Today's appointment

Today Ryan had a major appointment: a circumcision. Poor baby. According to the nurse, he was a champ the whole time... then the anasthesia wore off, and the poor thing started hollering like there was no tomorrow. It's a routine procedure, and Ryan should be able to take a bath by Friday, but Mommy & Daddy were so traumatized they went and bought lunch at McDonald's & coffee at Peet's:


Of course Ryan won't be getting any of this junk; he'll be bottle fed the next 2 feedings from all the excess milk that I've been storing. He has a lifetime of junk food ahead of him so no need to start now! (Mommy has been bouncing off the walls since she hasn't had caffeine since February!)

Other things from today's appointment:

~ Ryan now weighs 7 lbs 7 oz, gaining just about a pound in a week, and more than his birth weight! We were so excited to hear this since he had trouble gaining weight the first week (due to the jaundice).

~ Mommy's been overfeeding the little munchkin: The backstory is that last week I went to see a lactation specialist because Ryan wasn't latching on nor gaining enough weight. The speciailist said Ryan needed to be more alert when feeding, he should be doing 15 minutes on each side, should be eating more than 3o milligrams (1 oz) per side, etc, etc. She had this tone in her voice that made me feel as though I was a bad mother for not being able to do any of the above. So all of last week I was stressing that he wasn't eating enough and it was a constant struggle during every feeding to make sure he consumed all his ounces. Well today, Dr. Ben - Ryan's pediatrician, told us that newborns only need 20-60 milligrams per feeding, and if he pushes away, it means he's done. No use forcing him to eat more (as the lactation specialist suggested I do). It was such a relief to hear that! I'm not a bad mother after all!

~ Daddy was extremely traumatized just now during a diaper change.. perhaps more so than Ryan. My poor boys. Hopefully tomorrow both will be feeling a bit better, but it's certainly difficult seeing all of this.