, or monitors alarming every other minute. But he can still do his day naps through all sorts of distractions - music playing, dogs barking, Oliver being Oliver, etc.

He has also really come around on his eating. He's waking up hungry and chowing down like a champ. We kept the rented scale for a week to watch his intake and he's now getting over two ounces at each feeding which is perfect for his needs. I am still pumping to keep my supply up but we aren't supplementing with bottles anymore since he's filling himself up by nursing. This has all been quite a relief for me. I was terrified that since we didn't get started nursing until he was four days old, that it might not work out for us (so many birth and pregnancy books can really freak you out with their insistence that the baby needs to be put to the breast as soon as he pops out in order to establish a strong breastfeeding relationship) but we seem to have turned a corner and I'm hopeful that we will have a long and successful nursing relationship.

Here are the pictures from this week. I still haven't found a time to take these that he's willing to open his eyes. Maybe next week?