Sentimental Fool

As fall quickly approaches, and as Adele quickly outgrows all her clothes, it's become apparent we're overdue for a clothing purge. Every day is a struggle to find something that fits her AND is weather appropriate. (When it's 50-something in the morning and 80-something in the afternoon, it's very difficult to know how to dress your kid for the day.) Adele has two drawers and a closet full of clothes, but only 25% of it fits right now. This morning, I got sick of the digging and finally pulled everything that was too small or too summery.

A few weeks ago, my friend at Goddess in Progress blogged about packing up her twins' clothes, and how she didn't feel much of a desire to keep anything. She wrote, "I don’t find myself with any real pull to keep any of it. Maybe it’s because we’re most likely done having kids..." The opposite is true for me. I got misty a few times as I was packing up the last of the onesies today. Part of the sadness/wistfulness is knowing that Adele isn't a baby anymore, the other part is knowing that there likely won't be another baby later that would make it necessary to keep anything. It's hard for me to let go of the one and only baby experience I'll have.

I am sentimental by nature, no doubt, but I'm sure my sadness is magnified by how I still feel like I was cheated out of the Full Pregnancy Experience. Everything ended too soon--it all went too fast. While I know being a one-kid family is the right choice for us, I still can't help but wish I could do it one more time, just to prove I CAN. Just to experience those things I didn't get to the first time (like the third trimester). Just to have, maybe, a normal labor and delivery. Just to know what it's like to be discharged from the hospital WITH your baby. But Steve and I are no spring chickens, and soon I'll be in Advanced Maternal Age territory. AMA means higher risk pregnancies, and I just can't take that chance again. So, one kid it is. At least we hit the jackpot the first time! AND I get to live vicariously through my fellow Preemie Moms who are brave enough to try again, like my friend Jessica (mom to a 25-weeker), who is almost 35 weeks along in her current pregnancy and cruising toward her Oct. 21 c-section date. Or my friend Jen (mom to a 30(?) weeker), who bed-rested her way through most of her second pregnancy, but was rewarded with a gorgeous, healthy, Take-Home Baby, Caleb.

Back to clothes: I did keep most of her first outfits, the tiny preemie onesies that she wore in the NICU, and the outfit she wore home from the hospital. And I kept certain items that were meaningful in some other way (her first Easter dress; the little red hooded sweater she wore in her first professional photo; favorite shirts and receiving blankets). But everything else is boxed up, ready to be passed on to someone else who can actually use it.

Now, I just need to find homes for the baby carseat, baby bathtub, Bumbo tray, Boppy, mobile...

Baby steps

Sorry that I haven't posted much lately! We've been very busy lately, and you can always assume no news is good news. 

Adele is absolutely fabulous in every way. And, get this--she's WALKING. Yipes. She started taking steps around Steve's birthday in late August, and over the course of the next few weeks she's progressed by leaps and bounds. (Ha! Punny!) She can walk across a room without falling once, but it might take her all day. Slow and steady wins the race, I guess! She still chooses to crawl most of the time, but I have noticed that she's attempting to walk first before giving in to the faster, more efficient mode. This weekend we're off to KC to get her some real shoes, just in time for cooler weather. Robeez just won't cut it in the cold, wet Kansas winters, no matter how cute they are.

She had a developmental follow-up at Children's Mercy last week and that went fine. We're still waiting on the final report, so I don't have anything "official" to share. But no major concerns were mentioned to us, so one can assume all is well! The psychologist did say that Adele was "smart but intense" (after witnessing a major meltdown when I wouldn't let Adele keep climbing the PT stairs). Ah yes..."intense"...guess we will need to learn how to keep that attitude of hers focused in the right direction. And I have NO idea who she gets it from...(ahem).

Anyway, the whole point of this post is to share the video montage I made. Enjoy watching Adele progress from unsteady stumbler to sure-footed walker! (Okay, maybe that last part is a stretch, but she's getting close!)

