I haven’t posted in a while. The past several weeks have gone by so fast it breaks my heart. It kind of feels like ground hog day – getting up to change his diaper, feed him, watch him sleep, bath time, washing bottles, laundry, pumping … with a few doctor’s appointments and visits from friends thrown in. It’s all been wonderful!

I only have about 3 weeks left with him before I have to go back to work:( We have found a daycare (http://www.dlcnl.org) that we really like. It’s staffed with nurses and therapists, and has a really low child to adult ratio, so he’ll get lots of good attention there. The only downside is that it’s about 20 minutes away from home, in the opposite direction of where I work. Though, I think it’ll be worth it to have all his therapies on site. That will save us lots of driving and appointments later on. 

Speaking of appointments, he’s met with his pediatrician Dr. Kelly Komatz twice now. She’s pretty happy with his progress, and I think she spends most of the appointments calming all my crazy fears. We also saw Dr. Moon, the cardiologist. He’s also happy with his progress, especially his weight gain. He thinks we’ll still be able to do the cleft surgery first (at around 3 months) and do the heart surgery later (at around 6 months). Henry’s breathing is mildly concerning, because it’s faster than it should be. Dr. Moon may prescribe him a diuretic to help pull moisture from his lungs to make them less stiff. Worst case scenario is that he may move up his surgery if he starts losing weight, or becoming too fatigued to eat.

So far, Henry’s weight gain is right on track with that of a newborn. He left the NICU (on 7/15) at his birth weight, of 6 lbs. 9 oz. and now (on 8/7) weighs about 8 lbs. 7oz. He still does really well breast feeding and does well with the bottle most of the time. 

Another, Hooray for Henry moment came today when he passed his hearing test. He failed his original test in the NICU, which I wasn’t there for. However, I can see why any newborn would fail a hearing test after observing one today. They put little electrodes on his head and back and these sticky “headphones” on each ear. Then, the baby has to be perfectly still while they play sounds in the ear phones and pick up the brain waves on the electrodes. Henry wasn’t really in the mood to be still today, so it took a while for him to get a passing score.

We’re pretty much on a schedule now. Mommy is still working on putting house chores off and getting rest. I have no idea how I’m going to balance everything when I go back to work, but lots of fabulous women do it everyday. One thing I do want to get on track is more tummy time and reading. As a language arts teacher I’ve always preached early literacy. Some may think a newborn is too early, but their little minds are so amazing and really soak up everything. We’re about half way through Alice in Wonderland right now. I read to him 3-4 times a week, but I want to try to read to him everyday from now on. 

He likes to move around and is already starting to roll over (which is scary). He doesn’t always like tummy time, but he’s really starting to lift his head up so we’re going to keep working on it.

Those are about all the updates I can think of right now. We appreciate all the continued thoughts and prayers. Our boy is getting so big and strong!

Love this guy!!!!!!!