Ray at one year

I had intended to revive this blog on or near Ray’s first birthday. So much for that plan.

But Sweet Baby Ray is back nonetheless. The blog, that is. The man himself has been growing and learning this whole time.

He’s about 14 months. I can’t give you height an weight any more because those stats don’t consume us the way they once did. Why? Because he’s a normal boy now. Just with an interesting origin story.

He is talking now, albeit (fluent) gibberish. He is crawling, pointing, laughing, crying when we walk out of the room, getting pickier about what he eats. He loves the vacuum, swingsets and big dogs. He hates long stints in his stroller and shoes.

He’s not walking yet, but he pulls himself up on everything in the house and stands there with a proud smile. And lately he’s been standing on his own, with no support. My guess is he’s walking inside of two weeks.

But he has had other benchmarks. Like his first haircut (see photos in slideshow at bottome).

Once a kid with black hair and black eyes and darkish skin, he’s now the perfect picture of Scandinavia: blonde hair, blue eyes and white skin. And the hair grows fast in blonde curls. A little faster in back, producing a stunning kid mullet with a nice feathering effect over the ears.

We read to him every day, help him figure out what the heck is going on with those puzzles and encourage him to explore and play.

Last night was a big milestone for me: taking Ray to his first State Fair. He ate fries, some pieces of fried pickles and drank free juice from the Ocean Spray stand (you give me free stuff I give you free advertising). He saw piglets in the live birth barn and rode the iconic green-and-yellow slide as mom captured it on iPhone vide. The link to Facebook is below and should work. The nazis at WordPress want me to pay to upload or even embedvideo here.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1424142079920&saved

I can’t promise frequent updates, but I’ll shoot for once or twice a week for now. In the meantime, I’ll have photo updates on Facebook and (soon) Flickr. If you don’t want to have to visit this page to check for updates, get notifications sent to your email or (better yet) pull an RSS feed of this page. If you don’t know how to do it, there are instructions all over the place by searching in Google. I use Google Reader for mine.

Hasta!

That’s right. Dad and mom can make Ray smile. It’s not always easy, and it doesn’t always work.  But it is so nice to finally get a reaction out of the little guy other than crying because he’s hungry or has gas. There’s always a certain level of worry I have because of how he came into the world, so seeing him clearly happy puts my mind at ease. It just tells me he has nothing on his mind other than being happy.

We also have spotted him trying to roll over onto his belly. And now he sits in his Bumbo seat (which has no head support) without his head falling over. His neck strengthening exercises have paid off. He’ll have a head drop once in a while, but we’re not as worried about his head rolling off his shoulders as much these days.

He’s still sleeping next to our bed at night, but I think I’m close to persuading Kristi to allow me to put him to bed in his room down the hall. Especially after last night, when he slept for 6 1/2 hours straight. He’s building toward a full night’s sleep, and his parents are pretty ready for him to get there. Those 40-minute feeding sessions (up to 6 ounces, fyi) in the middle of the night wear on you.

So that’s really it. Ray and mom just left for Eau Claire for two nights and will be back Friday. I will be missing Ray and enjoying the freedom (and sleep) at the same time.

More later.

Ray shows off his baby fat. And extra chins. And jowels.

Most of you know that I took a long leave from work to be with Ray and Kristi. Well, it ends Friday. I’m back at work Monday (21st). Not excited to go back.

Well, the final week of the leave was spent up at the Theisen cabin in NW Wisconsin. We spent time relaxing, fishing and watching football. Oh, and of course, watching Ray grow.

Last time he was weighed he came in at 8.5 pounds. Well, he’s way past that. He’s never had his fill of a bottle. And I notice more chub on his cheeks each week that goes by. We estimate he’s just a hair under 10 pounds at this point, and demanding more food all the time. He’s well past the 4-ounce mark now.

Other changes, you ask?

Well, for one, it occurs to me I have not updated everyone on eye color. Well, for the past six weeks or so, they’ve been blue. And his hair? It was brown. Then it began to turn a trendy auburn color. Now it seems to be going blond. That is if it doesn’t all fall out first. He’s got some nice male pattern baldness going on right now. So he might be starting from scratch here soon.

That’s about all for now. Ray’s sobbing. Got to get a fresh bottle in his yap right quick. Hope you enjoy the new pictures!

Now, about that kid. He’s becoming quite the Buddha. Just last week we took him in for a checkup, which comes with a free, official weigh-in. We knew he was bigger and packing away the breast milk and (now) formula, but cripes. The dude weighed in at 8 lbs 8 oz!! He’s got that fat face parents like to pull at. And he’s graduated from preemie diapers to newborns and now to size 1. And what parent of a preemie wouldn’t be proud to see his son outgrow clothes! Heck with the cost thing. We’re fired up.

