You know that phenomena where you go to Walmart thinking you're just going for a travel air compressor and an exercise ball... and walk out with 4th of July themed kids headband, pink flamingos and red/white/blue brownie bites?
Not only pink flamingos, but a pineapple sippy cup, toddler sized Adirondack chair and table, 4 little american flags and a heart full of dreams about a 4th of July/Summertime photo session with 80.
This is more like what I got.
I wish I had a little kitchy white ceramic poodle! And I forgot his sunglasses inside!
To be fair, he was really tired, and the chair is too big for him. And I'm standing about 5 feet away (more if I could)
Now, 80 didn't cooperate, so whatever, but I am really happy with the colors in these. They turned out true, on camera! I didn't edit or adjust these at all ( I would have given a little more saturation to the red though)! I needed to move the left flamingo out of the sun, I knew that when I took the first picture, but I took it *while holding 80* so I couldn't. When I set this up tomorrow (or whenever), I'm going to do it earlier in the day (I took these around 1pm) so there is more shade on the front lawn and also I am going to hack that ugly bush back (it's dead) since I kind of like the angle of the top image better than the bottom two. I would also like to hit up the dollar store to get:
a. a colorful straw to poke out of the pineapple
b. a drink umbrella since the pineapple comes apart in the center.
c. a little flowerpot with a fake flower in it? for behind the chair to the right?
I also have a plate and red white and blue brownie bites to set on the table, and American flags and ribbons to place, but I wanted this set to be more Summer and less 4th of July (back yard I think). It ended up being less 'Fun in the Sun' and more 'time for my midday nap'.
I am cooking up a plan: to see if there are any other moms out there who would like a couple photos of their babies looking Summerful, in exchange for them handling my guy for a few minutes so I can take a few pictures of him without him bloodying his nose on the front porch. I may not go through with it, I'm pretty nervous photographing other people since I'm so critical. What is good enough for me is never good enough to put my name on for others.
Stretches were good! She modified one of the stretches slightly, while sitting she wants him to stretch to the left and right foot.
She was happy with his legs while on his tummy. Before they have been straight and tight. Today they were bent and well under him, improvement! He only reached for the butterfly toy, not the piano or the alphabet ball (the ones she wants him reaching for, the butterfly is just a pacifier). His protection reflex was better too.
He did cry through 95% of the session though... Better than the 98% of last time!
After PT, 80 and I hit up the Savannah Once Upon a Child. They were having a 50% off sale for marked items (there were tons) so we got quite a haul! I was looking for bodysuits and shorts to spice up his wardrobe which is heavily dominated by rompers. I like rompers, no, I love them, but its all he has and it bores me.
I also found the only boys 4th of July outfit for a million miles. I also found a little brown "Daddy suit" which means -- Photo session soon! I am thinking it needs to be at the beach!
Little firecracker! Yes! 2 more rompers.. sigh
When I walked up, there was a red Schwinn double jogging stroller by the door, with some lady prodding at it. When I was paying, there was another lady prodding at it. It made me antsy, anyone who has dealt with OUC knows strollers don't stay long. I asked the price, $100 (its a $320 stroller at babies r us) so I snagged it. I haven't used it, but rolling it from the store to my car and my car to the house, its incredibly light on its wheels and highly maneuverable. I like it already, too bad it has to sit in a closet till at least next year! :/
Dane the bear got strapped in, 80 is a little small to strap without neck pads.
Hey, I didn't know it had this! I don't really run in the rain but this will be great during Savannah's sand gnat outbreaks. I'm more and more excited about this stroller, it has cup holders on both sides, and the rain shield, but no tray (even as an add on) but I don't really like the idea of my kids constantly snacking to keep them quiet so its not a major issue.
Here are some of the clothes he got:
Sully onesie? Onesie with a tie?! Put it in the bag!
It eliminates dishes because I can steam and purée in the same container. And it only has 3 cleanable parts (removable blade, the container, and the lid) which is another huge plus for me.
