Sunday, November 28, 2010

Hospital: 3 months, 11 days...Home: 3 months, 12 days

Today is the first day Lochlan has been home longer than his stay in the hospital after he was born. He's been home now 3 months and 12 days! Thank God for that! (And so many of you who prayed for his well being.)

Last night just prior to putting him down in his crib to sleep, I realized that it was exactly the same amount of time that he spent in the hospital since he's been home. Crazy.

You know what else is crazy is that Lochlan decided yesterday was going to be the day that he rolled over!! Yes --- ROLLED OVER! For the past week (since Saturday Nov 21st) he has been rolling over to his right side. Well yesterday at Nana & Poppa's, he rolled to his side like he has been doing and then all of a sudden Mom goes, he's on his belly!! I was like - WHAT??? Totally wasn't expecting that. He gets some tummy time during the day but nothing where he's comfortable being on his tummy for long periods of time. My lil monkey! And it wasn't that much of a fluke, he did it again not too long after. Amazing boy we have.
Medigas came on Friday and Lochlan was stellar once again. This time he was sat'ing in the mid to high 90s. At first he was only about 91/92 but then we put his sock on his foot and he immediately jumped to 95%! One more visit!

I forgot to mention in my last post that Lochlan's has been teething. You can really see some of his teeth trying to come through. He's got the white outline around his gums. The one tooth on his lower right side (next to where the bottom tooth will be) poked out and then disappeared again. I thought for sure he had his first official tooth! Not quite yet. Abby had her first two teeth just prior to turning 4 months old. And that's how old Lochlan is now corrected to his due date. It's hard to imagine him this small with teeth! I mean he's almost 7 months old and still looks like the size of a newborn. A friend of mine just had a baby and I think Lochlan is still smaller! It's hard to wrap your head around that one sometimes. Or to hear about 6 months or so babies being 18 pounds or more. I'm not sure how much he weighs just yet as it's been about a month since he was weighed (he was 8 pounds, 1 ounce) but we will find out tomorrow. He has his pediatrician appointment. He will also be getting his 6 month shots. We're a little late but due to his RSV shot and his flu shot, we wanted to space them out in case of a reaction. As it is, he's getting his next RSV shot this coming Wednesday. He also will get his hearing tested on Thursday and Medigas will visit on Friday for the last time. (fingers crossed) Four appointments this week! Wowzers!

And next week he goes for his special infant development clinic and the following week has his appointment with Dr. Arthur to test his vision. I'm pretty sure he is hearing and seeing things quite well.

He's cooing a lot more these days too. So cute. I tried to take some video but of course when it's happening, I stand their in awe of him and chit chat back and then remember to grab the camera and then I don't get the chance to turn on the proper lights, and so the video ends up dark and grainy! (don't tell anyone I'm a comm. tech teacher!!) Oh well. One of these days it will be non stop and I'll have lots of video I can take and share with you.

Which brings me to the fact that I won't be able to take any pics for a while. I dropped my camera at the Santa parade yesterday and it finally said, "enough!" I've dropped it a few times prior and apparently that was the last straw. It doesn't want to work for me which totally sucks. Doesn't it know it's freakin' Christmas time!!! Maybe Santa will bring me a nice new camera for Christmas! *hint hint*

Today we put up our Christmas tree. Too bad I didn't get a picture of Abby decorating it for the first time. So cute! I gotta say, the bottom of our Christmas tree has never looked so good! : )

I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year. So much to be thankful for and to celebrate.
First time grabbing and holding on and playing with the links.
Nice tongue! ha ha
This is actually one of Lochlan's Christmas presents. I just couldn't wait to let him play with it.
...and one and two and three and four...




Abby's nice rosy cheeks after playing outside.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Sick mommy

I'm finally getting around to writing a new blog and I'm actually in bed with the laptop! I've been sick since Saturday and I'm REALLY hoping today was the worst of it.
And praying that I don't give it to Lochlan. So far so good. I even got Rob to get me a mask to wear when I'm in direct contact with him. Let me tell ya - those things are not fun! Soooo hot! This morning was awful. I had a temp of 101.5 and breathing in and out of that face mask was brutal. I ended up with a headache (although that could be related to my sickness) and felt like I could pass out. Steam kept fogging up my glasses too. Good times. Thankfully, Granny took Abby for the morning and Nana took her for the rest of the day. Really makes a huge difference when I can sleep "when the baby sleeps!" Even if he only seems to be sleeping in 30-45 minute increments. I'll take what I can get. So thankful that Lochlan is a great baby too. He was pretty good at playing and not needing a lot of rocking or soothing today. Perhaps he realized that mommy wasn't feeling well. Although really, he's that great every day.

In the last few weeks, Lochlan has been doing well. A few weeks back, Medigas came and his sat's were all over the map which was strange. But he was up to 96% then he'd drop to 89%...then back up to 93%...wasn't consistent at all. Nothing to be concerned about though.

We skipped last weeks visit since Melissa who is his regular nurse, had a cold. And this week she's on holidays so Graham will be coming to check in on him on Thursday morning. Hopefully Lochlan continues to thrive. Then he'll have one more visit on Dec 3rd and that will be that. No more oxygen tanks in the house! : )

Loch had his flu shot last week. Took it like a champ. I wish mommy had got hers well before now. Silly me. It's definitely high on my priority list. But I think that's how we ended up with the sickness in the house. I took Abby with us on Wednesday when we went to get Lochlan's flu shot and I let her play in the toy room. What was I thinking!!! I even saw that two kids with face masks on had just exited the room. HELLO! Warning!!! The volunteers are pretty good at wiping things down but there's still bound to be some germs in there. Well the next day, Abby has a runny nose and that turned into a bit of a cough. Thankfully, the worst of it was Friday night which really she just wanted mommy and Saturday we had a pretty relaxed day. But I picked up something too. Yay for me!

