She Laughs!

She has been giggling for a while, but these are the first real laughs.

Nora at Chuck E Cheese

A little young, but she seemed to enjoy the lights and music.



We went with some of our friends.

4 Months today!

Today Nora had her 4 month pediatrician appointment where she got 2 more shots. Ouch!

She weighs 11 lbs 10 oz.

I took her to JCPenney last week for some photos. Here are some good ones:

Countdown to the end of Maternity Leave

My maternity leave will be over in 2 weeks. I am now trying to get serious about some of the household projects I wanted to complete before I return to work. (I work best under a little pressure.) I have some spring cleaning and yard work I would like to do. I would like things to be as in order as I can before I return. I expect that one of the keys to balancing work and the new addition to our family will be being as organized and efficient with my time as possible. Of course, that is easier said than done. I have spent many of Nora's naps dinking around on facebook when I should be washing the windows!

Here is a picture of Nora in her Exersaucer that we just pulled out this week. She seems to enjoy it. Can you believe how old she looks already?

So Big!

Nora is back to work after her vacation. Yesterday, the home health nurse weighed and measured her for the first time in a month. She is 11 lbs 2 oz, 24 inches! Finally bigger than a newborn!

My Dr. Sears growth charts show that this is average for weight and way above average for length for her age. Looks like she is tall and skinny so far.

She also had a physical therapy session yesterday that she screamed her way through. She wasn't really in the mood I guess. She will now go to PT once a week since there are more milestones in the next couple of months to monitor (sitting, rolling, head raising, etc.) She continues to make good progress.

Today we met with Nora's teachers from Early On. She will start receiving Special Education services next month. We are excited to get started with this.. Hopefully Nora will be too!

Florida Trip Recap

We are home safe from our trip to Florida. Nora behaved well on the airplane ride there and back. On the way there, she was awake most of the time, but didn't fuss too much. On the way home it was just me and her, so I was glad she slept in her sling the entire time. We were lucky that for some strange reason Virgin Air just started a direct flight from Kalamazoo to Punta Gorda, Florida. It was a surprisingly full flight though, so I guess the demand must be there.





Here is a picture of her on the way down. Note the shamrock suit. It was St. Patricks Day!





We spent most days in Florida just hanging out with my parents at their rented condo in Naples. We went out for dinner a few times and Nora got some mileage out of her stroller which she enjoyed very much.

Grandma came home from the hospital during our visit after a fall last month. We were happy to have her home and Nora got to visit her at the hospital and after she got home. Here is Nora and her Great-Grandma and her Grandma!

Florida Baby

Nora is having a nice time in sunny Florida!

Spring?

We got a little Spring preview last week with some warmer weather. Buster enjoyed the sunshine sitting out in the yard meditating for a while.

I had grand plans to take Nora to get her photo taken at Sears last week. I got her all dressed up in a cute outfit and packed up her diaper bag and as I was about to load her in her car seat, she fell asleep. She slept for 4 hours and the trip to the mall never happened. I took these pictures of her myself in her outfit after her nap. She is holding her head up really well now when on her belly and it bobs all around when she is propped up.

Busy Week for Nora

This week was a busy one for Baby Nora. Andy was gone for the week, so Nora had to hang out with Mom all week. She seems to be changing quickly. Her sleep schedule is becoming more routine and predictable with longer naps during the day. Her feeding schedule is also a little less out of control. It seemed like she was eating 24/7 a few weeks ago and now she seems to be more efficient and consolidates her feeding into 5 or 6 sessions per day.

On Wednesday, the special ed teacher from Early On visited. More paperwork and more talking. At the end of the month, the teacher and therapist will give us their recommendations for the services she qualifies for. By the time this program gets moving, she will be 6 months old. I am glad we have just started her in private physical therapy rather than wait for the government bureaucracy to get rolling. In the afternoon, she visited Grandma & Grandpa Forester's house while I went to the salon for some much needed hair maintenance. Thursday morning Maureen came to watch her while I went to the dentist.

Yesterday Nora got her RSV vaccine. Poor Baby. She was all smiles as the nurse weighed her and measured her and took her temp. Then the shot in the leg and she howled at the top of her lungs. She slept good that afternoon. The nurse came to our house to give her the injection which was nice. I went through all kinds of hoops with the insurance company to get her approved for the vaccine since it is very expensive. I still had to pay $150, but that is a bargain since I think the full cost is $1500!

