Grandpa Joe's Visit

It has been an active couple of days. On Thursday afternoon, Grandpa Joe arrived! He and Henry have special faces that they make for each other. In the evening, we actually had a sit down meal at the kitchen table, where Henry had green beans for the first time; they were a success.








On Friday, we dropped off Henry at my parents' house, while Jeff, Joe, and I went to the movies to see Leatherheads (it's a miss). We then spent the evening at my parents' place.

On Saturday, we went to Tohono Chul park for breakfast, as we had done the weekend before. We got an excellent seat in the back area, away from the other tables. Henry enjoyed walking through the garden. It was nice. In the afternoon, Jeff and Joe watched NCAA basketball. I took Henry in the back for a nap. We fell asleep on the bed. After 2 and a half hours, I had to get up. It's hard not being able to move for a long period of time. Henry continued to sleep until the 3 hour mark. It was quite a nap. We took Henry out for a walk around dusk. We got to show off his new sunglasses to Yvonne and the girls. Later, we gave him a much needed bath. He had managed to get baby food all over his face and a little bit in his hair.

Today, we got up and gave Henry his breakfast. Around 9AM, Henry got fussy and then took a 45 minute nap with Jeff. The exciting news of the day was that we went to the zoo!!! Henry's first trip to the zoo!!! Well, he did go in utero, but that doesn't really count as his view was limited at the time. We didn't let people touch him of course. I think that he was just as fascinated watching the people (especially kids!) as he was watching the animals. He zonked out toward the end of the excursion.

























We went back to the house for a couple hours, where Henry posed for the camera. What can I say. They don't come any cuter than Henry!








In the late afternoon, we headed to my parents' house for my dad's birthday celebration with the family (who could make it). While over at my parents' house, Henry got a new bike. He's still a little small for it, but he'll grow. My mom had been talking about it for awhile, because I had had one. Henry was chatty as always. And, he pulled himself up to a stand! That was a surprise. We ended the evening with Henry taking a picture with his two Grandpas!

Definitely A Daddy's Boy

Henry was a bit fussier than usual yesterday. He wouldn't eat solids for Veronica. I came home around 1:45PM, desperately needing to pump, but felt like I had to see what was going on with his solids. I thickened his food with rice cereal, and he ate everything for me. It was, as always, quite a production. I make airplane sounds and when the spoon is in his mouth, I make sounds like a dog chewing a bone, which he finds very amusing. It takes a lot of energy.

My mom came over in the afternoon. Henry was glad to see her as always.

His intake on milk was rather low again. He wouldn't take much of the bottle for Jeff. He was fussy for me when I tried to get him to take the bottle on the couch. He was squirmy and agitated, but ended up crashing in Jeff's arms. I wasn't happy with this, because of his low intake. So, I took him into our room, put him on the bed with me, propped up slightly on a pillow, and stuck the bottle in his mouth. He was half asleep, but I managed to get an extra 100 mls in him (putting him at 685 mls for the day). I used the same technique the night before. It breaks all of the proper bottle techniques, of course. But whatever works. After 100 mls, he was no longer half-asleep but fully passed out. I fell asleep by his side. I woke at 3:15AM to pump. Jeff was on the other side of Henry. I woke him up, just to let him know that he was on Henry patrol. After pumping, I came back to bed. Jeff and Henry were sharing the same pillow. It was very cute. He ended up sleeping with us all night. That's a first.

This morning, I was holding Henry and he was gnawing at my finger. I felt his first tooth! Veronica saw it. Jeff and I keep trying to get Henry to open up so that we can see it too, but he hasn't been forthcoming. In the late morning, Veronica brought Henry back to my area to visit. He had fun playing with various article lying in a box. I let him have a piece of paper, but he proceeded to bite a hole in it, so that was it for his paper fun.

Jeff came into my office because he needed the check book. When Henry saw him, he got upset because Jeff had dashed in and out and not held him. Veronica observed that Henry is a "Daddy's Boy." My mom has said the same thing. I hate to admit it, but he is definitely a Daddy's Boy. Jeff thinks that it is because he has given Henry a lot of bottles, while I'm busy pumping in preparation for the next round.

