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March 21, 2004
Riley's First Bath
Riley had his first bath tonight... a sponge bath, but that counts. He actually seemed to enjoy it for the most part, especially the massage afterward. We got to use his new tub and, best of all, his ducky towel wrap. Now he's all nice and clean and everything seems to be healing up nicely. As always, it's documented in pictures. Video is still to come (probably tomorrow).
Posted by Lee Clontz at 9:27 PM
Dopey New Parent Moment of the Day
Grandma Lynne discovered this morning a small mattress next to her bed and asked Melissa what it was. Melissa said that it was something for the crib, but after looking again, it turns out that it was the mattress for the bassinet that Riley's been sleeping in all week. We've actually just had him sleeping on the pad. Oops.... Now he's on his proper mattress and seems so happy that he wet himself. Literally.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 9:11 PM
Family Resemblance
Melissa shot this pic of Ry and me sleeping in this morning. Glad to see that he takes after his daddy in his ability to take a good snooze.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 11:48 AM
March 20, 2004
Riley's First Walk
Riley, Melissa and I took our first walk together today to enjoy the beautiful, sunny afternoon (after Daddy had to do some negotation to convince Mommy and Grandma that going outside on a 78 degree day wouldn't cause pneumonia). The three of us walked around the complex once to give Mommy some exercise, then Ry and I walked around another time ourselves, stopping to take a picture of a baby snake we found along the way. He spent the rest of the afternoon sitting outside on the deck with Mommy and Grandma.
He's doing great today, although sleep is still only sporadic for us right now. We're hoping we wore him out enough today to get a little more sleep tonight, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
Pictures from the walk are here.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 7:49 PM
March 19, 2004
Loaded Weapon
Last night was kind of an adventure, with Ry getting up every hour or so until we realized that he probably wasn't eating quite enough at one time. After Melissa gave him a nice long feed, he slept for three hours. Twice! Three hours of sleep at a time is hard to complain about right now.
He's gone through about seven outfits (and a comforter on the bed) in the last 24 hours because he has already developed a knack for relieving himself when we're in mid-diaper change. The first time was funny. The second time was pretty funny too. Finally, on about the fourth time, we realized that a strategically placed gauze pad is a good way to keep him from running out of clothes on his first day.
He's doing great, though. I put up a couple of new pictures from his fourth day on the planet. Will put up more pics later of Mom and baby (I haven't taken any of the two of them since they got home because she's feeding him pretty much constantly). Things are going very, very well, though, and thanks to everyone for the kind words, calls and cards.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 11:45 AM
March 18, 2004
Riley Video
I didn't shoot much video at the hospital (was shooting stills most of the time), but I did get a few snippets worth sharing. Here is a video about 10 minutes or so after Riley was born (fair warning: he's pretty fresh in this video and you can see his umbilical cord, so if that bothers you, skip this one) and here is a quick clip of Mommy and Riley right after they got to their postpartum room. The videos are in Windows Media format and should play fine over a DSL or cable modem.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 2:48 PM
Home, and all's well
Riley is coming up on 24 hours at home. It took a while to get out of the hospital yesterday because so many babies were born on March 15, so by the time we got out, he got his first taste of Atlanta traffic.
Mom, Dad and baby had a typical, but exciting, first night at home. Grandma Lynne has been a huge help getting all the details covered while the two of us try to keep him feed, burped, dry and wiped. All in all, though, he's been just a great baby.
His nurse at the hospital said that he looked a little jaundiced, but was in excellent health, so she recommended that we take him to his new pediatrician this morning. The nurse went nuts over him and said he's probably be a blonde (like Melissa was/is and I was as a child). The pediatrician said that his jaundice was completely typical for a breastfed baby and wasn't anything to worry about. His umbilical cord and boy operation are healing nicely and she said that he looked just great.
