Holiday wrap-up

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We had a lovely Christmas with Adele. We were happy to be spending our first family Christmas at home, but that meant missing seeing extended family that day. We were able to see a bit of family on each side, but there were lots of people we didn't get to see at all. We hope to catch up with those we missed soon into the new year. One personal disappointment was missing the DeLorio's visit. Lindi and kids were going to come through Lawrence on their way to Wichita before Christmas, but the weather had them changing their plans. We rescheduled for after Christmas, but wouldn't you know it, by the time the day rolled around her baby, Izzy, and Adele were both sick. Neither one of us felt like it would be a good idea to swap baby colds so we sadly decided to skip the visit. Lindi was pregnant with Izzy the same time I was pregnant with Adele (our original due dates were only a few weeks apart) and we talked a lot during that time and we were both looking forward to FINALLY getting the babies together. But I suppose the kids' health is more important than a photo op... ;)

Christmas morning we all managed to sleep in a little bit, which was nice for Steve since that was the first day off he'd had in two weeks. When we finally did roll out of bed we made coffee and had First Breakfast (coffee cake) in preparation to open stockings. After we'd finished, Adele completely crashed out on the floor so Steve and I decided to open our gifts to/from each other, and leave hers for when she was awake. We only got a few gifts in when she woke up, so we got her back into the rotation. Steve opened the ones for her that I purchased and I opened the ones that he purchased, that way one of us would be surprised by what was inside (Steve was in charge of toys & books, I bought clothes). Adele seemed mildly interested, but I think that was due more to the crinkly paper than what was inside the paper. (I could swear I got some photos of her opening her first gift, but I guess I didn't. Oh well...) We all ended up with a great haul and a nice mixture of fun and necessary, which is how it should be. We spent the rest of the day eating and playing with toys and eating and napping and eating and reading books. It was a fantastic Christmas! For Adele, the highlights are her Fisher-Price light-up/musical "stage" toy and the green maraca that Santa left in her stocking. She got plenty of other fun toys, stuffed animals and dolls, which she'll have loads of fun with. Of course Mom & Dad were thrilled by clothes and cereal spoons and sippy cups and other necessary items. She really got a lot of great stuff from people and folks were very, very generous this year. We're truly thankful--for many things!

Other, non-holiday related news: We've been giving cereal a try now and then. Adele's not too excited by it, at least as far as I can tell. She may take one or two decent bites and get them from the front of her mouth to the back sucessfully, but the majority of the bites come right back out or just hand out in her mouth for a few minutes. We've been making an effort to make sure she's seated at the table with us during mealtimes, whether she's eating or not, so that maybe she'll begin making the connections between plate, food, fork and mouth.

Steve said her heard her use consonant sounds the other morning, specifically "da-da-da-da." He assured me she wasn't saying "Daddy" or any form of it, since it wasn't addressed to him. I do know that the "da" sounds are some of the first consonant sounds that babies make, and I was waiting for her to start making sounds other than vowels. Truth be told, I was starting to worry about the lack of other vocalizations and it was going to be brought up at our next doc appt. I hope that maybe she'll start making different sounds more often and I can stop wondering if she's delayed. You'd think that as much as she's around talking (ahem) that would be the one area she'd excel in.

Her weight is yo-yoing again. I took her in for her monthly Synagis shot 12/24 and she'd lost weight again. Sigh. She just can't break the 16-pound mark. She had gotten up to 15 lbs, 12 ounces, once but had dropped back down to 15 pounds, 9 ounces, on Monday. We were back in the office on Thursday to get her cough looked at (common cold--nothing to worry about) and she was back up to 15, 12 again. Go figure. I know she's much more active now than she was a month ago--we're working on spending more play time on the floor (back and tummy) and that leads to more kicking, twisting, attempted and successful rolling and other activity--but she's not really ingesting any more calories than before. January 18 we have her CMH pediatric appt and her local monthly pediatric appt, so hopefully between the two docs there we can find out how concerned they are about all of it. We also have her cardiology follow-up at CMH that same day, and I assume it should be pretty uneventful. It's just an echocardiogram to check that her PFO (heart murmur) is definitely closed.

I think that's about it from here. Here's to a Happy and Healthy 2008 for you and yours!

Some photos:

With her life-size stocking

Adele says, "Merry Christmas!"

With her Fisher-Price Little Superstar Sing-Along Stage (She also received a play guitar for Christmas--looks like she's bound for musical stardom!)
She's doing a good job of sitting up without assistance for small stretches of time!

Won't be too much longer and she'll be asking for a bite of Dad's Boo-Berry cereal.

7-month update

I'm in disbelief that Adele is 7 months old and the end of 2008 is upon us. Where did the year go?? Adele is growing and learning and doing like crazy these days, seems like I've neglected to tell you about it.

First, the stats from her appointment last Friday:
Weight: 15 pounds, 12 ounces (25% actual age/90% adjusted)
Length: 25 3/4 inches (25%/95%)

Things she's doing:

• Attempting to hold her bottle during feedings. She doesn't always do it very well or for very long, but she tries. It's especially cute to see her get excited when she sees it and grab it and cram it into her mouth. That's my girl!
• Passing toys one from hand to the other
• Playing with her feet. This is BEYOND cute, except at diaper changing times, and then it's just sort of cute, and mildly frustrating.
• Laughing--a lot. She likes it when you "gobble" her belly, but I don't know if it's the sensation on her belly that's amusing or your hair tickling her face. We don't care--we just like making her laugh.
• Rolling over a little. If she's on her tummy, she can get on her back after a while. She usually squirms her legs under her stomach and gets on her side that way or if she's propped up on her elbows, she'll lay down on one arm and let gravity do the rest of the work. Still not rolling from back to front, but she does kick her feet up to grab them and then uses that as leverage to get onto her side.
  
