Giving Shots and Back to Bottles
Hello dear readers. It's been a long while since I've blogged about our many unusual adventures in parenting. I've been pretty swamped with work for the last month and a half. The spring is a busy time for me anyway, so when Nathan decided to show up early, it toppled my very carefully balanced schedule.
I'm happy to say that I'm finally caught up and not so stressed out about work any more. Thus I thought I should write a blog post with this spare few minutes.
As I write this, mom and Nathan are napping in the chair next to me in the NICU at Beth Israel. Earlier today, Nathan had his second swallow study at Children's Hospital. Unfortunately, the study showed that he's still aspirating (taking food down the wrong pipe) when he tries to swallow milk of a standard thickness. The good news is that the the doctors have determined that the thickener that was allowing him to eat by mouth was not the cause of his elevated bilirubin levels, so tonight we gave him his first bottle after a week long break.
Somehow he knew it was coming, because he was totally psyched. (Video of Nathan trying to eat everything in sight to follow.) He finished the whole bottle in about 15 minutes, and was looking for more. After a couple of good burps he was off to sleep.
Earlier this week I got to experience something completely new. Its a pretty regular occurrence for Nathan to get a shot, but I've never in my life had to give one. Katie and I new this was coming. We were informed that Nathan would need to go home on blood thinners - and that we would have to give him a shot twice a day - about a month ago. At that point my biggest question was: how do I practice giving a shot? Surely they don't teach people to give shots by just showing them what to do and let them start stabbing at people. In my head I pictured something that looked like one of those CPR dolls that was used for this sort of thing. The doctors said they thought that giving shots was practiced on a piece of fruit or something like that. Later on, Katie was taken through a lesson using a rubber glove stuffed with cotton balls. Katie says it was really good for practicing keeping the needle steady post poke.
On Tuesday we got a visit from very nice nurse practitioner from Children's, for shot training. To my relief she produced a small rubber pin cushion looking item for us to learn on. After a little bit of time with that, it was time for one of us to do the deed for real. I volunteered to go first.
The trick of all this is that it is possible to do it wrong. Its not just poke and plunge. If the needle goes too shallow, then he won't get drug in his system. Too deep, and we might hit muscle and really hurt him. We had to be shown how to pinch just the skin and put the needle in at a good angle.
The worst part of it was right before I put the needle in. I stood
there pinching his skin the way they showed us with the needle poised and ready. I could have stood there for a long time if I hadn't been prompted by the nurse. His leg gave a sudden jerk (which I was naively unprepared for) at the first prick, and the plunger was harder to push than on the practice runs, but in the end, I was told I did a good job by nurse Brenda. Mommy had been standing by with some sugar water to help distract him and it was over before I knew it.
I have to say that, in spite of the horror of it all, Nathan's reactions to things of this nature are hopelessly cute. He usually doesn't respond to the prick right away and he rarely cries. His expression just changes to a look of utter bewilderment. Like someone just cut him off on the highway from four lanes away. Sort of a "wait ,WHAT'RE YOU DOIN'!?" All the while vigorously sucking on his pacifier. He's a good boy. He doesn't cry so his parents won't feel bad about giving him a shot.
please remember to tie a knot in your pajamas
Nathan rolled over! Many times. As we were anticipating, this new skill was the result of throwing a fit while lying on Mom & Dad’s bed. And no, suddenly finding himself on his stomach did not shock Nathan into happiness (I’m not sure he even noticed), but hey, he rolled over!
Tim’s on the Cape all week recording the next Hyannis Sound studio album, so he missed this achievement, but he also missed the four tantrums in 12 hours that lead up to it, so I think we’re about even. Clearly there are major changes on the way since in the past two days our easy going little boy has started having crying fits for no reason. This is an instance when vocal chord paralysis has its silver lining - I can’t imagine how I would handle full volume screaming on my own.
Oh, and did I mention that I forgot to bring an extra bottle to work this morning? Yah, we very quickly decided it was best to pack up Mama’s papers and head back to the home office.
