Happy baby - happy parents

On Thursday, Gabriel was one week old. On Saturday, he still looked cute.

Yet, he hasn't changed that much, despite the claims of some that I had to enjoy every minute with Gabriel because he would change every day. Granted, there are gradual changes, but those would actually be much more obvious if I didn't spend so much time close to him. I'm not complaining, though, to have the privilege of working an arm's length away from Gabriel.

Gabriel still spends most of his time eating and sleeping, though he is awake for longer, and he does open his eyes much more than before. He is crying when he's hungry, uncomfortable (e.g. cold), and very tired. Fortunately, it's quite easy to figure out when he's hungry: That's when he tries to suck on anything that comes close to his mouth: My finger, my shirt and the nose of people who aren't careful when they're giving him a kiss (or who don't get away from me fast enough when I'm holding a hungry baby).

One thing that has changed, though, is his weight. The midwife was very impressed when she found out that he was gaining 60 g per day, reaching his birth weight in less than a week. The normal range for weight gains is 25-50 g. This is good news for us, because it means that Gabriel is getting enough food so that we can let him sleep when he doesn't want to wake up for almost 6 hours during the night. Unfortunately, we don't get this amount of sleep every day yet. For example, when he's too tired during his 11pm/12am meal to eat sufficiently, he wakes up after 4 hours already.

The midwife who came to check on Gabriel has been visiting us at home. For both Michelle and me it was great to have someone come, have a look at Gabriel and at how we handle him, and listen to our questions and concerns. All her three visits were paid for in full by the Swiss maternity insurance. In fact, she would have come as many times as necessary during the first 10 days since birth to make sure the three of us are doing fine. I can only shake my head at the thought that it took the Swiss so long to vote the maternity insurance into existence (the Swiss voted against it in 1984, 1987, and 1999, until they finally accepted it in 2004), and I remember how not proud I was of my country when I had to try and explain to a Swedish exchange student in 1999 how the Swiss could do that. It's good to see, though, that things are improving at home.