• She's very squirmy at night, we've learned, since whenever we go get her in the morning she's never in the same place/position we left her in the night before. I've found her with her head wedged into the corner of the crib, up against the short side of the crib, with her back against the short side of the crib, flipped over on her back all the way against the side of the crib (she's a tummy sleeper, yes I'm aware of SIDS, thankyouverymuch, but on her tummy is the only way she'll sleep for any extended period of time) and the best one yet, on her back with her feet sticking out between the rails of the crib. Zoinks!
  
• We're using the Bumbo a bit more nowadays, trying to get her muscles worked up for sitting up on her own. She still gets a bit slumpy after a while, but she's getting better.
• She enjoys standing up, and can bear all her weight on her own for a quite a while. All she requires from us is a bit of support for balance. She's doing all the hard work herself.
  
• She's eating a lot better, and is back up to where she was before her hunger strike. She even finished a full bottle at daycare the other day--that was a first!

Dr. Murphy said her fine motor skills and social development are all in line with a 6-month-old. Her gross motor are more in line with her adjusted age, which is fine. No cause for concern at all. We'll just continue to work on tummy time and those things that will help in that area and she'll catch up in no time. Overall it was a great appointment and Dr. Murphy said she was extremely pleased with how well Adele is doing. Yay! It seems to me that over the past month or so, she went from being a "passive" infant to a more interactive, playful person. She's so much fun, and it's so interesting to me to see her learn. I love watching her as she's trying to figure something out or as she's working SO hard to get to something or flip over or whatever the task. I wonder what she's thinking sometimes! Oh, we were given the go-ahead to give Adele cereal if we want. I have spoons, I have cereal, I just haven't gotten around to doing it yet. Part of me wants to try it, the other part wants to wait a few more months, maybe until she's 5 months adjusted. No sense in rushing into it, right? Also, we might try taking her off Prevacid for her reflux to see how she does. Since she rarely spits up these days (knock wood) and because the medicine is super expensive and a pain to get, it would be fantastic if we could drop it altogether. So we'll give that a shot next week and see how it goes.

I owe you lots of photos, so without further ado...(ignore the date on most of these--my camera got messed up and I didn't realize it.)

Feet are fun!

In November, we went to Kansas City to visit Adele's NICU podmate, Alton (Ali) and his family. Hard to believe both of these babies were preemies! Alton was born at 24 weeks, which is about as early as you can get and still survive. Miracle babies!!

Steve, Adele, Alton, Lemond

Candice, Alton, Adele, Darrah

Say "E Pod!"

Rockin' the Bumbo

Adding the finishing touch to the Christmas tree. I think Adele wants to eat it. Steve, too, possibly.Oh yeah...we had an ice storm! We didn't lose many limbs because of the ice, although power company did have to trim some from our crabapple tree in order to fix some outages. We lost power for a few hours overnight, but nothing crazy.
The view from our driveway.

Our neighbors' back yard.Our side yard (including crabapple tree pre-delimbing).

Answering the age-old question

“How old is she?” has always been a difficult question to answer when it comes to Adele.

Whenever anyone asks, my internal dialogue goes something like this:

“How much time do you think they have?”

“Oh, just give them the short version.”

“But she’s too small/not doing enough for [actual age] they might wonder what’s wrong with her.”

“Well, then just tell them [adjusted age]!”

“But that’s a LIE! She’s NOT [adjusted age]. Do you think they really want the whole story?”

“I don’t know, but this is getting ridiculous. Just tell them something already! Sheesh…” [stomps off to think about something much more interesting, such as what’s for dinner]

After all that, my answer depends on who is doing the asking. If it’s some random stranger on the street, who is obviously asking only to be polite, I give them the short version: actual age. Adele’s big enough now and charting appropriately for her actual age, so I figure no one should really think twice. [This is a relatively new change in my way of thinking. When she first came home from the hospital, she was significantly smaller than a “normal” 3-month-old, and I felt the “actual/adjusted” spiel was necessary.] If they make a comment about her not doing this or that, or outright ask about her development (i.e. “Is she sitting up yet?”), then I give the explanation of her prematurity. Those who know us already know her story so I can give the short, no-further-explanation-necessary, “X actual/X adjusted” line. I make exceptions for mothers with similar-in-age babies because I know they’re doing the same thing I’m doing—silently, discreetly comparing—and I feel I need to explain. Not to say I think she needs an excuse, but I know those moms are also reading “What to Expect the First Year” and are mentally checking off the milestones for each month for each baby.

“You say your baby hasn’t rolled over yet?* Oh….” (Which could mean “Oh, you poor thing, I hope she learns to walk before she goes to kindergarten!” or “Thank GOD it’s not just my child!”)

The adjusted/actual issue causes a lot of hiccups in a lot of areas. For instance, whenever we make her monthly well-baby appointments, the nurse always has to ask which month/age it’s for. Um, good question! Take your pick! Inevitably, they give me the info sheet for her actual age, which is good for future planning but not so helpful now. Then there’s the starting solids debate. From a digestive standpoint she’s almost 7 months old, but she’s got the motor skills of a 4-month-old. There’s a huge difference between the two ages when it comes to solid food readiness. Just the other day I came across a whole new kind of age conundrum. I found a class through our local Parks & Rec department called “Aqua Mom & Me.” It’s a water resistance class where you use baby’s weight in the water as added resistance. The class is for moms (or dads, I assume) with babies older than 6 months. Is that 6 months ACTUAL or 6 months ADJUSTED? Sigh…here we go again. Is the age requirement some randomly-chosen number, or was it selected based on the physical control that “normal” 6-month-olds exhibit? If we enroll, will I find it difficult to complete the exercises because I have to work harder at keeping her supported? Will I put her in danger because of it? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? When is it okay to stop obsessing about the difference between her actual/adjusted ages?