Grammy brought over some sunglasses that were a huge hit.

Teething Big Time

Henry spent Sunday with his grandparents. I drove him over to my parents' house late morning, because Jeff was working (he'd been tied to the computer this weekend). My mom said that Henry had had a good day.

I think that it was Monday morning when Henry started off his day with a bottle and indicating to us with his hands that he wanted us to sing "Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round." He had finished with his bottle and worked his way to the floor in our bedroom. We were sitting with him on the floor. He looked at us and made a motion with his hands that is his expression for the wheels. He's trying very hand to make his hands go round, but the coordination isn't quite there yet. Anyway, it was so cute to have him tell us that he wanted something and have us really know that's what he wanted. We are definitely going to start some baby sign language with him. In the afternoon, my mom and Jeff noticed that there is a slit in Henry's gums. Can't see the tooth yet, but his mouth is definitely preparing for a tooth to pop up any day now. He's been drooling and biting for weeks now. We'll be very excited when the tooth comes.

Dorsett came on Monday afternoon. Henry did well, as usual. He worked on crawling and standing. He's got the idea of the crawl down, but he has trouble getting one of his feet under his caboose. His standing skills are developing very well. Cuyler had told us Friday that it was fine for him to stand, but we have to remain static, so that he learns to stand up by himself and use the right muscles. The best thing for him is to learn how to stand from the legs, rather than pulling himself by his arms. And, he is doing a good job using his leg muscles. He's still wobbly, of course, but you can tell that he is using his legs, not his arms, for the stand. I've been a little bit concerned about him skipping the crawling phase. There is a theory about child development that says kids really need to go through the crawling phase. Dorsett said that they (meaning therapists) are taught that kids need to go through the development phases in proper order, but that she has seen a lot of cases where kids go right to walking without doing the crawl. She had mentioned last week that she has observed that slender children seem to go through the development phases more quickly than fat children. Henry certainly fits the slender profile. A couple weeks ago, I looked Henry's weight up in a chart from 1977. If this was 1977, he'd be in the 50th percentile on weight, but on today's charts, he is in the 25th percentile (by his adjusted age, of course).

In the evening, Jeff ran some errands, while Henry and I hung out. On Friday, Cuyler suggested that we do things, like get him to play "in and out," which is where the child learns to pull objects out of a bucket. Cuyler said that kids, at first, often just rattle the objects around with their hands in the bucket. But not my Henry. I put an object in a bucket. Offered him the bucket, and he pulled the objected out. No problem. Cuyler had also suggested that we try mimicking games where I bang objects together and then hand them to Henry. The question is: Does the time delay confuse him, or is he able to mimic? Answer: He can mimic. Again, no problems.

This morning (Tuesday), Henry slept like a log. He took two long naps in the morning and early afternoon. He had an active time with Grandma. He was having some frustrations with his teeth. He went for a walk with Jeff in the early evening, while I started to straighten out my home office, which has accumulated junk since right before Henry was born. For those of you who are familiar with my Type A tendencies, you would be truly shocked at the state of my home office. Papers everywhere. Quite a mess. Anyway, I'm slowly getting it into shape. I need it to be clean, so that it is safe for Henry to crawl around.

Jeff stayed up last night working on getting his office area into shape. We know that the time is fast approaching where Henry is going to be quite mobile. Plus, Jeff's dad is arriving soon, and we'd like the house to look presentable.

That's about it for now. We are very much looking forward to Grandpa Joe's visit.

Socializing

Today was a big day, we showed Henry off in public. We took him to breakfast with Robin and Bob. Kate went to school with Robin at Penn, and she was in town for a visit. We've been dying to show Henry off and thought this was a good opportunity to start.