The growth has come with a few scares. The biggest meant a race to the ER at 3 a.m. on a Saturday (when you get a nice view of the area’s beat-up/bleeding drunks). Hours earlier, Ray’s doc found a hernia in his groin but thought the little guy would be OK until a surgery scheduled for Tuesday. Well, that plan wasn’t dramatic enough for Ray, so he promptly blew out his hernia, pushing a portion of his bowel through the hernia cavity, forming a baseball-size bulge near his boy parts.

The worst part was that the displaced bowel meant he couldnt poop or pass anything. His belly was blowing up grotesquely and he was crying like a maniac. Who could blame him?

So we made a visit to Fairview University (which is conveniently kept at a cool 67 degrees for newborns weighing, then, 5 pounds and who have to be stripped down to the birthday suit), where a very nice doc told us he’d try to manually push the protruding bowel back in, and if he couldn’t, we’d need emergency surgery. It was sounding more expensive by the second.

But first, it was IV time! The young guy charged with putting in Ray’s IV, so he could get much-needed nutrients and liquids, couldn’t get his tiniest needle to tap Ray’s tiny vessels. So, basically, Ray got pricked four times with no IV. He had to go without. But, hey: At least he had a few extra holes in his skin. And the pain to go with them.

So no IV and a doc pushing a bowel back into his body with no pain meds. What a lovely combo. The good news was that the doc was able (much to his surprise) push the bowel back in and Ray’s crying seemed to stop almost immediately. They moved us to the children’s unit at the hospital and stayed overnight. We were discharged and had to schedule an appointment for surgery.

On Tuesday, we were back at the hospital for the surgery for what they called an inguinal hernia. He would have anesthesia, and as long as he was under for the hernia surgery, they figured they’d do the circumcision too (his surgeon called it a pencil sharpening).

So during surgery, the surgeon called Kristi to let her know he’d found a hernia on the other side of Ray’s groin and to get clearance to repair that one too. Well, yeah!

Because of his size and the anesthesia, Ray had to be kept overnight for observation. Ironically, we were put back in the same room as the night of the ER visit. Ah, memories.

After hours of us sitting around, someone at the hospital finally got each group that was monitoring him to agree to discharge him, and we left about eight hours after we should have. But at least we had a pain in the arse roommate to listen to.

Since that episide, Ray has been progressing nicely. We even took him to the Theisen cabin in western Wisconsin. The only hiccup since has been a belly button hernia, which his doctor said will most likely not cause him any problems and should repair itself over time.

That’s all for now. We’re heading out to take the small fry for a roll around Lake Nokomis.

So two days after a setback in feedings in temperature readings, Kristi got the news we’ve been waiting a month for.

Ray, a month into life now, is coming home. I was able to shorten my shift and start at 5 a.m. (…zzzz. snrrrrk .. wha?) so I can be there for his release. And his arrival home.

It came a few days earlier than we expected but it felt as if we’d waited forever. I’ll have details soon.

When I left the hospital (leaving poor Kristi in there with no cell phone, no window and no ability to leave) Monday night to go home and move furniture and sleep in my own bed before an interview for a new job at my company Tuesday, Ray was still sluggish on feeding. I held him for 45 minutes and he wasn’t having anything to do with a bottle. He was, however, having a lot to do with sleep.

It continued our frustration that he’s hit the wall. In about 45 minutes of trying, he got about 15 mLs — way too little. So they hooked him up to the machine and ran it into his stomach through the tube.

Speaking to Kristi just now, it appears Ray has hit a hot streak. He fed well overnight. Hit totals of 30, 40 and even 50. That would seem to give him back momentum toward going home sometime (we hope) soon.

The staff itself never worried as much as we did. “It happens all the time, even with the best babies,” they’d say. We knew that. But it’s still a disappointment to hit a setback when you came so close. I guess all the guy needed with so much new going on — shots, new room, flat crib, etc — was some more sleep than usual. He got that last night.

So Ray’s reward for picking up the pace on his feedings? That’s right, Bob — a circumcision!

That’s scheduled for today or tomorrow if his, um, equipment is big enough. (No jokes, please. He has an excuse.) That’s all for now. Happy to pass on good news this time.

Ray’s temperature was much better this morning, which means he’s much less of a candidate for a return to the Isolette (incubator) than I feared in the last post.

But the feeding remains tricky. He’s just not taking to it the way he was a few days ago. Kristi had a meeting with the lactation specialist this afternoon, but I don’t have details yet.

Our favorite nurse doesn’t seem to think this little setback is anything to worry about. She called it a “bump in the road” that almost every preemie encounters. She told Kristi not to worry. Considering the source, that meant something to us. Kristi sounded a lot more assured and less anxious when I talked to her this afternoon than she did early this morning.