The good news is that with time the age difference will become less and less of an issue, and eventually she’ll catch up to (and hopefully surpass, in some areas) those children who are the same actual age she is. In the meantime, though, if you ask me how old she is and I get a far-away look in my eyes, bear with me as I try to formulate just the right answer.


*Disclaimer: She gets a lot of leeway in the development department to account for her prematurity, so it’s perfectly acceptable if she’s doing only 4-month-old things and hasn't accomplished older-kid tasks, such as rolling over. However, she’s accomplished most (if not all) of the “should be doing” 4-month-old things, and a few things a couple months beyond. So there.

Time to do the happy dance!

I just heard from Apria, and our insurance has authorized coverage of Adele's formula! Oh, happy day! We'll get 9 cans, delivered directly to our door, at the low out-of-pocket cost of $24. Yay!

In other news, we had our well-baby check-up yesterday and all was, uh, well! This was our third trip to the doc this week, unfortunately. The one on Monday was a weight check, Wednesday was because A had spiked a fever the day before and today's was her regularly scheduled appointment. Anyway, she's 15 pounds on the nose, 25.5 inches long (weight puts her at 25% for full term 6 month olds, and 85% for 3 month olds--not bad, I say!). Doc wants to see a bit more tummy time to encourage her neck/arm strength, but overall she's doing fine. Poor baby had 3 vaccinations, and then her first flu vaccination at the Health Department later that afternoon. They tried giving her the oral Rotavirus vax, but after a few drops she promptly threw up her last meal all over the exam table, so they decided to delay this one for a few weeks, and she'll get it when she gets her RSV shot on the 26th.

And YES, I still owe you pictures. They are coming, I promise.

A positive post, for once

I realized that I've been posting so much negative, whiney stuff lately, and really aside from the food stuff, things are going really well with Miss Chubby Cheeks. So, this post is about that.

Everything she's doing is normal baby stuff, but it's so much more exciting when it's your own baby. She's been smiling for a long time now, but lately she's been chuckling too. I expected a more outright laugh, but I suppose it's still early for that. What we do get is a "heh-heh-heh," which is very cute too. Maybe we're not nearly as entertaining as we imagine ourselves to be? ;) She's got great head/neck control and can pretty much sit upright on her own if you hold her hips or she's sitting in your arm while you're standing. Unfortunately she's in the stage where she's prone to random flops forward or backward so we do have to keep our eyes on her. On her tummy she can push her chest up off the surface while on her elbows, but only for a little bit. She's rolled over from back to tummy just once (witnessed only by Steve), so we're still working on that. She can put her full weight on her legs and stand upright while you hold her, and sometimes even tries to push herself up by stiffening her legs. She loves reaching out to grab faces/noses/clothes--anything within arm's reach. Her eye/hand control is better too--she's moved beyond batting toys in her bouncy chair to being able to grab them and hold them for a second or two.

I do owe you an overdue update on her weight. When we took her in after my last post, she was back up over 14 pounds, which was odd since she'd been eating so little. We're not sure, but we think that the nurse who weighed her and got the 13-pound weight (the .5 pound loss) may have weighed her incorrectly, because there's just no other way to explain how she could have gained it all back in less than a week. Anyway, we had another check yesterday and she's 14 pounds, 14 ounces, which is just fine. Her regular well-baby/check-up is Friday, so I'll have more info then.

We're still wrangling with insurance on getting her formula paid for. We've turned in a letter of medical necessity, a prescription and yesterday a record of all the food she's tried and what reactions she had. The Caring Bridge site came in handy for that, as I was able to look at all my old journal entries for exact dates and reactions. Now we're just waiting to hear if we have more hoops to jump through and whether they'll accept or deny her claim. I'm sure they make the process difficult in the hopes you'll just give up!

Today we were supposed to have gone to CMH South to their OT/ST clinic (we were able to get in there sooner than at the regular CMH), but Adele woke up with a fever and was obviously not her happy self, so we had to reschedule for next week. She's been sleeping all day, and is pretty cranky and tired, but her fever seems to have subsided, so that's good. We'll see how she does overnight.

I owe you a new round of photos, so watch for those!

Food Fight

Who would have thought that any daughter of MINE would be stubborn? Pshaw. It'll never happen.

We're still working with (and by "working with" I mean pulling our hair out in frustration) Adele and her feeding issues. She did OK over the weekend, but not stellar. Some meals she'd eat 4 or more ounces, other times we struggled to get 2 in . Doc Murphy decided after all to refer A for more testing, so we'll be heading up to CMH again to visit their Occupational/Speech Therapy clinic. The appointment isn't until December 6, so good thing this isn't, like, a really important deal or anything. Sigh. Anyway, we hope they can tell us if her suck is OK, and if not how we can improve it. Also, I'm starting to think Adele is developing some serious oral aversion issues (actually pretty common in preemies, I'm finding out, especially those who spent a lot of time on tube feeds AND had eating difficulties with the bottle. Hmmm...sound like anyone we know??), and that would explain the sudden refusal, disinterest, etc. The Tiny-K folks worked with her a little bit today and gave us a few suggestions for holds/positions, techniques that may help, although when I tried them this evening Adele was having none of it. Sigh. My main concern at this point is daycare. We've been able to average about 20 ounces a day (still well below her recommended minimum), but that's with either Steve or I feeding her, and giving her all our time and attention. I just don't know how things are going to go tomorrow, and I'm really concerned. I just hope she'll eat.

