Week 3 - Finding my Stride

I'm starting to get a hang of this 'being alive' thing. From what I can gather, I'm supposed to sleep, eat, make funny noises in my pants, and let everyone hold me. I also like to play the game Chicken with my parents: they try to wait until after I've stopped making funny noises in my pants before changing me, and I try to test the stated capacity of my diapers. Sometimes I'll hold a little back until right after I get a clean diaper and then show my parents they can't beat me at this game. My parents raised the stakes this week by making me take a real bath, but I got dirty right after to let them know that I'm still in charge. I don't like to lose at games, which is something my dad says I get from my mom.

I've been getting a lot of attention when I go out in public. Some woman had the nerve to comment about how small I am. Hah!!! Can't they tell that I'm packing on the ounces and have the big 1-0 in my sights? I've been experimenting with growing a milk mustache or milk beard so people will stop thinking I'm so young, but my parents are always on my case about it and wipe if off.

Week 2 - Growing and meeting family

Well, this week has definitely been one where I have grown - I went from my lowest weight, 6 lbs. 9.5 oz, to 8 lbs 3 oz! I gained almost a pound and a half this week!!! I guess all that eating has really paid off as the rest of my body is catching up with my big feet.



This week my abuelito and abuelita (great grandparents) came to visit. They are really great at holding me and help my mom with watching me during the day. I like to sleep in their arms and I have been really good about not making much of a mess on them (unlike for my parents).


Well, I have been giving my parents just a little bit of trouble. I don't cry too much unless I am hungry - and my mom is good at picking-up my hunger cues before I get to crying. However, for my parents, since I have been a big eater I have been a big dirty diaper maker. One of my funniest dirty diaper moments was last night when my dad went to change me. He had my diaper off and I sneezed. Unfortunately for him, when I sneezed I released more input for my diaper with quite a lot of force. Well, my poor dad had to clean up and get me yet another diaper.

Also, I am not liking sleeping on my own in my own bed, I really like to have my mom close. While my dad is now an expert swaddler, I am much more a fan of sleeping in bed with them than alone next to their bed. My mom is working on getting me to sleep in my co-sleeper. Hopefully tonight I will start - two nights ago I slept there, but last night I was not interested in the co-sleeper at all.

My parents are still unpacking, but my great-grandparents are helping them to finish-up. Hopefully they can get a lot done this weekend with my dad being home. I will let you know next week if my parents can get the house in order with me around.

Until next week, Gabe.

My first week

Hi, my name is Gabriel, but everyone calls me Gabe. I am writing this blog to help my family back East (a place my grandparents want me to visit this winter) keep up-to-date with all my new adventures.

To start, I decided to arrive early. Apparently this impatience comes from my mom, at least that is what my dad says. My parents were watching "Iron Chef America" Bobby Flay vs. Chef Bouche in the battle of Arctic Char. Right before the chefs presented their dishes to the judges, I decided to start my journey by popping the bag of water that surrounded me for all these months. Most babies (90%) like to wait until active labor has started to break the bag, but again, being impatient I decided to stat the process rather than waiting.

My parents were not ready (no bags packed!!! At least they had bought a car seat that evening). Since we had just moved to Palo Alto, my parents had decided to stay with the doctors in San Francisco where we used to live, but it is an hour away. So as my mom tried to figure out how to manage an hour car ride with a leaking bag of water, my dad tried to pack bags. They finally got their act together and headed off to the hospital.

Once my parents arrived at the hospital, they found out that almost every baby in San Francisco decided to arrive at the same time. We had to wait quite a while, first because the doctors had a hard time confirming that I had indeed broken the bag of water and because nearly every room was full.

We finally got into our room and I arrived just after 1 pm on September 5th, just 15 hours after I started the whole process. I was 7 lbs 3 oz., not bad for a baby who decided to arrive 2 weeks early.We left the hospital just 48 hours after I arrived. My mom was busy packing the morning we left when the docs stopped by to do our discharge. The docs thought it was funny that my mom was running around packing so soon after delivery. Apparently the drug free delivery left her buzzed with lots of endorphins so she had more energy than dad! Dad was holding me and on diaper duty while mom packed.

We got home, and I saw for the first time how much unpacking my parents had left to do. I heard about it, but did not believe it. My aunt had come out and helped unpack, so at least there was some stuff not in boxes.

I had my first doctors appointment Monday. My doctor is super nice - she likes to keep the number of shots to a minimum while making sure I get all the vaccinations that I need. I can live with that! The doctor said I was a little jaundiced, but by the end of the week it was pretty much all gone.

I am a really big eater. That means I also make a lot of dirty diapers. My parents are still figuring out how to change me as quickly as possible, which is important because I am very fussy and I have a tendency to spray if my diaper change takes too long.

Overall, I have been pretty low on the crying (lets see if that keeps up), but that is probably because I am eating most of the time I am awake. Well, over and out until next week.