I chose this processor over other such as the Baby Bullet, Baby Brezza, or the Nuk Freshfoods processor based on reviews. The bullet tends to shred its own plastic, and I can't remember if its the Nuk or the Brezza but one of them, a reviewer tried to contact them about the chemical makeup of the coating on the inside of the steam tank because some had flaked off in the child's food. And they were not able to answer her because they couldn't retrieve the information from their factory in china. That is a huge red flag for me, shouldn't they know what is being used by their factory?! Shouldn't they give the factory the design, specs, and material list and the Chinese factory make it?? Scary!
Anyway. I digress. Cuisinart is a great brand, tried and true and I like their food processor. It's also a bottle warmer but I have not had any luck getting that to adequately warm my bottles. I have since switched to using the Playtex drop ins, and I rewarm those in Keurig water so I never use the bottle warming feature anymore.
I purée whatever I'm making with skins on. You can see in the pictures that after the steaming, the skins are no bigger than flecks of pepper. The steamer deposits steam water in with whatever you're steaming, great for avacados, but it made the pears too liquid. I dumped all of the water out for the apples and like their consistency much more.
So onto the storage. I bought this ice cube tray at my local TJ Maxx. The amazon price is the same, I paid 7.99.
ice cube tray, the two cubes are pears and apples
I was attracted by the bottom of the tray, which is silicone (It's all BPA free). I don't have to crack the ice cubes or twist the tray, just flip over and pop the bottom. I've frozen avocado, banana, carrots, apples and pears and never had an issue with sticking, they come right out! Plus the little ice cubes are a perfect serving size for 80, who is really just sampling food right now. As he gets older I can add more cubes. I pop them in the microwave in increments of 10 seconds to warm them up. This set of 2 ice cubes took 30 seconds total, but normally I can get good room temp results in 15 seconds.
When I store my ice cubes I put them in leftover hillshire farms deli meat containers, sorted by vegetables or fruit, very simple and stackable.
The last time I gave 80 pears, he liked them but he wasn't exactly in the mood. Today they went over much better! He also seemed to enjoy the apples. Here he is sitting in the Fisher Price high chair his Aunt Kim gave him.
When 80 was still in the NICU, I did a lot of research on chronological development. I found Pathways.org through their youtube channel. They have a whole host of developmental videos but for the interest of this subject I'm referring to this one
It compares Marty, a typical 4 month old (there are also 2 month and 6 month with the same 2 babies) and Owen an atypical (developmentally delayed) child, doing the same exercises. I used this video as a basis for this video of 80 who was 5 months adjusted at the time.
If you sat through both videos then congratulations! The first one is long, and the second one is boring! Anyway, you can see that even at 5 months 80 is not quite up to par with a normal 4 month old. The good news is that he is not totally deficient in any areas, he is at worst (in my motherly opinion) 50%. He is now enrolled in physical therapy and we are working with him, double time!
We started the month out with 80 hospitalized, running through the last few days of his antibiotics run. My dad drove down on the 3rd, 80 was released on the 4th, and my parents flew to Denmark on the 7th. They were gone for not quite 2 weeks. During that time, 80 and I ran/walked another 5k. This time it was for Girls on the Run, a local program that encourages young girls to get out and exercise, stay fit, make good life choices, and build self esteem. I felt like I did pretty well, but I ended up running it in 42 minutes or something ridiculous. So... needs improvement. It was a fun run though,
2 of the other troop wives, Jessika and Kati
I always end up carrying him at some point.
When my parents came home, it was almost 80s 6 month birthday! To celebrate we packed up and went to Hilton Head, we parked at Coligny beach and made our way past the EXCELLENT facilities and beach access to the beach and water. We were not dressed for the beach, nor had we any plans of swimming or sunbathing, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to dip 80s toes in the Atlantic for the first time!
Sadly, mom and dad had to go home a few days later. I'd had mom with me for almost a month and it was wonderful but she has this whole life in St Louis she has to go back to or whatever. We had been invited to the beach the same day they left so 80 and I went to Tybee for the first time. We met up with Kelli and Jessika who are troop wives who are also in SSM.
napping in the beach wagon
80, Lani and Tristin: beach babies!!!
