Healthy Baby?!?

Kyle did have some problems, but all of them are very common to babies. Kyle lost 11% of his birth weight within four days. We had to supplement him with a bottle, until he got the hang of breast feeding. Because he was so little we also had to feed him every two hours (measuring from the beginning of one feeding to the next).

He had jaundice during his first week of life. This is him in the billibed. It was difficult to leave him in there, except when he ate every two hours. We got in 60 hours in the billibed within a 72 hour period. It was also difficult because you had to put the goggles and hat on him, which he did not like. However, he would fall right asleep in the bed.


The billibed in our living room.

A favorite pose of both Kyle and Evan when sleeping....


The second week, Kyle had breast milk (or late onset) jaundice. We had to continue to feed him every two hours. There was a lot of alarm setting that week.

The third week he had only gained an ounce from the previous week and was not yet back up to birth weight. We had to track all the feedings, diapers, and how long each feeding was or how much he took. It was still scheduled two hour feedings. There was talk of a failure to thrive baby. It was very stressful for us.

Then at the beginning of the fourth week, we found out he had gained a whole pound and was up to 7 lbs 1 oz. Ironically, we believed he hadn't gained any weight that week and the week he only gained an ounce, we thought he'd gained a pound.

Unfortuntely, Kyle had been projectile vomitting very frequently and we had to go to Primary's Children's Hospital to have a barium upper GI. He drank a bottle of cherry flavored barium solution. He was very good and they didn't even have to strap him down. He stretched right out for the techs. He didn't need surgery, but he did have reflux. We've got him on a antacid. Hopefully he'll grow out of it. His spit-ups/vomitting is decreasing and we hope it is because he is growing out of the condition.

Needless to say in the first several weeks of life, we saw the pediatrician a lot.


This is our cutest little boy. That is a newborn sweatshirt. He was that tiny.