Behind every good man…
…is a girl egging him on. After a week of rolling over and hating it, Nathan got to visit with his friend Riley this weekend and she showed him how rolling over is supposed to go. See, you lay on your back smiling at everyone, then you grab at your toes, roll onto your stomach and, even if you can’t get your arm out from under you, happily go to sleep. I guess Nathan’s not one to let a girl show him up, so we’ve had two nights of rolling over and happy tummy sleeping. We’re still back at two night time feedings, but now that the rolling over is sorted out I think we can start work again on longer stretches of sleep. And if we’re really lucky we’ll start getting those 7 hour stretches just in time for something new and exciting to mess it all up again. Teething anyone?
Where's the camera when you need it?
After frittering away the morning staring out the window and napping, Nathan is ready to get some real work done around the office. He’s discovering the joys of the computer keyboard and is desperate to help out. I see a time in the not too distant future when I will no longer be able to work with him on my lap. In the mean time, he’s attempts at typing are super cute. Wish we had some pictures to show you!
Six Months Old
Is it really Friday again already? Nathan celebrated his half birthday LAST Friday. Can you believe he's six months old already? Where has the time gone? I read recently that 'parenthood is made up of the longest days and shortest years of your life' - I'm beginning to understand.
We spent last weekend on Sebago Lake in Maine where Nathan got to visit with (and be passed around by) a bunch of his co-op family and perfected his raspberries (however much you imagined Nathan drooled, now multiply that by three). Nathan also had his first encounter with a natural body of water – and was not a fan. The water was cold and no amount of encouraging was going to make him like it. We’ll try again next year.
On Monday we visited with the pediatrician and got the go ahead to start solid foods – yippee! more mess!! We haven’t actually found the time to invest in rice cereal, so stay tuned for that adventure. And in the last few days Nathan has started mimicking raspberries (so now we can encourage him to increase his drool production) and is talking up a storm with more volume and variety of sound every day. Even at 4am, it’s really cute.
Tomorrow we celebrate Daddy’s birthday – I hope Daddy doesn’t mind sharing the spotlight with his little boy.
(you might think we’ve forgotten, but we are aware of the lack of photos since Nathan’s homecoming – check back Monday and we’ll have some up for you)
The Green Room
Tonight Nathan is sleeping in his own room.
When Nathan first came home, we had a bassinet for him in our room. As you may remember, he hated it. After a night or two, we moved him to our bed. That lasted only a few nights when we realized Nathan’s reflux required that he sleep sitting up, so into the car seat he went. After a month of the car seat, we transitioned back to the bassinet, this time raising the head of the mattress. And eventually, we flattened that mattress. When Nathan started rolling over this month we moved the bassinet out and the pack n play in, so that he would have room to move around.
But those first nights of having him in bed with us got me hooked. When Nathan wakes up earlier in the morning that I want to be up, I scoop him into bed with me and we steal a bit more sleep. Even though he always ends up taking over my entire side of the bed (even switching sides didn’t work!) I love having Nathan with us.
The last week or so Nathan really hasn’t been sleeping well. At first I blamed it on getting used to rolling over, but now he’s fine with it. And he sleeps well on any real mattress, so we’ve decided to blame the pack n play. And that is why, even though Mama isn’t sure she’s ready, Nathan is in his own room tonight. He went to sleep at 7:30 and each time he’s stirred has easily settled himself back down. If this works I will be so excited for him, but I still might sneak him back with me early tomorrow morning.
YUM!
Nathan had his first taste of rice cereal this morning:
BFF-sitting
I know that some day we are going to have to pay for childcare and it makes me just that much more thankful for our wonderful family and friends who have stepped in to help us out so far. Believe it or not, the grandparent manual does not state that you have to help with childcare – neither do the instructions for best friends – so THANK YOU!
A highlight from today’s baby watcher:
Baby’s asleep. I just told him to wake up because I want to play and he just growled at me in his sleep so I told him, "ok Darth Vader...have it your way"