Length: 23" (96th percentile)
Milestones:
- First real bath. Duvan had his first real bath last night, since his belly button checked out great today at the pediatrician's visit. (See below for further details).
- First tear. :( The doctor ordered some bloodwork, because she thought his eyes appear a little jaundiced (which apparently is pretty common for breast-fed babies at this age). Well, the lab required no less than THREE vials of blood, all of which had to be squeezed (literally) from Duvan's heel. Poor little thing, he cried and cried and cried. When Marésa finally was able to get to him, he calmed down as soon as she kissed him and held he's hand, which warms a mother's heart like nothing else. :) But there was a little tear that had ran down the side of his head. :(
- Duvan had his first baby-sitters on Saturday! :)) Marésa and I pledged to each other that we would have at least one date every month, so we took the opportunity on Saturday and had a 2 hour break. Our dear friends Nate and Heidi were very excited to hang out with Duvan for a little while.
- First birthday party. Not his own, of course, but his friend Maddie's. Eric & Lis's child was 1 year old October 17th, and we had a delightful Fall party in the woods on Sunday.
- We believe that Duvan is starting to mimic our faces a little bit. We'll poke our tongue out at him for a little bit, and he fixates on you and tries to do the same. It's not a trick yet, because he doesn't do it every time, but we know there's something there. :))
Praise God For:
- The Lord protected us on Sunday from being in a car accident. An on-coming car made a turn across our side of the road, without paying attention to the fact that we were almost on top of it. Without going into the details, missed each other by centimeters. This is the first near-miss we've had in the 3 1/2 years we've owned the car - how thankful we are that nothing came of it.
- Another great report from the Doctor on Monday. We're so thankful for Duvan's health!
- 8:15 hours of uninterrupted sleep! This is the official first night through! Last night, Duvan went to bed at 9:45pm, and we woke him up this morning at 6:00am, thinking that he surely must have a very empty stomach and a very full diaper. Well, we were right, but definitely not to the extent we expected. He patiently waited for his diaper to be changed (oh boy, he is so incredibly cute when just waking up like that), and then casually nursed for a half an hour. He then slept another 2 hours before finally getting up at 9am. Wow! (Most babies start sleeping through the night at 6-8 weeks of age, so you can imagine our excitement!)
Now, we'd like to start out by saying that the great start to last week (as far as sleeping goes) persisted right through the week. Last week, Duvan fell into a schedule of getting up once at night, between 1 and 3am, and then sleeping through the night. Saturday night the rumble of a serious bowel movement announced itself through the monitor to Jan while he was working on the computer. Duvan seemed not to care so much, but dad thought he'd rather get him dry, so in the process of changing the diaper, Duvan woke up and realized that this heavy deposit to the diaper left a big hole in his stomach. So he convinced Dad to wake up Mommy for a midnight snack. Well, we used the opportunity to capture on audio the little noises Duvan makes while nursing. We'd like to share these with you, if you care to hear them.
Nursing Clip 1 (30 seconds, MP3, 90kB)
(If you're not familiar with mp3 files, don't worry. In most cases, you should be able to listen to the file by merely clicking on it, and letting your web browser figure out the details.)
When he's hungry, he's really verbal while eating, and let's you know that he's not going anywhere. :) His grandma Jacobs identified the sounds (over the telephone and halfway across the globe) as that of a lion cub. We'll stick with that, it suits his African roots.
Monday was a day of highlight upon highlight. It started with the visit to our pediatrician's office. Duvan saw a different doc this time, although she had met him in the hospital during a routine check-up. She was very happy with him, especially his alertness. He was a real charmer, being very talkative and watching her every move. She was concerned with his eyes appearing a little jaundiced, so wanted to be careful and sent him for a bilirubin blood test. This led into the episode mentioned above where Duvan cried his first tear. The way he responded to Marésa's soothing efforts, turning his wailing into whimpering appeals for more of the comfort only she could provide, caused a flood of completely new and very strong emotions to dance through Marésa's veins.
In the afternoon, we got to show him off at Jan's lab, and he hung out with Jan for an hour in the office while Marésa went grocery shopping. Duvan used the time to give Jan some good pointers as to how to get this PhD wrapped up.
Here Duvan's hanging out with Mom. He's now able to lift his head like this, especially if there's something worth seeing. In this case, there definitely was!
Monday evening, Duvan had his first real bath. He seems to grasp now that it's actually a fun activity, so he provides endless entertainment for his parents.
The highlight of bath time on Monday night was his reaction to being in water for the first time. His first reaction to this new sensation was fear, which caused him to cry for a short while, until his brain figured "Hey, this is actually kinda cool, it's like being back in the womb!". He then loved it, and for the longest time would just lie wide-eyed in utter astonishment.
We feel like the Lord poured out blessing upon blessing on us Monday. The emotions that are evoked when dealing with your own child is extremely powerful and unlike anything that you've ever experienced. This love is like the rising tide of the ocean, constantly washing into deeper chambers of your heart, quickly becoming part of everything that defines who you are.
Refering to the "let-baby-cry-in-spite-of-your-desire-to-go-to-him" theory: Brecht was 7 months old when we moved him to his own room. We also decided to follow the books on this. I remember more than once when I physically had to hold Saar back from going to him after crying a couple of minutes. I would sort of hug her in bed, but with the intension of not letting go! She cried more than Brecht sometimes. :) Mothers are terrible followers of text books sometimes ;)
Enjoy...
Posted by: Johan | October 24, 2003 07:17 AM
Nee gits, julle sal of moet ophou om Duvan te voer of sommer baie gou kom kuier, anders gaan hy te groot word om vas te hou nog voordat ons hom sien.Ons sien ook nie meer kans om hom te jaag en te vang as hy nie vas gehou wil word nie.
Posted by: Virginianers | October 25, 2003 07:36 AM
Hi everyone,
Duvan is certainly growing very nicely!! It is so special that Maresa was able to comfort him as only a Mama can do when he had his blood work done. How great for you that he can sleep for 8+ hours a night. It is a benefit to have a big and healthy baby. The sounds of his little mouth working while nursing must be especially tender and dear to your Moms - it allows them to be a participant in the whole process. God's blessing on you all as you continue on.
Posted by: Barbara Waldron | October 27, 2003 05:24 PM