She weighs 9 lbs 14 oz and is 21.5 inches long, which is right on target for her adjusted age of 5 weeks.

Smile!

Nora gave me her first smile yesterday! She did it on Tuesday for Andy and on the weekend for Grandma, but today was the first one she did for me. I managed to capture part of one for the camera.

She met with the Occupational Therapist from KRESA (Kalamazoo schools) on Monday. She played with her on the floor and had nothing but good things to say about her progress. She will meet with a Special Education teacher next, then we will draw up her plan for what services she qualifies for.

The other night I had quite a scare. I almost don't want to write it in the Blog because I am feeling very guilty and it will definitely take me out of the running for the best Mom award. I was up at 1:45 am feeding Nora in my bed. I needed to run down to the kitchen to make her a bottle because after 30+ minutes of nursing she was still hungary and I was getting tired and wanted us both to go back to bed. I set her on my pillow on the bed while I went downstairs. Once I was in the kitchen, I heard a thump and a cry and ran back up to the bedroom. Sure enough, Nora was on the floor screaming! She fell from the bed! I scooped her up and did a quick check and she appeared ok and stopped crying in a couple of minutes and was ready for her bottle. Nevertheless, I took her to the ER to get her checked out by a pro. We were home by 5 am with some instructions of things to watch for the next day; but Nora was ok besides being exhausted from the long night. I guess I learned my lesson with that. The only place I set her down yesterday was where she could be buckled, strapped or contained!

Today Nora went to Physical Therapy. Her therapist is a very flexible young lady named Katie. Katie sits on the floor practically in the splits and plays with Nora moving her arms, legs and neck. We are working on her head control and tracking objects. It is fun. The session is 45 minutes though and I think that is a little long for Nora. She is ready for a nap afterwards for sure! After PT, I worked out at the gym. The PT office is in the same building as the gym. I left Nora at the Child Care Center. This worked out great. She slept the entire time in the Child Care Center and I got in a good hour workout. I have 11.5 lbs to go to get to pre-baby weight. My goal is to have it gone by the time I am back to work in April.

2 months!

Nora got her 2 month vaccinations today. She was a brave little girl. Screamed for a second, then slept it off.



She was 9 lbs 6 oz. Just about double the size she was at birth!



This has been a busy week for her. Yesterday she took her first trip to the mall. Slept in the baby sling. That thing is great but it should come with a certificate for a chiropracter visit for the mom.



Andy has been gone this week and Nora has graciously decided to wake only once per night for me! She goes to bed around 9 or 10. We get up around 3 then get up for the day around 8.



Next week Nora starts physical therapy sessions. Should be fun. Lots of toys and the therapists are nice. She is working on moving her head from side to side and the therapists are checking her muscle tone in her arms and legs. Andy and I should learn a lot too.



She also has her initial evaluation with the Early On program. I am hopeful that she will qualify for some services from them.

8 weeks old!

Nora is 8 weeks old today. Hard to believe that much time has gone by.

She is really growning. Nearly 9 lbs. She just started wearing all of her cute 0-3 month clothes since she has really outgrown the Newborn size. She has doubled her weight in 8 weeks and I am trying to cut my weight by 25%! Here is a picture of her after a satisfying meal:

Things have slowed down a bit. I have been getting to the gym a couple times a week with Maureen and hitting the treadmill at home. We finally got our new washing machine delivered and I have been just enjoying playing house for a while.

Sleepy Baby!

Last night Nora slept for 5 Hours!! Unfortunately, she went to sleep at 7:30 and I didn't go to bed until 10:30, so I did not get the same 5 hours of sleep, but still! Not sure if it is the start of more long stints of sleep to come or what. She is still pretty young for that, so maybe it was just a fluke.

Yesterday Nora visited her neurologist. He examined her and said that he can still not see any physical signs of Cerebral Palsy. He said often the signs do not appear until it is time for the baby to sit and walk. Nevertheless, we'll take it as a good sign that she is looking good so far. Other than that there was no real news about her little brain. She is missing a chunk on the Right Side (part of the Frontal Lobe and part of the Parietal Lobe). It is hard for the doctor to say how this will affect her though since she is a baby and the rest of her brain will develop differently to help compensate for these missing areas. We will just have to monitor her development and find ways to help her to compensate as she grows.

