The Zorio Family: Clayton's 1st Week

Babies change so much so quickly and the first six weeks to two months always flies by and seems like such a blur, so I will attempt, as I have done with the other kids, to do a weekly update during these early weeks.
Clayton's first week flew by, as expected! His first 24 hours were spent in the hospital, and by Tuesday afternoon we were home and reunited with Dawson, Carter, and Nora Kate. Clayton definitely has more loving arms to hold him than any of our previous babies, as Dawson, Carter, and Nora Kate are all three constantly asking to hold him. It is SO sweet. I'm not sure why, but I think this is the most excitement the kids have shown over a new baby-I think a lot of it has to do with Carter being old enough to understand and be excited. He was still so little with Nora Kate was born, that he didn't really understand. Dawson has really surprised us with how excited and interested in Clayton he has been. A lot of time Dawson is very even keel-not getting too upset or too excited over much, or at least if he does he doesn't let it show, but he is absolutely in love with his baby brother! This has definitely taken us by surprise! Carter loves babies, and we expected him to be really sweet with Clayton-which he is! He was the first to notice Clayton's sweet baby smell, and I catch him smelling, kissing, and patting Clayton all.the.time! We thought Nora Kate would be excited, but we also worried she might be a little jealous. Thankfully there has not been the slightest hint of jealousy (yet)! She wants to hold Clayton more than anyone else, and when someone else holds him she sits right beside them watching her baby brother. When she doesn't refer to Clayton by name, she refers to him as "our baby." I'm pretty sure she thinks we had Clayton JUST for her. All three kids are completely in love with their baby brother!
How could they not be?! He's so sweet, and he's the absolute perfect baby! He RARELY ever cries! He is by far the easiest newborn we have had! From the first day on, he has never had his days and nights confused. Every night he wakes up between every hour and a half to every 3 hours to eat and get a diaper change, and he goes right back to sleep!!! This is nothing short of a miracle when all of our other babies have been night owls who thought 2am was the middle of the day and a perfectly acceptable time to be wide awake wanting to be held. The fact that he is sleeping SO well has really helped me to be able to have enough energy during the day to attempt to keep up with everyone else!
He has also been a great eater! It was like he knew exactly what to do from birth on! When he was just a few minutes old he nursed for the first time, and he nursed for an hour and 10 minutes! The nurses said this was great and they couldn't believe he nursed so long for the first time without going to sleep (as this is usually what they see). Ever since then he's been a great eater! In the day he eats on average every two hours, and at night he has been going one long three hour stretch and the rest of the time every hour and a half to two hours. This is AMAZING! I think I'm getting up at night the same amount now with Clayton as a newborn as I did with the other kids when they were six months old! I haven't done anything differently with feeding him than I did the other kids, so I think he's just the best eater and sleeper we have had! I definitely do not take this for granted!
Clayton has spent the majority of his first week in mittens because his fingernails were so long when he was born and he is constantly scratching his poor face! I think he must have spent the 5 days he was late growing his nails! Haha! I tried to file them down, but it's basically like trying to use a nail file on a piece of paper-impossible! So for now, we wear the mittens. Part of the reason he is scratching his face so badly, is because he is so determined to suck on his fingers and getting them in his mouth he ends up scratching his face. He really wants to suck on the last two fingers of his hands, he seems to do this so much that I wonder if he was doing this before he was born! Because he wants to suck his fingers so badly, but we are keeping him in mittens I caved and gave him his paci WAY earlier than we did with the other kids. I didn't give Dawson his until he was 2 weeks old and Carter and Nora Kate were about a week and a half. I was told it would confuse them with nursing to introduce the paci before 2 weeks, but I felt like Clayton was so good at eating that he would be fine. Great news-he loved the paci, it cut down on his face scratching, and he's still eating great! I've only been giving him the paci when he's awake and just trying to suck his hands, so he doesn't sleep with it or anything. When I gave him the paci for the first time I told John, "I've gotten weak with this 4th baby and not waited 2 weeks!" His reply, "You've gotten wise, not weak!" Haha!
