How was your night?

We have had two pretty different and very typical newborn nights with Anna at home.

Saturday night went really well -- all the way down to me somehow sleeping through the 4 a.m. feeding despite the alarm, which probably made Ginger feel misty-eyed with nostalgia for pretty much every night we'd had with Charlie, every one of which I was also very inclined to sleep through. Much like Charlie, she ate when she was supposed to eat, and she slept when she was supposed to sleep.

Sunday night? Not so much. She was a lot more restless in between the feedings. I was up with her three times, and Ginger as well. Anna's clearly very tired today as a result. She's still taking bottles pretty well, and the nursing, while technically "non-nutrative," seems to be progressing just fine.

A silver lining in taking her to the SCN every day to visit Evelyn: We can strip her and weigh her anytime we like on a medical-grade scale. Being able to advise her pediatrician over the phone about her daily weight gain in grams has been an unexpected boon. We fervently hope that being able to report weight gain between now and Evelyn's discharge from the SCN will permit the pediatrician to recommend converting more of her bottle feedings to nursing sessions. If we could replace one bottle per day (or, putting too fine a point on it, per night) with nursing instead, the quality of life goes waaaay up. For me, especially.

The neonatologist in the SCN today said that they've charted Evelyn's discharge date as Wednesday rather than Thursday. We're not sure how that happened, since we heard about her apneic episode last Thursday morning. Maybe the medical profession has some new-fangled way of counting to seven. Anyway, we're not arguing.

Anna's first pediatrician appointment is tonight. Our pediatrician is the only doctor on the planet who still makes housecalls -- something he does for newborns only. He has a black leather bag and a horse-drawn carriage and everything. Actually, putting aside the obvious marketing benefits, it's a pretty smart way for a doctor to see the daily context in which a family is intending to raise a baby and to assess likely health and safety risks. We love our pediatrician. And no, you can't have his name.