You're the doc, Doc

This morning we went to Zachary's two-week appointment and everything is going great. The doctor's actual words were "perfect" but of course, I don't keep track of those things....it's just that word "perfect"... it sounds so nice. You know, like a Perfect test score, or a Perfect game. Really, by definition, it can't get any better than that...but not one to dwell on his Perfection, I'm just happy to know that he's doing well....Perfectly well to be exact.

However, he does have a little "issue" that apparently most babies have. Acne. I know, I thought it was saved only for the embarrassment of teenagers in their most vulnerable years too! The doctor (and our What to Expect... book) said that it's completely normal and that it peaks around 2-3 weeks and should go away within a month. I guess it's just another one of those weird baby things.

Here's a picture to embarrass him 13 years from now. It's not bad...just around the forehead and around his nose.

Some other interesting stuff we learned:

• When he was born, Zach could only see about a foot or so in front of him, and only in black and white. At this point it's getting better, and he can see most colors, but it's still not great. Objects close up are kind of hard to focus on and objects far away are blurred:

I can only assume that from up close, I look like this to him:

...and from a distance, this is what you would look like on approach:

• Pretty soon (within a few weeks) he should be able to start "cooing" and making more distinguishable noises. That would be him talking to us. We are supposed to talk back to him but Kelly tells me the noises I make are annoying compared to his "sweet" gurgling...I can only assume Zach loves my noises. Here's some video of him laying on the bed being cute...make sure to listen for his sneeze at about 1:01 in. It's one of the cutest things he does right now.
  

Recent visitors to the house have included Great-Grandma Leisel, Uncle Will, Nick and Nikki.

Great-Grandma Leisel and sleepy Zach

Uncle Will and interested Zach

Nick and fidgety Zach

Nikki and hungry Zach

He also visited Nonie and Papa's (which was the furthest he's ever traveled in his entire life) and played in his other crib.

Zach loves visiting his grandparents

We also introduced Zach to the bottle (since Kelly has been filling up the freezer with frozen pumped milk-sicles) and he chugged that puppy like a freshman.

2.0 fluid ounces per minute...BAM!

That's all for now!

Fun Facts:

• I'm going back to work on Monday so it will be Kelly on her own (I'm sure there will be visitors) in the months ahead.
• Saturday night will be Zach's first sleepover at Nonie and Papa's house. Kelly and I are going to Christine and Rick's wedding.
• I changed the navigation image at the top of the blog per William's request. Was it better before? William will definitely let me know it's my fault if it doesn't look good.
  

-pf

So I got that goin’ for me; which is nice

Well Zach's a week old and it's officially official that he is loved. Not only by us, but all of our family and all of our friends. If he understood the difference between love and poop right now, he would be extremely appreciative....some day.

We have had a lot of calls, and a lot of visitors and we (and some day Zach) really appreciate all of it! Last night Rachel and Katie came over...


It was great having them over as sometimes we feel a little cooped up in the house. More importantly (to my stomach) they brought us dinner and an extra dinner to heat up. It's also nice for Kelly to get a "breather" with her friends (who happen to enjoy holding babies) from the seemingly endless nursing.

Kathi came over this morning on the train and cleaned our house and helped with the baby. She's going to spend the night in order to get the completely amazing experience of cleaning a poop-blasted diaper at 3am...because she really misses that part of having babies...(I know the moms reading this are all saying "yes, we do miss that...it's a precious moment!" right now...well you can come over any time to change diapers)

We gave him a sponge bath which, from the picture below, you can tell is right up there on his list of things to do in a day.


This afternoon, Karen visited and brought us dinner (which I am eagerly awaiting eating once I finish this entry). It was very nice of her to visit and meet Zach and nicer to bring us food!


