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 I actually started this post a week ago and never got around to finishing it up, so now the news feels old and outdated.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.