Giving Thanks

Yesterday was Henry's first Thanksgiving. This holiday has never meant so much. We want to share what we are thankful for this year.

• Henry, of course. He's truly a miracle. With what he has been through and the odds that have been against him, it is amazing to see him as such a happy and healthy boy.
• Our families. Everyone has been so helpful and supportive. We are so thankful we moved back to Tucson and now have the support of Kate's family. If we were still in Philly, I don't know how we would have been able to cope.
• Our friends and well wishers. From our closest friends to people known to us through six degrees of separation, we are thankful for your thoughts, prayers, and gifts.
  
• The NICU staff. While we may have had some gripes while at the UMC NICU, overall they did an amazing job. We especially are thankful to the nurses and nurse practitioners. They were all incredibly proficient and professional. The dream team of Kathy, Joyce, and Holly went far beyond the call of duty and really made a positive difference in our lives at an incredibly difficult time.
• Modern medicine. How is it possible that a child can survive when he only weighs 1lb 4oz and skips the entire third trimester? Through countless hours of hard work, strangers dedicated to furthering medicine have prevented us from experiencing the grief we likely would have experienced if Henry had been born only a few years ago.
  
• Our employers. Both Kate and I have had incredible support from workplaces not only while Henry was in the hospital, but since he has come home as well. We have constant doctor and other appointments. The flexibility of our work has relieved some of the stress that could easily arise from trying to juggle career and home.
• Life. Henry's situation has given us new perspective on the fragility of life in general, not just Henry's. We are thankful for our physical health, our wonderful environment, family, friends, pets, and the great many things we shouldn't take for granted but sometimes do.
  

Returning to our regular blog format, this is how the rest of the day went. In the morning we took a longer walk than normal after sleeping a bit later than normal. Henry is continuing to sleep for several hours at a time at night which is fantastic. Henry weighed in at 12lbs 12oz.

We headed over to the grandparents house for dinner around 4pm. Kate's two sisters and their significant others were there. We met Erin and Brian's dog Wembly for the first time. He is a very energetic little guy and managed to get Roger to play with him. Marley didn't want anything to do with him and tried to attack him when he tried to initiate play. She's such a party pooper.

Dinner was great. It was nice to see everyone, and thankfully no one was sick. Henry was rather fussy through the afternoon and it continued through dinner. We took shifts trying to console him in a bedroom away from the dinner table. Finally, he went to sleep on Grandpa after dinner while sitting in from of the tv watching ASU lose to USC in football. Henry seems to be an avid sports fan already.

Henry Gets Synagis Shot (Round 1)

It finally happened. We went to Henry's secondary pulmonologist, and he received his first Synagis shot. He'll be receiving this shot once a month through April. This is the shot given to minimize complications from RSV if he were to contract it. Before the shot, he was weighed at 6 kgs with his outfit and diaper on. We thought it was way too high an estimate. Carmen, the person giving him the shot, said that there would be no side effects. We were skeptical. Going in, the shot was significantly more painful to Henry than the flu shot. With the flu shot, he just peeped when the needed went in. This shot had a lot more fluid in it. So it hurt more. It took me about 5 minutes to calm him down. Then he was fine.

We spent the morning and afternoon playing. I gave him another baby massage. We headed over to my parents' place in the afternoon. My mom had been cooking all day, preparing for today's feast. So we figured that we'd come to them. We went for a walk around dusk.

Around 8:30PM, I ran out to Babies R Us to get an Angelcare monitoring system for the crib at my parents' house. I also bought Henry a bouncy seat. When I got back, I set up the system. It looks like it will work well. It has a sound feature, which has a range of 300 ft. Henry got a little cranky in the evening. It may have been the shot, or perhaps he hadn't napped long enough. He finally sacked out on my mom. Then, we moved him to the crib for the real test of the monitoring system. Everything seemed to work well. We then headed home.

Henry had a good night. He slept from 10PM to 1AM. As soon as Henry cried out, I went straight to the kitchen to fix the bottle, and Jeff got Henry out of his crib and changed him. Then, he fed Henry while I pumped. We managed to get Henry feed and back to bed relatively quickly. Then, we repeated the process at 4:30AM. It is so nice being able to get 2.5 hours straight sleep. The feeding/changing Henry every 2-3 hours overnight is such a HUGE improvement over his first months home!






We slept later than usual this morning. We didn't go out for our walk until after 9AM. We took a longer route than usual (the Peregine loop). Henry feel asleep about one-third of the way and stayed asleep until we got home. He has had a good morning eating and playing. He weighed 12 lbs 12 ozs. His weight yesterday was 12 lbs 15.5 ozs on our scale. He tried out the new bouncy seat and loved it. It has a play bar on it; when a dangling animal is hit, the waterfall lights up and music starts playing. He had a lot of fun. Other than that, he's been watching football with his dad, which is where he is now. We'll head over to my parents in a few hours for Thanksgiving dinner.

