Our first week!

Reed's first week has been a full one! We had a great short stay at Alta Bates Hospital. It was nice to have the expert help of so many pediatric nurses who have been swaddling babies for decades. They showed me how to do the "Mother Teresa" swaddle and were very sweet about giving tips on breast feeding and answering any questions we as eager new parents had. We had a room on the West side of the building that looked right into the inside of a big tree and felt like we were inside our own little tree house. Unfortunately we were not able to see the full moon rise on Thursday evening but we could feel its glow all curled up inside of our tree. We headed out of the hospital just short of a 24 hour stay and got home on Friday in the afternoon. It was pretty silly to see Reed in this gigantic car seat that got him home.

The first day at home was very settling. We had left a pretty clean house as I had been running around during the early stages of laboring cleaning the place from floor to ceiling. Our first night went pretty smooth, we had a couple hours of sleep and we learned what we needed to get ready for the next night: a better night light, a robe to stay warm when changing between feedings, more practice with the swaddle, and try something different than co-sleeping.

By day three, much to Reed's excellent feeding from the very first moments out of the womb, Kris's milk came in and since then he has been one satisfied customer. After a good feed he seems to be either out like a light or drunk with love. It's definitely been the best time for having folks come by and be with him as more often than not we catch a lot of bright-eyed time with him after feedings.

[Keith with bright-eyed Reed]

Before the next nights sleep we had a night light, robe and we had re-arranged his sleeping spot to be complete with our awesome (borrowed from Mike and Nicole H. on their glowing recommendation) baby hammock bed. We'd also read about having ambient noises that mimic the womb so I hooked up a speaker next to his bed that played some ocean sounds that I had recorded a number of years back in my wanderings down the central coast of CA while I was at school in San Luis Obispo. [Amby "baby hammock" and ocean sounds]

This seemed to really settle him down and we really liked the sound in the room as it quiets down the smacking and rustling noises Reed makes and it brings me back to one of my favorite beaches in CA. We slept well this night clocking in a combined 6-8 hours of sleep together and was great to have the bed to ourselves.

We've had a fantastic array of visitors come by. So many wonderful Aunties, Cousins, Uncles and Grandparents to welcome Reed into this world. It's been a good balance of time for Kris and I between alone time with Reed and shared time. Our new family feels complete after seeing Reed in the hands of our community. See our smugmug site for all the visitor mugshots.

There are so many things about being new parents that we want to hold onto and remember forever: little sounds, big sneezes, hiccups, soft eyes, burping him and belly time to name a few.

[Burping in the morning]

[Soft Eyes]

We are already wanting to freeze him in time to savor everything more but this seems to be the first lesson in parenthood that you just have to go with the flow and appreciate the moments...Welcome Reed Wilder Witort! We love you to the full moon and back!!!