Sunday, January 30, 2011

"Celebrate good times...come on!"

This weekend we are celebrating a 10 pounder!!!!!!!!
Hooray! "We did it, we did it, we did it did it did it!" (Couldn't resist a Dora reference for Lil Miss. Bigail)

I couldn't be more thrilled. Even his pediatrician was impressed. She walked in our room at the doctor's and was like, "Whoah! What have you been doing? Keep it up!" Even his length has grown. He now weighs 10lbs, .5oz and is 23 3/4 inches long. And I think his head circumference is 41.5cm.

Yay Loch!! Grow baby grow! It's been a long process and it's amazing to think he's almost 10x his birth weight!! Really puts it into perspective when most babies they say triple their birth weight by one year. I'm hoping he'll be triple his coming home weight around his bday. (May 5th)Which would be about 15lbs. (He was 5lbs, 1.5 ounces when he came home August 16th which was the day before his due date!)



Dr. Moore is getting us to check his iron level so that we may be able to stop supplementing him. Woo-hoo! He really hates the taste of it. And the less things I have to give him the better. It's so nice now when we go for his checkup and the nurse asks the routine questions about what medications he's taking to be able to say only a couple of meds he's on rather than the big list he used to be!


This past week Lochlan tried mixed cereal and he really liked it. One minor issue I'm been having is knowing when to try to fit in the veggies or fruits. He needs to have cereal twice a day to grow. I've been trying to give him cereal for "breakfast" and "dinner" and his other foods at "lunch." Dr. Moore said he can have his 4 tbsp of cereal twice a day (no more) and if he wants more food at those times, he can have up to 4 more tablespoons of fruits and veggies. Or was it 5? Oh well that's a long way off anyway! But that I can give it to him like I'm doing. But it's still so strange to me. I wish we could just give him the cereal once a day and that I didn't have to use fortified breastmilk. I'm on my last bag of my milk supply. That really sucks! I'm going to have to start pumping. Blah. I was really lucky to have built up the supply that I did and it lasted this long but I haven't pumped gosh, in a really long time now. Well, I would think since he came home. Hopefully I can fill up those suckers in no time!!

Loch's enjoyed a few time in the exersaucer believe it or not. He's starting to really like it. And he's occasionally been in the jolly jumper although he's not really jumping - more like "hanging" out!




Thursday Lochlan waved for the very first time to my Dad and Mom. It was the coolest thing ever! He pretty much just opened and closed his fingers a few times but he did a few times so we knew it wasn't just a fluke. Soooo neat.

At the beginning of this past week, he had a mysterious sickness. He developed a fever of almost 102f. He was pretty lethargic and wanted to snuggle. He was up every 2-3 hours as a result overnight. Thankfully, it only lasted about 24-36 hours before he was back to normal. Unfortunately, his schedule it still a bit off. He's been waking up a lot of overnight. Yay for me! Praying that sorts itself out real soon and we can all get some more sleep.

To celebrate Lochlan's 10 pound weight we went tobogganing as a family (well Loch was in his sled but certainly wasn't going down any hill!) and then out for supper. It was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again. Really I think we would have been doing it anyway but I'm calling it our celebration cause I said we'd throw a big party when he hit 10 pounds! A party in my head maybe!!!







Anyway, I think that's about all the things that happened this week in terms of milestones and doctor's visits. Miss Abby has a cold so she had to miss her gymnastics class this week. Hoping she's on the mend.

This coming week we meet with Dr. Flavin and fingers crossed we have a plan to wean Lochlan off some more of his puffers.

I will leave you with this thought. I was out with my best friend Friday night and she mentioned that when I was in the hospital when my water was discovered broke (at 21 weeks a 3 days approx) that she overheard the one doctor who was a young woman say to her colleague "I'm so sad for her loss." And that they were saying that only 1 in however many thousands ever make it.

Wow.






Saturday, January 22, 2011

Supermodel

Finally! I am getting around to blogging! Just like a friend of mine, I blog in my head on a regular basis. (Right, Wendy?) Too bad you can't actually read my thoughts - although it didn't work out too well for Mel Gibson's character in "What Women Want!"

Lochlan has been doing - and I'll use the word I use a lot with him - amazing. This lil guy never ceases to amaze me. Ha ha there I said it again!!!

Oh dear I just checked to see where I had left off with details and whoa nelly, it's been almost a full month! I'll give you the Reader's Digest version!

Our miracle baby now weighs almost 10 pounds!!!! Can you believe it? It's almost time to break out the party hats and streamers and bells and whistles. I did say I'd be throwing a celebration when he hits that milestone. And it's just around the corner!

Lochlan weighed 9 pounds and 12 3/4 ounces this past Wednesday. (Jan 19th) Although he did have an enormous....and I'm talkin HUGE #2 a little while later so chances are, he's a little less than that! But we will take it!!!

