family blog (Exie & Keo Stanat: parents' journal, photos, and video)

Holy moly. Two kids is more than one kid. Here’s a quick run-down of things that have happened to Keo since he came home from the hospital:

• sleep
• eat
• poop

That’s right, folks, I’ll be here all week… ba-dum-bum. Seriously though, the above list accurately describes the vast majority of Keo’s existence so far, but he did manage to squeak a few other things in:

• 8/7: umbilical cord fell off
• 8/8: first bath
• 8/29: already seems to smile… it really doesn’t appear to be gas… really
• 8/31: first playdate (with Aleksandra & Max & Celeste)
• 9/3: Susan’s first outing taking both kids by herself
• 9/5: definitely smiling now
• 9/8: first really responsive coo to Baba (responded to Mama long time ago)
• 9/10: Exie starting to sing to Keo
• 9/13: Mama read him his first book (White on Black); later that day we read him Fuzzy Bee & Friends
• 9/22: new personal best: slept 4 hours straight
• 9/23: new personal best: slept 5 hours straight (update: some regression from here for a while as we entered another long stint of short sleeps)
• 9/26: size 2 diapers already – yikes
• many dates: met a lot of people that couldn’t visit when he was in the hospital: Dug, Shown, Oslo, Rio, Bo, Belle, Frances, Sydney, Ryan, Justin, Rosevera, John & Sue, Ema & Eba, Stella & Spencer, Jenny & Dave & Kayley & Emilie, Aleksandra & Jacque & Max & Celeste, Diana & Ted & Adam, Aude & Antoine & Gaetan, Rachelle & Nola, Elizabeth & Jonas & Sam, Ben & Charlene, Jeremy & Hope, Katie & Ann & Sam & Douglas & Glenn, Mandy & Sophie & Mia, and more that I’m sure I’m forgetting – apologies for that.

At this point, it seems somewhat ironic that the last few days of Keo’s stay in the NICU were because they were concerned that he wasn’t gaining enough weight. He started out underweight, but as soon as he got out of the hospital he started packing it on. By 9/15 he weighed 13 lbs. and had climbed past the 90th percentile. As one of the nurses said at a recent check up, “He doesn’t miss a meal, does he?” Suffice it to say, we’re not worried about his weight anymore. Here’s a graph of his first three months.

UPDATE (Oct 4): 14 lbs., 1 oz. – approximately 88th percentile.

UPDATE (Oct 25): 15 lbs., 5 oz. – approximately 78 percentile – it’s somewhat of a relief that it’s not continuing to go up.

Perhaps more interesting than the graph, however, are some comparison photos:

Aug 8 (12 days old)

Aug 22 (26 days old)

Sep 20 (55 days old)

Celeste, Aleksandra, Jacques, & Max

We had a small get-together at Aleksandra & Jacques’s house today, mostly so folks could meet the new babies. Max and Exie have known each other since well before they turned one (Max is just two days younger than Exie). And now Celeste and Keo are following suite; Celeste was born a mere 22 days after Keo. If they had both arrived on schedule, they would have only been three days apart.

with Max & Jacques & Celeste & Aleksandra and Nola & Rachelle

Our good friends Stella and Spencer had their first baby, Tyler, the day before Keo was born. Congrats! And welcome to the world, Tyler!

Just a quick update, on the date that was Keo’s official due date. He’s doing very well. He’s gaining weight exactly as the doctors hoped he would (he’s somewhere over 8 lbs. now), and everything else seems to be great. He gets kisses from his sister everyday, too – life is good (if a bit sleep deprived).

leaving the hospital

We’re home! He needed to gain 20g today. He gained 21g; he made it by the skin of his nonexistent teeth. We are a tired, happy, reunited family!

We’d like to send a big thanks out to everybody who has been sending us positive messages and keeping track of Keo’s progress. We’re very touched and very grateful. He is lucky to have such a great support system. And so are his parents.

Apparently he’s reacting well to his new bodybuilder bulk-up pro-wrestler training regimen; he gained a whopping 76g today! Nothing much else to report, which is good (no “events”). If he gains at least 20g tomorrow, they will let us bring the little man home!

For the first day of Keo’s life, he gained weight! It was only 5g, compared to the 40g or 50g average he’s been losing per day, but it’s still a step in the right direction.

Susan came home one feeding earlier today so she and Exie were able to spend some one-on-one time. They were both so happy to just sit together on the rug; it was really nice to watch. They really miss each other and while bringing a new baby home will certainly not be easy, it will be very nice to have the whole family under the same roof.

Unfortunately, Keo’s weight went down again today. Now he’s lost more than 10% of his birth weight (he’s currently at 6 lbs. 1/2 oz.), so they’re more concerned about it. We’ll be adding a bit of formula to his bottle feedings, which only happen in the middle of the night when Susan’s at home and first thing in the morning when I do a feeding. This is frustrating because i) Susan has plenty of milk; and ii) we were really hoping not to use formula until much later (10 or 11 months) if at all. Hopefully it will be short-lived and he will start to gain weight.

Having Susan at the hospital all day is definitely taking its toll on poor Exie, who only gets to see her briefly in the morning while I’m at the hospital and Susan is still at home. The rest of the day she has to make do with Baba and Grandma and Rosevera and preschool, all of whom are doing their best, but none of whom are are a substitute for Mama. It also takes a toll on Susan, both physically since she’s supposed to be in bed recovering and emotionally, since she misses Exie as much as Exie misses her.

Gaetan, Aude, Antione & Osman

In one of a zillion trips to and from the hospital, I ran into Aude and Osman and Antoine and Gaetan, coming hime from the hospital with Gaetan for the first time! Antoine is in Playgroup Super Awesome so they’ve been friends for a long time. Gaetan was just two days ago, so he and Keo are very close in age. Ok, so you can’t really see him in this picture, but he *is* there… little bundle. Congrats to the whole family!