Well Nathan is now ten days old. It’s been a long ten days. We expected not to be getting any sleep, but planning for it and living it are two VERY different things.

So an update on the newest member of our family…

When Nathan left the hospital last Monday he was a little jaundiced. We went back to the hospital on Tuesday and his bilirubin count had nearly doubled. The doctor wasn’t too worried but of course we were. We got it checked again on Thursday and Friday and it continued to inch up. Finally, Saturday, it went down and the Stegman family breathed a collective sigh of relief. Unfortunately, the jaundice has made him a little lethargic which means that he’s been falling asleep during feedings, making his 12 daily mealtimes a little more challenging.

For the first few days at home Nathan didn’t like to be laid down on his back so in order for one of us to sleep, the other of us would sit up with him. That was not fun. Luckily a lot of people gave us advice on ways to get him to sleep and when we combined all the different advice we found the solution that worked. So for the last two nights he has slept in his bassinet and managed to stay asleep in between feedings. Hopefully that will continue (knock on wood).

In addition to that, we had the Bris coming up. Thanks to everyone who was able to help us out with that. I tell you there’s nothing like worrying about having 30 people over to our house 6 and 7 days after our baby was born. But it went well, everyone had a good time. Well Nathan didn’t enjoy the circumcision part but other than that it he liked it. He got his first taste of wine and boy did his eyes and face light up. Going to have to watch out for this one. We’ve put some pictures of the Bris (not the actual procedure) on the albums page.

One of the really pleasant surprises of bringing Nathan home is how good Fen has been with him. He is definitely curious and likes sniffing Nathan but I think that Fen realizes that Nathan is off limits as far as playing. Hopefully that will last once Nathan becomes mobile and is on the floor (knocking on wood again).