This is fast becoming one of my favorite photos of A.A.



The week has definitely shown us how completely hard parenthood can be. Alex's jaudice has brought my wife to a fragile state of worry, and depleted her physically of any energy. I'm a little better off, getting a bit more sleep, but my temprement is something to reckon with. I've been fantasizing beating up our neighbors a bit too vividly for my own comfort.

Yesterday, the visiting nurse introduced us to bililights, which is a flat platform with a flourescent light underneath, which the baby lays on and get treated for jaudice. Because of Alex's nature, he doesn't really like to be alone too much so we ended up comforting him, touching him and placing pressure on his body to let him know that we were around. My wife watched him for 6 hours and I had to be yelled at to take my shift, because I would've slept otherwise. We ended up taking an afternoon naps, like the other days before today, because we're not getting the sleep like we should otherwise.

But earlier tonight the nurse called with the results, and the bililights brought his levels down. As far as I know it, whenever the biliruben level is above 10, it warrants caution. 20 is considered dangerous levels. Alex went from an 18.6 or something to a 15. It's still high, but the on-call doctor felt that it was good enough to take him off the lights, which was somewhat a relief to us. Thanks to Maralise and Brendon, who have been showing us their support and lending a hand, literally.



Alex seems a bit relieved as well, and now we're actually worrying about another thing. He hasn't pooped in like a day, so we're wondering about his well-being.

But through all this stress and worrying and sleepless nights, we just look at him and we are just elated. He's the sweetest boy and I've made it a habit to kiss his little head and little cheeks, and he's made it a habit to freak out when he's being held next to my head, when I'm trying to comfort him, and toss his head around while his mouth does all sorts of interesting expressions -- and therefore, inadvertedly giving me slobbery kisses. I know he loves me.

Well, fatherhood has given me new persepective to sleep.

It's a really, really good thing.