...

Hard to believe, but our little boy is three weeks old already! He's probably up to 10 pounds by now, too... and just a little more than a week past his due date. Some babies arrive two weeks late -- Gavin's mother is certainly happy he showed up early!

What didn't show up early was the first batch of pro-wraps we ordered. In fact, they never showed up, but a second batch we ordered later arrived today, so we are finally able to start using our cloth diapers -- without resorting to pins, which seem dangerous given how wiggly our little guy can be!

Today was Gavin's aunt Madelyn's birthday, so we sent her birthday wishes from her new nephew with this lovely candid shot of Gavin at his most dignified.

Otherwise, things are moving along as smoothly as can be expected. We're encouraged that his nightly sleeping sessions seem to be getting longer, bit by bit, as time goes by.

Gavin went in to the doctor today to see if he might have thrush. A very minor case, but we're taking steps to control it and he should be fine. The good news we got was that Gavin's now up to 9 pounds 8 ounces! Not that we're surprised -- he's got quite a round belly now.

And speaking of small, spherical objects... it looks like Gavin's solar system will be officially different than the one his parents learned about. Pluto is out as a planet, leaving just eight planets, not the nine his parents knew as schoolkids. Gavin's dad, having met the discoverer of Pluto (Clyde Tombaugh), has mixed feelings about this. He agrees with the decision, but feels sad about that nice old man he met at the Texas Star Party being stripped, posthumously, of the title of "discoverer of the ninth planet." This will be something Gavin and his dad can talk about someday!

Now that Gavin's cord stump has fallen off and his belly button has healed, we were able to give him his first real bath -- not just a rub down with a wet washcloth. To our surprise and relief, he didn't fuss at all. Let's hope this trend continues!

I just caught wind today of this adorable story from the AFP:

Panda blog opens in China

Adorable, yes, except that there's no credit given to Gavin's blog, which clearly led the way in this new trend of baby blogging. (The panda was born August 13.) Also, I was disappointed to see that the panda bloggers didn't have the good taste to avoid the perspective-of-baby voice in their blog, as we did here. Well, I suppose when you're a panda, there really isn't much that's too cutesy for you.

Sometimes it's unclear how much of what Gavin does is intentional, and how much is a random coincidence of muscle twitches and motions. Facial expressions are still generally pretty random -- the "smiles" he occasionally makes are fleeting and incidental, for now. (His "serious face" seems more like a genuine, lasting expression, though.)

Today he did something that amazed me, but it might have been complete coincidence. In an attempt to calm and entertain Gavin during a fussy spell, I picked up a little golden bell we have and rang it, briefly. He quieted and focused on the source of the new noise. I rang it again, swaying it quickly from side to side, while he remained focused on it. Then I held it loosely in front of him, still. With a hand, he reached out and batted the bell sideways. It rang. I was amused, but figured he'd just lucked out in having his hand flail in the right direction to produce the "desired" result. Then he did it again!

We'll keep showing him as much of the world as we can in his periods of quiet alertness. For now, he can probably only focus on things within a foot or so of his face -- I look forward to the time when he can see and appreciate even more of what the world has to offer!

Also: A baby milestone... Gavin's cord stump fell off today. We're glad it's gone, because it was, let's face it, getting kind of gross -- not to mention in the way -- but it's also a bit sad for his mom, because it represents the final casting off of the direct physical connection between mother and baby.

Gavin had some more visitors today, and was in a wonderful (and awake) mood for almost the whole visit (he got fussy -- hungry! -- toward the end). Stacey, Judson, and Colette came over and tried to help Gavin's parents feel a little more like normal adults and a little less like overwhelmed new parents. We were pleased that the extra company didn't seem to bother him at all.

In the pursuit of sleep, desperate parents will try all sorts of things to calm their fussy babies, I'm sure, and the solutions, fleeting as they may be probably vary greatly from baby to baby.

With Gavin, his mom prefers to leave the fuss-calming to dad, since dad seems to have an easier time sacrificing his dignity to the cause of producing a more relaxed baby. One recent discovery made is that Gavin seems to enjoy an Elvis impersonation, or at least, his dad's attempt at one. Uh, thank you, little boy. Thank you very much. I haven't pegged which, if any, Elvis song works best, but the more mellow ones seem to be baby magic.

