Zeke is 2 weeks old today – hard to believe he’s been with us for two weeks already and that it’s only been two weeks – if that makes any sense. It seems like both forever and no time at all.
A few updates to report:
The mohel came to do a follow up visit on Monday to make sure everything’s okay with Z’s “procedure”. I didn’t know mohel’s did that sort of thing but I’m happy to say that Z is healing well.
Just a bit more about the mohel here… we had no idea what to expect from a Bay Area mohel, and he surprised all of us. He was recommended by the Rabbi who married us – a young, relatively hip (as hip as you can be as a Rabbi anyway), woman about our age. 
The mohel on the other hand looked like he stepped out of a production of Fiddler on the Roof – big black hat, ZZ top-length grey beard, heavy Jewish accent. The only thing that put him in this place and time was the North Face vest he wore to the follow up visit. In any case, he was kind and patient and easy to talk to, and most importantly, it seems he does good work.
We went to the pediatrician today and Zeke has surpassed his birth weight which means that despite my worries about breastfeeding, he’s doing just fine. He was 6 pounds 15 ounces at birth, he lost 10 ounces before we left the hospital, and at two weeks he’s up to 7 pounds 5 ounces. Pretty good I think. He head has also grown which I think means he’s getting smarter 🙂
I had a follow up visit with our midwife and it seems I’m doing okay too. I’ve finished all my surgery meds and while I’m not pain free, it’s certainly much better than it was and ge
tting better every day. My uterus is still swollen and it will be another few weeks before it shrinks down to its normal size. My scar is healing well and it’s actually not as scary looking as I initially thought. It’s not small – about 6 inches from end to end – but it’s very thin. And Lindy said the numbness and rigidity of the area surrounding it will eventually go away. I think my biggest complaint is that I’ve lost all the muscle tone in my belly so sitting up is more challenging than I would like it to be, but as the pain subsides, I can start exercising again and soon enough I’ll have rock solid abs again. (Ha.)
Other than that, we’re slowly getting used to taking care of this little guy every day. He’s actually been letting us sleep between 3 and 5 hours at a stretch during the night, and while he’s getting progressively fussier with time when he’s awake, we’re gradually figuring out different ways of soothing him. 
He changes every day, and while it’s challenging to keep up with his varying moods and habits, it’s also amazing to watch this tiny person grow and develop. Plus – he cracks us up with his amazingly expressive face – finding more ways to show frustration than I thought was possible.
it’s kind of difficult to sit here and only be able to view, at a remove and in such a public realm, these isolated instances of my first-ever nephew’s early days of life.
unexpectedly though, i feel a strong connection to this little life. The furrowed brow of disdain zeke displays (in the second picture up from the bottom of this post) – undoubtedly caused by frustration with a world that just will not behave exactly as he would have it do – is a family trait that zeke shares with this uncle. zeke and i will have much to discuss about these and other societal shortcomings, and how much better things would be if only we were in charge. i greatly look forward to this.
please show the little guy pictures of me (and his almost-aunt kate) so that he knows what we look like and tell him that we will come for a formal introduction soon.
lots of love,
uncle josh