We had breakfast at Tohono Chul Park. They have a patio where we were able to sit at an outdoor table that was about as secluded as we could hope for. I think Henry really enjoyed doing something new. He behaved himself very well. At first he was fairly quiet as he looked at all the new things and people around him. Later he warmed up and played pony boy and did some talking. He had some breakfast along with us, prunes and oatmeal. When he fussed, I took him to walk around a little humming bird garden they have there, which was very beautiful. Henry was able to see butterflies and humming birds and bees. He really enjoyed sitting in the high chair, even if he seemed terribly small in it.

Robin and Bob were very complimentary. They commented on how mature he was and how he seemed like a little person. We certainly feel he has been through a lot for his age and so has a certain amount of life experience behind him. They said how cute he was and all the things that parents want to hear. It was very nice to hear. He has turned out to be so much more than we had a right to expect back when he was in the nicu.

It was a bit of a new experience for Kate and me as well. We've only taken him to doctors offices and his grandparents house so we didn't exactly know how things would go. Little questions came up like, do we bring a stroller or carry him in his car seat? In the end, it worked out wonderfully.



Now we are pondering his next social event. We've been so good about not exposing him to illness unnecessarily. If we jump the gun and start showing him off to everyone and he gets sick, we won't forgive ourselves. So I think we will continue to be very cautious while still trying to expose him to different things. My dad is coming to visit, which will be a new thing for Henry. I'm hoping we will be able to take him to visit my aunts and uncles down in Green Valley while my father is here. We might do some more open air attractions like the Desert Museum or the Zoo. Then hopefully by his birthday, April 30th, RSV season will be over and we can have a little party for him.

After breakfast we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa's house for a little while. Grandpa came over in the late afternoon to spend some more time with Henry and help out while I had to work. Henry has been missing his evening walks because he has been taking naps at that time. He did so again today. It is warm enough now that we can take him out in the morning, which we'll probably start doing.

He had a very low intake today, under 500mls of milk. His gums really seemed to be driving him crazy this evening. He wasn't really fussy about it but he kept biting everything, drooling, and pushing up with his fingers on his upper gum. We ended up giving him a little tylenol with the hope it would ease his frustration and let him sleep better.

Here are some pictures from yesterday of Henry driving Grandma's truck.

Maestro

It has been another busy week. I'm probably not going to be able to remember all that happened. Overall, it was a good week for Henry. He is still not that interested in drinking his bottle, which is frustrating.

Let's see. On Monday, Henry had an appointment with Dorsett. We learned from Dorsett that Tara had found another PT for him. Basically, DDD is supposed to provide Henry with a PT. Tara hadn't been able to find one. Dorsett is getting paid through our insurance. We'd actually like to keep going with Dorsett because she brings out a lot of new things in Henry. On Monday, Henry started moving his arms forward in a crawl. He got the idea that he needed to move his hands when put on his hands and knees. He also spent some time propped up on our museum bench (bench in front of couch; made of same material as couch). He bent his knees to sit down from the standing position, which means that he is using the appropriate muscles to stand. He's not tightening and stiffening his legs, which would be bad.

Grandpa Joe and Jeff talked on Monday. He's coming out to visit the first week of April! We are very excited about this.

On Tuesday...neither Jeff nor I can remember what happened. We don't really have long term memories anymore. Past a couple hours, it is a struggle.

On Wednesday, Henry was a bit fussy. As I came home (I'd been teaching and running errands), I saw Veronica working on her car outside (this was around 2PM). I ran inside because I had to pump. Jeff went outside a few minutes later to see what was going on, while my mom watched Henry. There was a car, but no Veronica. Jeff got in our car and tried to find her (she was walking home). Meanwhile, her husband came with his Grandmother to try to jump start the car. Luckily, our jumper cables were in my old Toyota. Turned out that Jeff had found Veronica walking home and picked her up seconds before Chris got there. Long story short, it was a comedy of errors. We had a nice walk in the evening. The weather is great.









