A very late update

Sorry it has taken me so long to report on Adele's appointment-filled day the other day. It was quite a busy day, but it was good to be able to just wipe out a ton of errands on one day.

Stats:
15 pounds, 7 ounces (one week later she was back up to 16 pounds even)
26.5 inches long

Both pediatric appointments were pretty much the same. Overall Adele is doing fine, but both docs are hoping to see Adele start gaining significantly again. Nothing that's of major concern now, but both docs plan to watch her closely to see how she's going to trend. We decided to put her back on Prevacid, since the times she was on it were the times she ate and gained the most. We were okay with that since we thought the same thing. We'll start with that change for now, and if we don't see improvement after a month or so, we'll try a different route. I'm not terribly concerned since she has done a LOT better in the week since she's been back on it. (And then of course I feel a little terrible about taking her off in the first place--I guess she really did need it!) Developmentally she's absolutely great and is right on track. As usual, the eating issue is our only concern, and even it's minimal.

She also had a cardiology appointment to check her PFO murmur, and she was given a clean bill of health and was completely released from any other follow up care there!

Next month we'll head back up to CMH for three appointments, two on 2/11 (another special care clinic appt to see if she's gaining weight again and one in their developmental clinic) and on 2/14 (a short eye exam). We weren't able to get all three on one day, unfortunately. Then we'll have to go back up in March, most likely, for her swallow study to see if she can finally get off thickener.

Fun milestones and other tidbits:

• Babbling, babbling, babbling: Da-da-da, ma-ma-ma, ba-ba-ba, and sometimes, I swear, "blah, blah, blah." Ah, the attitude, it begins so young these days.
• Solids are going better. Peas are still a favorite, but this morning we mixed cereal (oatmeal) and pears together and she tolerated both much better than when they're separate. We'll try that with other fruits later, if the first go doesn't work out. We also have a better plan of attack as to how and when she gets them. Mornings will be cereal and/or fruit and evenings will be a veggie before bed. Ultimately she'll drop her two bottle feedings at those times, but for now we're keeping them in, just feeding her less if she's had a good amount of solids to eat. Since all her nutrients and calories come from her formula, we want that to be the majority of her food.
• Her "going" problem seems to have resolved itself. Prunes really seemed to help. I also noticed that the problem went away when we started Prevacid again. Coincidence?
  
• She's had a few bottles of breastmilk and so far so good! No adverse side effects that I can see. There's hope yet!
• We're working on sitting up. She's very good on laps or with minimal support, but she just doesn't want to stay upright on her own. That's okay--she's doing fine for her adjusted age.
• Lots of laughs, giggles, big smiles--those are the best!
• We're trying to get a more established, consistent routine in place as far as naps and feedings go. Feedings usually aren't a problem, since we never usually let her go more then 4 hours without eating (except at night), but naptimes have always been helter skelter. I think we'll all do better with a bit of routine, especially now that we have to fit in another task (solids). Also, she still needs rocking or holding to get her to sleep for naps, and something tells me that won't always fly at daycare. I'm hoping a consistent nap routine will help her learn what naptime means and then maybe she'll eventually be able to get herself to sleep without as much soothing on anyone's part. Night bedtimes will always be a special time for cuddling, though. :)
• Still no teeth, although I expect them any day based on the amount of slobbering and chewing she does.
• We're both enjoying our weekly water class, even if the drying off and redressing does take longer than the class itself. Still it's a great workout for me and Adele really enjoys the splashing! I also enjoy the interaction with the fellow moms, especially since I don't know a lot of moms here who have kids Adele's age.
  
• We found a great daycare, and she starts tomorrow (Jan 28). She'll go full time, which will give Steve a day off at home to run errands and clean house (YES!) and I'll be back in the office on Fridays. Every other Monday she'll go in late so we can have Tiny-K at home. We're very happy with our new provider, and are confident that it will be a good, stable environment for Adele. Thanks to Grandma Pontow who watched Adele all last week to cover the gap between sitters. We were grateful for the help, and I think Adele enjoyed having all the attention for a few days.
  

Well, that's it from here, I guess. She's doing well, just the usual things to keep an eye on. But if this past week is any indication, I'd say we're on the right track again. I have some new photos to share, but it's feeding time at the zoo and someone is ready for her peas! I'll try to post those within the next day or so.