We have a weight check Wednesday morning, so I'll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, I'm going to eat the calories she should be eating, but only in the form of Fun Size Baby Ruth bars. It's a sacrifice, but I'll manage somehow.

Better

Things are better here. Adele ate 19.25 ounces in a 24-hour period (from 5:00 pm Wed to 4:15 Thur), which is almost double what she ate the previous day. She's doing okay so far today too. She's still under her max of 4 ounces from the end of September, but she's averaging around 3 ounces per feed every 3-4 hours and that's better than nothing. I think she should be somewhere closer to the 5-6 ounce range, but she is getting a higher calorie formula mixture so that helps too. I just did the math and if you go by the 2.5 ounces per pound of weight rule she should be eating 33.75 ounces per day. We're no where near that, unfortunately.

I'll call the doc at 1:00 today and give them another report. We have an appt for middle of the week next week so we'll check her weight then. In the meantime, I'm in the middle of a conversation with the sitter to help determine ways to make mealtimes there more productive. Hopefully we can get that figured out, or I'll just go over a few times a day and feed her myself.

So, we're getting there. The situation still isn't perfect, but it's better and better is okay too.

Another update

Adele lost about a half a pound in less than a week (Fri to Wed), which is not good. :( The doc couldn't find anything obvious (no illness, stomach looked/felt normal) to explain the eating problems. I'm staying home with her tomorrow to see if she'll eat better for me (since she barely eats at daycare), and I'm to keep a log of how much she eats when. If she does better then we'll let it be and weigh her again in a week. If not, then we'll start with bloodtests tomorrow and go from there.

We're dropping breastmilk AGAIN and we have to take her back to the 24-cal formula recipe. The doc wants to take her back to when she was doing her best gaining and see if that makes a difference. Also, if she's going to skip so many meals, we need to cram as many calories as possible into the meals she DOES eat. The downside to this is that we think the higher-calorie recipe is what was making her spit up, since that completely stopped once we made that change.

We gave her a bottle at the doctor's office and, thankfully, she ate it all! (One time I was happy to be proven wrong!) However, the doc was able to see something that I had commented on during the appt--Adele seems to have adopted a "non-productive" suck instead of the one she normally used to eat. Think sucking on a pacifier versus sucking long draws to actually get food. So, she thinks Adele may need to see an occupational/speech therapist at CMH to have that addressed, assuming it doesn't get better. I think we have access to OTs/STs through Tiny-K, so I think I'll call them and find out if one can attend our meeting on Monday. Maybe they can watch her suck and see if they see the same thing.

I'd like to say HI to Steve's dad, Pa Buren, and let him know we're thinking of him and keeping him in our prayers as he recovers from his recent surgery. Get better soon!

Just a few photos for fun!

I think it's time to start drug-testing the PJ designers...

Cute little pumpkin:

She's discovered her tongue, and she really likes sticking it out, especially when you mimic her!

Appointment today

The nurse called me back this morning and we're going in at 4:30 today. She said she didn't feel comfortable waiting until next week to see Adele, especially since she's eating only about 10 ounces a day. Keep your fingers crossed that we're on the road to figuring out this problem!

Oh, and Happy Halloween!

Doc update

Sorry for the delay in posting a post-doc update. I guess you could say that no news is good news whenever we go to Children's Mercy! It was a good visit overall. I love Dr. Hartvingsen, and not only because she talks as rapid-fire as I do. Like Dr. Murphy (our Lawrence doc), she's not an alarmist when it comes to any issues we bring up. She's happy to hand out the facts and numbers, but it's not worst-case scenario first with her. Anyway, Adele checked out just fine and is just under 14 pounds and 24 inches. Developmentally everything seems to be on track, at least there's nothing that's making them worried thus far. Adele is doing most of what a "normal" 2.5 month old should do and a few things beyond that. She almost rolled from her back to her tummy on the exam table! She still has her hands clenched in a fist a lot of the time (when she's not relaxed), so we're going to work on encouraging her to open those up, but I don't think that's a HUGE deal. Overall, things look good!

I did manage to speak to her about everything on the list. Here's a recap:

• Iron--She's off the iron for now. They took a blood draw (and baby didn't even flinch when they poked her heel!) to check her hemoglobin and will let us know ONLY if she needs to go back on.
  

• Solids--Looks like she'll start around her adjusted 6-month age, so 9 months actual. No one is in a particular hurry to start, especially considering her senstive tummy issues.


• Swallow study--She is on thickener until she gets another swallow study, which usually aren't given until 6 months after the last one. Since that one was right before her hospital discharge, we have another 3 months or so before they'd even bother with a new one. Our next CMH appt isn't until January, so the doc suggested we plan a feeding around her appt and maybe they can get an OT up to feed her and see how things are checking out. Although by then she'll be ready to start solids and may not need as much formula anyway. Oh well...it's status quo for now.


• Fireplace--Yes, the fireplace is okay to use. Woo!


• Reflux/Prevacid--The doc did increase her dose from 1 ml to 1.7 ml. I think it's helping a little bit!


• Speaking of food refusal--No magic answer to this problem, unfortunately. She ruled out an ear infection and a few other things and said she couldn't really come up with anything to explain it. As she put it, the bad news is she doesn't have an answer, but the good news is she's not concerned about it at all. I, on the other hand, am becoming increasingly concerned because things have not improved. We're almost a full month into her eating half (at the most) of what she was eating before, and that's just not good. I know the docs keep saying her weight is fine, but at some point it WON'T be fine and I'd rather fix the problem now and not wait until it gets so bad that she's losing. I have an appt for next week to see our doctor here, but I also left a message with the nurse to find out if they want us in sooner. They're out of the office today (Tuesday) so I likely won't hear back until tomorrow. I'm about ready to ask to see a specialist of some sort. Not that I don't trust Dr. Murphy, but she can't know everything about everything and maybe a GI specialist would be able to pinpoint a cause for her problem.
  


