The sick house

Instead of a touching and sentimental post about how great it was to have my parents here helping us and how sad we are they left today (who will do the laundry? hang with Elizabeth? empty the dishwasher? hold Andrew constantly?), I'm wishing I had hopped in the back of their car as they sped away from the sick house, driving toward 80 degree weather.

My dad got it first, and his developed into bronchitis. Then my mom went down, then Rich. And yesterday, Elizabeth. Andrew and I are hanging strong, but I'm not sure how long we'll hold out.

- Susan

off the charts!

Yesterday was Andrew's one-month check up. Wait for it.......

12 lbs, 4 oz. 24 inches long.

He's added 4 inches and 2 lbs 12 oz in one month. He's officially off the charts for the height and weight. (he's already grown out of some newborn clothes.) His head size, though, is right at the 50th percentile. It's impossible not to do comparisons with Elizabeth - her head size was so off the charts the doctor always remeasured after the nurse to make sure it was accurate. And while I don't remember exactly, she went off the charts early on, then settled into somewhere between 50-75 percentile for height and weight.

Sleeping is getting better - we've had two nights with stretches longer than 4 hours. And when he is awake, he's alert and bright-eyed - he's lost what my friend Vickie calls the newly-landed-on-earth look. And I'm not quite sure when that happened, though I meant to notice, but I do know every day he learns a little more and settles into his life on earth with us.

My friend Thrift Store Mama has a quote board on her blog, with a quote from our friend Laurie: "how nostalgic I've become for times that haven't even passed yet." So true. Every day he - and Elizabeth - grow, and learn, and change. And if you miss it, you miss it. He's still an infant of course, and is quite snuggly, but it only took a few days it seems to leave the tiny baby stage behind. I page through iphoto with Elizabeth, showing her baby pictures, comparing to Andrew, showing her what will come. It won't be long before he's laughing, rolling over, sitting up, trying solids...all the milestones to come. We'll treasure every one and won't miss a minute of it.

Another Birthday

Lots of December birthdays.

Happy 4th birthday, Samantha!

Shout-outs

Happy Belated 38th Birthday Michael!

And, Happy 7th Birthday Emily and Benjamin!

whoa

Busy week! Monday we saw the pediatric surgeon; yesterday had the two-week checkup.

The surgeon/tongue clipping was fine - simple, over quickly, and mostly without fuss. The doctor told us it would hurt us more than it hurt him, and then sent us to the waiting room right next door to the procedure room. There was no sound-proofing, so we heard the shocked/angry cries, and they brought him to us with a wad of gauze stuffed in his mouth, shrieking angrily at the injustice of it all. But he was over it quickly - nursed and promptly fell asleep. And yes, it's made a difference in the latch, so all in all a good thing.

And then the 2-week checkup. Turns out we might not be raising a quarterback, much to Rich's chagrin, but rather a linebacker. Hopefully not an offensive lineman, though.*

Recap - born at 9 lb 8 oz, dropped to 8 lb 6 oz, at one week gained to 8 lb 13 oz. I typed last week of course we wouldn't hit birth weight by two weeks. Ha, haha haha.

9 lbs 13 oz. He gained ONE POUND in 8 days. That's two ounces a day. He's 4 oz beyond birth weight. WOW. Our little man is not so little. All that nursing at night must be having an impact.

In better news, last night instead of every two hours, he was up every three - 11 pm, 2 am, 5 am, 8 am. Not too shabby. At least compared to up all night.

(* who are we kidding? We're raising the president of the math league, not a football player.)

- Susan

Not quite

Perfect, that is. Well, awfully darn close to perfect, but after our one week doctor visit on Monday, we have a little bit to do.

Let's see, first things first. Andrew was born weighing 9 lbs, 8 oz. By day four in the hospital, he was down to 8 lbs, 6 oz, which was a drop of over 10%. But, happy news, on Monday he weighed 8 lbs, 13 oz. So he's definitely on the gaining side and we're not concerned about weight at this point. He may not hit birth weight by two weeks, but we'll get close enough.

You might recall a couple of the posts have mentioned I didn't think he was latching entirely correctly. I wish I had typed out what I thought was the problem, because turns out my mother's instincts were spot on - the lactation consultant/nurse practitioner looked at him for no more than 5 seconds before saying, wow, he needs to have that frenulum clipped! He's tongue-tied. So that explains the minor difficulties in nursing. The Doctor Sears link makes it sound very easy, but I guess nothing in this area is easy. We have to see a specialist and the procedure is considered surgery. We scored an appointment for this coming Monday morning - even though the specialist had no openings until January they had just had a cancellation. Wish us luck!

Whaddya mean, not perfect??!! Of course he's perfect!

NaBloPoMo friends

So we made it through NABloPoMo - a post a day. I'm sure you've noticed our blogroll over on the right - all friends from my mom's group, all of whom agreed to participate in NaBloPoMo. We had fun posting, reading each other's posts, and commenting. Blogging is a nice way to have a little window into daily life. My mom's group formed based on a weekly breastfeeding support group we all attended in the fall of 2005. I went initially to get out of the house and talk to other new moms, and kept going because it was so much fun to be in a room with women who were experiencing similar life changes, had similar questions, and who could provide just general support and friendship. After each class, we'd gather our stuff and head off to a long lunch to continue talking. As our time in the class drew to a close, I was bummed to lose this support group, and it turns out others were too - and so we started meeting monthly for a playdate, and e-mailing, and then meeting monthly for Mom's night out dinner, then monthly for downtown lunches. And from all that, real friendships have forged.

We had a special night out at Therese's to celebrate NaBloPoMo - Thrift Store Mama documented the night and the "blogging awards."

- Susan