Jonah is 6 days old today and he's doing great. With his grandma's (Vanessa's mom) help, we are slowly figuring out how to care for our little man. Most days, he will have a 10-15 minute fussy period, but that's about it. Most importantly, he is eating well. Because he is eating well, he is also excelling at other tasks. His wet diapers are spread out pretty evenly throughout the day, but he likes to save up his "solids" and get it all out at once. (As an aside, we called the nurses to make sure this was normal. They laughed, quickly realizing we were first time parents, and assured us it was perfectly fine.) At first, we thought it was convenient that he only had 1-2 poopy diapers a day. That was until he learned his new trick.
Jonah's new trick is to have a poopy diaper, wait until we are almost finished changing him, and then go again. The first time it happened, it caught me completely off guard. I had removed his old diaper from underneath him but hadn't yet put the new one under there. Fortunately, I had a baby wipe in my hand so I was able to catch everything before it landed on the changing pad. Vanessa and her mom thought it was hysterical, but I was getting nervous because my hand was almost full and he was still going. Jonah "ran out" before any overflow occurred so I was able to keep everything contained. The second and third time Jonah waited until he had no diapers on to start pooping, I was ready for him so we didn't have any mishaps. The fourth time, however, he added a fun little twist to his new trick.
As before, I was changing Jonah's diaper and right when I took his old one off, he gave the "warning" that he needed to get more out. I quickly moved the new diaper in place to catch Jonah's little gift. This time, Jonah was a bit more explosive than usual. The diaper caught almost everything, but, because I didn't have time to secure it, Jonah sprayed his blanket, my hand, and his changing pad. Fun times!
So far, I've gotten peed on a couple times. From the stories I had heard, I knew that would happen. I didn't know that I would be pooped on--especially when Jonah was less than a week old. Who knew?!?
All in all, Vanessa and I are getting more comfortable with this whole parenting thing. We knew it would be a lot of work and, sure enough, it is. We are so lucky to have Vanessa's mom here helping us out. Without her, we wouldn't be getting as much sleep, our place would be more of a mess than it is, and I wouldn't be eating homemade chocolate chip cookies. It will be a sad day when she leaves.
Vanessa, Jonah, and I are finally home after a few rough nights at the hospital. The first night was hard because the doctors and nurses kept dropping by. During the second night, Jonah was not a happy man. We got into a bad cycle where we would feed, burp, and change him, but he would still not be fully content. He would generally sleep for 30 minutes or so after feeding, but would then wake up crying loudly being virtually inconsolable. During this time, we would do everything we could think of to calm him down. Unfortunately for Jonah (and his parents), nothing would calm him down. During a few of these bouts, we called nurses in to see if they had any suggestions. Their suggestions were fairly helpful, but nothing seemed to prevent Jonah from going into his crying fits. He was feeding well, so the nurses figured he wasn't hungry. He would generally cry for a little over an hour, eventually wearing himself out and falling to sleep. Needless to say, Vanessa and I were not doing well when Jonah would cry and cry. We were very nervous because his crying during his fits was so frantic--much different from his normal cry.