• Teething--There's no answer to the teething question either. Teething age is mostly genetic depending on when Steve and I each started teething. It can happen anywhere from 6-12 months, sounds like.

She finally got her Synagis (RSV) shot last Friday, which was a relief. Only 5 more to go... November will be a particularly heinous month for her since she'll need to get 4 or 5 shots that month. Poor kid.

Otherwise, we're all doing fine. Adele seems happy and "normal" aside from the eating issue, and hopefully we'll figure that problem out soon. We'll keep you posted!

Iron-y

I bought a package of socks for Adele today and these are the care instructions: Wash before wear. Machine wash warm with like colors. Use only non-chlorine bleach when needed. Tumble dry medium. Use warm iron if needed. [emphasis mine]

Who in their right mind actually irons baby socks?? Who actually irons, period? Who has the time? Who has the inclination?? As if.

And in other news....

Tomorrow we head to KC for a Children's Mercy Special Care Clinic follow-up. I'm looking forward to the appointment because I'm hoping they have an explanation for Adele's sudden fussiness and food intake reduction. I have a few theories (ear infection, early teething, colic, reflux flare-up, a "phase"), but none of the symptoms of any of those problems match her exactly. So we'll see. Hopefully it's something that's easy to diagnose and fix. I don't want another answer like "oh, well, just wait and see if she gets better."

Other things on the agenda:

• Iron--how much longer does she need to take it (the only time she spits up nowadays is when she takes this)
• Solids--what schedule is she on for starting, adjusted or actual (age)? I'm in no hurry to start, but I want to know ahead of time so we can be ready
• Swallow study--Does she get another one? If so, when? If not, will she ever get off thickener? Does she need one before she can start solids?
  
• Fireplace--Is it safe to use the woodstove this winter, or are we risking future lung issues for her if we fire it up?
  
• Reflux/Prevacid--Is her medicine dose strong enough given the weight gain between when she was diagnosed and now? Could that account for her sudden fussiness/food refusal?
• Speaking of food refusal--What the heck is going on here?? Fix her!
• Teething--Could she be teething already? When will she teethe, adjusted or actual?

I think that pretty much covers it. Hopefully we'll get lots of answers tomorrow!

The Eyes Have It

Adele's eyes are starting to change color from Generic Baby Blue to sort of a greenish-brown. Right now the greenish-brown is primarily on the inside, closest to the pupil, but the remainder is getting lighter. The doctor said they could continue to change until the first year, so the jury's still out on what the final color will be. Any guesses? I have golden-brown eyes and Steve has dark brown eyes, so I'm taking a WILD guess that it will be somewhere in the brown family. ;) According to this site Adele has a 75% chance of having brown eyes and a 12% chance of having either blue or green eyes, so really anything is possible. It's interesting to watch them change a little bit here and there, though!

Picture Pages, Picture Pages

Does anyone else remember Picture Pages with Bill Cosby? I think they used to show it between The Electric Company and Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers. I loved how Bill Cosby's magic marker made noise when it drew--it really WAS a magic marker! Anyway...I'm digressing, but I do have a lot of photos to share! (Was that a forced segue or what?) But first, I'll make you sit through an update.

Yes, we all survived the first week of daycare. The first day was hard for Steve and I, but I resisted the urge to visit at lunch, thinking it would just upend the daycare's routine. Buffy (the daycare provider) was really great about emailing updates throughout the day so I felt like I had a handle on things. By the end of the week, we had our morning routine down and it was easy to drop her off each day. I worked from home on Friday for the first time, and that worked well too. I had to put her in the sling at one point, but she fell right asleep and I was able to get some work done.

Last week we reintroduced breastmilk to see how that would go this time around. It went pretty well--no immediate reaction like last time. However, by the end of the week I was noticing some "changes" and she was acting a lot fussier and just different overall and I thought we'd better pull the plug on the experiment. She's started completely refusing bottles after about 2 ounces (she gets 4 total), even going so far as to push the bottle out with her hands. She doesn't even know she has hands most of the time and yet she knows how to push a bottle away. She's also started urping a lot more again, which is frustrating because she'd had a good week for the most part. Uggggh. So, because of all three factors (diapers, spit-up and bottle refusal) we thought we'd call the doc and bring her in for a quick check. The good news is she seems fine when she's not eating, and isn't lethargic or running a fever or anything. She weighed in well, too--13.5 pounds (a 1 pound gain in 2 weeks)--and seems plenty hydrated (which was a concern because of the diaper issue). The doc thinks she might have a very mild stomach bug and to give it a few days to see if things clear up. If they do, we'll try breastmilk again and cross our fingers.

The supergreat news for the week is that I found out that my insurance will cover her formula at 90%!! Woot! Woot! I'm trying to arrange home delivery service through a medical supply company and have them take care of the insurance billing instead of paying for it out-of-pocket and getting reimbursed. But even if we do have to go the out-of-pocket route at least it'll still be mostly covered. Oh happy day!

Adele is growing like a weed, and is even more alert and active these days. She's batting at the hanging toys on her bouncy chair and is doing better at holding her head/chest up during tummy time. Lots of smiles and cooing, too. She turned 5 months old on Sunday--where has the time gone!