Other than that, Zach's days are pretty normal:

1. Wake up from long night's sleep, then promptly fall asleep again.

2. Eat breakfast; make sure to spill as much as possible for own amusement.

3. Play.

4. Let dad put me in crazy poses for no apparent reason.

5. Eat; spill.

6. Do cute things like wink at mommy to make her think you understand what she's saying.

7. Wave night-night to mom and dad and get ready to start fresh the next day.

And so it goes.

We have plenty of other visitors booked to meet Zach so we are looking forward to a fun weekend!

Fun Facts:

• Zach has now been living at home for a week and the time has (unfortunately) gone by SO fast.
• Dad told me that he sucked his middle two fingers, and I did too so once again, proof that Zach is my son...Kelly, you're falling behind.
  
• We have not forgotten about Token with Zach being one of his new "pack leaders." Token is doing great with Zach giving him kisses on the feet when he cries and letting us know when he needs to be changed by sniffing his diaper. Yesterday, he got a long walk, a bath and a tooth-brushing (which he loved as much as Zach loved his bath).
  

-pf

It's not my fault I'm the biggest and the strongest; I don't even exercise

Well little Zach is only 6 days old now and he can already lift up his head. No joke! This morning, I was lying with him in bed with him on my chest tummy-side down and he was lifting his head up and looking at me. Granted, the sheer will to do so was probably spurred on by him trying to find out if I had any milk to give him; but no matter what part of my shirt or face he tries to latch on, I'm sorry to say, I've got nothing for him...that's mommy's job. Speaking of, Kel is doing great with breastfeeding. She used the pump today for the first time. It reminded me of the Discovery channel special I saw one time on automated cow milking but she got enough out for a full bottle and we froze it. They last frozen for a good 5 months, so she is going to try to build up a stock.

We Skyped to Bethany the other morning in Japan. It was so awesome to be able to show Zach through video. She thinks he has Williams' freak chest (a little bump where the sternum is for those of you not aware with Will's "freak feature." Also, we got some more family visits and a few calls from people wanting to visit so we are excited about that. (Great) Grandpa Jack came to visit today and that was really special. Zach was so excited to meet his great grandpa that he pooped his diaper immediately.

Several people have commented on who they think Zachary looks more like; me or Kel. I think me, (mainly because that comment is usually followed by "he's SO cute!" but Kelly disagrees for some reason). Here's some evidence:
It's pretty much the same routine over here. He is getting more cute (to us) by the day and we are loving him more all the time. Here are some pictures to tide you over:

Cuuuuuuuute!

Suuuper Cuuuuuuute!!



Kirsten and Stephanie were over today and they taught him
how to say I love you in sign and suck his fingers at the same time.

Fun Facts:

• We now have a pack-n'-play downstairs (courtesy of Grandpa) and a Bassinet (courtesy of Uncle Michael and Aunt Patti) upstairs so I don't have to transfer the bassinet up and down stairs every day.
• Kelly's milk is in! (Is it weird that I'm excited about that?)
• I thought that my computer had broken today, hence the delay in post...I most likely lost 75% of my followers due to that down-time. (75% translates to 1.5 people)

-pf

It's not often you see a guy that green have the blues that bad

Well we made it through the first day home and just finished our second night. As I write this Kelly and Zach are sleeping peacefully after a really good night. They (Zach and Kel) are doing a really great job. Here's some proof that they actually do sleep. (Even though Kelly would have you believe she never sleeps!)
We had our first doctor appointment yesterday and it went well...except for the part where she told us he is a little jaundiced. They did a blood test to make sure and it turns out he does take after his dad. Nothing to be overly concerned about, but his bilirubin level was a little high so the doctor had a "Bili-blanket" delivered to our house last night. I was thinking, "Oh good, a cute blanket will be much better than having to put him under large, annoying warming lights..." Of course, I thought wrong:


This is the package that was delivered. It's basically two units with fiber optic cords which feed into pads that project the ultra-violet light onto his skin. It's pretty annoying because the cords are not very long so he can never be too far away from the units. However, even with that little annoyance, he did a great job last night.