Name Game

ETownDZ over at Goddess in Progress recently blogged about how she and her husband decided on the names of their twins, and she challenged other bloggers to share their stories. Ours isn't very thrilling, but here it is anyway.

Early on in the pregnancy, Steve and I had decided we wouldn't find out ahead of time if the baby was a boy or a girl. While the naming process would be much easier--we could eliminate a whole category!--we felt it took away from the mystique by knowing ahead of time. Plus if it was a girl, we didn't want to end up with a carload of pink or blue items at the shower. ;)

In her post, ETownDZ mentions some of her name-choosing criteria, several of which Steve and I tried to follow, too. Specifically, "Nothing in the top 10 for popularity the previous year," "Nothing that felt too 'trendy'" and "Straightforward spelling and pronunciation." We both preferred "old-fashioned" names, something that would carry a person from infancy to adulthood without ever seeming inappropriate. Steve works in retail, managing a toy store, and hears children's names all day long, so he had some pretty specific ideas of what he did and didn't want. (No Wolfgangs or Cheneys, thankyouverymuch. And yes, those are names of actual children, sadly enough.) And for Steve, a big one is that there would not, under any circumstances, be an SRB III.

Unfortunately, with us coming into parenthood late in the game, many of the names we did like had been used by family or were so popular (or variations thereof were so popular) we had to cross them off our list. Also, names I loved he disliked (August, for instance) and vice versa.

Some folks have issues with not wanting names that can be made into nicknames (Alexander becoming Alex), but that wasn't a problem for us. Some parents eliminate names because they think it will be a source of teasing for the child. Personally, I figure kids will always find something to tease other kids about, and their name is the least of my worries. Some parents worry about pronounciation and spelling and whether a name is TOO unique. While I'm not one for making up a funky name just because I can, I also don't think a name should be eliminated simply because someone else can't take the time to learn how to spell or pronounce it correctly. (And I say this as someone who's had to spell and repronounce their name their entire life. Whatever. Big whoop.)

So, that left us with about two names to choose from. Ha. Kidding.

We got the books from the library and perused name websites. I asked about names of relatives as far back as our moms and dads could remember. I thought about favorite books, TV shows and other pop culture references. Pretty much anything was a source of inspiration.

It was easy to find girls' names we liked, and eventually we settled on Alice. We were both happy with it and it met all of our completely ridiculous criteria. If I remember correctly, we'd chosen Anne for a middle name since it went well with Alice, and it's my middle name. Boys names were a different story, however. We just couldn't think of anything both of us were truly happy with. We tentatively decided on Jack Hilland (both are family names), which is a nice, sturdy boys name, even if Jack is a little overused these days. (And secretly, I was hoping for a girl because I liked Alice better than Jack!)

Then, one day, we were throwing out names just to be sure, and I mentioned Adeline. Steve wasn't too fond of it and suggested a shortened version, Adele. I loved it right away and it seemed like THE most beautiful name in the whole world. Somehow, Irene seemed to fit just perfectly with Adele and we had a middle name. (Irene was my Grandma Pontow's middle name, so we had a family connection which was something I liked too.) Both names were simply perfect in all ways: unique but not weird, interesting but not wacky, timeless and suitable for a girl of all ages.

And then Adele came too early. After she was born, when the room was full of activity and the doctors and nurses were all tending to her, I finally thought to ask if we'd had a boy or a girl. When I heard it was a girl, I thought "It's an Adele," and it seemed as if it was always meant to be that way.

Gag her with a spoon

Adele seems to be riding the spit-up train again. Sigh... It began last week sometime, when we noticed she was spitting up more than usual. Over the weekend, at G-ma & Papa Pontow's she had several projectile episodes after eating. She also had a few before she ate, which is a new and exciting development.

In addition to that, she seems to be having trouble, well, you know, going number 2. That IS very unusual for her, as she's always been a regular goer. Since it's been awhile now (probably a good week or so) since she's had a nice, um, movement, I called the doctor today. Her advice was to introduce fruits into Adele's diet. We haven't done a whole lot with solid foods so far (just some cereal and bananas), but I did happen to have some pears in the pantry for when we did decide to move on to fruits. So, this afternoon I put the spoon to her mouth and shoveled some in... Adele got a very peculiar look on her face (not unusual since this was her first taste of pears) and promptly projectile vomited her formula all over herself, the Bumbo and the dining room table. (And this was the second shirt of the day, since she'd already puked all over herself once today.) I get her cleaned up, and even give her a bath since she's awfully sticky. Figure I'll give it another shot (yes, I am officially nuts or hopelessly optimistic) and get her all loaded into the Bumbo again. Get another spoonful into her mouth and we get a repeat projectile performance. Sigh...

