The Muzzy's Blog

The first batch of baby pictures are now up in the photo gallery. You can find them here.

Taking the advice of our OB, we are trying to "split the load, not share it". Meaning, we take turns dealing with Patrick when he can't stop crying instead of having both of us get upset. We're also sleeping when he does. While 45 minutes of sleep at a time isn't much, it's better than nothing.

Surprising things I've discovered so far include: 1, There is no "universal size" when it comes to bottle nipples. Now I get to drive back to the store to return the ones I've bought and try again. 2, The standard receiving blanket size of 30"x30" is way too small to swaddle a baby. Get yourself the 36"x36" size!

We were discharged from the hospital earlier today. My mom and uncle set up a large "It's a Boy!" banner over our garage, and Tina's family left this wonderful home made sign next to our front door. It made Tina tear up.

The sleep deprivation Tina and I are experiencing distorts our sense of time. It feels like it's been a week or more since our baby was born, not two and a half days ago. The family is holding up, but the ground has been shaky. Sometimes our boy is totally inconsolable, with a shrieking cry which I'm surprised didn't wake up the whole hospital. When your child is screaming as though he is in pain, and nothing you try can help... you start to feel like a failure. Emotions run strong, and the lack of sleep just destroys your core. Eventually he wore himself out, and I just collapsed.

I won't even try to express my feelings of the time I tried to change his diaper and got poo on absolutely everything in the room. My thoughts would make a sailor blush.

We got through it, and we'll get through many more difficulties. Eventually we might even get some things right. In the mean time I'm happy that we've got the support of family to help us through. I can't even imagine what a single parent would do. I wish I could grab every pregnant teenager who thinks they can do it alone and just yell at them, "No, you can't."

If I ever manage to accomplish that, I'd move on to every postpartum depressed mother and say, "I get it. Really I do. How can I help you?".

Patrick is now 1 day and 1 hour old. He's learning how to feed. At first he was having significant difficulty getting his mouth open and latched on. Fortunately the staff here at Overlake are experienced with these issues and have a lot of tricks up their sleeves to get things started.

He's also pooping... a lot. They gave us a goal of two soiled diapers in the first day. We've beaten that goal four-fold. Reality is starting to sink in. Right now, those talented folks at Overlake are the ones changing the diaper. Starting sometime on Saturday... it'll be me.

This kid can't get toilet trained fast enough!