It has been too long...

I know, I have slacked, several of you have told me to get on top of this. This two kids and work thing kind of keeps me busy. So, enough with excuses, on to the important stuff...

Leah is now 13 lbs! At her four month check up 2 weeks ago, the doctor was thrilled. She was 12 1/2 lbs then and that put her in the 25th percentile in both weight and height for her actual age. So, she has officially caught up!

She tried to start at her school last week, but instead Brian, Leah and I ended up with the stomach flu. As a result, she didn't end up making it to school last week, but she was a trooper even not feeling well. So, Leah really started this past Monday and so far, so good. She has come home exhausted every night. Which hasn't surprised me, she is a noisy little girl, so I figured the other little ones would keep her on her toes! She seems to be adjusting just fine. The teachers say that she rarely cries and smiles a ton.

Quin is still loving school and enjoying hockey. Hockey seems to take over our weekends with a practice and a game every week. And since there are not a ton of teams, we are traveling all over the city to get to the games. He still adores Leah (thank goodness). Quin reads to her, loves to hold her and can quiet her down almost immediately. She also thinks he is pretty funny.

Halloween was very fun. Leah wore her costume for about 20 minutes; not to shabby and we got some great pictures in that time. Quin was Captain Hook and Leah was Tinkerbell. It may be the one and only year that I can get them to coordinate. Quin seems to think that he wants to be a ninja next year, and not so sure that there is a one-year old little girl costume to coordinate.

10 lbs.!

Leah hit the 10 lb. mark on Friday. She gains about a pound every week and a half. She continues to do well. She is smiling a lot now when you talk to her and generally a pretty happy baby. She still eats quite often even at night so we are still feeding her about every 2 1/2 hours (that is measured by the start of the feeding not the end) so you can see that she is up eating frequently and goes right back to sleep.

We had her "real" pictures taken last week and they are now viewable online. Luckily a friend takes them and she was very patient. Leah did great with the "awake" pictures but it took her a long time to get to sleep so that we could have some of the more newborn pics. It was definitely worth the wait though.... link to Leah's pictures.

Quin's hockey team has started practicing. They were invited to play between periods at the NHL exhibition game at the Sprint Center last week. Quin was quite excited! I posted a couple of those pictures.

We are all doing well. I am going back to work next week. The time has gone by fast and slow all at the same time.

9 lbs.

So, I know that I am a complete slacker for not updating the blog. Really, I am not sure where the days go. Leah is continuing to do very well. She keeps getting bigger and bigger. She had her two month vaccinations two weeks ago and did well. She weighed in over 7 lbs. Leah has done so well that we didn't need to schedule another appointment until October. She stays alert much more during the day, sometimes an hour or more at a time. She is smiling when touched a certain way on the cheek and she is very close to smiling when you talk to her. She knows what she wants and lets you know, but is mostly easily soothed. Leah loves to get a bath and is a cuddler. She seems to really like Quin. Quin can quiet her down pretty easily.

Since her doctor's visit, she has been spitting up more and having discomfort taking some of her bottles and lying down so we went back to the doctor yesterday. It seems that it is common for preemies to have problems with reflux. Her case doesn't seem to be severe, but nonetheless, they are putting her on Zantac to make her feel better. The doctor said that there really isn't any concern putting her on the medicine, but might as well do it so that she would feel better while eating and sleeping. I weighed her at home naked yesterday morning and she was 8 lbs. 11 ounces. They weighed her at the doctor's office with clothes and she was 9 lbs. 4 ounces. So, she is hovering around that 9 lb. mark. They continue to be pleased with her weight gain. She may catch up sooner that we think!

