A Clean Bill of Health!!

Carter saw his pulmonologist today and they said he no longer needed his apnea monitor!!! Yay!  No more loud alarms in the night!  He had several alarms this past 2 weeks, but they were all false.  And they said he should be growing out of his "periodic breathing", which is common in preemies, where they have periodic pauses.  A pause of longer than 20 seconds is considered apnea.  He hasn't had any of those in a while.  His little face looks fatter every day!  He is now up to 8 lbs, 5 oz.  Growing like a weed.  At his last pediatrician check-up, he was in the 25th percentile for his weight.  He is now in the 50th percentile!  We are so thankful for his progress. 
When he was still in the NICU, he developed a small pink spot on his forehead. The nurses called it a "storkbite", or birthmark, and said it would likely go away.  Well, It didn't.  It is now referred to as a hemangioma.  It is a collection of blood vessels close to the skin.  The pediatrician said it was common in preemies, and most of them reduce in size or totally go away by the time the child is 18 mos-2 yrs old.  Carter's is about as big around as a nickel, and raised maybe 1/4".  We asked about just having it removed, but the doctor said if you do that now, he will have a permanent scar.  If we wait and it goes away on its own, there will be no scar.  So we will wait and see.  It doesn't seem to bother him, or hurt or anything. 
So, all in all, a great report today!!

Happy Two Month Birthday!

Carter is two months old today!! He had his two month doctor visit on Friday. He now weighs 7 lbs. 5 oz. And he is 19" long!  He has grown so much. He got his first vaccinations, cried the biggest cry I have ever heard him cry!  Poor guy! We gave him some Tylenol to help with the pain and avoid fever, which he didn't care for, but it seemed to help him sleep. He is really starting to look at you now. At first he didn't really focus on anything, but now he gazes at your face while your talking to him. We read our first real book on Saturday and I thought he would like seeing the bright colors of the book, but he just watched me as I read, which was just fine! In the last week he has had more spitting up than usual,  and the doctor said they usually peak about now and then it will taper off. He suggested giving him a half of a pepcid instead of a fourth and it seems to be helping.
It's still amazing to think that this is who we all wondered about while he was in the womb.
What he would look like, who's eyes he would have, if he would have hair, what would his personality be. Time has nearly stopped - my house is a total disaster, all projects are on hold,laundry piles up, and its all ok, because we have paused to watch this amazing new life unfold before our eyes!  We are truly blessed to have this little guy in our lives!

Carter is up to 6 lbs 10 oz!

Carter is growing, growing, growing!!!  He saw the pulmonologist on Wednesday, and they downloaded the information from his apnea monitor and said that all the breathing alarms were false, and most of the heart rate alarms were false.  There were a few low heart rate alarms that were real. They were when he would reflux.  He did this in the NICU as well.  The dips were only for a short time and he always corrected himself.  Carter now only needs the monitor when both he and mama are sleeping.  So he can be free of that machine when he is awake.  He goes back in 2 weeks to have another check and see if it can be totally removed.  He saw his pediatrician yesterday, who thought he probably didn't need the monitor at all.  His weight curve is excellent and his legs are starting to look a little pudgy!  And I know you can't tell baby's eye color yet, but I am betting on blue - just like his dad! And while we were waiting for the doctor to come into the exam room, he pooped, so we changed his diaper and right when we took the dirty one off, he decided to pee and we looked like a comedy act trying to avoid a total disaster!  Of course, it didn't bother Carter! The pediatrician also said to let him sleep through the night until he wakes up - Courtney has been waking him every 3 hours or so to feed.  So that's good news and maybe worth a few more minutes of that precious sleep!  Next visit to the pediatrician, he will get vaccinations :(.  I am sure he will cry and probably mama will too!

Carter's First Trip to Grandma's House!