Neither of us ended up sun burnt, but I did get a parking ticket.. late by 10 minutes! Such a bummer. We also went down with a handful of other SSM moms to St Simons island in GA, to Neptune Park which is just a public pool. It was a beautiful day and 80 had a good time sleeping on me while we sat along the wall of the zero entry part of the pool. I don't think I'll be making the hour and a half hour drive back down there just for the pool any time soon, but hanging out with other SSM moms in a setting where I wasn't sweating or out of breath was a treat.
At the beginning of the month, I ran/walked the Savannah Komen race for the cure 5k. It felt good and I was glad I did, though I dropped my phone, shattering the screen, and there was no race clock so I don't know what my time was. The two other ladies in this picture are from Stroller Strong Moms, they're two of the strongest athletes in the classes so they probably could have run a 10k in the time it took me to run my 5k but whatever :)
80 turned 3 months adjusted! I celebrated by making this board, and taking this picture!
My mom and I had planned a trip to visit my Granny again in Alabama on the 17th. I was supposed to pick my mom up at the airport in Jacksonville FL, then we'd drive on to AL. I was feeding 80 in the car in the airport cell lot when I looked down and noticed that his hair was wet. I looked and the same place he had the white spot back in February was open and leaking. I called the neurosurgeon, picked my mom up from the airport, and we drove right back to Savannah. We took him to the neurosurgeons office, then were admitted to Memorial PICU. He had the shunt removed, a PICC line placed in his chest, and started a round of antibiotics the next day.
Because he has hydrocephalus, they couldn't just take the shunt out, they had to put a temporary drain in place. You can see it here as the yellow tube stitched to his scalp.
It reaches down into the ventricle and when the pressure builds it empties via gravity and pressure into a measurement beaker. They measure how much is emptied over an hour, or several hours, keep track of it. If he doesn't put out very much, they will reconsider replacing the shunt.
80 backslid on his development. He stopped cooing, and developed a torticollis. He has always appeared to have crossed eyes, but in the hospital he developed a very evident Strabismus.
It was determined that he should not see an ophthalmologist until his torticollis had been resolved. He saw a in hospital physical therapist instead. She gave us a laundry list of stretches for his arms, neck, and back, with a few leg and trunk stretches thrown in for good measure.
I mentioned before that 80 backslid a bit developmentally, well that is not entirely true. He did learn a new trick, he found his hands for the first time! It was nice to see him doing something new during his time at the hospital. He was all smiles and lovey the whole time he was there, but it is depressing for me!
The most important development during 80s 3 week hospital stay was that his temporary tubing slid up and out of the ventricle it was supposed to be draining, and into the plural space. It started draining the wrong fluids, and caused a minor hemorrhage. The short story is that Dr Thompson decided he wasn't comfortable replacing the shunt. The temporary tubing was removed, his head plugged, and everything stitched up. A week or so days later he was out of the hospital, getting CT and MRI scans to monitor the progression of his hydrocephalus.. of which there has been none! Again, I'm writing this in June and he still has no shunt. It's amazing! He was discharged on the 4th of May.
Back to me: My mother was in town for all of this, so I took the opportunity to have her go to the hospital in the mornings while I went to SSM to work out. One of the days, while running the trail, I turned my ankle. I thought I had broken it initially, I could put no weight on it and my toes were numb, but it seemed to feel better very quickly and I was able to put weight on it and finish the workout. I have turned my ankle like this before and it had never been an issue so I, thinking I was still 20 years old, thought that I was fine. I had forgotten that I was almost 30 and can't just walk alway anymore. The next day, when I took my shoes off after coming home from the hospital, I was greeted with my very own cankle!
Even now in June it's still very sensitive, but I have finally been able to work out without a brace so it is getting better.
The final chapter of the whirlwind of April was that we had all the carpet pulled out of the living/parlor/hallway/closets, and the linoleum pulled out from the entryway/dining/kitchen. Replaced it all with wood-look tiles. This was supposed to be a huge thing that I was so excited about, and now it's barely an afterthought! Sheesh.
before (well before, you can see we still had Sumo and the parlor was still unpainted)
80 started physical therapy June 13th. The pediatrician referred him because he is a little developmentally delayed but more importantly because he felt like the gross motor development of his arms was outstripping his legs. His PT is Heather and she is very nice and calm with 80.