(Filmed Sept. 9-15)

Is it November 5th yet?

I will not give myself an ulcer this election cycle.
I will not give myself an ulcer this election cycle.
I will not give myself an ulcer this election cycle.

Deep breaths in...deep breaths out...

Weekend in Wichita

We took a quick trip to Wichita this weekend to see the family down there and had a blast. But before I talk about THAT, I need to mention that Grandparents Pontow were here Friday and Saturday and REALLY helped us out by babysitting for several hours on Saturday so I could attend a church meeting (while Steve worked) and so Steve and I could go see Batman on Imax. Steve and I rarely get to do anything together without the baby (not that we mind), and we really appreciated that G-ma and Papa were willing to watch Adele for a few hours! Thank you! (By the way, the movie is AWESOME. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it, and seeing it on Imax is worth the extra bucks!)

Anyway, Sunday we headed to Wichita to see family there and take a much-needed mini-break. Most of Steve's family lives there (his Dad and Raylene live in OKC), which includes his mom and Ted, his triplet siblings and all their kids. It's quite a group when everyone gets together! Unfortunately, Theresa's girls were sick, so they couldn't come over. But Jason and Angie (the other two of the triplets) and their significant others and kids all made it over. YAY!

We spent a few hours in Grandma and Grandpa VanHorn's pool and enjoyed a delicious supper complete with an early birthday cake for Steve! Monday was Steve's birthday and we went to the Sedgewick County Zoo and spent half the day there. I'd never been and the last time Steve was there was at least 25 years ago. It was a really nice zoo! Great exhibits, very clean and well-kept and CHEAP (thanks especially too some 1/2 price admission tix we got from the VanHorns). And since it was a Monday morning, it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. Adele seemed to enjoy the animals, although she did konk out about halfway through the morning. After the zoo we hit Pei Wei for birthday lunch with Steve's mom and were on the road back home.

Since we weren't able to take a real vacation this year, we've been relying on occasional long weekends to break up the summer. We camped earlier in the season and now we're wrapping up the summer with the zoo trip. Fun! I even remembered to take some photos during the weekend.

Oh! The other fun thing that happened was that Adele came THISCLOSE to walking! She's standing up on her own more and more now and occasionally she'll take a step (although sometimes she does more of a pivot move). I'm sure it's only a matter of weeks before she figures it all out. Eek! So, there's a short video of some small steps after the photos. Enjoy! Also, I put an album online in case you want to see more of the weekend. Click here for those.

(That's cousin McKenzi in the background...)

I can't believe I missed it!

I can't believe I forgot to acknowledge the one-year anniversary of Adele's release from the NICU! August 11 (Monday) is the anniversary date, and we spent it at home because Adele had a fever and couldn't to to daycare. I'm kind of sad that I let the big day slip by unnoticed. But maybe that's a GOOD sign--we've obviously moved past those days and are too busy with fun stuff to think about the NICU.

It seems like only yesterday, and yet it seems like YEARS ago. How is that possible? Either way, I'm glad it's only a memory now.

Anyway, because it's appropriate...

Then:

The last night in the NICU crib!

Getting ready to go!

Riding home...getting closer!

Home sweet home, crib sweet crib.
So tiny--I forgot how she used to sleep short-wise in the crib!

Now:

I thought this outfit was super-cute!

What she looks like in her crib these days...

For cuteness' sake.

Standing like a big girl. We're in trouble, aren't we?

15-month stats

Adele had her 15-month well-baby check up yesterday and the stats are as follows:

Weight: 19 pounds, 8 ounces (5-10 percentile)
Length: 30 inches (25-50 percentile)
Head circ: 17.25 inches (25-50 percentile)
Weight to length: 10-25 percentile

She's still pretty small for a 15-month-old, but she's stayed on the curves she's always been on, and that's really what the docs are looking at. If she stays put, it looks as though she'll end up being tall and thin. The tall doesn't surprise me one bit! Of course, I always like to look at the chart using her adjusted age, so in that regard...

