This Is Why It's...

Snapping pictures daily, and this is the best I feel I've come up with.  Further down you'll find pictures that do David justice: these are just a vain, amateur attempt to record his face for posterity.  (I'm saving pictures of him getting a bath until his Prom Night.)

Amazingly, by the time most people will read this, we'll be a month in.  He's certainly grown and we could not be happier with his continued health.  David's been well enough that he's not even getting the tiny things that can bug: no real cradle cap, great eczema-free skin, no spitting-up/reflux. 

Of course, I'm still greedy.  He's prone to staying up until at least midnight before really settling down for sleep and often needs a warm chest to lay on to settle down.  Really, it's not the worst punishment.

Now, I'm just looking forward to the first real smiles.  They should happen within the next month, but knowing me (and how much I've been looking forward to them), I'll be nervous if I don't see if by mid-May...

Good to Know a Photographer...

Michael, one of my oldest, best friends and who happened to be my best man, has never lost his photographic eye. Here's some snaps he took when David was just under a week old.

To be honest, David is one of the cutest boys I've ever seen (I know, I'm probably prejudiced), but absolutely HATES the camera.  I'm grateful for digital photography because I can take pictures with abandon and get one in a hundred that's worth looking at twice.

Yet, Michael made him look good even on a day he was grumpy for the camera, as usual.  Thanks again, Michael!

How do "normal" people do this?

Hats off to people jumping into parenting without a combined two decades of pediatric experience!

I have to say, so far, we've been very blessed with David's health and sleep and eating habits.  K is exceptionally well read in regards to breastfeeding and David took to it like a champ.  Even so, it can be challenging, even to me--and I'm just a spectator.

Add on to that all the little grunts, whistling sounds from the nose, crying, unexplained fussiness (until it's explained by a diaper moistened by dew)--I feel and understand the fright of many of the parents I deal with.

And the weird thing is that I don't know that the grunts and whistles are normal because I learned it in medical school or because it was presented during residency.  The only way I know it's normal behavior is because I've heard the concerns for years and know that, in most cases, it passes.

Medical school teaches about disease.  Residency teaches how to investigate and organize and manage.  Experience teaches us normality.

Thankfully, I've got a decade-plus of experience that lets me sleep at night.

And goodness knows what it must be like to be the first-time parents of a sick child...

Some David Pictures