Here is Jack at 1 week old…(February 2, 2012)
*please pardon typos and grammar errors; this post was written in the middle of the night…

Of course, Jack spent the first 5 days of his life in the hospital with me while I recovered. We spent time getting to know each other, negotiating breastfeeding and generally settling into life together as a family. Naturally, we kept falling more and more in love with our little guy.

Here are some memories and photos from his first week…

He met both sets of Grandparents!
First, Grandma and Grandpa B through the nursery window on his birth evening…

And Grandma and Grandpa K the next day…

Did you know our boy is named after his two grandpas? My dad is Jack and R’s dad is Larry (Lawrence).

In the hospital, Jack was such a good boy — sleeping well and looking so darn cute all the time. We took photo after photo after photo! Here are some of my favorites from Jack’s first few days…

When we were released from the hospital, we were so excited to take Jack home. He was so much smaller than I expected that none of his clothes fit, so his “going home outfit” was slightly over-sized. He slept the whole way…

Upon arriving home, Jack got to meet Marceau the cat. So far, they don’t mind each other, though Marceau bolts when Jack cries. Here is one of Marceau’s first sniffs…

During Jack’s first visit to the pediatrician, the doctor expressed concern over Jack’s jaundiced appearance and his lack of weight re-gain so we were sent to get him checked out. They checked Jack’s bilirubin level and since it was relatively high, he was prescribed “light therapy” to help prevent problems with jaundice. Fortunately, we didn’t have to take and leave him at the hospital for this treatment, but instead were able to treat him at home. Jack spends all his time on “biliblankets”, which work to rid Jack of his excess bilirubin. To read and understand more about all of this, click here. Being new parents, I admit, we were very stressed out about this treatment and spent a great deal of energy worrying. He has to be exposed to the light 24 hours a day, except when feeding. Negotiating his sleeping with the lights took some time. Here are a couple of photos of Jack glowing from his biliblanket treatment…

In addition to the light therapy, we had to get Jack eating more in order to hopefully increase his weight gain, which was very slow going. It was suggested that we supplement Jack’s eating with formula, which felt devastating to me. Thankfully, I had a helpful heart to heart with my friend, Liz, who reassured me that adding formula didn’t mean I couldn’t breastfeed successfully (bless you, friend). We supplemented Jack’s meals with formula from time to time and remain hopeful that he will ultimately be exclusively breastfed at some point. Here is R feeding Jack some formula (which luckily, we had gotten as free samples)…

So, as you can see, it was an eventful first week for our sweet Jack during which we learned he is an extremely patient boy.

Here are some other things about Jack from his first week…

Jack loves to suckle for comfort.

Jack does not love having his diaper changed whatsoever. He screams through the whole process, sometimes until he is red in the face.

So far, his nicknames are:
From Mom…
– Boo-goo (sometimes Boog, for short)
– Jack-boy
– Munchkin Rumpkin
– Pumpkin Rumpkin
– Squeaker
– Cherub

From Daddy…
– Buddy
– Little Man
– Little Monkey
– Rutabaga (when he roots for breastfeeding)

His favorite hand gesture is ‘The Fist Pump’…

And for his final week one image — Jack got his first milk mustache on the day we left the hospital. Can you see it?

We love you, Jack and are so happy to have you at home with us!
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