Evan's been home one week, and it's been eventful. The parenting learning curve is pretty steep, and it's the kind where you just kind of get thrown into the deep end of the shark-infested waters and must both learn to swim and to fight sharks. Well, sharks, suck it!
Initially when we brought Evan home, we were surprised. He didn't really cause any diaper changes. I thought that was cool at first, and then I got concerned. Luckily for me, AAMC has this program called Ask-A-Nurse, which allows parents who are freaking out about having children to call and ask a Registered Nurse whether to be concerned, or whether to attribute the perceived malady to craziness or sleep deprivation. The nurse informed us that we should really only worry if he hasn't peed for eight hours, or if he cries and is inconsolable for two hours straight.
Well, Evan achieved the first category. He was dehydrated. Fortunately, we had his first pediatrician's appointment the day after we came home from the hospital, and we discussed all of this, and we came up with a solution.
It worked like a charm.
Evan is now a fantastically inefficient dirty-diaper-maker. It feels like after one is dirty and we change it, another follows immediately. So (shocker), we're going through diapers rapidly. He's no longer dehydrated, though, and that's the real important part.
On the other hand, the noise he made when he dirtied a diaper while we had some visitors was just comical. It was so loud that all activity in the room stopped suddenly and, after that brief shock pause, the room erupted in laughter. Way to go Evan.
Chalk one up to Aunt Karina; she got the first smile from Evan. The jury is out as to whether this was a real smile or gas, but I like to think that when I have gas, I don't generally smile like that. So, I say he was smiling at Aunt Karina.
Overall, Evan is just fantastic and adorable, and his parents have both learned a great deal about parenting. It's nice that there is effectively a simple flow chart as to what to do if he's crying, and that the solution will be with one of the four included steps. Feed him, change his diaper, swaddle him, or go skin-to-skin. If all of those fail, then we'll probably need to call a Ask-A-Nurse or a doctor.
Babies; remarkably complex in their simplicity.
More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/sarcasta
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