So there we are. Poor baby can't go to the bathroom and yet I can't get anything in her that will help her go. She's not drinking as much formula and when she does drink, she ends up throwing half of it up again. I have a theory that the lack of movement is making her tummy upset and/or she's so backed up there's no where for it to go. Makes sense to me anyway. But how are we supposed to give her any relief in the meantime? And then I worry that she'll get dehydrated or lose weight again. Yuck.

My other theory is that she's teething. Mom remembers me going through a huge spitting-up spurt when I teethed, so maybe she's going through the same thing? I can feel a hard ridge under her bottom gums, but nothing that would indicate teeth are ready to burst through.

Luckily Friday brings our day of doc appointments so we can get some input on everything. OH! Speaking of doc appointments, Monday was her audiology appointment (because of her failed hearing screen) and she's just fine. Both ears passed with flying colors.

Today and tomorrow we're heading out to interview some potential daycares. One of them comes highly recommended from two folks, so I have high hopes. Keep your fingers crossed!

In other developmental news, she's mastered the fine art of rolling both ways. She's never in the same position we lay her down in. We've also heard some "ma-ma-ma" and "na-na-na" sounds. She's not real consistent with her "talking" but now that we know she can hear, we're not too worried. (I know what you're thinking: She probably can't get a word in edgewise.)

So, all in all, she's doing fine and seems to be happy and healthy. We're very lucky that this digestive stuff is the worst of our problems, it seems.

Hokey pokey

You put your left leg out, and you shake it all about...

And just because...

Who can resist that face? (Sorry for the blinding reflection off the crib bar!)

News, and a photo

Good news:
Found out today that Medicaid will completely cover the unpaid (by insurance) portion of Adele's hospital stay, which means ZERO out-of-pockets costs for us! That is a HUGE relief. Our portion was only (only!) $4,000, which isn't huge compared to how much her total bill was, but still. That's a decent chunk o' change. It's nice to know she's ours, free and clear. ;)

Had a quick weight check today and she was 16 pounds on the nose! Finally!

So-so news:
She's failed the hearing screen twice in her left ear. We're now onto a referral to an audiologist and will go from there. I'm not terribly concerned, but just wondering what, if anything, is going on.

The fun news:
We had our first water class on Saturday. It was fun but a LOT of work for me. I am terribly out of shape and it was hard work holding her and doing modified water aerobics for 30 minutes. But it's a great group of moms and babies and I think it'll end up being a good workout. Adele seemed to have fun too!

A photo:

The next Esther Williams

That's just how she rolls

She made the flip from back to tummy! I was washing bottles and making formula and she was on the floor playing with her feet. Last I saw her she was on her side, when I walked by again she was fully on her stomach! I didn't witness the actual rollover, but since no one else was here (and I doubt the dog gave her a helpful nudge) it's pretty evident she did it all by herself. Woo!

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And in other news, we got word today that our daycare provider is reducing her hours and the number of kids she's watching and Adele is being downsized. The daycare provider said we could keep her there until we found someone else, but I'm sure we need to be out by the end of the month. We're paid through next week and we gave a two week deposit, so I guess 3 weeks is the cut-off. Ugggggh. I really, really HATED the daycare search the first time and I'm really not looking forward to it this time. Bah humbug. Keep your fingers crossed that we'll find a great place within our budget that has immediate availability. Ha ha ha.

The Jayhawks gave me an Orange Bowl victory as an early birthday present, so there's something good! Finally a team I'm rooting for wins the big one!

For Uncle Blur

The only KU-gear-sporting Adele photo I have, taken a few months ago:

RCJH

Beak 'em, Hawks!

P.S.

She had her last dose of Prevacid the Thursday before Christmas, and so far so good! We haven't noticed any 'flux related pain/discomfort and the spitting up hasn't resurfaced. I hope this means we're good to go! It's definitely saving us a boatload of money ($62 every two weeks--ouch). Of course, it does make me wonder how necessary it was in the first place. Water under the bridge, water under the bridge...