2-week check-up

We had our 2-week check-up today to see how Zachary's weight gain is going, get his hearing tested and do his second PKU test. His least favorite thing is to be stripped naked and placed somewhere (such as a scale) without anyone touching him, but he survived it and even managed to shoot off the water pistol while on the scale. Our goal was to get him back to his birth weight (5 lbs 7 oz) and he passed with flying colors! He weighed 5 lbs 11 oz, so he's doing just great!

This also means that we can stop with the force-feeding triple play (nurse - bottle - pump every 3 hours) and start to wean him off the bottle. Once he's off the bottle, I won't have to pump after every feeding...and this would make the feedings much quicker. I might even manage to get a whole 2.5 hours of continuous sleep at some point!

Zachary also had his measurements done, and he's still a little guy. He's 19.25 inches long (10th percentile) and his head circumference is 34 cm (10th percentile). His weight puts him in the 5th percentile for newborns. So he's on the charts...but just barely. But he's doing well considering that he's still not even due for another week!

He ended up not having his hearing tested because the machine wouldn't work, so we'll do that at his 4-week check-up. He did have the PKU done, which was awful. They slice the bottom of his heel (and yes, the doctor even showed us how the blade slices rather than pokes, because a slice makes it bleed more) and squeeze a ridiculous amount of blood out onto five circles on a sheet of paper. I hope that anemia isn't included as one of the tests they do, because how could he not be anemic after losing that much blood? (Am I starting to sound like a frantic mother? I was ready to smack the doctor when I saw how much blood he was squeezing out.)

The doctor then stuck a band-aid on the cut and told me to take it off in 20 minutes. When I did, Zachary's heel started bleeding like crazy. I was in the middle of trying to change him and didn't know what to do as he kicked and got blood on everything. So I just picked him up half-dressed and held a damp towel to the cut to apply pressure. It finally stopped bleeding after about 15 minutes. No more PKUs for Zachary. Grrr.

Also, this morning Gramma Hill left for Colorado. We were all sad to see her go, because she's been a huge help and it's been really nice for her to spend so much time with Zachary. Hopefully she'll be back to see Zachary soon!

So that was our day, and it was a big one: Gramma left, we saw the doctor, and it was Mama's first full day home alone with Zachary. And we all survived, although no laundry got done and Mama and Daddy haven't eaten anything yet. Luckily, my mom and step-dad are arriving on Friday, so we'll have a couple more weeks of help and grandparents!