Day 6

We took you to your first pediatrician's appointment today.  Turns out you are only 22" long (not 23" as initially measured at the hospital), so now you are just tall and not freakishly tall :)  You're down to 8lbs. 13oz. which apparently is aggressive in gaining your birth weight back; you are overall very healthy.  While you were on the table you managed to pee all over me, your blankets and the floor.  You seemed elated, I hope that's just because it was physical relief and not a sign of rebellion at this young age.  Not sure if I covered it in other posts, but the first thing you did after being born and put on the newborn table was to pee right at me, thankfully you didn't have the strength yet to get me.

Day 5

At this point you are getting more comfortable with everything; feeding, sleeping, looking around (plus pooping, peeing) are all happening now with relative ease.  That said, you do take your time about things.  Eating takes an hour, with occasional dozing off in the middle.  Sleeping can go on for a long time, already 6 hours in some cases.  And pooping... twice yesterday we had to change you 3 times in a row because of your casual approach.  17 diapers in a single day!

Your fingernails are growing fast.  On that note you sustained his first injury today at my hand, clipping part of your finger along with the nail.  After a brief outcry and a nasty look it was right back to the milk -- at most a minor inconvenience for you.

You are long (or tall, depending on how you look at it), so for right now your mother and I have nicknamed you "weasel" (Ласка, pronounced la'-ska).  Youve got a long slender body with long legs, but still sport pretty puffy cheeks and a couple of chins.  Your mom is a hedgehog (Ежик, pronounced yo'-zheek), so we now have half the family's "inner animal" identified.  No word yet on what Grisha is or what I am.


Your mom has been great; she takes over at night since she has to feed you anyway and lets me sleep through the night -- may hat is off to her.  Today the nanny comes and will hopefully help give both of us a break; I hope you like her.

Today also marked your first adventure into the world outside the house.  The fact is, chai and cappuccinos exist on the other side of the block and not in the house, so you saw the inside of your first Starbucks today.  Air conditioning was full blast because of a brief heat wave in the city so it was a quick trip before moving on to the more temperate pastry shop next door for some good scones, unlike the Starbucks crap scones.  You remained unimpressed and decided to go to sleep.


You seem pretty content when not directly threatened with hunger or being cold, very little crying so far for which I'm thankful.  I hope you are content.

Days 0 and 1

August 20, 2010 @ 09:01: You are born as Maxim Andrew Harward (Максим Андрей Гарвард) at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.  Birth weight 8 pounds 13 ounces, 23 inches long.  The "Andrew" part is a nod to your mother's grandfather on her mother's side and great, great grandfather on her father's side.  You can see yourself about 10 minutes old with your mom on YouTube here, and some early photos on Facebook here.


You were born quickly without complications, and have been pretty damn quiet to start with (I'm sure this will change soon).  Unlike your brother you seem to need to be force fed, you don't seem too interested in food yet.  Sleeping beats all, and you have some strength to move your head and eyes around, but only for a little bit and then back to sleep.  Only a few minutes after you were born you were on Skype video for your grandparents (and visiting brother) in Moldova to see, compliments of the hospital's omnipresent wifi network.


We get to go home tomorrow where you will probably stretch out a bit and give your lungs a good workout.