Sessions start with stretching, moves onto a few reaching exercises, and then core strength. Why core if the focus should be on his legs? Well babies develop from the inside out, which is why tummy time is so important. If he doesn't have a solid core he can't develop strong arms and legs. Actually the same is true for athletes, come to think of it.
He goes to therapy twice a week, so has only been three times. I feel like he's already improving. He's already able to briefly sit up unaided, though he still has no protective reflex when he crumples over. He is reaching with the left hand as well as the right, and reaching more often.
His current routine: Stretching
Reaching with opposite hand/foot, stretching up/down, then touching hand to foot in the midline. He brings up both feet when we bring the active foot to midline, the goal is to get him to disassociate the left from right foot. For now I put him on my stomach and tuck his inactive foot in my bra to keep it from moving.
Sitting and leaning forward to put the hands on the ground by the feet. He really hates this one. It's a guaranteed cry. Every. Time.
Twisting right knee over the left side, and left knee over the right.
Some foot stretches where she pushes on the balls of his feet to lenghten his achilles.
Exercises
Sitting, reaching forward to play with a toy, using both hands to play with the toy.
Sitting on an exercise ball, bouncing up and down, the therapist bounces him to the right, to the left, backwards and forwards. It builds his stabilizers and develops the protective reflex to bring his arm down when he leans too far to the right or left.
Laying on his stomach - reaching forward for toys. Working on him bringing his arms forward to push up and eventually facilitate crawling.
Laying on the boppy pillow, arms forward resting on the ground. Reaching for toys and putting weight on the arms to keep his head from falling to the ground. The last time we did this he just put his head on the ground as if to give up, lol. Tired boy.
Suspended midair "airplane mode" rotate left to right, backward and forward
Heather uses the Leapfrog Discovery ball for reaching at PT. I looked online but this particular toy is discontinued. The best replacement I could find was the Vtech Move & Crawl toy. It works just as well, if not better! He doesn't want to cooperate at PT, mostly I think because he is still getting used to it. Thursday he made it exactly 2 minutes before he started crying. He has cried through the entire 30 minute session all 3 times. So, while he does the exercises and stretches, he doesn't exactly enjoy them. I wanted to get similar toys to work with at home so he won't develop a bad association with the exercises. We shall see on Tuesday if my 12 dollars were well spent.
I had made the decision back in February that I was going to start meeting new people. Actually my mom had harassed me since we moved for not going out and making connections. My first step was attending a meetup with other wives of Andrews troop. There I heard about Stroller Strong Moms (SSM) from my FRG leader Kelli, which I had decided to join in March. I did and it has been great. I had been walking on my own before I joined, and once I joined I also started the couch to 5k running plan again. I had done it last year before I found out I was pregnant and really liked it. My goal was to be able to run a 5k by my birthday. Since the c25k plan is 9 weeks it would be perfect.
80 continued to improve, he started smiling, cooing, and this cute little "inside out" laugh where he breathes in instead of out. I call it his Nerd Laugh because it reminds me of the tall guy with glasses from Revenge of the Nerds.
Smiling!
Chatting
I have been wrestling with Babies Cant Wait, the GA early intervention program, since January. Basically 80s caseworker is irresponsible, unprofessional, and has no business working in her field. If you want to be in public service and ignore the needs of your clients, go work at the DMV or the county tax commissioner!
After Irma left, I was alone, for the first time, with a newborn baby. We had a dog, Sumo, at the time and he had exhibited very troubling behavior towards 80 during the month he had been home. I made the decision to give him to an english bulldog rescue. It goes to show how much Andrew adored 80 that when I made the suggestion he supported the idea. Sumo had bitten me twice and Andrew once and he had refused to get rid of him!
He was such a beautiful bulldog, look at that coat!