People love to ask who Clayton looks like, and we are constantly trying to figure this out too! We think his mouth looks like Dawson and Nora Kate, his nose looks like Carter, and we think his eyes are brown like mine and Carter's eyes, but they still have a blue look at times too, so we can't be positive. His hair is like no one elses...except maybe me! All of our babies barely had any hair for their first year of life and what they did have was much lighter, and Clayton has a lot of dark hair! I was born with a lot of dark hair! He has a darker complexion than Dawson and Nora Kate's fair complexion as newborns, so in this aspect I think he is more like Carter too. He has the same feet as all the boys...John, Dawson, and Carter! I love how he resembles his siblings, but also looks just like Clayton-his own sweet little self!
Weight...at birth Clayton was definitely our biggest baby weighing 8 pounds 4 ounces, and by the time we discharged from the hospital he was down to 7 pounds 12 ounces. On Wednesday we took him to the pediatrician when he was 48 hours old for his first checkup. He had lost a tiny bit more (as expected) and was down to 7 pounds 10 ounces. Everything was great at his appointment-no jaundice, umbilical cord looked good, heart sounded great, and his weight loss was in the normal/expected range. We were instructed to bring him back the following Monday when he was one week old just for a weight recheck. Over the first week, we could tell that Clayton was gaining these few ounces back he had lost. It's funny the difference between 8 pounds 4 oz and the boys' and Nora Kate's birth weights...he just looks so much more filled out in his cheeks and face than the other kids as babies.
Other than Clayton's visit to the pediatrician, which I won't really count as his first outing, we mostly stayed home for the first week resting and recovering and holding sweet Clayton. He did however have his first three outings in his first week though! On Saturday when he was 5 days old he attended his first Easter egg hunt at our church. He slepted in the Ergo carrier I wear the entire time. This was perfect because he was kept warm against my body, we were outside so I felt like the risk of germs was less, and being in the carrier against me no one attempted to touch him or asked to hold him so I felt like he stayed pretty germ free. He slept the whole time while the big kids did the inflatables and hunted Easter Eggs. Then his second outing was on Sunday when he was 6 days old when we took him to church for the first time. What a perfect first day to go to church-it was Easter! Getting 4 kids ready and out the door on time for early service on Easter Sunday was definitely a challenge, but we made it! John and I took turns holding Clayton during the service. He was awake for about half of it and then fell asleep with us holding him. Sweet boy! We did not stay for Sunday School, but it was great to make it to church on Easter Sunday with our new addition! His third outing was to Lolly and Pop's house for Easter lunch and the kids 90 egg Easter Egg Hunt at their house. Clayton slept the entire time we were there. After two outings on Easter we headed home and all six of us took naps!!
During Clayton's first week he had lots of visitors-Lolly, Pop, Grandad, Nana, Alana, Jessica, and Lauren (at the hospital as I mentioned in a previous post), Andrea and Olivia, Uncle Logan, Pastor Mickey and Pastor Gilbert from church, Cousin Drew, and Carol.
Clayton's first week was the easiest first week with a newborn, a lot of this was due to how well he eats and sleeps and another big part of this was due to John taking an entire week off work! This is the first baby we have had where he has been able to take a full week off, and it was AMAZING!! I took care of Clayton's feedings and rested, and John took care of everything single other thing! He was wonderful! John even got to be home to go to Dawson's school Easter egg hunt on Thursday in the middle of the day. It was a great week for John to be home too because Dawson was out of school Friday for Good Friday, so he got some extra time with Dawson. John being home this week and spending his time entertaining the big kids was so nice because we think it made them feel like it was a special week for them too and not just all about Clayton. He took them to the park several times, to the driving range, and they played outside a ton. When they weren't entertained by these things, they were completely entertained by holding Clayton! We definitely have NOT been looking forward to Monday the 28th when John goes back to work, I have gotten very spoiled this week. Also during this week which was a wonderful treat, our sweet neighbor who was home from college asked if she could play with the kids outside one morning for a couple of hours so I could rest-YES! They loved playing with Miss Elizabeth and I got some extra rest!
I have tons of pictures (of course) from Clayton's first week!