Anyway, it happens. It's that time of year. Abby was so great this morning though. I told her that mommy wasn't feeling very good and she said "Oh, poor mommy. Here let me hug you. Do you need a kiss?" Such a sweetheart.

I've got more pics to post but they are all on the other computer so I'll try to post some another day. Lochlan's got an appointment with Dr. Moore on Monday. (his pediatrician) I'm anxious to see how much he's gained. I'm really hoping he's close to 9lbs now. He'll probably be around 8lbs, 7oz....aiming higher though. But we'll take what we can get. Slow and steady wins the race.

We've been trying to give him a bottle every now and then fortified with formula. He took it the first few times. Today and tonight...not so much. Refused. Argh! I feel like we're back at square one again. Maybe now it's not coming out fast enough.

Anyway, need to sleep again.
Take care, and stay well.
Jenn

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Progress



Gosh....has it really been pretty much 2 weeks since my last post? Crazy! Time flies!

Lochlan has been doing so amazing! I sometimes forget that he ever was on oxygen or that he went through all that he's been through. He just feels like a newborn to me.

He now weighs 8lbs, 1oz!!! woo-hoo! He made it over the 8 pound mark! So proud. He is just under 22 inches long and his head circumference is 39cm. He's growing! Slowly but surely. So far, I haven't received a call from Dr. Moore about having to supplement him with formula added to a bottle or two a day of breastmilk. I'm really hoping we don't have to go that route. If we do, so be it. I know a lot of moms have to use formula or a mix of both, but my preference for Lochlan is that we don't have to supplement and he can grow on his own with mommy's liquid gold! ; )

Tomorrow Medigas is coming for the second visit since he has been off of the oxygen entirely. Last week he was sat'ing between 93-96%. So good. The plan is for them to monitor him for about a half an hour weekly (every Friday) with the exception of the 26th of this month until December 3rd. That will be the final day of monitoring and they will take all of the oxygen tanks out of the house and we will jump for joy and say "ciao - thanks for your help but we no longer require your assistance!"

Lochlan received his first RSV shot on Wednesday. It's antibodies to fight off RSV.

((((Respiratory syncytial virus (sin-SISH-shul VI-rus), or RSV, is a common, seasonal and easily-spread virus. You've probably had RSV disease and thought it was just a bad cold. In fact, nearly all children will get their first RSV infection by age two.

Most people with RSV disease suffer moderate to severe cold-like symptoms. For some babies, RSV disease can be more serious—it's the #1 cause of hospitalization in infants in the U.S. Preemies and babies with certain heart or lung conditions are at high risk for severe RSV disease, which could lead to serious lung infections like pneumonia and bronchiolitis.))))

Get more info here: www.synagis.com

He will get his next dose in 3 weeks and then every month thereafter until April. Good times. I will be taking him early next week to get his flu shot too. It's so hard to want to go everywhere and be everywhere when I really should be batting down the hatches and staying home most of the winter as a precaution. The risks are pretty high and we don't want Lochlan to get sick.

I always told myself that even though Lochlan is a preemie and we had to haul around the oxygen tank and all that, that I would not let that stand in our way of living a normal life. But the risks are pretty high and we have to be very diligent in washing our hands and making sure that we don't go anywhere where he could pick up something super easy or have anyone over who is sick. Please don't be offended if I constantly ask if everyone is healthy in your home before visiting or having you over for a visit. It's very different if you've read about RSV or the flu/colds for preemies. Colds can be good for babies to build up their immunities but preemies don't have the ability to fight it off like full term babies do. Not yet anyway. And so it can be serious.

On a much happier note, I am starting to settle into a regular routine now and feel much better and capable of raising two kids. The first few months were difficult as those of you with children would know but now that Lochlan is more predictable and Abby is getting used to the idea of having a brother, things have calmed down a bit.
We are all settling into a nice routine. Some days are harder and more challenging than others, but that is to be expected. I'm very thankful to have our moms (and dads) able to spend time with their granddaughter for a weekly sanity break and to be able to get to Lochlan's appointments as well -- HUGE THANK YOU!!!

I'll leave this note with a few more quotes from Miss Abigail this past week:

I think everyone who is in a traffic jam should be in the car with Abby. She is so cute and of course the Abbyisms were non-stop! When we'd finally get going again she'd say..."You're doing it mom! PASS! Keep going mom, you're doing awesome!"

And the second night it happened Abby said: "My rescue pack can help! We need a kite so we can fly over these cars!" She loves watching Diego and singing the songs along with the ones from Dora and even plays out the story-lines even if she's only watched an episode once. There hasn't been a day go by where we have to watch out for the baby puma or rescue a deer! And we get a rope from backpack or whatever else Abby feels we need, or the rescue pack can help us out. "Go Diego go..."

Oh Abby, how I love thee!

Oh...I totally forgot! Halloween came and went since my last post. Here are a few pics to enjoy!





Abby, wondering if we could go yet!