365 days of Gabe

We're wondering if it's possible to do a picture per day for the first year of Gabe's life. It would be an interesting way to see him change. We're admittedly missing a few days already, but close enough is good. So, call this Day 18. Little Mr. Chunky is enjoying some post-breakfast alert time with Grandpa Folga.

Active Morning Baby

Gabe seems to be active and alert after his breakfast. I'm convinced that it's much too early in his life to call it a "schedule," so I guess we'll call it a pattern. Morning alert is great, so dad can see him before work, and hopefully it means sleep at night. Fussy time has mainly been in the late evening, which not surprisingly is what the pediatrician said is most common. As for night sleeping, Gabe's current music of choice is smooth jazz (XM channel 71).
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

Let Sleeping Babies Lie

Asleep in his "Pack and Play" while dad watches college hoops on TV. Gabe and Dad have plans for tummy-time this afternoon on the play mat given to us by Ron/Nicole -- hopefully some good daytime alert time, but enough sleep time to give mommy and daddy a nice nap. We won't tell Grandpa Folga that Gabe is sleeping through the Army v. Navy basketball game ... maybe it's because he can't watch Navy lose (Army is up big right now).
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

Big boy bed

While the dog is getting a bath, Gabe is napping on his big boy bed (mom and dad's bed). It's amazing the number of facial expressions and arm movements that Gabe can make while napping; lots of noises too. He's wearing his "Chicks Dig my Ride" t-shirt from Suzanne and Cory, and has his Halo brand SleepSack on top of it. I wonder if Halo realizes that their SleepSack has been re-marketed as the Snuggie for adults on late-night TV for $19.99.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

Heading to Work

It's morning, and Dan and Gabe are each off to work -- Dan to Sprint, and Gabe to work at the Sleep factory. One final goodbye and the two will head-off to their jobs. Hopefully Gabe won't feel overly ambitious today and try to take-on too much added responsibility, such as keeping his mom from napping. A little tummy time, a lot of eating, and lots of sleep -- that's the job description for the little guy.

Sleep Sleep and More Sleep

Today Dad went back to work for the first time since I was born. I was nice to him last night and slept for two 4 hour stints, so he was well rested. Hopefully this will keep up! I'm usually alert during the morning and sometimes in the afternoon, so I'm tending to sleep well at night. Here is a picture of one of my many naps today and as you can tell I'm going to be a bed hog one day.

1 Week Old

The little man is 1-week old, and he's been eating, eating, eating. He put back on the ounces he lost in the first few days, and is actually almost 1/3 pound above his birth weight. While we're still trying to determine what characteristics he got from each of his parents, it appears that his appetite is following closely after his dad; that's a good thing for his growth and development, but it makes it tough to sleep with his meals being so often. Eat, eat, and more eat.

24 hours done

I wish I had more photos to post, but they're all on my camera (and I don't have my camera-to-computer cable here). So, photos will have to wait another day.

Gabe was a very easy baby for the first 22 hours or so, but has recently finally started to educate us on what makes baby-care some work. But I'm sure we'll look back on these days (with nurses at our beck-and-call, and a tired newborn) and realize that we haven't seen anything yet. Gabe demonstrated his "show-off" attitude for most of the visitors today, and either slept gracefully or innocently made cooing noises. Hopefully he'll feel the same desire to please his parents .... forever.

For now, we're getting somewhat settled here in the hospital, but the game completely changes when they send us home tomorrow evening. Do we have to go?

Welcome to Gabriel Austin Polk!

Gabe arrived at 6:22pm on Tuesday, January 13; he was 7lbs. 15 ounces, and 20 3/4 inches long. He had a slight cone-head, and a full head of sandy brown/blonde hair. He did well on his first tests (APGAR, hearing, etc.). Welcome to the world.