Weight: 10-25 percentile
Length: 75-90 percentile (not surprising)
Head: 50-70 percentile

The bottom line is that she's growing appropriately and is healthy! That's all anyone cares about. :)

The best news from the appointment is that we can now treat Adele like a "normal" baby! No one has used the phrase "caught up" yet, but most preemies don't technically catch up to their actual age until around 2. Dr. Murphy gave us the OK to stop Early Intervention (aside from the monthly feeding therapy appointment), and once Adele has finished up the frozen breastmilk, we're done with bottles and on to cups and cow's milk full-time! Also, once we finish up this last batch of Prevacid, we're dropping that from the regimen. Her language is fine, her gross and fine motor skills are fine, her growth is fine... Have I mentioned that she's fine? ;) The only special thing we have to continue is thickening her liquids. We reguarly give her unthickened cow's milk in a sippy cup, and she manages that perfectly, but she will still sputter on unthickened water. It's a minor annoyance, though, and one I can live with considering how few other precauctions we have to take.

Somewhat off-topic, I have to apologize for the lack of photos lately. I haven't been taking many (too busy chasing after a certain busy baby!), and the ones I HAVE taken haven't turned out too well. I will do my best to rectify that, though! And in the meantime, you can enjoy this short video of Adele and Daddy playing Adele's new favorite game, "Talk into the Can." This game is right up there with her other favorite games, "Bang on the Can" and "Throw All My Toys into the Can and Then Pull Them All Back Out Again." I swear, that $3 can of hot chocolate was the best money we ever spent.

One year adjusted!

Today Adele is one-year-old adjusted (15 months actual, as of yesterday!). She had her Early Intervention assessment today and scored right on for her adjusted age (which is all anyone cares about). She's right on track as far as doing what "normal" 12-month-olds should do! She says a few words, points, knows who Mommy and Daddy are, plays appropriately with toys, cruises well (and has even stood alone for a few seconds a couple of times), is great at feeding herself, etc. She's absolutely perfect those areas. In fact, there wasn't anything they told us we should be concerned about, which is great. We'll see how she does at the "official" screening in September (at Children's Mercy), but honestly, I'm totally not worried. She has a doc appt in town next week, and I'm hoping that with this assessment in hand, we can stop Early Intervention altogether. We might end up doing a program called Ages and Stages, which is a little less intensive and requires meetings only once every three months. I really look forward to not having these twice-monthly appointments!

We'll finish off what we're hoping is her last can of formula today, as we expect to transition her milk fully after next week's doc appt. In the meantime, we're giving her the non-expired breastmilk and that is going really well. She's been eating it exclusively at daycare for about two weeks, and I gave her an 8oz bottle today (I'm home with her since daycare is closed) and she ate it like a champ! Of course, we also plan to drop the bottle soon, but we might have to keep one or two a day until the breastmilk is gone. Still not sure how one goes about weaning off the bottle--if it's gradual or cold-turkey--but I don't have many concerns about it being too difficult. She's never been that attached to her bottles (and there were plenty of times when she could take or leave them!) so I hope we can just let them go and never look back! It's weird to think about suddenly NOT making bottles 3-4 times a day, and we'll have to figure out new ways to get our snuggle times in. I also worry about her getting enough regular milk in during the day, but I'm sure that will come with time. I am NOT worried about her getting enough calories, however, as the girl will eat ANYTHING. Any fruit, veggie, bean, grain, pasta, cheese, meat (well, all she's had is chicken, but she liked it) is a hit with her. Thank goodness for that!

So, I guess you could say things are going really well! I'll know more after next week's appointment, but again, I'm so not worried about anything that I'm sure it will all go fine!

In unrelated news, I am SO excited for the Olympics to start tonight! I have the DVR set to record the opening ceremonies in case we're busy with dinner or bedtime when everything starts. I need to get on NBC's website and check out the schedule so I don't miss anything major.

I guess that's about it from here!