Hungry Henry Wrestles Spunky the Dog

Henry was worrying me over the weekend with his lack of appetite. Basically, things were going in the inbox but not coming out the outbox, which lead to a significant decrease in his food consumption. Plus, the flu shot had a much greater impact on him than we had anticipated. For me and Jeff, the side effects were minimal, so we didn't really think much about getting the shot for Henry (other than the thimerosal issue). Anyone who is taking care of Henry has to have received the flu shot (standard doctors' recommendation for preemie families) in order to be around him. The side effects started wearing off on Monday. Henry ate over 27 ounces of milk on Monday. He was on a slow pace overnight, but he picked it up substantially today during the day and early evening.

On Monday morning, we went for a walk. Grandpa Kenski visited Henry in the morning. Judith from the Blake Foundation visited around 11AM with Henry's new coordinator Tara. Tara works for the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD). We worked out the goals for Henry's progress. It looks like she'll be his developmental therapist in addition to being his coordinator. Plus, his occupational therapist (OT) will visit twice a month (it will most likely be Cuyler, whom we liked very much). Tara is also going to have a physical therapist (PT) come once or twice a month to work on his gross motor skills. We'll also be having visits from a nutritionist and a massage therapist. Our house will be a very busy place. The good news is that they come to us, which is a huge relief. We already travel around to a lot of doctors appointments. I couldn't imagine adding 6 more appointments into the mix if we had to go to them. We do it, of course, but I'm very glad that they come to our home instead.

On a side note, my friend Brenda who lives in NJ was telling me that some of the mothers that she knows in her area have lied to the state's early intervention program (EIP) to get the free services for their kids. EIPs were designed to help kids "at-risk" and yet there are people who lie about their kids development (claiming their kids are way behind on certain skills) to get the extra boost from therapists. Apparently, several of the therapist oblige because they'd rather spend their time in the nice neighborhoods of NJ rather than working in Camden, which has a lot of at-risk children. I have to say that as a mother of a child with special needs, the conversation made me sick. It took a really long time to get the ball rolling for my child who does have special needs. The problem is that the EIPs are overloaded with cases. To think that there are such selfish people out there clogging up the system makes me mad. It makes me wonder how some people can live with themselves. Sigh.

We got a call from Walgreen's in the morning. They said that they had just mailed the vials of Synagis to the pulmonology office. I called the pulmonology office to inquire about when the mail arrived because Henry had an appointment scheduled for Tuesday at 8:30AM. It seemed unlikely to me that it would arrive on time, and I was certain that the office wouldn't call us ahead of time to make an obvious reschedule. At my request, we are now rescheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8:30AM. The vials should have arrived today.

We had some good playtime on the floor on Monday morning. Henry played a lot with Spunky the Dog. Henry and Spunky had a wrestling match.








Believe it or not, we completely forgot to weigh Henry on Sunday. I think that we have been weighing him at home each day ever since we got the scale. He weighed 12 lbs 11 ozs on Monday and 12 lbs 10.5 ozs today. His weekly gain was the smallest we've seen in ages. But considering that he wasn't eating as much, it wasn't terribly surprising.

Grammy came on Monday afternoon. Henry was very talkative. Then, he crashed. I left for school in the late afternoon. My mom turned Henry over to Jeff. Henry slept through the evening walk. He spent "Boys Night" eating and sleeping, while Jeff watched basketball.

It was brisk this morning (around 50 degrees) on our walk. Henry was awake through the entire trip. Henry and I played on the floor a lot this morning. I gave him a massage. He was incredibly talkative and delightful as usual. He spent some time in his swing. We sat out on the porch for awhile. He was in a great mood all day. Grammy came in the afternoon. She and Henry had some long conversations.







We went for our evening walk. When we got back, I fed Henry a bottle, while Jeff went to the grocery store. Henry was staring at me intensely while he ate. He smiled every time that I told him I loved him or told him how handsome he was. Grandpa came in the evening. He spent time with Henry on the couch watching the Suns game. Henry passed out during the last part of the game.

Henry 360

This past week has been a week of self-awareness for Henry. Developments this week include:
(1) paying more attention to his hands than before,
(2) moving around the crib,
(3) rolling from side to back to side to back,
(4) sucking his thumb,
(5) staring at his feet,
(6) holding his head at 90 degrees when he's on his tummy; he doesn't seem to hate tummy time anymore, and
(7) staring at himself in the mirror with more focus than before.






