Today, Sept 1st, we visited the pediatrician for the first office visit. The stats are as follows on our little 7 day old: weight 8 pounds 6 ounces!!! Just an ounce under birthweight! He was weighed on Monday at 7lb 15 ounces, which means in 3 days Josh has gained 7 ounces! Unbelievable! His weight is in the 50th percentile. And he is measuring at 21 inches, hich just means that he stretched out a little better now than the first few seconds after birth and leaving his previously warm home. His height is falling in the 80th percentile. And for the sake of drill, they measured his head, it was 14 inches (no change since birth) and that was a 4oth percentile.
The pediatrician was very pleased with Josh's weight gain. The nurse even said that now he is basically back to birth weight and when he chooses to sleep through the night, not to wake him to feed. This was quite shocking, and as a parent I might choose to wake him once to feed, but this news frees me from feeling obligated to wake up the 3-4 times that I had thought necessary to keep Josh well fed. The doctor was VERY impressed with Josh's latch/suction. Apparently it it quite strong, although, you don't have to tell me because I'm the one breast feeding, I know....:) So we have a very healthy little boy on our hands, and with permission to not wake up a sleeping baby at night just to feed, we might get more sleep as parents.

Another bit of information that we are beginning to see emerge from our little Caleb is that he is quite the devoted, protective big brother. He didn't want the doctor to touch Josh if he thought the doctor would hurt him, and we had to explain what the nurse was going to do (the heel poke for the PKU test) and have him sit on our lap. He wanted to push or boss them away from Josh because he didn't want the baby to be upset. Amazing, here I thought that Caleb would be jealous and reject Josh or at least feel put out that he wasn't the center of attention anymore. But instead, Caleb is nearly constantly asking to hold Josh, and most of the time asking us to take pictures of him doing so. Caleb's acceptance of Josh was something I prayed for, didn't expect (strange that I'd pray for something and expect not to have that prayer answered), and am blessed 2x over by the surprisingly fast built love and affection between the two.
Maybe my little sons will be a good team like that of their biblical namesakes.

On the extreme bright side, Josh allowed me to sleep from 1 to 3:45 (2.75 hrs) and from 4:30 to 7 (2.5 hrs) last night. The best nights sleep I've has since before his arrival. And it really did feel like the world has changed for me. The psuedo-schedule is showing promise! So I'm going to keep it up. Thanks to all who wish me well and a good nights' sleep. I have every confidence that your prayers will be answered soon.
Krystal