Klaus' first week

Every day is something new around here. Baby Klaus is great! He's healthy and strong. He's a really good nurser. In fact, when he's rooting for milk he makes a sound just like a little piggie. The kids think it's hilarious!

At first we had to wake him from a deep sleep every few hours to eat to make sure he didn't sleep his life away. I had to be mean and put a cold, wet washcloth on his skin to wake him up enough, but it was the only thing I could do that would work!

Then he turned yellow, I mean really yellow. I knew he had jaundice, just didn't know how bad. When we went to the doctor yesterday for a checkup, he tested his blood and his bilirubin level was high enough to warrant using phototherapy and pumping lots of fluids into him. Here's a picture of him hooked up to his new belt. In another picture you can see that even his eyes are yellow! Thankfully, we can do the phototherapy from home. I really didn't want to go to the hospital to put him under the lights just before Christmas! We went through that with Felicity three years ago.

He was quite a screamer for a few days of his life. He would wake up screaming, scream so hard that he couldn't nurse and then scream whenever he stopped nursing till he fell asleep. It was getting a little stressful around here. The kids would look at me like, "Can't you keep that baby quiet?" They would have to leave the room to play or have a conversation with each other. But since giving him extra fluids he's mellowed out quite a bit. In fact, last night he was quietly alert for 30 minutes or so! He was just laying in my arms and staring at me and staring all around. It was so fun to see him with his eyes open and happy!

Here are a few more pictures. Enjoy!