Doctor Dan...

Doctor Dan/Daddy reporting for duty!

Let me start by saying that Dan has been absolutely incredible with this whole "becoming a daddy" situation. Not that I ever doubted him, but I was curious to see how squeamish he would be with dirty diapers, and all of the bodily noises & fluids that accompany babies. He hasn't flinched once. He's changed just as many diapers as I have - and believe me I've changed a lot! (Obviously, Dan only put on his hospital garb for the picture - he doesn't put these on every time!)

I still have to type up my thoughts on the whole delivery and hospital experience but in the meantime since Dan is portraying a doc here, I figured I'd type up our first Doctor visit.

Dr. M & his wife (who's an RN) came to our house this afternoon. Very rare these days, but extremely thoughtful. They came to check out Alexander and to answer any questions we may have. Dan has been waiting for this appt all week, to help ease the mind.

We chatted about - talked about his feeding schedule, his sleeping schedule, how to try to fix his sleeping pattern, etc. I did mention that he has his days & nights mixed up, right? Last few nights have been a ball! They gave us some great tips on how to help regulate his schedule and what queues we should look for and what to do about them. I think the biggest challenge for us has been information overload. We've gotten so much advice and "To Do's" from everyone (nurses & doctors in the hospital, family, friends, books, internet, etc..) that it's hard to know what to do. Dan & I talked and feel that although people are going to give us advice we need to do what we think is right and best for Alexander and just let the rest of the advice not affect us.

Then the doctor asked us to go against his own words. He told us to go wake up Alexander so Dr. M could exam him. Now, we don't know if all doctor's say "oh he's cute" because they want to be nice, but Dr. M commented a few times about how cute he was. Now, if the baby wasn't cute would you say it more than once, I think not. Again, I'm biased.

He measured his head, length and weighed him. He's 19 1/2 inches so he's grown 1/2 inch in 8 days. He weighs 5 lbs 12 ozs so he's just back to birth weight (he was 5 lbs 14 ozs when he was born but when we left the hospital he was 5 lbs 4 ozs). I'm glad he's gaining weight since he lost 10 ozs while we were in the hospital. So he's gained 8 ozs since Monday, and that's a good thing!

Dr. M said he's still a little jaundice in the face but because he's not jaundice in his body and he's peeing & pooping that everything looks great. He was impressed that his umbilical cord fell out on Wednesday and his belly looks great! We also got an A for taking care of his circumcision and that we no longer need to do the gauze because it has healed very well.

All in all a very good visit from the doctor and Alexander got an A+! They're going to come back next week for his 2nd week check-up and then after that we'll start to go to the office.