But soon, Ray wasn’t the eating machine he had been the past five days. He was taking significantly less each feeding — bottle or breast. And his temperature was down enough to cause the nurse to wonder if they need to put him back in the Isolette to get it back to normal so Ray isn’t working hard to stay warm and can use those calories to pack on fat stores.

An Isolette was ordered, though he was still in his crib as of this morning, when they’ll re-evaluate his temp.

Feeding has been frustrating. As I was skipping down the hall with the cart full of belongings toward the West Wing, I didn’t anticipate seeing Ray with his feeding tube back in. Just as a backup, they said. We’ll get him to take as much as we can from the breast/bottle, but if we need to use the tube we will. We did once Sunday night.

So even though it’s still a great thing that he’s in the West wing, it’s frustrating to see the little guy run out of momentum. It’s no fun to see him turn down sustenance that just a day before he was wolfing down. We’re for now writing it off to fatigue, because he’s been through a lot. And it was a change in environment and scenery.

I’ll get back there after work and hope to see the crib. They said they have to reserve the right to move him into the NICU nursery, where they are able to monitor him more closely, if his temp and appetite don’t return.

But the good news of last night was that after initially being fussy when we fed him (he got about 15-18 mLs only), we changed his diaper and let him sit and he shot up to nearly a full feeding of 40 mLs via bottle. So maybe he wasn’t ready to eat when we thought he was.

Maybe a good sleep on a belly full will help him get back on the horse today.

Ray celebrates the good news. Notice the rash on his face where the feeding tube was adhered.

After a few days of steady but not blog-worthy progress on breastfeeding, Ray got some huge news Sunday morning: We’ll be moving from the East Wing (for parents who need to be around to feel ’round the clock) to the West Wing (for parents to spend time in the same room as the little guy as they prep to take him home). But first things first. I need to explain how we got to this point.

Friday night (after Ray took 100 percent of his feedings orally several times) we were told he will be moved from scheduled feedings every three hours to cue-based feedings. That means they’ll call us in our hospital room when he wakes up and gives cues (licking lips, chewing on his sleeper, etc) that he’s ready to feed.

After a day and a half of that, we came in after a call to our room to feed and noticed he had no more tube in his nose. I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted that piece of news. It’s hard to see your son with a tube in his nose — especially when he pulls it out and then has to have it crammed back down.

I also noticed they had him lying flat in his crib, instead of elevated, which he had been to make sure he didn’t spit up after feedings. So I pointed those two things out and the nurse told us he’s moving to active-call feedings, which means we’ll be called when he’s pretty much demanding to be fed. More like a full-term baby would be treated.

That’s when the nurse asked if we’re ready to move to the West Wing. Which is something they tell you when they think he’s close to going home. The West Wing stay, we were told long ago, is to allow parents to stay in the room with the child almost as a trial run for home. So the parents provide the care with a support staff a call away if needed. You know, time to act like real parents.

So Kristi, who is in the nursery feeding Ray as I type this, is glowing. As she washed up for the feeding she told me she might cry. With everything she’s been through, who could blame her? It’s fantastic news.

So 100 percent oral feedings for good now. No more damn machine. And we can pick him up without worrying about pulling a tube or a sensor lead out.

And he’s heavier now: just about 5 pounds!

I’ll be in touch more often during this hime stretch, now that it seems news is coming fast and furious.

Well, in your 36th week of life if you’re a preemie (already born) you begin to breastfeed, rather than the tube feedings. They expose the youngster to it earlier to see if he/she can do it, but the expectation is that the baby begins in the 36th week.

That brings us to Ray, who got quite a nice compliment from a member of the resident staff yesterday. She called Ray, who is has received as much as 36 of the 42 total MLs per feeding (sometimes it’s 24, sometimes 20, sometimes 30) via breast, the all-star of the NICU when it comes to breastfeeding.

I have to say: I knew it. So now that I know he’s the most talented kid in the world, I’ve contacted an agent and enrolled him in junior high for the fall semester.

But seriously, folks. Thirty-six ounces is unbelievable for a kid so young. And it brings him that much closer to going home. We’re in the East Wing now, for parents (well, moms) who need to be around 24/7 to be able to head into the NICU nursery to give feedings at odd hours. We’re hoping soon we’ll get the call to move into the elusive West Wing, where we’ll spend a couple nights in the same room with Ray before his departure to Chateau Corless.

So we’re hoping he keeps up his progress. He has peaks and valleys, but in general they keep upping his food intake and trying new things to see if he can handle it. So far so good.

And during the progress, we’ve been enjoying our stay. Good visitors (thanks Erica and Fieds!) and even a few beers in the room (Shhhh.). Not a whole lot to report for this post, but in a lot of ways, that’s a good thing. I like the status quo. The status quo is progress.