Quin is doing well with school. He loves it, which is great! Quin is also testing his mischievousness in the new school. On my way home from the doctor yesterday, I got a call from the school nurse, letting me know that Quin had stuck a little ball of bread up his nose at lunch. They couldn't see it and wanted me to come get him and take him to the doctor to make sure that it was out. (Keep in mind, I had already been to the doctor once already.) So, I pick up Quin and we try blowing his nose a couple of times and nothing, but he thinks that he still feels something. When I ask why he did it, he said a boy at his table told him to. That answer led to a discussion on thinking before doing. I head toward the doctor's office and hope that they can get us in quickly without an appointment (it is the lunch hour so they are not taking calls). Luckily, we get there and they got us in right away. The doctor couldn't see it, but went ahead and flushed out his nose a couple of times with warm water to make sure. This was very uncomfortable for Quin; I had to hold down his arms while the doctor flushed it out. He did well, but didn't enjoy it. As a result, Quin learned a valuable lesson about putting things up his nose. On the way back to school, I asked him what he was going to do the next time someone asked him to put something in his nose and he replied with a resounding "NO!"

A Saturday Chuckle

I thought I would share a funny from this morning...

We use eggs that come from a local farm, so they come in different shades of brown. Brian was adding them to the pancake mix this morning and Quin asked, "Are those regular or chocolate?"

Quin's First Day of School and Leah, So Big

It has been a busy week for us around here. Quin had his kindergarten practice last Friday and then his first real day on Tuesday. He was very excited about his practice day. Even though Quin will not be riding the bus each day, he practiced riding the bus just in case last Friday. He was very concerned that we were going to be late, so he insisted that we leave extra early. The bus was suppose to arrive about 8:38 and we got to the bus stop at about 8:10. Unfortunately last Friday was really hot and even that early, the sun was shining, so we just walked up and down the block until some of the other kids got there. The kids were excited and eagerly awaiting the bus and it got to be about 8:45 and no bus, then about 8:50, no bus....9:00 and no bus. One of the parents is calling up to school during this time to figure out what is going on. Of course, at this point, to take him, we would have to walk back home, get Leah in the car and then drive to school, so we were going to be really late. I was holding out for the bus, so at least Quin could blame the bus and not me for being late on the first day! Finally at about 9:10 the bus comes and it is empty...their "real" bus broke down and another bus had to be sent. Luckily the rest of the morning went much better than that. When Quin got off the bus, he immediately said, "Mommy, I had a really fun day!"

On Tuesday for the first real day of the school, Brian dropped Quin off at Kid's Country (the before and after school program) so that he could meet the kids that are there. His kindergarten goes from 9-4 and luckily, some of his neighborhood friends go to Kid's Country too, so there were no issues going. When I picked up Quin at the end of the day, he said that he had a really fun day again. When I asked what he did and his favorite parts, he talked a lot about recess. He also shared his excitement over the fact that he can get breakfast if he wants in the morning and even though he had eaten before leaving, he was "still a little" hungry, so he got a glazed donut. This made me laugh, I told him that I didn't think he would be able to turn down a donut!

Yesterday, he said that it was "even funner than yesterday"...so far, so good. It has also been nice because, we have several neighbors that are in kindergarten this year, as well as a couple of the kids from Quin's preschool and then his t-ball team, so there were familiar faces all around.

Leah is continuing to do well! We didn't have a weigh-in this week, however we have a borrowed baby scale (thanks, Robyn!) and I weighed her yesterday. She was 6 lbs. 11 and 1/2 ounces! We will see how that matches up when we go to the doctor next week, but I am not surprised by 11 ounces of growth in the last week, she has been eating like crazy! She is continuing to stay awake longer, spend time looking around and even crying a little more...I think she is coming into her own.

I took her to the retina specialist yesterday for her follow-up. She had an exam in the hospital that came back that her retinas were immature, which they told us to expect. The pediatrician also warned us that they may come back as immature again since she hasn't quite gotten to her due date. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they are mature and we don't have to return to that doctor. Leah will be 9 weeks old on Monday, very hard to believe.

A Week and a Half In...

It has already been a week and a half at home, which is hard to believe. You would think that I would have a lot more time now to update the blog, but it hasn't quite worked that way. I had forgotten what it feels like to bring a newborn home, where your days fly by and your feel like you were super busy the whole day, but didn't really do much.

