Thursday, April 04, 2013

Baby Boy Byrne - First Day, First Week

Baby Boy Byrne is 7 days old now... and settling in reasonably well. He's still a bit jaundiced, but nowhere near as bad as a few days ago.

We finally had a day without visiting docs today. We're going back in to the docs on Tuesday, but for now everything seems OK.

 I've got a lot of pics from his first few days, most of which I'm not going to bother posting, but I thought I'd post some pics from the delivery and recovery room, and from today. 

This one is just for my dad... he knows why:

 

I'm so damned big, and he's so damned small...



Though actually, they mismeasured him as 18" on birth, we remeasured him at the pediatrician the next day, and he was 19.25" (he's a squirmy little guy, and there was just one nurse trying to measure him. The next day we held him in fully extended position and didn't let him move).

And he's got a hell of a grasp on him (and DAMN big hands for a newborn):

 

Big Fingers, Little Fingers:


We're thinking his nickname is going to be CV (Charlie Victor), since I'm Chris, my dad is Christy, and he's Chris the Fifth... but we might as well nickname him bigfoot:




And now some pics from today.

He seems to like being in daddies arms... I calm him down pretty well:


Though he is probably the least fussy, quietest baby I've ever seen. He doesn't even bug the cat (and yes, before you warn us about cats and babies, we know, and are taking appropriate precautions):


The cat seems to like him... So do the dogs. Zoe is sleeping next to him on the couch here:


And although I know he can't focus well yet... I tell you he's a curious little guy, constantly looking around with those big eyes:


Oh and yeah... he's a redhead. Right now he's got a mix of red, brown, and blonde hair; and it looks like he's probably going to settle down to a slightly lighter and redder hair than me (more the color of my beard, which is a lighter red mixed with blonde and brown; than the color on my head, which is dark brown red).

I'll be honest... I'm worried. We're in a bad situation financially... I'm heading into middle age with a newborn, and I've got a pretty sketchy medical history.

Yeah, we've got two other kids, but they're 9 and 11... I guess at least I'll still be in prime earning years when he hits college... God knows how much college will cost at that point.

Back to nicer thoughts, I'm still getting questions about how to help us out, send us money to help with expenses, or get us baby stuff.

Coming three weeks early, we had to spend a few hundred dollars in money we really couldn't afford on stuff people had said they would be giving us (and never came through with), just to take him home.

Honestly, right now what we need most is money. We're paying for everything out of pocket... and you wouldn't believe how expensive that is... But in terms of baby stuff, we've kept the registries reasonably updated.

Baby boy Byrne has three registries established for him:

Babies 'r' Us registry number 48762442

Target Baby Registry

Amazon Baby Registry

However, as we are paying all costs out of pocket, donations would also be much appreciated:

 PayPal Donation Link
I will say again, to everyone, thank you all for your kindness and support and... everything you all do for us... I can't tell you how important it has been.