On Thursday, Henry started off his morning with some head shaking. While I changed his diaper, he'd shake his head. Then, I'd do it. Then, he'd do it. Went back and forth for several minutes. He thought it was fun. I guess he did this with my mom last weekend too. Henry was incredibly chatty throughout the day. He was making a lot of "Aye-ya" sounds. Some "Da" sounds. He was stringing all sorts of consonants and vowel sounds together. Dorsett came at 2PM. An observer from her work watched over the session. Tara came too, since she hadn't seen Dorsett in action. As it turns out, Dorsett knows the potential PTs through DDD pretty well. The disadvantage of going through DDD for the PTs is that they can only come once every two weeks. Dr. Tsai wants Henry to see a PT once a week. Dorsett was going to ask for an extension from my insurance, so that Henry doesn't have a gap in his physical therapy while the switch over happens. And, Dorsett was going to call one of Henry's potential PTs and let her know what a special and amazing kid Henry is. She thinks that anyone who works with Henry will want to make extra room in their schedule for him because he's a developmental "treasure." Dorsett thinks that we should also get a speech pathologist to visit Henry. She says that now is a good time to capitalize on his excitement over new sounds. I can't remember whether it was Thursday or Monday, but I had asked Dorsett whether she thought his vocalization was normal. She thinks that he's usually verbally expressive for his age. He does a lot of verbal communication for his wants and needs, which is great. We are considering trying some of the baby sign language, which gives babies a vocabulary of sorts.

After Dorsett left, Tara hung back for a few minutes. She wanted to spend time with Mr. H because she is going on vacation next week. We gave her some pictures of her and Henry. She was very moved by them. She said that she couldn't wait to show them back at the office (Project Amor, which contracts with DDD).

We then went to my parents for a quick visit with my mom, because she wasn't going to be able to come out in the afternoon. Our quick visit lasted a couple hours. Henry met Wembley, Aunt Erin and Uncle Brian's dog who is vacationing at my parents' house until Sunday. We spent a lot of time in the pool area looking at flowers and rocks. Henry spent some time at the piano. My dad didn't come home until 8PM or so as he'd been traveling with the Senator, who spent the day in Tucson. Grandpa spent a little time with Henry before we had to leave.














Today (Friday), Henry was very chatty again. He banged (lightly) his forehead against the mirror in our bathroom in his attempt to give himself a kiss. Cuyler came over today. She thought that his motor skills were looking great. Two times in a row that she's been impressed. She gave us some hints on things to do to help his fine motor skills come along. Jeff tried to weigh Henry today, but the scale just won't settle down. We think that he's around 17 lbs 7 ozs. Jeff had to do some work tonight, so it was me and Henry. When he got fussy, I'd sing the "Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round" song that Dorsett sometimes sings to him. He loves that song. He likes to try to make his hands go round and round. He came pretty close. Most of the time, they just end up slapping each other. But he's making the effort. We ended the evening with a bath and a bottle. He's out cold.

Too Busy to Eat

Henry had a good week. He is becoming quite a handful. He wants to explore everything. He really studies objects visually and then wants to touch them. He is getting harder to feed, because he finds things so interesting, that it is easy for him to lose interest in eating his bottle if something crosses his path (e.g., Bitsy Boo).

Let's see. What happened this week? Well, I think that Grammy visited on Wednesday afternoon, and Grandpa came over in the evening. Veronica was on vacation on Thursday and Friday. I took care of Henry Thursday morning (except during my conference call, when Jeff took over). Dorsett came over on Thursday afternoon. Henry was doing well with his transitions to the sitting position. He was also using the Safari Roller (cylinder beach ball) to prop himself up and then shuffle his knees to get from Dorsett to me. Kind of like upright crawling on the knees. He is getting a little bit peeved at us these days by making him work a bit harder to get to us. We know that he has the strength and balance to shuffle to us, so we are less quick to pick him up when he starts fussing. We want him to try to come to us. In the afternoon, Jeff dropped Henry off at my parents' house. In the evening, we went over to Steve and Jamie's house to watch the Wildcats lose to West Virginia. Marley and Roger came with us, so that they could visit with Ray (golden retriever). It was fun. We were soooooo tempted to bring Henry with us. We really want to show him off. But we are holding off until RSV season is over. I'm on a preemie website. A parent just posted the other day that they just had a big 1 year birthday party for their preemie; three days later, her child came down with a cold and she's afraid it is RSV. Just a reminder to "stay the course," so to speak.