The doctor also said he is pretty sure that the underdevelopment in her brain was from the chromosome disorder (although he can't explain why it only happened on the right side - most chromosome abnormalities happen on both sides of the body) and not from an in utero stroke or brain hemorrhage. For some reason this makes me feel better too because it is not another totally separate piece of bad luck.

8.4 lbs!

Nora went to the orthopaedic surgeon today to take a look at her right foot. It is turned in slightly. Since she was born, we have periodically been stretching it and it seems to be straightening out. The doctor showed us how to stretch it properly (a little more aggressively than we were doing before) and told us to do 10 repititions, 10 times a day for the next 3 months. She will continue seeing thr doctor periodically until she is walking. I didn't mind this Dr visit because at least there is something we can DO instead of just hearing a bunch of bad news and uncertainties.



Here are some recent photos. Nora is over 8 lbs - about 1/2 the size of Buster:

Help Wanted!

I am starting to think about my return to work. Although it is 3 months away (I am lucky to have so much leave time), I need to find appropriate child care for Nora. Before we knew about Nora's problems, we had planned on taking her to a nearby daycare center. Although it is very nice, it just doesn't seem appropriate for Nora just yet - at least until we have a better idea of the extent of extra help she will need. The first year is critical for brain development and we want to do everything we can to help her brain to compensate for her neurological problems, which I think means finding her one-on-one child care. We are interested in hiring a nanny to come to our home. If anyone knows of anyone in Kalamazoo who may be interested in this work (particularly someone with an interest in working with special needs kids), please let me know. I think often the best way to find this type of help is through our network of family and friends. Any recommendations would be appreciated!

Bed time for Nora!

Nora prefers to fall asleep on her mom or dad instead of in her crib. That is fine with us. I have got in some really good naps with Nora stuck on me like this.



This week has been quiet. I have spent most of my days feeding and sleeping with Nora, watching CNN, reading baby books, and messing with out wireless internet setup. Turns out it isn't as easy as I had hoped to tackle those big household projects - just as everyone has told me. Oh well, they will get done someday.

Afternoon nap

Nora taking her afternoon nap on the couch.



I am enjoying the time home with Nora so far. Not bored at all. There are many projects around this place I have been meaning to do and am happy to have the chance to do them. Although, it is a bit tricky to fit them into the 2-4 hour windows of Nora's naps.



Major projects I hope to accomplish over the next few days:

1. Get our wireless network set up at home. Of course, I have started tinkering with it and have made a mess of it so far. Andy's computer won't get on the internet and the desktop gave me some blue screen about BIOS and memory and drivers that I don't know what to do about. Every time I get into one of these projects I tend to wish I had never started, but I have to at least get everything back working how it was before.

2. Schedule carpet cleaning.

3. Send out birth announcements. (Tried to print the addresses on the envelopes a few days ago but ended up with 30 envelopes addressed to Andy's parents. I don't know why the microsoft people have to make envelopes and labels so difficult.)

4. Clean and organize my desk. My files are overloaded. It is getting on tax time anyway so this is good timing.

5. Organize my new bedroom closet. Andy's clothes are neatly put away but mine are still in disarray. Biggest problem is 90% of my wardrobe doesn't fit and is office wear. I have to lose 20 lbs still to get to my pre-preg size (maybe I should add that to the list!). I don't really know how to organize all of the clothes since I am only wearing about 5 things.



Now that I have publicly declared my intention to do these things, maybe I will have the motivation to complete them!

Another week down

Another week down and it feels like things are starting to stabilize a bit.

Andy took his first trip out of town this week since Nora has been born. My parents came to visit and help out while he was gone, so I really didn't have to try taking care of Nora all alone quite yet. I will try it alone on his next trip to get used to it. She really isn't difficult to take care of, it is just nice to have a break once in a while.

Nora went back to the pediatrician on Wednesday. She weighed 6 lb 13 oz. We got good news at her appointment. Her kidney ultrasound came back normal. Her left kidney is totally normal and her right kidney is only slightly larger than normal, but the doctor said it is not of concern. That is good news. One less thing to worry about!

I have spent this week increasing the number of times per day Nora breastfeeds and decreasing the number of bottles. I am not anti-bottle by any means, but it saves time because otherwise I just have to feed her a bottle and then pump anyway. I continue to pump periodically when Andy or my parents feed Nora. I can now understand why many people discontinue breastfeeding before the 1 year recommendation. It is rather uncomfortable, messy and sort of boring. It seems to take longer for her to feed than a bottle as well. Nevertheless, it is good for Nora and I, so I will continue. This is of course a controversial topic. I am definitely somewhere in the middle of the breastfeeding camps. Not ready to be President-of-La-Leche-League but also not Clipping-Similac-Coupons. I guess I haven't seen breastfeeding as much of a spiritual or bonding experience as some, but recognize the practical and nutritive benefits of it that make it worthwhile.

