Blowout!

Who ever would have thought that someone would be so excited to change a huge, stinky, ugly green-yellow-brown poopy diaper?  I certainly never expected to, but when you're just minutes away from calling the pediatrician about your five-day-old infant's constipation, it tends to change your perspective on a few things.  I was happy to change her diaper....I was even happier to see how much better she felt afterward.  With one pantload of disgusting poopy goodness, she was cured of the constipation, a little crankiness, and a stubborn case of hiccups.

Sorry for the blog silence yesterday, but the crazy sleeping pattern was catching up with me....it still is.  The second night at home was 10x better than the first night.  We started to get into a routine and everyone (Kate) was cooperating.  Last night was a little more frustrating, but we're still on a pretty good schedule.  Unfortunately, it feels like every time I close my eyes to go to sleep, I immediately get woken up by feeding time...it's like my head barely hits the pillow.  D's been an incredible trouper.  She obviously has far more responsibility (and less sleep) than I, but she's managed to do it without complaint and make me look like a sissy.

Yesterday was our first non-hospital pediatrician visit.  Kate's in the 90th percentile for height and the 64th percentile for weight.  She's lost a good amount of weight since she was born (14 ounces), so we spent a while talking about getting her eating more.  We're still supplementing with formula and trying to perfect the "other" techniques....but I promise this blog won't turn into a La Leche League tutorial.  We have another visit on Tuesday.  The pediatrician says that if Kate has gained four ounces by then, we get to take her home; if she hasn't gained the weight, the pediatrician will take her home.  As you might assume, we're hoping she gains the weight.

Before we went into the pediatrician's office, we noticed that Kate had a bit of a bruise on her left eye.  It had been a little swollen since birth (you try squeezing out of a person without any side effects!), but it looked like she may have hit herself in the eye and made it worse.  As we were in the office waiting for the doctor, we looked down at Kate and there was disgusting yellow gunk squeezing out of her closed eye.  I felt like a terrible parent....like we were going to get caught neglecting her obvious sickness and have her immediately confiscated. Fortunately, the doctor quickly diagnosed it as a clogged tear duct, very common and not serious in any way.  We got some instructions for cleaning and massaging the area, but nothing more serious is necessary.  However, that's one reason why I didn't end up taking any pictures yesterday.  It looks like she got into a bar brawl with some miniature street toughs.

As the clock quickly counts toward her next feeding (in 20 minutes), I should probably wrap this up.  Today Kate will be making her first public appearance at a local eatery.  We're going someplace we can sit outside and avoid the crowds, and we're going a little after the lunch rush to minimize the number of other people in the restaurant.  Yesterday D and I each got a bit of time away from the house...D and her mom went to Babies 'R' Us for some we-didn't-know-we-would-need-this-until-the-baby-arrived-but-now-we-need-it-immediately items, and I ran my mom to the train station to head home.  It's nice having grandmas around to help out with Kate, food, and just about everything else.

Let me finish by saying that I still have the world's coolest baby (no offense), and that every moment with her is treasured.  She still doesn't cry unless there's actually something wrong, she's cute as a button, and she's incredibly expressive and interesting even when asleep (for a baby).  Lucky us!