I uploaded some more pictures of him with his Aunt Ashley and Grandma Carol (will get some with Grandma Lynne soon) and, of course, with his Daddy. I've been shooting a ton of photos (love the Digital Rebel!) and by sheer luck I bought a 1GB flash card the week before he was born. Came in very handy, as I couldn't exactly dump the photos from my old one to the laptop during delivery. Melissa might have been a bit annoyed. :-)
Posted by Lee Clontz at 1:26 PM
March 16, 2004
Happy Birthday, Baby Clontz!
Riley Thompson Clontz was born at 1:37 p.m. on March 15, 2004 at Piedmont Hospital. He was 6 lbs, 9.5 oz. and 20" long. Mother and baby are resting and recovering very nicely after a labor that the father can describe as relatively short.
Melissa is doing great -- in fact, to look at her, you'd never know that she gave birth only 14 hours ago. Her spirits are high, and she even took a walk tonight around the ward.
Riley's pediatrician stopped by and said he's in "fantastic" health, which makes us both very happy. Aside from a few stork bites and a mildly misshapen head (which is getting rounder by the hour), he's a model baby.
The two grandmothers are, as I write this, en route to the hospital to begin their spoilage of the child. Aunt Ashley is also coming since she was lucky enough to be on Spring Break from Winthrop and she had requested that we try to deliver while she was off. As always, we aim to please. Grandpa Mike is coming into town later this week and we're looking forward to seeing Aunt Michele, Uncle Michael and cousins Rachael and Camryn very soon.
Because people keep asking, no, I didn't faint. I had what you might call a brief moment of wooziness when Melissa got her epidural, but I was able to sustain my vertical composure throughout the remainder of the procedure. I'm pretty proud of that fact, knowing my longstanding history of teetering at the suggestion of gore.
Thanks to everyone who has sent and called in kind words. It may take us some time to get back to everyone, but it doesn't mean that your thoughts aren't greatly appreciated during this special time.
We have a first, hastily assembled photo gallery at http://www.clontzville.com/gallery/babyclontzborn
Posted by Lee Clontz at 1:31 AM
March 11, 2004
Baby's bed
Finally took time over the weekend to put together Baby Clontz' bassinet. Was pretty easy to snap together with a cool little vibrating doodad that allegedly will help lull him/her to sleep. We'll see. Either way, it's very nice and fortunately has wheels so we can shuttle him/her around depending on who's in the house and who needs to sleep.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 2:24 PM
Dr's Appt.
Melissa had a doctor's appointment yesterday and everything's looking good. She's no longer "measuring small" and her blood pressure is back to normal. The doc said that the baby is quite low, but that doesn't necessarily mean that labor is imminent. Right now, Baby Clontz is estimated to be 6 lbs., 5 oz., and s/he has a "long, slim torso with a very round head." No new ultrasound pix posted, because, to be honest, you wouldn't be able to tell what they were if we did. Now they look more like TV static.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 8:55 AM
Baby Brochure
We put together a brochure for people who are going to be coming in town to visit the baby when s/he gets here. The PDF is here. It's password protected because our phone numbers are on it, but there's nothing in there that's a big secret. The user name is "babyclontz" and the password is the name of our cat (in lower case). If you know that, there's nothing in the brochure we need to keep particularly secret. :-)
Posted by Lee Clontz at 8:52 AM
March 8, 2004
Baby Clontz is at Term!
Yay! Today marks 37 weeks of Baby Clontz development, which means that he/she is officially "done" (or, at least, wouldn't be considered early if he/she was delivered today. The bag is packed, the bassinet is put together, the cell phones are charged... and now we wait. It could be another five weeks since they won't let you go past 42 weeks, or it could be tonight. Melissa has an appointment on Wednesday, so hopefully we'll know more then. Melissa is feeling pretty well, although she gets tired very quickly. We can't complain, though, as she's had great health throughout the pregnancy. Well, at this point, she can complain about whatever she wants, but I can't.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 11:51 PM