Last Tuesday, Leah went to see the pediatrician and weighed in at 5 lbs. 7 ounces. She had gained about 5 ounces in 5 days, so they were pleased with that progress. They checked her out and had reviewed the notes from the hospital, and she is doing great. Our biggest worry seems to be the upcoming cold and flu season...so for those of you who are close by and come to see Leah, you will hear me ask frequently if you washed your hands and make sure that you haven't been exposed to anything. The pediatrician also reaffirmed what the neonatologist had already told us which is that we should plan to be home bound for the next couple of months. We are to keep her away from any place where there are groups of people. They scheduled us for another weight check which was today.

Today's big news is that she hit 6 lbs.! 6 lbs. exactly was the weight today, so that is 9 ounces in 7 days. Great progress (they are looking for her to average a 1/2 ounce to 1 ounce a day). As a result, she doesn't have to get weighed next week. She will get weighed again on the 24th when we take her in for her 2 month vaccines. She has officially grown out of almost all of the preemie clothes, so she is now enjoying her newborn size clothing.

All in all, we are adjusting pretty well. She usually sleeps for one 4-hour interval at night, otherwise she gets up about every 3 hours. We keep setting the alarm to make sure that she gets up at least every 4 hours, but we haven't needed it yet. She is still sleeping a lot, but is also having more awake time. She is starting to like having baths. Leah seems to pretty easy going. She does know what she likes though. If you move her and she doesn't want to be moved or wake her up when she doesn't want to be woken up, she will let you know.

Quin has been a good big brother. If she cries when we are holding her or feeding her, etc. Quin tells us to stop, because we are making her cry. He has also been very patient with not having the flexibility that we have had before to go to the pool or the playground. Thursday is meet the teacher night for kindergarten and Friday is "practice" day for the new kindergartners. Tuesday, the 18th is the official first day. Quin is getting very excited and is ready to start. I am anxious to see his reaction on Friday after the practice.

We Are Home!

When I came in on Thursday to the hospital they told me that it was time to board in (stay the night at the hospital to "practice" taking care of her). This is code for in 24 hours we will get to come home, all things going well. So, we started the planning. At the hospital, they started the discharge paperwork and final tests. I frantically ran to Target to get anything else that I thought that we could possibly need at home (I know, you would think that we would have had everything by this time).

She had a car seat test-strapped into her car seat for one hour and thirty minutes hooked up to all of the monitors to make sure her respiration was fine and it was.

We spent the night with Leah Thursday night. The first four hours were a little nerve racking-no monitors to beep at us to tell us if something was wrong and we have forgotten about all of those funny little noises babies make when they sleep. We set an alarm to make sure that she got up every four hours to sleep and we didn't need it because she woke us up every three hours to eat and ate very well, almost 2 ounces per feeding (they want her to eat between 40 ccs-an ounce and a third to 60 ccs-2 ounces per feeding).

Friday morning came and she had her hospital photos taken. The doctor took examined her and we were on our way. I asked Dr. Schooley if she was sure we were ready to go home and she said absolutely, it was time. It was both scary and exciting to get the news.

Yesterday, at home was great. A little strange that we didn't have to go back to the hospital last night. Leah seems to be adjusting well. She is eating very well; she definitely seems to have turned the corner on eating (she is at about 5 lbs, 2 ounces). We also learned last night that we need to be a little noisier around here. She is use to a lot of noise, so after a couple of hours of restlessness during the night, we turned on the TV and it seemed to work.

Quin is excited to have her home too. He likes having her around and really likes not having to go to the hospital! Leah will be six weeks old on Monday and as of yesterday her gestational age was 37 weeks. It is hard to believe. The time has actually gone by pretty fast considering all of the hospital visits. We really can't say enough how much we have appreciated all the thoughts, prayers and support. All of the food "support" has also come in handy. Brian said yesterday that he didn't think that I had make a meal since before Leah was born and I am pretty sure that he is right. I guess I will have to remember how to do that again now that we are home...

I will continue to post her progress, as well as doing a better job now of updating you all on Quin...kindergarten is just a couple of weeks away.