So the title is a bit of a lie. I still worry. I worry a lot. Too much most likely. But I no longer mind Jacob's banshee-like screams and fits. He can fuss all damn day.
The reason I say that is because on Tuesday we had to rush the little scamp to the doctor. For about 8 hours, he was nearly non-responsive. I say nearly because he could do encouraging things like take a bottle, but then he wouldn't get upset at his diaper change and nothing we did could seem to rouse him. It only got worse for about an hour before we went to the doctor.
I was panicked, but Momma was cool as ice. On the way we switched roles as she got more and more worried and I took over the comforter role. We told Jacob that if he wouldn't mind, he was welcome to make mommy and daddy look bad by waking up before we even saw the doctor, and lo and behold, that's what he did.
In the Group Health waiting room I told the receptionist we were panicked new parents and asked for a nurse to come see him to make sure we didn't need to rush to the hospital or something. We were early and they took us right back with an experienced nurse taking over. As we undressed him, something clicked, and he was back. He yelled at us, pooped, peed, yelled some more and squirmed like he does. We cried with joy.
From then on the appointment was a blessing. It counts as his one week appointment and he was back up to his birth weight of 7 pounds 4 ounces. The doctor, a younger woman named Dr. Brinker, spent far more time with us than we deserved. She said we did the right thing to bring him in. The reasons for his behavior are less than clear. She said he's still a tiny bit jaundiced which can cause some fatigue, or perhaps his sleep cycles got weird.
While we in there he went through 4 or 5 diapers....so that may have had something to do with it. But his weight was good, lungs and heart and all that seem good. Still....we were terrified and for a brief minute forced to think some unpleasant thoughts.
My sister Karyn brought dinner later on Tuesday, and we decided to call in Kelli's mom (Karen, not to be confused with Karyn) to help us out. We needed a stabilizing hand of an experienced mom and Karen lives nearby, is retired, and certainly loves to be available so we had her join us for dinner. She watched the little guy while Kelli and I got to spend 10-20 minutes just laying in bed talking.
At that point we decided we shouldn't keep her mom too late, so we brought the pack-n-play back into the bedroom, and we decided to try sleeping as a family. So far so good, but you might guess I'm typing this at 4 a.m. so it isn't perfect just yet.
The only other bump at the moment is milk supply. Kelli's doing everything right, but the last few pumps have dwindled a bit and Jacob's of course still a hungry, growing boy. Dr. Brinkley raised no issue with being exclusively a pump-and-bottle feeding family, so we'll go online tomorrow and see what we can learn.
Since we left the Doc Jacob's been back to his usual fighting, screaming, crying self. After seeing him completely silent for 8 hours, as far as I'm concerned he can cry as much as he wants.
Other visitors today included my sister Mary and her boyfriend J.C. Great seeing them and Mary was a help preparing lunch and making some unrelated phone calls for me while Kelli and I debated taking Jacob to the doctor. I'm so glad we did.
The calls Mary was making was checking schedules concerning the boy's pending baptism. It will be at St. Martin of Tours in Cheviot, but I don't know for sure when. We're looking at Saturday, the 24th of August, at the 5 p.m. Mass but I haven't been able to reach the DRE who handles that. Moments like we had today remind me that I don't wanna wait a day longer than I need to for this sacrament.
In a couple hours Jacob will be 8 days old. He's starting to open his eyes a lot more and it looks like he's looking at things now, not just through them. He's starting to have more wake times after feedings (more at night sadly) and he's as strong as ever. We started tummy time today with limited success, but he did lift his head a few times before getting annoyed at us.
I've asked our church group to pray for my (and Kelli's though she's doing better than me) anxiety during this new experience of parenthood, and I'd ask any believer reading this to please pray for them as well. One family has three kids and one has stomach flu and they can use some prayers too.
On a personal note, I'm hopeful I can join an outing of the men in the group on Friday, but that depends on Jacob.
I think if we can just have a week or so of no problems....or at least no serious problems necessitating doc visits, I can start to settle in. Just think how spastic I'd be with a truly sick baby.....sheesh.
For now though, prayers for the intercession of the Blessed Mother and St. Gerard and constant petitions to God are getting me through, along with the incredible poise of my wife.
Mary, mother of God, pray for us as new parents. St. Gerard, patron of new parents, pray for us. Friends and family reading this blog, pray for us too. Things really do seem to be ok, but I don't think I'll ever stop stressing and there's no such thing as too many prayers.
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