Here is what it looks like on him......."This demeans us both"

Here's what it looks like in the dark...don't worry, it looks much worse than it is. However, if he gets some kind of mutant-type super power from this, I'm going to be upset...unless it's a cool power like Wolverine, or Spider Man...but if he turns into a lame superhero like Aquaman or Jubilee...well that would be totally weak.

I think he actually likes it because it provides kind a type of swaddling on top of his normal blankets...the lights are supposed to be touching his skin for about 18 hours a day, for 3 days, then we go back and test his blood again. I think we could probably achieve the same results from giving him sunbaths the "old fashioned way" but who am I to argue with technology?

Ashley (Kelly's sister) gets to visit today so we are really excited about that. I'm still working on that video ("Hi, I'm a Mac and my video editing programs are super lame") so I'll post some immensely cute baby gurgling as soon as possible.

Fun Facts:

• Zach is the oldest son, of the oldest son, of the oldest son, of the oldest son, of the oldest son, of the oldest son (that's has far as grandma can remember but I can only assume it goes on like that for ever).
• Kelly's milk is starting to come in (sorry if that's gross to any of my friends) but it's really good news as the Z man has the appetite of Paul Bunyan.

-pf

He looked like a Carlos to me too

Allow me to introduce our son:

Zachary Luke Froelich (ZLF....cool monogram)

Born July 29, 2009 (Because who wants to be born in August?)
7lbs 15oz (Modestly, doesn't need to show off by passing 8lbs)

Kelly and I got back from the hospital last night at about 8pm and we were greeted with balloons and a huge 'Baby Boy' banner on the garage...don't know who did that but thanks! We loved it! We had an amazing birthing experience. From the outstanding care provided by the nurses, to the multitudes of friends and family that visited, called and sent texts, to the birth itself, it was the most amazing thing we have ever gone through, and may ever go through (sorry in advance to any future children we may have).

Here is how the last couple days turned out:

1. We checked into the hospital to find out that Kelly didn't really need the medicine they thought she would so we just hung out while Kelly started to go into natural labor.
2. We waited throughout the night as Kelly got her epidural and Pitocin to help the labor along.
3. Kel says the epidural wasn't very effective once her pushing started. I could tell she was really feeling it, but she did an amazing job (one that not even I can claim to top in my lifetime) and Zachary was born.
4. That day, and night, we had a ton of visitors (which was awesome). Kelly was really exhausted, but (as per her usual) no amount of sleep deprivation could stop her from being her typical amazing social self.
5. We had a pretty sleepless night, but Zachary was such an awesome dude. He was pretty mellow and slept a lot (even though we couldn't stop watching him)
6. The next day was full of feeding and visitors and last night we got to take him home at the approval of the doctor and lactation consultant (who said that if all babies were as good at breastfeeding, she would be out of a job)
7. Last night was a long night as it seems that the shock of birth is waring off and Zach is now realizing that he has a tummy and wants to eat! He was feeding all night long and it's taking a sleep toll on Kelly. She's doing great still (I don't know how she does it) but these next couple days/weeks are looking to be pretty busy with feeding, crying, pooping and not a lot of sleeping.

I posted a few pictures, here and hopefully before the end of the weekend I'll be able to post some video too so check back soon. Also, if you check out my Picasa web album, there are a lot more pictures there.

Finally, we want to thank everyone who has been thinking about us over the past few days. We are so blessed to have such amazing families and friends and we are extremely grateful for that. If you would like to visit us, we would welcome that after this weekend is over...just give us a call any time. I can't promise any dance parties, but our son would love to meet you. We'll be around!

Fun Facts:

• Token was very excited to meet his new brother....he kindly let us know when Zachary was crying last night by crying right along with him.
• Meconium is disgusting...I do not recommend it.
• I don't have as much time to post blogs and update my pictures as I thought I would. I guess babies are a lot of work...who knew?
  

-pf