One month checkup

One day after he turned one month old, Gabriel went to the pediatrician for the first time. All went fine, even though Gabriel does not like to be naked at all, so he screamed all the way through the exam.

It turns out that he has grow very well:
Length: 55.5 cm (+4.5 cm)
Weight: 4.605 kg (+1.385 kg)
Head: 38.4 cm (+4.4 cm)

The pediatrician was very nice. She gave us a lot of information, and then patiently answered all our questions. I learned, for example, that vaccination for tuberculosis has been stopped, because it was not providing 100% protection, and made people always test positive for tuberculosis, whether they had it or not. Thus, many people have undergone unnecessary treatment (for example, when you want to get a green card, you are very likely going to have to take tuberculosis medication for 6 months most often simply because you have been vaccinated).

4 weeks

Yesterday, we applied for a passport for Gabriel. After all, in little more than a month he'll be traveling abroad for the first time. We looked at the requirements for passport photos, and we realized that we might have a hard time making pictures with the required characteristics.

None of these would be accepted, for example.

Thus, we drove to Sion and and went to a professional photo studio. We left right after Gabriel had eaten in the morning, because he usually is highly awake for quite a while after that. He was intently looking at everything while we were driving - and he fell asleep right before we parked the car. Ah, happy parents. We spent about ten minutes at the photo studio trying to wake him up so that he would open both eyes at the same time long enough so that a picture could be taken. Finally, we succeeded.

Naturally, he was wide awake by the time we left the store.

We aren't complaining, though. Aside from providing blog-material from time to time, Gabriel is really a very nice kid. And when he's slightly cranky, I am still fairly successful at singing him to sleep. Even when he isn't crying, I like to hold him - he is great entertainment, and he is a cute little oven.

Of course, when he's really hungry, there's not much daddy can do. Except to make sure Michelle is comfortable, especially when she goes through ten feedings of 30-45 minutes as has happened on Wednesday.

3 weeks

It makes quite a difference when you know in advance what your baby is going to do. On Thursday, when Gabriel was three weeks old, Gabriel had eaten normally around eight, for about 30 minutes. Instead of being content and just looking around and listening to us, as he would normally do, he started crying soon after, and it looked like he was already hungry again. That was unusual, because normally during the day, he had been eating every 3-4 hours, taking a break of ~6 hours during the night.

Fortunately, all the midwifes who had talked with Michelle about breastfeeding had told her that after 3, 6, and 12 weeks, the baby was going to have a growth spurt, for which it would need to eat more than usual. So Michelle had him feed again after less than two hours, and he was indeed hungry: He ate for another 30 minutes. Friday and Saturday, he kept up a mostly 2-hour rhythm for the entire day, though fortunately, he kept sleeping during the night. Now we're curious what he's going to do with all that food.

In the meantime, we have started to put him on his belly from time to time. Not during the night (there is too much uncertainty about the sudden infant death syndrome, SIDS), of course. Gabriel, who had almost exclusively lived on his back so far, did not enjoy the first few tries - he was just lying there with his knees pulled up and his face on the floor, totally confused that gravity was pulling in the other direction. Now he has learned that with a lot of effort and concentration he is able to turn his head, although he still gets stuck at times to his frustration.

2 weeks

Yesterday, Gabriel was two weeks old. Comparing pictures, it does look like he has changed a bit:

It's not only the way he looks, though. He is much more awake, has recently started to make noises other than crying, and has added to his repertoire of expressions.

Michelle and Gabriel have figured out breastfeeding very well by now, whether Gabriel is in front of Michelle, on her side, or lying next to her. Only when he's really hungry he sometimes doesn't have the patience to latch on properly.
He also sleeps regularly for 5-6 hours during the night, followed by another 4, so that we are not too tired. The one thing I could do without is the fear of being peed on when I change him, but as I still remember from my cousin who peed over his dad's tie right before we left for the baptism, I know that I have to be patient. At least I've always some tissue at hand, and I'm getting much faster at moving out of the wet zone.
All in all, though, my former coworker was right when he told me that kids get cuter by the day, even when they start off at a very high level.

That picture on the card

By now, many of you who are reading this blog should have received a card with this picture (we didn't send one to all our friends in the US, but sent you the link to the blog instead):

I would like to take the opportunity to credit my brother David for this cute photo. In May, my brother, who is currently doing research at the University of Chicago, was joined by my dad for a tour of Lake Michigan. Among the many sights they visited was the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, with the Au Sable Lighthouse on the southern coast of Lake Superior.

On the way there, they stumbed upon a curious rock

David quickly found two pebbles to turn the stone into a face:

Then, while my dad continued toward the lighthouse, David created the masterwork above. Fortunately for my dad, he was waiting in a magnificent area until the artist had finally caught up with him.

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.

The many faces of Gabriel

Michelle and I are slowly settling into our new life as parents. So far, Gabriel has been nice; after a meal around 11pm, he sleeps till 3 or 4am, and then again till 8am. Thus, we are able to get a reasonable amount of sleep.
He is a bit more awake now in the morning and especially in the evening, when he doesn't seem to sleep at all between feedings. He doesn't communicate a lot yet aside from indicating when he's hungry, when he's cold, and when there is too much light. Even though they aren't really conveying any particular message, it's neat to watch him go through his wide range of facial expressions, and I wanted to share this pleasure with you (click on the image to see it all).

Fourth Generation

Yesterday, my grandfather came to visit his great-grandson on yet another beautiful summer day.

He brought four Gladioli from his garden, which are quite probably the tallest flowers not only Gabriel, but also his parents have ever received.

Once Gabriel joined his parents, grandparents, and his great-grandfather, there were four generations at the table - not a very common occurrence in Switzerland.