On Friday, I think that my mom came mid-morning to help for a while. Then, my dad came in the afternoon. We had an appointment in the afternoon with Tara. Henry decided to pull himself to a stand using me as leverage. He did a good job. We haven't been encouraging him to stand, because the doctors and therapists have recommended that we avoid putting Henry in standing positions (which includes contraptions that encourage kids to stand). That means no Exersaucers or bouncy seats. Basically, the research shows that kids who are put in these contraptions tend to walk later than kids who aren't put in the devices. My interpretation of the literature is that it is more of a problem for preemies than full-term (FT) babies b/c preemies have already spent a significant amount of time in the flexed position, while FT babies spent those extra months in the womb in the tucked position. The devices tend to make the babies more flexed, which isn't what the average preemie needs. Since Henry hasn't done a whole lot of standing, I pretty much let him do what he wanted. I figured that as long as he was doing it himself, it would be OK. Baby knows best. He stood several times. Guess it was something new, so he was excited to practice it.











On Friday evening, we tried something new...sitting down at the table as a family. I bought Henry a Rain Forest booster seat. I love the Fisher Price Rain Forest line. Henry had fun watching Bitsy Cat chase Princess out of the booster seat box. He played with some toys on the booster seat tray, while I watched him. Jeff made dinner. We timed it so that I fed him as we were eating. He had a great time. Made a huge mess. We gave him a bath later in the evening.






On Saturday, we had a nice morning. I think that we weighed Henry at 17 lb 5.5 ozs. Jeff took Henry over to my parents' house in the afternoon and evening, while I stayed home and worked.

On Sunday, we went over to my parents' house. Henry played, took a nap with Grandpa, sat in the swing with Grandpa, slept on Grammy, went for a walk with Grandpa, played "Pony Boy" on Grammy. It was a very full day. At some point in the afternoon, we tried a new food, "Bananas, Peaches, and Raspberries." It was a combo puree. Henry's had bananas and peaches before, but raspberries were new. No reactions so far. I took a taste and thought it was pretty good. Henry thought so too. He downed the whole jar (a large 2nd foods jar that was 90 calories). He got frustrated with the spoon and insisted on drinking it from the bowl straight. The consistency was like a smoothie, so it worked out just fine.

Henry the Carnivore

Henry had a relaxing Tuesday morning. Veronica started off his day with an infant massage. She has an associates degree in massage. We bought some grape seed oil last week. She said that he did really well with the first ten minutes, then got fidgety. That's about as well as he does for us.

He was active and vocal all day. He was pretty active before Dorsett came for his afternoon PT appointment. He did really well with her at first, but then got very fussy because he was tired. She did get him to use his arms to pull himself toward me in a sort of commando crawl. He's working on it.

The big event of the day was trying a new food: sweet potatoes with chicken. A lot of people start meat later than we are starting Henry on meats. There is some research that suggests that preemies especially benefit from early introductions to meats because they delete their stores of iron faster than full-term babies. From a physiological perspective, the problem with meat is that it is more taxing to process on the kidneys. Anyway, we decided to start him up on meat in moderation. Frankly, the amount of protein in the 2nd foods series isn't really that much. Jeff and I both tried the food. We taste every Henry eats to make sure it is OK. It mainly tasted like sweet potatoes and apricots. It contained a trace amount of chicken flavor. Henry the Carnivore liked it. At first, he gave his usual perplexed look at eating something new. He later grabbed the bowl from my hand and started lapping it up (kind of like drinking soup straight from the bowl). I think that he would have eaten the whole jar, but Jeff and I only let him have half (as it is a new food). So far, no allergic reactions.









Earlier in the afternoon, I ran some errands and picked up Henry a new jacket at Children's Orchard. It goes nicely with some shoes that Michelle L. sent Henry when he was born. We've been waiting for him to be big enough to wear them. Sure enough, they fit now!