While formula companies made out big in the 50s, 60s & 70s by offering women an escape from breastfeeding; the pump companies are making out big now that breastfeeding is "in." It would have been wise to invest in Medela (breast pump manufacturer) stock in about 1990 I think. If you are interested more in breastfeeding, read this interesting article on the history of breastfeeding and the business of breastfeeding from the New Yorker just this week . http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/01/19/090119fa_fact_lepore?currentPage=1 (By the way, I don't read the New Yorker every day, but I just happened to hear this author talking on Talk of the Nation this week and looked it up.)

Here is a picture of Nora in her swing Aunt Laura and Uncle Ted got her. She is taking an evening snooze.

First Week Home

Nora's first week home has been relaxing for both her and Andy and I. Here is Nora taking a nap with me on the couch.

Nora with the hiccups during "tummy time:"

She has been sleeping well. Usually for 3-4 hours at a time, sometimes 5. During the night she wakes, eats and goes back to sleep easily. She normally has about 2 wakeful times during the day, sometimes for quite a while. Maureen loaned me a book on baby sleep this weekend that says newborns shouldn't be awake for more than about 2 hours at a time though, so we will have to give that a try.

Last week Nora had visitors. Both sets of grandparents came to visit. This weekend many of our friends came to visit (Matt & Chrissy, Maureen & Aaron, Heather & Randy, Ted & Laura and Scott). The men all went ice fishing for that day while the girls hung out at home and ate, played with Nora and read gossip magazines. We had a fish fry for dinner. Good thing Ted had a bunch of fish at home to share with us since the men were not successful in their ice fishing expedition.

Nora has received many presents from our friends and family that we are very grateful for. She is definitely well dressed baby with many toys to play with! Here is a picture of her with her new bear from Aunt Sue.

Andy's birthday was Saturday. I gave him a back hair trimmer (a "Mangroomer") and Nora gave him a photo album filled with cute pictures of her. (You can see it too at http://www.mypublisher.com/bookshelf/index.php?assoc=bksdown You will need: Book ID:S2134580 Password:2520425)

Nora has taken two ventures out of the house so far. She visited her pediatrician on Wednesday morning. She weighed 6 lbs 3 oz! On Sunday night she weighed 5 lbs 13 oz. She is gaining weight fast and eating a lot every day. We are gradually transitioning her to more breastfeeding from bottles so I don't have to pump so much milk. I don't mind a few bottles each day though. It gives others a chance to feed her and gives me a break. I have literally about 100 4 oz bottles of frozen breastmilk in my freezer. When she was in the NICU and not eating that much I just kept pumping and storing. We are lucky that she seems to be accepting of both methods of eating.

This morning Nora and I went to get her a Renal Ultrasound to take a look at her kidneys. They are a little larger than usual, but seem to be functioning fine so far. She did well. It is difficult to catpure the pictures on a squirming baby covered with slippery jelly! I fed her with a bottle while the technician got the pictures and that seemed to keep her pretty still. She fell asleep right when I put her back in her car seat and has been asleep ever since (still in her car seat. I figured why disturb her?)

Buster is getting along well with the new addition to the house. He still howls when he wants attention, but he has always done that. (I am hoping to catch some episodes of The Dog Whisperer now that I am home during the day to find a solution to that problem). He did pee in her bedroom. I was afraid that would happen. Andy changed the bag in the diaper bin and set it on the floor. Buster promptly piddled right in the spot the bag had been. I guess we will just have to be more careful and watch him because I don't think we are going to break that habit either. He doesn't pee in the house often, but he will mark his territory if he smells another animal (or baby!).

Happy Birthday Andy!

Andy is 33 years old today (and Nora is 1 month). He is celebrating by spending the day ice fishing with his friends then having a fish fry back home (assuming they are successful - otherwise I guess we will have pizza with tartar sauce and french fries!).



Our first week home with Nora has gone really well. She is a good baby and we have enjoyed relaxing in our cozy house with her.



Well, I just finished feeding her and am going to put her back to sleep, so I will update more later.