I contacted many rescues but the only one who had immediate room for Sumo was in Montgomery AL. I made plans to visit my Granny in southern AL, packed up Sumo and 80, and we took our first road trip. 80 did very well, he only cried when he was hungry and slept almost the whole way. It took me about 10 hours to get to my Grannys house.
Hello Granny Lida!
Hello Uncle Andy!
Granny came with me and 80 to Montgomery to give Sumo to the bulldog rescue. I had never really liked Sumo but it was an emotional goodbye. On the way back I noticed a spot on 80s shunt tubing. It was white like an infection, but there was no bubble, the skin wasn't broken or even thinning, so I called Dr Thompsons office and asked them about it. They said if the skin breaks to come home, but if not to enjoy my vacation. It never broke so I enjoyed my vacation.
We stayed in Alabama for a few more days, I got to hook up with a Houston friend who now lives near Pensacola, Ashley, for an afternoon. It was good to see her again, we do not talk as often as I would like!
80 was handling the vacation so well I decided to tack on another leg. We left Alabama and drove up to Nashville to visit my sisters. I stayed another 5 days with them, I even made it up to Clarksville and dropped in at Lyndons. I really missed my friends up there so it was nice to see (almost) everyone.
Hi Aunt Meg!
Sarah holding 80 after he poop-sploded his outfit and had to spend the rest of the evening in a blanket because I had no backup onesie.
Some tummy time exercise at Aunt Kims, 7 weeks adjusted age
We made it home towards the end of February. 80 had done well and the spot on his shunt tubing had gone away.
My mom came from St Louis to stay with me with 80 since Andrew left on the 9th. She came rolling in at 8pm on the 8th, and stayed home with 80 when Andrew and I left at midnight to take him to the staging area.
Granny sees 80 for the first time out of the hospital
first walk
first bath
taking a nap while momma plays on the ipad
cat torture, it starts early
She stayed with me for about 3 weeks before my dad came. They stayed for a few days and then went home.
Dad: holding 80, eating a sandwich, playing on the computer, and balancing trash on the cat.. what multi-tasking!
A few days later 80s Mema (Andrews mother, Irma) stayed with me and helped out with 80 for a week. When she left I was on my own! And it was February!
I spent Thanksgiving holiday alone. Andrew had left to visit his family in "The Valley" (Edinburg TX) and I had made the decision that it was too risky for me to travel that far. At the time it seemed overcautious, but I didn't feel 80 kick all of Thanskgiving day, and had mentally decided that if he didn't kick at all that night I would go to the hospital first thing in the morning. Now, Tricare is very specific that military wives with the type of insurance we use, must deliver at the hospital on base. So I woke up, called the hospital to let them know I was coming and why (they said fine come on down) took a quick shower, packed a light bag just in case, and drove 45 minutes to the Winn Army Hospital. While I was driving I had a vision blackout. Not a true blackout but my vision went all spinny and I couldn't focus on anything. It lasted about 20 seconds and then was fine.
When I got to the hospital, they put me on monitors, had me drink juice, buzzed 80 with a vibrator, etc trying to get him to "wake up" except for a few very mild spikes he remained inactive. I had called my parents and was telling Andrew that I was in the hospital when the nurses came in, had me quickly sign some papers and change into hospital robes. I had just enough time to text my two sisters to tell them they were getting ready to be aunts before they walked me down into the OR.
Now, up until now I had been as cool as a cucumber. Even as they gave me the epidural that didn't work, and the doctors poked my legs and watched me wiggle my toes over and over before deciding that I needed general anesthesia, my heart was calm. When one of the nurses, as I was laying on the table and they were strapping me down, said in a very urgent voice that Adrians heartrate had been 70.. when they took me off the monitor 10 minutes ago, I started to panic and cry. It hadn't struck me until that point that 80 could be in danger and might not live. 70 is a VERY low heart rate for a fetus, it normally hangs in the 150s. So I sobbed on the table despite their urging me that I needed to stay still. It's such a blessing that they put me under, because I would not have been able to suppress the racking sobs had I been awake. 80 was born at 12:08pm Nov 23, Black Friday. He weighed 3lbs 15oz or 1808g. His APGAR at 1 min was 3, at 5 min 5, and 10 min 7. He required immediate resuscitation at birth I was told.