Grandpa came over in the evening. Henry passed out around 9PM or so. That's all from the Wild Kingdom for now.

Irish Henry

Henry had a good St. Patrick's Day. He celebrated being Irish; he is 3/32 Irish.

Veronica was back today. Jeff and I found it hard to stay away from Henry. He's so darn cute. He was very talkative today. His voice rang out through the house. He made a "bye bye" sound (not inference to someone actually leaving). And he continues to give raspberries, really wet ones. Just when I didn't think he could drool anymore than he was...I was wrong. Hope those teeth show up soon.

I let Henry choose which CD he wanted to listen to. He chose Mamma Mia! over Aladdin and the Beatles. Veronica said that he "danced" to a few of the songs. I think that "Proud Mary" continues to reign as his favorite song so far.

He weighed 17 lbs 0.5 ozs today. Grammy came in the afternoon. Dorsett came for a visit, but Henry was sleeping. She stayed a few minutes, just in case he woke up. As soon as she left with her car headed down the driveway, Henry's eyes flew open. Oh well. She said that she'd come back tomorrow.

Went for a walk. Henry completely wore me out this evening. He is so very, very active. He practice his standing today. He's getting harder to feed because he always wants to be doing something or interacting with things. If I sing to him, he will suck on his bottle while listening to me. Jeff has better luck giving him the bottle.

Henry the Wildman

Henry had a very active weekend. He is enjoying his new found skills, continuing to imitate, making new sounds, reaching up for toys while sitting, but is also getting frustrated by his physical limitations. He wants to be able to crawl and walk. On Saturday morning, we spent some time in the yard. We put the playpen outside, and Henry took a nap in it. In the afternoon, Grandpa came over for a visit and played with Henry. In the late afternoon/early evening, Henry made a "Da" sound. "Da Ba" was the "word" of the day. We went for our walk as usual. And, he was quite wired in the evening. He wore Jeff out. I was working on some course prep. Jeff wasn't having much success calming Henry down in the living room, so he went to our room and decided to put Henry in his crib with the mobile on. I went back to check on them about 20 minutes later. Jeff was passed out at the foot of the bed, and Henry was dozing comfortably in the crib.

We took Henry over to his grandparents' house this morning (Sunday). Jeff and I then went to breakfast, did a little shopping, and went back home for a spell. When headed back to my parents' house around 5PM. Henry had a busy day, only taking a nap for about a 1/2 hour. He did a lot of chatting, which my mom said included his first word..."poop." Incidentally, he did have some in his diaper at the time, but we suspect that this was coincidental. He spent some time outside in the pool area with Grandpa on the swing.







My parents went out to dinner tonight with some friends. We stayed at their place and did some dog sitting for a couple hours. The youngest member of their puppy dog clan, Indy, had eye surgery last week, which requires giving him eye drops on a schedule. Indy figured out how to rip off the plastic collar that is supposed to prevent him from scratching at his eyes. Fortunately, he doesn't do that too often, except right after having the drops in his eyes. So lots of petting is involved to distract him. And then there is Schroeder, who was having a rough day because of his allergies. He is a sensitive pup of about 11 years. Finally, there is Ramses, the 18 year old Pomeranian. He is quite a character. My parents acquired him almost 5 years ago when his previous owners were about to send him to the pound because they were tired of him (I'll spare everyone my speech on how most people should not be allowed to own pets). They had neglected him through most of his life, leaving him outside most of the time (in Tucson!!!). The average lifespan of a pompom is 10 years. Ramses was only expected to live a couple months when my parents got him. Once he got to Club Kenski, he became rejuvenated. Unfortunately, at 18 years of age, things are catching up to him. He needs a little bit of monitoring these days. I spent a lot of time tonight holding and petting him. He loves affection.

Henry had a good night. We did a lot of chatting with us. A lot of playing with his toys (completely different set of toys at the grandparents' house). He finally crashed in Jeff's arms around 9:30PM.