Anyway, enough words...on to photos! As always, the full album is available here, for those of you who like to purchase them (ahem, G-ma). And, lo and behold, I figured out how to upload a video there! It doesn't have sound (because my camera is low-rent) and it's really dark (because I'm a bad videographer), but you can get the gist. The legs are the important parts, and you can see those fairly well. Hopefully I can get more videos taken now that I know what I'm doing. It may take a minute or two to load, so be patient. I hope it works!

The outfit she wore for our meet-up with nurse Lauren! Love the baby jeans (a gift from the Lincoln Pontows)!

A close-up on the cutest shoes EVER! (Thanks, Joanne!)

Just a little tummy time...

More interested in the swing's warning label than the mobileFinally, a smile caught on film!The bee makes her smile.
See??
Cutest. Baby. Ever.

Care-ful

Adele started daycare today! She seemed fine when I dropped her off. I wish I could say the same for Steve and I.

An update, list style

I'm so behind with my posting! I actually started this post a week ago and never got around to finishing it up, so now the news feels old and outdated. Maybe I'll just make a list and summarize the past week's info.

1. Last weekend Adele took her first road trip, riding in style to Auntie M and Uncle Dan's beautiful home north of Des Moines for a Darrah family gathering. She did a fine job on the 3.5 hour drive, and woke up only once there and back. After a quick snack, she was happy again and slept the rest of the way. Adele finally got to meet her aunts, uncles and cousins, including her "little" cousin Edie who is a month younger than Adele but was supposed to have been two months older (oh, this math gets so confusing!).
2. Adele had a well-baby check-up on Monday, and what a great one it was! Doc Murphy is completely pleased and amazed by Adele's growth and progress. Our little baby was 12.5 pounds at 6 weeks adjusted. Unbelievable. She gained 1.5 pounds in 2 weeks, and she's now in the 15th percentile for weight for full-term 4.5-month-olds. Her other stats are 23.25 for length (8th percentile) and 15.25 head circumference (not quite 3rd percentile). She's got a teeeny little noggin and is fat everywhere else. She's doing just great otherwise, though. Doc says she seems right on target for her adjusted age developmentally and physically. Her neck strength is getting better and she's starting to take more interest in the world around her, especially toys and fun things like that.
3. We're slowly leaving the days of the NICU behind us. First, because she's gained weight so well, we've been given the go ahead to take her formula down from the 24-cal recipe to the 22-cal recipe. The other bit of news from the appointment is that we got the go-ahead to take her off the monitor! We'd pretty much stopped using it during the days, for the most part, and Friday night marked the first night we went all night without it. Such a big step. She's a 100% wireless baby now!! We'll wait until her next CMH appt next month to turn it back into the monitor company, just to be on the safe side though. (One side benefit of being monitor-free is that now we can finally use all the PJs we had for her that zip! It opens up a whole new world of cute clothing options.)
   
4. Adele starts daycare on Tuesday. I have full confidence in our sitter, but of course I'm sad she has to go at all. My main concern is her health, and I KNOW she's going to get sick. Hopefully it will be limited to small colds and nothing more. Luckily her doc receives the shipment of the RSV vaccination this week, so we'll take her in for that as soon as they call.
5. She is smiling a TON now. Still no laughs yet, but it won't be long now as both Steve and I heard her do it in her sleep the other day. I'm still having trouble catching her smile on film, but I'm going to keep trying.
6. Saturday (Sept 29) we went to KC and met Nurse Lauren for dinner. It was so good to see her again! She's become a true friend, and I know we'll stay in touch. We can tell she really loves Adele and wants to be a part of her life.
7. I packed up her old 0-3 month clothes today. She's fully in 3 month/3-6 month clothes. She's growing so fast! :*(
   

I guess that's about for the overdue recap. Here are a few photos for your enjoyment! Follow this link for more.

Adele Hitchcock:

Edie and Adele, having a gossip session:

A good fall weekend (and a really long update!)

The first signs of fall are starting to appear in our neck of the woods, and I couldn't be happier. Fall is my favorite season, but unfortunately in Kansas it's far too short. Like spring, it's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it period of what seems like a month and half, despite what the official start/end dates are. So, when we get that first cool day in September (and hopefully it doesn't wait until October!), I've got a uncontrollable urge to slip into jeans and long-sleeved shirts, eat something that involves the Crock-Pot and a spoon, and sleep with the windows open. I accomplished most of those over the past few days! YAY! The weather is verging on perfect, with highs in the upper 70s and overnight lows in the 50s. Now I just hope it stays this way well into October, although it could get a little cooler to allow for a jacket now and then.

One of the most obvious fall signs is the beginning of football season. I'm not as big of a football fan as I am a basketball fan (and I'm considering renouncing my Chiefs affiliation if things don't improve), but I do enjoy a good game now and then. However, the thing about football season that I DO love is that it brings with it MARCHING BAND season. I enjoyed marching band when I was in jr. high/high school in Iowa, and I still love watching marching bands now. I think a lot of the fun of a college football game is the halftime show!

One of the many reasons I love living in Lawrence is the annual Band Day Parade. It's usually on the second weekend in September (it was Sept. 8 this year), and high school bands large and small from around the area (and some as far away as near Wichita) travel to march in the parade and perform in the halftime show during the KU football game. The KU Marching Band always opens the parade, and it always ends with the local U.S. Army division's band. However, I think the day's biggest round of applause went to the Greensburg, Kansas, school band and their example of triumph over tragedy. In years past, Papa and G-ma Pontow have traveled here to watch the parade, but they were unable to attend this year's festitivies. We missed having them, but it was still a special day since we introduced Adele to her first marching band experience. The day was lovely--sunny and warm--and the bands were great, and a good time was had by all. Adele slept through the whole parade (maybe she found the cadences comforting), and woke up only after it was over. I met friends Rob & Kris and honorary grandparents Dick and Edie (Rob's parents, who have known Steve longer than I have!) downtown, so we didn't have to watch alone. I wish every day was Band Day!