They waited until I was awake to "see" him (I had to have a nurse take pictures on my phone because the anesthesia wouldn't let me focus my eyes) before whisking him 3 hours away to MCG in Augusta GA. The doctors determined that I had had a placental abruption on the interior of the placenta, so a pool of blood was collecting between my uterine wall and the placenta but I never experienced bleeding because the perimeter of the placenta was still attached.
80 in the transport incubator, the photo a nurse took for me on my cellphone
Now, my experience from here on out was pretty trivial. Normal C-section post-partum momma stuff so I'll skip it.
Andrew had his flight moved up a day and flew into Savannah the next day (Saturday) My mom picked him up and they drove to Augusta while my dad stayed at Winn with me.
Andrews first time meeting 80, love at first sight!
poor little guy! he was writhing the whole time
I was released from the hospital 2 days later. It was probably a little early for me to be released but the staff at Winn didn't think 80 would live and were anxious to get me up there so I could spend time with him.
Our first family portrait
80 had suffered a grade 3 and grade 4 IVH, he had DIC, his blood pH was 6.77 which is incompatible with life, only a few nurses had ever seen such Acidosis, and none had heard of a baby who had survived it, he also had Hypotension, a partially collapsed lung, and Sepsis to name a few things.
Our first times holding 80, about a week and a half after he was born. Still in Augusta
We were told after 48 hours that 80 would probably survive. We were also told to *expect* such things as ROP, Cerebral Palsy, developmental delays, and other heartbreaking diagnosis that I can't recall at the moment. I spent an entire day crying in the snack room at MCG after a particularly grim meeting with the doctor we nicknamed "Dr House".
His first preemie outfit.
His last night before the shunt was installed. He didn't like being held facing forward, he still prefers to be snuggled.
It was later discovered that he had hydrocephalus, we were transferred back to Savannah, at Memorial hospital and had a VP shunt placed on his 3 week birthday by Dr Thompson (whom we adore).
80 snuggles with his daddy. You can see the shunt and shunt tubing very well in this picture.
We rode the NICU roller coaster, Intubation, cannulas, room air, gradual feed increases, then cutoffs, bottle feeding, PICC lines, plasma infusion, pain management... We were fortunate that he never had any serious issues with As and Bs (apnea and bradycardia) and after they sucked all the gunk out of his collapsed lung, he never had an issue breathing or with oxygen saturation. He did battle abnormally high heart rates until his shunt was installed. He also went anemic towards the end of his NICU stay. His hematocrit level was 20.9 to anyone know knows what that means. The nurses told us that it was pretty damn low and that he should have had a transfusion way before he actually got one. Andrew and I thought his shunt had failed because his behavior had changed so drastically.
I made this video of the first week of his life
Even as a preemie it was obvious which of us he was going to favor!
Someone looks like his daddy!
We stayed in the NICU about a week longer than we probably had to because of his poor feeding. The policy with discharging babies is that they must either be breastfeeding (which he was not, though I was pumping) or be able to drink 40mL in 20 minutes.
milk drunk
When I think back to how much 40mLs is now, its such a small amount! And in 20 minutes? It feels like it can evaporate faster than that! But the truth is we struggled to get him to drink even 10mLs some days. In fact he never actually made that milestone, we were fortunate to get a nurse who thought we had been there too long and put us in a different program called "Rooming In" where we basically stay for 2 days in a room at hospital with 80, pretending we are at home. We are the only caregivers for 2 days, they weigh him on the first night, and if he has gained weight we go to the second night, if he has gained weight the second night... we get to go home! Everything went swimmingly (except he was circumcised the second night.. that is a whole other story) and we went home on the 7th of January. 37 days in the NICU 6 weeks and 3 days.
Going home! Just barely 5 lbs
He was due on the 13th so we were very lucky to take him home before his due date! Even more lucky because Andew left for Afghanistan at 3am on the 9th, so we had a little over 24 hours home as a family before he shipped off. Better one day home than none!
