Vivek at Three Weeks!
We have not done a great job of keeping the blog updated but I’m going to claim it’s all because of three children under 4 in our home. We are actually doing extremely well and Vivek is growing like a weed. We had written earlier about how Vivek’s bilirubin was elevated when we left the hospital but after two more checks at the doctor his levels came back down quickly. He has been sleeping and eating a lot. Just this past week he started being awake a little more often but still sleeps or eats away most of his hours in a day. Of our three kids, it seems that Vivek has slept more than the other two…perhaps he is trying to catchup on lost sleep since he came about three weeks early!
Vivek’s routine seems to be eating about every 2-3 hours during the day before he starts a feeding frenzy around 8 or 9 at night when he seems to want to feed every hour. He is definitely gaining weight and growing because when the doctor weighed him last week he was at 7 lbs 3 oz (more than a pound gained in a couple of weeks!). Vivek still remains a breastfeeding champion compared to Karuna and Luke. He feeds easily and Melissa has not had not pump for him at all which has been a huge blessing. This has also meant that Vivek has been the easiest baby for me to take care off since Melissa does most of the hard work in caring for him. With Luke and Karuna I would frequently get up with Melissa at night to help bottle feed the baby while she pumped for the next feeding but not so with Vivek since he is breastfeeding.
Melissa’s mom stayed with us for a little over two weeks and went back to Nebraska this past Tuesday and my mom has taken her place and will be with us for the next two weeks. Melissa’s mom, Kathy, was such a big blessing to us with regard to having an extra pair of hands to care for Luke and Karuna during Melissa’s first weeks at home. We have also had several visitors over the last couple of weeks who have come to see Vivek including several of my cousins, my brother-in-law Ryan, and several friends. During the last two weeks we also asked our friends Ben & Megan Naylor to be Vivek’s godparents so that there will be a couple that will be dedicated to praying for him as he grows up.
I’m still on some good rotations and thus my schedule has been highly conducive to the new baby being around. The last two weeks I was on pediatric anesthesia which was a great experience where I got lots of opportunity to get comfortable intubating kids that were a few months old all the way to teenagers. I had some great pediatric anesthesiologists teach me during the last couple of weeks and I feel so much more comfortable approaching a pediatric airway than I did prior to this rotation. This week I switch back to ultrasound and thus it should be another good two weeks before I start pediatric emergency medicine.
Karuna and Luke have both adjusted well to the new baby with Luke mainly ignoring the new baby except coming to kiss the baby at night and Karuna who tries to pretend to be a mommy as much as possible! Today we took them to watch a play at the Dallas Children’s Theatre called, “Click, Clack, Moo…Cows That Type” which they both thoroughly enjoyed. We are also so excited because our dear friends David and Lesley Jones come from Minnesota to visit us tomorrow! We can’t wait to catchup with them and to hopefully give them a taste of nice warm Texas weather.
I’ve also posted some pictures I have taken of Vivek and visitors over the last couple of weeks. As always just click on the link below to view the slideshow or click on individual pictures to view them. Have a blessed week!
