Daddy's Boy

We went for a walk a little earlier than usual this morning. I had a conference call with the NAES team from 8-10AM. Jeff had work too. When we left the house for the morning walk, it was 52 degrees. I was concerned that it was too cold. I should point out that I think it is appropriate to start using the fire place when it hits below 75 degrees. Jeff contended that it was hardly arctic weather, and Henry would be just fine if we bundled him up. We put his sweat pants on him and his UofA jacket.

Henry weighed 12 lbs 3 ozs today. My dad came in the morning, and my mom came in the afternoon. I spent the morning on the telephone, and then I headed off to work for a faculty meeting. Today was my longest workday yet (since Henry was born, that is).

Apparently, Mr. Henry was a bit fussy today. But this resulted in an interesting development. At one point, my mom was holding Henry, and he just wasn't happy. Jeff said that he took Henry for a little while and was able to console him. Guess he just wanted his daddy. One of the questions we have been asked by the those assessing his development is: "When he's upset, are you able to console him by talking to him?" Prior to today, I would have said "no." Usually when he's upset, he wants a bottle. He is not patient (probably gets it from me). When he's hungry, he isn't distracted by conversation (also gets this from me). Anyway, I was pleased that Jeff was able to soothe him via non-food methods.

He was a bit fussy for me this evening. I managed to distract him with video. I took him over to Jeff's computer and played a short segment of him squealing and talking. Henry watched the clip several times. And when he made noises in the video, he would make some noises at the screen. I'm not sure what the development literature would have to say about this. I know that babies like pictures of other babies. So I figured that video would be OK too.








We gave Henry a bath tonight. We took off his cannula while giving him a bath. His pulmonologist said it was OK to take it off for short periods of time. We wanted to give his nose a break. He enjoyed the bath. Jeff was talking to him throughout it, and Henry loved it. He very much loves his daddy. I gave him a bottle after his bath. I can't remember if it was before or after the bath, but I tried breast feeding him directly. He tolerated it for a few minutes but wasn't that interested. He ended up falling asleep in my arms from 9PM to 1AM. Jeff then gave him a bottle. He crashed in Jeff's arms. I left Jeff and Henry sleep on the couch for awhile. Then, I got Jeff up to transfer Henry to the crib so that Jeff could stretch out on the bed. This is the second night in a row where Henry has slept for just about 4 hours straight. If it is like last night, he'll wake up to feed on about 2 ozs every two hours from here on out. This is so much nicer than before! We love that we can actually get a few naps in (even an hour straight is awesome for us!).








On that note, I'd better get some shut-eye while I can. I'm not particularly tired right now, but I'll try the "Sleep when the baby sleeps" approach.

One last thing, Jeff took a cute picture of Marley (dog) and Princess (cat) Thursday night. Marley plopped herself down on the pillow next to Princess. Marley is a rather needy pup. She isn't much interested in other animals. She craves human attention (24/7). I guess she was getting a little desperate and decided to make do with snuggle time with Princess.