Well, Carter came to visit me last night!  And he brought his mom!  It was her first solo drive with her in the front and him in the back, and they survived.  And he lived through the commotion at my house.  Courtney brought her dog, Kyba, who joined our dogs, Weezer and Remmy.  There was lots of barking, and he slept right through it!  Weezer was mad and pouted most of the night.  Remmy was very curious.  He passed by the pack 'n play several times before he realized there was something alive in there.  He stood for the longest time looking through the mesh trying to figure out what that little grunting thing was.  When we sat on the couch with Carter, Remmy got as close as we would let him, trying to sniff where he could.  He really wanted to lick him, but we wouldn't let him get close enough.  Carter was asleep when he got there, but eventually woke up and stayed awake for most of the visit.  There were lots of new things to look at!  He even got an early Christmas present - a noisy, bright colored ball to look at and listen to.  Lucky for us, this Christmas, he won't know he got one less thing when the day arrives!  He goes to his pulmonologist this Wednesday, and we hope he will remove the apnea monitor.  It goes off so often that no one pays any attention to it now.  He will see his pediatrician Thursday for a weight check.  We are anxious to see if he gained.  His belly and legs look a little fatter to us, so we are hopeful he's packing on that weight.

Not much weight gain this week

We took Carter to his pediatrician yesterday.  This past week, he advised to try mostly breastfeeding, hoping it might help with his reflux, as he seems to do it worse with formula.  But he had only gained 1 ounce in a week, which is not enough.  It seems that he is still so small, that the energy used up while breastfeeding is pretty much equal to what he is taking in, and in a sense, being a little counter-productive.  So this week is doing partial breastfeeding, with formula each feeding.  We will take him back in a week and let them weigh him and see what his weight is after that.  He is taking liquid vitamins, which always seem to make the reflux worse and upset his tummy a little, so the doctor told us to pre-mix his day's formula and mix the vitamins with a large amount and then he would only be getting small amounts at one time.  We also asked about trying Zantac, as we had read some babies are on that, but he said Zantac is harder to tolerate than Pepcid, so we will continue with that.
Our dumb question of the day was, what do we do if mama or daddy gets sick?  Our funny doctor replied, "Well, we come and take the baby and give him back after about 10 days or so."  He said if mama gets sick, her body is making antibodies to whatever she has, and while Carter is breastfeeding, he is also receiving those antibodies.  He said Carter may get sick with whatever they have, but he should also be able to fight it fairly well. 
It is still so frustrating not being able to take him out anywhere because of the germs and viruses, and once in a while it is really tempting.But if we can hold out until this winter's "sick" season is over, we will be out and about with him.  I guess it's not worth the chance of having to go back to the nicu!

No Explanation of Delivering Early

Courtney went for her six-week checkup yesterday and everything is fine.  Her incision is healing well.  They did several tests to try and determine the reason for the premature delivery, and there was nothing wrong.  Her doctor said about 10% of women deliver early for no apparent reason.  He also said if she chose to do this again, she would be considered high-risk and would probably need to take progesterone shots to try and ensure that she made it to term.  And said she would probably want to do another C-section. 
Carter slept all the way to Springfield, the whole time we were there and all the way home!  What a trooper!  We figured we would have to stop along the way home to feed him, and he fussed a few times on the ride home, but then went right back to sleep.  Of course, he was really ready to eat when we finally got him out of that seat! 
So glad all is going well at this point.  Carter goes for his 6-week appointment this week, and we will be anxious to see how much weight he has gained.  Next week he sees a pulmonologist  who will download the activity from his apnea monitor and supposedly he can tell if the alarms were real or false. We are hoping he tells us we don't need it any more.  It is such a pain lugging that thing around everywhere!

Sleeping Beauty

It's 10:30 in the morning, and I'm just sitting here watching Carter sleep. I bottle fed him this time around so Courtney could get a little rest. Amazing how peacefully he sleeps during the day and how often he wakes during the night. Yesterday he was awake in the early evening for around 2 hours. I just think he is doing miraculously well, considering he's still not supposed to be here for another two weeks.  Courtney goes for her six-week checkup this coming week and Carter goes for his, as well. I am anxious to see how much weight he has gained. We are not sure how much he can see at this point. Sometimes it seems as though he looks right at you. He does seem to like the bright colors of his toys and books.