I'm not sure how long/tall he is just yet. I'll find out on Friday. And hopefully by then he will be over that 10 pound mark! Look out next Saturday night. Party at the McDonald's!!! But don't be disappointed if I go to bed before 9pm! That's about all I can make it too these days. Except on Mondays nights when I'm watching Brad, the Bachelor! I can definitely stay awake on those nights! ha ha

Loch's been having some constipation issues for the past few weeks but I'm crossing my fingers it's sorted itself out now. But there really wasn't anything different happening in his diet. He'd been already on the cereal for over a month with no issues and he really wasn't getting all that much more. Poor lil guy. He's such a calm baby that you rarely know when something is bothering him.

Speaking of food - sort of, his first solids after the cereal was prunes! (to help move things along the doc said it could be an intro food) He liked it at first but now that he's tried Butternut Squash and Sweet Potatoes...look out!! Abby loved the Dried Fruit Puree (prunes, apricots, and apples) Loch, not so much. He does this thing where he purses his lips and blows. So cute. But unfortunate. I really need him to eat it!

The prunes weren't doing much to help, so his pediatrician put him on Lactulose. It still wasn't doing anything so she doubled the dose. Well, 10 ml is a lot of a lil guy. I ended up mixing it with his sweet potatoes and he gobbled it right up! Thank Goodness! Anyway I won't spend too much time on the poop subject but just know I think he's on the right track now.


A few weeks before Christmas my camera decided to break. Okay, perhaps it didn't decide exactly, I dropped it at the Sydenham Santa Claus parade. On the pavement. Whoops! Still hoping to get it fixed. I got an iPod for Christmas and it's with me everywhere pretty much so I tend to take pics on it now. Only problem is I can only email the pics to myself....wait that's not true, I suppose I could plug it in and download them to my computer. I'll do that so I can post some pics from this last month. And some video.

Lochlan's been starting to laugh more at me...with me...no probably at me. So cute to hear his giggle. I'll have to record it and share it's so darn cute. I don't know exactly the first time he laughed because I didn't clue in that it was his laugh! I just knew it was a super cute sound. But he does it more on a regular basis. Love that he does.

Oooh some exciting news: he's being weaned from his puffers!!! He is now only on 2 puffers twice a day. With 2 puffs and 3 puffs for them. So just the Ventilin which opens up his lungs and Flovent which is the steroid. So nice to not have to worry about when he will wake up in the night to give him his puffers or whether to go in and do them anyway and risk him waking up. Now he gets them before he goes to bed and when he wakes up in the morning! I sleep better I find too because like I said I'm not waking up thinking about his puffers. Sleep. Yes....some nights are great, others a bit tougher. He was waking up around 4 or 5 in the morning and then going back to sleep but the last few days he's been up around 1:30, and then 4:30, then his usual 6:30 or 7:30. Hopefully that won't last too much longer. I think I've put in enough dues that I can have a full nights sleep please!! Thank Goodness Abby no longer wakes up in the night and come stomping into our room for milk or whatever because she heard Lochlan stirring. And she's starting to sleep in a little bit later these days. Rather than the 5:15am wake up call we were getting for a good month or two, she's now between 6:15-6:45. Not horrible when you compare it to the 5am hour which....God Bless you who can do it, I find it extremely challenging. Yay for Dora and Diego!!!

Lochlan's off of his lasix too. Just this past week and he seems to be doing great. The lasix was used to help clear the extra fluid from his lungs. So big changes in the last few weeks.

He has another RSV shot this past week and we went to get his hearing checked again on Thursday. What a fun time! Not so much really. When you are expected to get your child to sleep, it doesn't happen! Finally after a few hours and only about 15 minutes to go before the lady had to catch her bus, he fell asleep. He should have been tired too! Guess it must have been the 3 hour nap he took that morning! But I refuse to wake up a sleeping baby. That's when they are most developing. So the results were that he has no permanent hearing loss!!!!!! He is still however, congested in his right ear which is only temporary. Yay!

His next eye appointment will be in the next month or so. (can't recall) And he goes to the special infant clinic in March.

That's about all the big news I think. I will try my hardest to blog more. It's tough when you get the kids to bed and then have about an hour or so to yourself before heading to bed! But I want to remember everything and I'm sure Lochlan (or his wife and kids) will want to know details one day.

Here are some pics from his very first official photo shoot we had yesterday at Serendipity Studios in Napanee. So so good...I chose a few to post as most are very similar. Can't wait to enlarge them and frame them and put them up on our wall!!
And I can't wait to go back to have family portraits done.

It's about time!

Cheers!

Jenn

Our little supermodel:








Friday, January 7, 2011

Promise

I promise to blog sometime over the weekend.

Thanks for sticking with us.
Jenn