Sunday brought more fun fall activities. South Park was the site of the annual Fall Arts & Crafts Festival, so we loaded up Adele and Skeeter and headed downtown for the morning. We spent a few hours checking out the booths (although Skeeter was a little too excited to be with all those people, so we avoided the major walkways) and, of course, had to indulge in some festival food. Steve had a brat, I had a steakburger, and we shared the Big Basket O'Curly Fries, a lemonade and a funnel cake. Ugh and yum all at the same time! We bought a few things--towels and scrubbies and a spiffy new dog collar for Mr. McWheeter--but we mostly just enjoyed being outside on a cool fall morning and spending time together as a family. If only every weekend could be like that weekend!

And now for the real reason you're here, an Adele update:
She had a quick weigh-in on Monday and tipped the scales at 11 pounds on the nose! She gained 17 ounces in just about as many days. We're happy about her weight gain for many reasons, but one of them is that this means that her urping isn't affecting her growth. It's unfortunate that she's still having spitting problems, but at least we know she's still thriving. She also got a round of vaccinations during the visit. I had to work, so Steve got to witness the event. He said she did fine for the most part. There was some screaming, which was to be expected, but I think overall she handled it well. Sadly, she's been poked so often in her young life, she's probably used to it by now. :( She did seem a bit fussier than usual that evening, and slept quite a bit more than normal. We also discovered she was running a slight fever, so we bought our first bottle of Infant Tylenol, which really seemed to help. We even managed to coax a few smiles out of her by the end of the night. Starting next month, she'll get her first RSV shot and will continue to get one a month through March. Thankfully my new insurance will cover all (or a good portion) of it. Right now Adele is covered by Medicaid, which might pick up any costs my insurance won't cover. However, we're not entirely sure how long she's covered by Medicaid, so I'm not planning to rely on that for much longer.

Yesterday we also met with the Early Intervention folks and set up Adele's case plan and determined what our goals are. Mainly, we want to be able to encourage her development in any way we can, and we also want to improve her feeding issues. I think Tiny K is going to be a great resource, and I look forward to working with them to make Adele the best Adele she can be! For the next month or so, we'll meet with our case manager every week (probably on Monday, since that's Steve's day off) and go over any concerns we have and identify ways we can accomplish our goals. I learned that we should be working with Adele to increase her wake times each day, since those are the times she's actually learning. I asked how you play with a baby who isn't really interactive yet, and they asked if she had a favorite toy, rattle, etc. I was embarrassed to admit that she has a Dad who works in a toy store and we don't have any toys! The horror! But we figured out a few ways we can entertain her when she's awake, and hopefully stimulate her learning/development at the same time. I think Steve and I will be learning just as much as Adele will be!

The only concerning thing that came out of the meeting was when the case manager asked if Adele had been diagnosed with any neurological problems in the hospital. Uh....not that I'm aware of. Well, I and a few others have noticed that every once in a while Adele's leg will twitch a little bit (sort of like when you scratch a dog in just the right place and their leg has a spasm). I notice it mostly when she stretches, and a lot of times during diaper changes. The case manager said it's probably just her immature nervous system, but I plan on asking the CMH doctors about it at our next appointment. I'm sure she's fine though. She never had any brain bleeds or any other issues that would be an obvious source for neurological problems. Still...can't help but be a little concerned until we get everything ruled out.

So, that's about it from our neck of the woods. Hope fall is creeping into your world and you're enjoying it as much as we are! In the meantime, here are some photos for your enjoyment. Additional photos can be found here! (My next photo goal is to capture her adorable smile!)

Hanging out at band day:


Naptime with Daddy:

She's a baby, and she has problems

Poor G-ma Pontow. Adele chose this week to become the Projectile Vomiting Queen of Douglas County (she gets a sash and everything). My mom is here watching Adele, and she's been spat upon every day this week, sometimes twice in one day. I think she'll bring extra clothes for her visit next week.

We're trying a few new things to hopefully tame the spitting. Today the doctor switched her from Zantac to Prevacid. We're trying our third type of bottle (Bottle 1 was the NICU bottle; Bottle 2 was the Playtex Ventaire; Bottle 3 is Dr. Brown's) and we have our fingers crossed. If you've been anywhere near a baby or pregnant woman in the past two years you've probably heard about Dr. Brown's bottles. Supposedly they contain magic fairy dust that instantly cures all babies of colic and reflux. And naturally they're about twice as expensive as any regular bottle you can buy, and of course we need special fast-flow nipples to accomodate Adele's thicker formula and they have to be purchased separately. THANKFULLY a coworker had four of the bottles she didn't need anymore and generously donated them to the cause. We're trying them for the first time tonight. Also, we realized that the formula that Hy-Vee has been ordering for us is slightly different from the formula the NICU gave us. The new formula has DHA & ARA additives, and the NICU formula doesn't. In doing some quickie Google searches, I found a few instances of babies having reactions to the additives, including spitting up. Thinking back, we decided that her barfing coincided with us getting formula from the store instead of the NICU. It's probably wishful thinking on my part that switching back to the additive-free version would suddenly cure what ails her. But you never know--sometimes things do work out that way! But in classic Buren-luck fashion, we have 4 unopened, unreturnable cans of the "bad" formula. Wonder if I could sell them on the black market? Maybe there's an underground baby formula network... In any case, she seems fine otherwise and we think she's still gaining weight fine. She has her next weight check on Monday, so we'll find out then.