Other news: today is Gavin's "official" due date! I think his mom, at least, is happy that he was a bit early. It should help him to have a few extra weeks under his belt, too, before travelling to Palm Springs in mid-September.

Our last doctor visit of the month (barring unforeseen issues), and the news was good. Jaundice is no longer cause for concern, and Gavin continues to "bulk up", so his feedings are clearly going well. He was measured at the doctor's office and it was discovered that he's grown more than a half inch in length (baby length measurements are extremely imprecise -- it may be as much as an inch of growth!), and his head circumference is a centimeter greater than at birth.

Why they seem to use inches for length, but centimeters for head circumference, I have no idea. Anyway, we were told he didn't need to come back until his one-month check-up in early September. We're happy not to have to make more doctor's visits for a while, but a little daunted by the prospect of being on our own, in terms of his health, for two whole weeks!

We all went to a breastfeeding support meeting at Glendale Memorial hospital this afternoon, and got a chance to weigh Gavin again. As expected, he's back up to his birth weight! The jaundice is almost a memory now, but we have a new, common newborn problem: a blocked tear duct. So Gavin's got a somewhat goopy right eye. We're keeping it clean and massaging the duct as best we can... it should clear up soon. (What did parents do before they could find solutions to these sorts of worries on the internet?)

Anyway, the other mothers at the meeting -- Gavin's dad was the only father there! -- were amazed that our little hero was only 10 days old, and still not even at his official due date (August 19). To be sure, there were some tiny babies there. Everyone remarked on how adorable Gavin is. (Well, of course!)

On our way back home, we stopped in Montrose to buy Baby Houdini a "SwaddleMe" wrap -- our attempt to keep him happily snoozing as long as possible. We had quite a frustrating night a few days ago when we worried ourselves about a nurse assistant's advice not to swaddle. After many sleepless hours and an exhaustive online search, we reassured ourselves that swaddling is safe, and realized that we probably ought to reconsider any future advice we get before forging ahead with it and losing valuable sleep. We'll see if this new blanket/wrap from Kiddopotamus does the trick.

Another follow up visit to the doctor's office, another batch of good news. Bilirubin down, weight up. We're officially off the biliblankets with which we were sent home from UCLA. (Dad and Gavin still enjoyed some shade-bathing beneath the trees on our front lawn, for good measure.) Gavin's now back to 8 pounds 10 ounces, which means he'll return to his birth weight tomorrow, given his current (impressive) rate of gain of 2 ounces a day.

His dad needed to go in to USC to fill out forms for adding Gavin to his dad's health insurance today (and to bid farewell to his dad's assistant, Alex, who's off to take care of family of her own), so Gavin stayed home with his mom, for a test run of what life will be like when dad really does go back to work. Things went quite well, but his mom was definitely happy to have some help when Gavin's dad finally returned home. This is a team effort!

Gavin turned one week old this morning! We had a follow-up visit with Dr. Fleiss today to check Gavin's weight and bilirubin levels. His weight has gone up (8 pounds 6 ounces) and his bilirubin has gone down. Wonderful news.

I have no idea how old I was when I first used a telephone... but I'm pretty sure my first video teleconference wasn't until my late 20s. Gavin's was today! (How times have changed!) I was holding him here at home while having a video chat with Mark and Alex (who were at the SCEC offices). He was very alert through the whole session, often looking right at the camera. He also showed a sign of maturing when he sneezed without fussing -- his own sneezes used to send him into a brief crying fit during his first few days of life.

Other news: We learned early today that our pro-wrap diaper covers are finally on their way... a computer crash caused the company's orders to be held up for a while. Once we get the covers, we can finally start using cloth diapers from our Dy-Dee diaper service.

