Dec. 5

Garrett's appointment with Dr. Spano in Lake City yesterday went fine. I knew Dr. Spano was aware of Garrett's history, and I assumed his nurse was too, but I guess she wasn't. That would explain why she said he didn't need his clothes removed to be weighed. His weight (clothed and with a potentially dirty diaper) was 6 pounds 9 ounces, or about 2.9 kilograms. (His birth weight was 7 pounds, and I'll feel better when he gets past that.) His last weight recorded at Saint Marys' was 2.88 kilograms, and that was three days earlier, so that makes me a little nervous about whether he's really gaining anything.

I would think he should be gaining, because he's been eating really well and hasn't been throwing up anymore since he's been home ... for the most part, anyway. There have only been a few times he's lost a whole feeding since leaving the hospital. Other than that, he rarely even spits up. He'll have some enormous burps (think Barney Gumble), but even then, it's rare that anything actually comes out. My sister pointed out that different scales will weigh somewhat differently, too, so maybe that accounts for the insignificant change.

Just the same, I need to do a better job of following through with the dietitian's suggestion of giving him breast milk with formula twice a day. We've been working on it, but he didn't seem to get the hang of the bottle until last night. Now he seems to do pretty well. The last two bottles, however, he only took about 1.5 ounces. I remember someone at the hospital saying babies usually eat an ounce an hour, and since it had been two hours since his previous feeding, I expected him to finish two ounces. Maybe he'll do better with that over time, too.

When Garrett cried a little at his appointment, Dr. Spano pointed out that he might also be "tongue tied" (a condition in which the membrane connecting the tongue to the floor of the mouth is unusually short and thick, decreasing the mobility of the tongue and impairing speech). He said it's easy to fix by just snipping the membrane, but he'd watch it for a couple months to see if it's an issue. Geez, like Garrett needs another medical issue to deal with.

I wonder if a person could really tell whether it'd be a problem within the first few months of life. Apparently, it's supposed to make it difficult for infants to latch on when breast feeding, and that hasn't been the case for Garrett. So if it's a matter of determining whether he'll have trouble forming certain sounds, I would think he'd need to be old enough to try making those sounds first. Well, that's the least of his problems right now.

I think (and hope) Garrett is getting his days and nights straightened out now. When we first brought him home, he didn't seem to be awake much during the day, but would be awake for an hour or more at night. Part of that time would be spent with him eating and getting his diaper changed, and another part would involve me bouncing back and forth between bed and his bassinet. I'd climb back under the covers when he'd seemed comfortable, and inevitably go back as he'd start making noise again -- primarily an "eeeehhh?" that sounded like he was trying to burp.

Eventually, I figured out he wasn't trying to burp, but rather was apparently wondering where everyone was. Since he didn't like laying in the dark, I brought a lamp in near his bassinet that has three brightness levels and left it on low and put stuffed black and white spotted cow close enough for him to see. He seemed pretty content looking at that, or the wall beyond it -- content enough for me to feel better about going back to sleep myself. I'd like to interact with him while he's awake, but I also know I'm not going to be much good during the day if I get even less sleep than I'm able to now.

He was awake for about an hour before bed last night and probably an hour or more this morning, so that's encouraging. I'm sure most parents would be thrilled to have their newborn sleep so much. I'll admit I appreciate the low-maintenance aspect of it, but there's a part of me that keeps questioning whether that's normal and wishes he would at least wake up more frequently to eat until we were comfortable with how he's gaining weight.

Today, Jerry, Pam, Wendy and Cody came to visit. While each spent some time holding Garrett, Jonathan got a lot of attention, too, and was quite entertaining as he danced to the Hokey Pokey and sang John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. We took advantage of the additional hands and got a couple decent pictures outside of the hospital setting.