In the meantime, we're practicing all the anti-reflux tricks we can think of: Keeping her upright during feeding and for 20-30 minutes after; burping often during feedings; smaller, more frequent meals; doing the hokey pokey and turning ourselves around... I'm sure by the time we find the magic combination of devices and methods, she'll outgrow this phase anyway.

Figures.

How do you spell relief?

Adele spells it "Z-A-N-T-A-C."

At our doctor's appointment at CMH Monday, Adele was diagnosed with acid reflux. Apparently this is a pretty common condition in babies, both full-term and preterm. I'm not totally surprised at the diagnosis since I thought she exhibited many of the symptoms (high-volume spit-ups; back arching and crying mid-bottle; coughing/gagging and then spitting up stomach fluid hours after meals). So she's now on 1ml of Zantac twice a day. Hopefully it does the trick. The medicine is peppermint flavored so it gives her nice, minty-fresh breath! She always seems a little shocked by the flavor whenever we give her the medicine--her eyes get big and wide and stay that way for a while. It's awfully cute. Her CMH appointment went well otherwise, and the doctor there was pleased by her growth. We must be doing something right!

Weather here was nice today and we had a break in the really high temperatures. I strapped on the sling and secured the baby and we took the dog on a walk. It felt good to get out and get some fresh air and feel the breeze. Adele slept the whole time, of course, but she made her "mmmm" noises with each step I took which was highly amusing. The girl's a talker, that's for sure (and I have NO idea where she gets it).

Today's my last week at home with the baby before I start my new job. I'm looking forward to getting back to work, especially at a job in town. I really liked my old job and definitely loved the folks I worked with, but it will be so nice not to have to commute every day! All those great benefits don't hurt either. ;) G-ma Pontow is coming on Monday to look after Adele for two weeks, then Steve will take a week's vacation and then Grandma Van Horn (Steve's mom) is taking the last week in September. It's so nice to have family who are willing to come and help out.

Catching up

It's been a while since I've posted an update of any sort. We're all settling in nicely, and are starting to get a bit of a routine, or at least Steve and I are beginning to anticipate Adele's needs instead of just reacting to her cries. Can't say we're experts at this whole parenting thing yet but we're learning!

Adele's health and progress is great so far. She's had a few weight checks, today's being the most recent. She's just under the 10 pound mark at 9 pounds, 15 ounces (and 22 inches long). Dr. Murphy is pretty shocked (in a happy way) by how well Adele is growing. She's now hugging the 3% percentile for weight and height for "normal" 3 month olds which is awesome. She's quite a chunk, too, with her chubby arms and legs. But of course it just makes her all the more adorable! She's outgrown many of her newborn onesies and fits better into the 0-3 month sizes. She inherited Steve's long torso so everything fits perfectly lengthwise, even if it's a bit loose around the middle. She had an eye exam at CMH last week and everything checked out perfectly. She doesn't need to have another exam for 6 more months! And luckily for Mom, Adele behaved herself in the rides to and from KC and in the waiting room. As with most kiddos, she zonks out as soon as she gets in the car. Tomorrow we travel to CMH for a check-up in the Special Care clinic. I'm assuming it's a regular doc appt where they'll check the usual stuff--weight, length, how much she's eating, etc. We're hoping that we'll get some news on when we can finally be rid of her monitor!

Homelife is going well too. She's a pretty easy baby and we're learning that she much prefers to be held with her tummy up on your shoulder (as if you're burping her) and not so much in a cradle hold. She's okay in the bouncy chair for awhile, but if you let her sit too long and she gets too upset, she has a tendency to urp her last meal. Yuck. Our main issue right now is that she wakes us up about every half-hour between the hours of 4:00 and 7:00 a.m. Ugh. She'll eat well at her 3:30 feeding and fall asleep just fine. Then, after about half an hour or so, she'll start grunting and creaking and squeaking and whimpering--just loud enough to wake us up--but when we go in to check on her she's sound asleep. So we head back to bed only to repeat the process in 20 or 30 minutes. Repeat for the next 2-3 hours. Yawn. The doctor's suggestion is to keep her awake in the late afternoons as much as possible and try to reset her internal clock. Any suggestions on how to keep a VERY tired newborn awake for more than 20 minutes when you can't really play with them?

We've enjoyed a few outings the past few weeks: We visited Topeka to see some my former coworkers; we visited CMP in Lawrence to see my soon-to-be coworkers; we've traveled downtown to see Dad at the Toy Store (and to bring him Happy Birthday cookies and milk on Saturday); we've made a few fast shopping trips downtown (so I could buy a sling--so handy for the baby who loves being held all the time!); and on Saturday evening we attended our first party at the Fitzno house. It was Adele's first friend outing, and we finally got to introduce her to all our friends. A good time was had by all and she was quite the star of the evening.

Oh, and the breastmilk reintroduction was a total failure. Two big thumbs DOWN. So my pumping days are over. I'm relieved and sad all at the same time. But I have a nice stash frozen in case she outgrows this allergy problem. We're going to try again in a month, hopefully with better results.

So that's the news from here! I'll leave you with a few photos:

The fruits of my labors (notice how there's no room for food in the freezer):


Chubby baby:


Her enthusiasm for tummy time is contagious:

Is this thing on?

Welcome to the new home of all things Adele! We decided to move the blog operation to a new location since we have a bit more functionality here. Caring Bridge was a great information hub while Adele was in the hospital, but it is a bit limited in options, and was rather cumbersome at times. We hope you enjoy the updates here, too. Can't say they'll be as frequent or as informative as they were on CB, but we'll keep you as updated as two busy parents can.

Now fix yourself a nice TV dinner and enjoy the show!