The wait has given us the chance to test out diaper alternatives, particularly with an eye to ease of use when travelling (and the diaper service is not available). Seventh Generation's disposable diapers actually seem to outperform the Pampers they were using in the hospital. They're a bit more eco- and baby-friendly than regular disposables, but they're still disposable diapers. I like the concept behind (no pun intended) gDiapers -- flushable inserts -- but Gavin may still be a little small for the insert to fit snugly, so they tend to leak more, which is (no surprise) frustrating. Still, we'll keep them around, because they are a seemingly healthier alternative to standard disposables, and they handle typical messes well. They also seem to keep his skin cooler. Plus, they come with stylish outer pants in bright colors that have a big g on them... so they're effectively monogrammed for Gavin! How chic.

Also: A package arrived today from Gavin's paternal grandmother -- a baby book. (What a shame, though, that the "current world news when I was born" section will be rather depressing....) Right now, it feels like more homework to overworked, underrested parents, but I think Gavin will appreciate it when he's older, so I'll work to get it all filled in, and preserve this magical (if exhausting) time in our lives.

Somewhere in southern California, a supermodel is stressing out about having gained four ounces in the past two days -- here, we're celebrating!

We took Gavin to the lactation consultant's house to check his weight (to reassure us that his feeding is going as well as we feel it has been). We were right; he is now up to 8 pounds 4 ounces. Babies are supposed to return to their birthweight in about two weeks. At the current rate, he'll easily reach that milestone on time.

Also, tonight we tried out the Maya Wrap we bought -- one of several "babywearing" devices of various kinds that we have. Indeed, this is the first blog entry where Gavin really participated, cuddled up in a kind of cotton uterus across his dad's chest while the old man typed up the entry and worked on a few new wildflower icons (like the one used for today!).

Much to our relief, the jaundice seems to be fading. We're not surprised, really -- the recommended treatments are (1) feeding and (2) light, and he's been getting plenty of both. Still, it's nice to see visible results and feel like there's one fewer thing to worry about!

We took Gavin back to Dr. Fleiss' office today. Traffic was much lighter, so we arrived early. When the nurse weighed him, it was clear that his increased interest in feeding had paid off -- he had gained 3 ounces since the day before, putting him back up to 8 pounds, even.

Gavin had his first doctor visit today. We drove him to Dr. Paul Fleiss' office in Los Feliz. Traffic on the freeway was unusually heavy, but thanks to a creative shortcut, we were only a minute late. We also "discovered" the Shakespeare Bridge, a picturesque structure that we will have to revisit with Gavin (and a camera!) someday.

The visit went relatively well, though the news was not all good. We began by having Gavin weighed, and discovered that he'd dropped to 7 pounds 13 ounces. Now, babies are supposed to lose weight in the first days after birth, but generally speaking, the preferred limit is about 10% of birth weight. A drop of 15 ounces from a birth weight of 140 ounces is about an 11% drop -- not too bad, providing that marks the low point of his weight. We felt positive that his renewed interest in feeding since returning home would soon show positive results.

When Dr. Fleiss finally came in to see us in the examination room (we got the "ABCs" room -- all the rooms are decorated in very kid-friendly ways), he assured us that any kind of light will help convert the bilirubin in Gavin's body to the more soluble kind, so that, rather than worry about getting him onto the fuss-inducing bili-blankets, the more important thing to do is keep feeding well, so that his system can flush out the excess bilirubin. Of course, the brighter light the better, so I resolved to take him outdoors a few times a day to get an extra dose of therapeutic photons.

We had company tonight. Ben and Amy came over and brought a ton of food and made us feel a little less like overwhelmed parents by doing the dishes and generally giving us a break from the constant focus on feeding, soothing/sleeping, and diaper changes.

...

Within 10 minutes of arriving home and settling in, the doorbell rang. (This is a fairly unusual occurrence at our house.) At first, I thought it might be our neighbor Rick, maybe offering help, or his wife Anne, offering food (she gave us cookies when we first moved in)... instead, there was a delivery man with a giant, wildly colorful array of fresh flowers.

...

I went back to UCLA Medical Center on Tuesday afternoon in the hopes of bringing Christina and the baby home. Unfortunately, the doctors at UCLA had other plans for our boy (and his mother).

...

At 1:47 am, after a long labor, Christina gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.

...