Henry still isn't eating quite as much as he did pre-flu shot. We don't know if his lack of appetite is related to the flu shot, his digestive issues, or is just a phase he's going through. We continue to take walks in the morning and evening. Yesterday, Grandpa came over in the afternoon. We weighed Henry at 12 lbs 12 ozs. I went to school to see if the information on my laptop had been backed up appropriately. When I came back home, Jeff reported that after a series of events, Henry was reweighed at 12 lbs 9.5 ozs. Hopefully, he feels better.

Henry was really fussy last night. Normally, we know what the problem is. He's bored and wants a change of scenery. He's hungry. He's wet. There was nothing that we could do to please him for about half an hour. After trying to play with him on the floor, however, I realized that he wanted to watch television. I tried to block the path to the television with my body. He was annoyed that I was preventing him from watching the end of T3. I was glad that the television distracted him, but I'm not exactly thrilled to use the television as a soothing device. So, we are going to keep the television off more often. We actually don't oppose him watching some television. Our concern is the type of programming, specifically the editing. We don't want him watching programs that have a lot of fast cuts, as we think this is cognitively confusing...at least for the developing mind. I don't actually oppose him watching football (although I personally find it an uninteresting sport). There are scene changes, but for the most part, they are relatively slow. I have told Jeff that Henry can watch sports, provided that he talk to Henry throughout the games to tell him what's going on.

After much fussiness, Henry passed out on me. We put him to bed by 9PM, where he slept until after midnight.

Henry was a rather "active" sleeper in his crib. His head pretty much stayed in the same place on the mattress, but he's body worked itself all of the way around (360 degrees). Very excited that he's moving more. He's turning himself on his side. But I'm a little bit concerned about him getting tangled in his oxygen cords. In fact, there was one time during the week when Jeff found the oxygen cord around his neck (loosely). We know it wasn't there long, because Henry had just been put in his bassinet, but that's obviously a problem (especially as Henry starts moving more). Just another reason why we really, really hope that he'll be far enough along with his lung development to get rid of the oxygen at the end of the month!

Jeff put up a box on the side of the crib that has buttons that trigger lights and music. Henry had a good time kicking the buttons and turning on the show. He's getting to be such a big boy.

After a beautiful but brisk walk this morning, we headed off to the grandparents, which is where we are now. Aunt Carolyn came back in town yesterday. She was here when we arrived. She hadn't seen him since the beginning of August. She got to hold him for a while, which was nice. Then, Aunt Erin came by and got to see him while he was on his Jungle Mat. Jeff and I went to breakfast. Came back. Jeff's asleep now. Our game plan is to use Sunday's as sleep catch up days. I unfortunately have a lot of work to do. So I'm currently taking a break by writing this blog entry. Henry is on Carolyn's lap enthralled with his feet. She fed him a bottle and changed him. Go Aunt Carolyn!







Game plan for the week. Well, we meet with Henry's new development coordinator through the Developmental Disabilities Division on Monday. Then, on Tuesday, we have the Synagis shot scheduled (hopefully, the third scheduled appointment is the charm...they've cancel the prior two at the last minute).

Children's Pulmonary Specialists had canceled his appointment for last Friday (11/16) because they hadn't ordered the shot because they claimed that the insurance company had only faxed approval on Thursday (11/15). According to Rhoda at Schaeller Anderson, approval had been granted on 11/9; in fact, she called us that day to say that it had been approved. Did Schaeller Anderson wait 6 days to fax the doctor's office? I don't know. Somebody's full of fill-in-the-blank. My opinion is sufficiently low enough of both Schaeller Anderson and the staff at Children's Pulmonary Specialists to not know whom to believe. The brain trust at Schaeller Anderson was the one to deny the overnight study of the pulse-ox (which was ordered by the pulmonologist to determine whether or not Henry could be taken off oxygen safely). As I pointed out to Rhoda, Schaeller Anderson will have to continue paying for oxygen if the appropriate tests aren't done because there's no way in hell I'm letting him off oxygen until I know its safe. She said, "Well, that's the doctor's call." I didn't bother pointing that it had been the doctor's call to order the denied overnight study (thanks again to the good folks at Dependable Health Services for lending us the equipment and eating the cost themselves). I also don't trust the brain trust in the front office of Children's Pulmonary Specialists. They were going to call me back "right away" Thursday afternoon, which meant Friday mid-morning. They were also the ones who didn't have the foresight to cancel our first scheduled Synagis appointment on 11/2 until Jeff and my dad had arrived with Henry and waited 10 minutes in the waiting room; they should have known that the insurance approval had not gone through, the shots hadn't been ordered, and informed us the day before the appointment. In talking with them and trying to track down when they supposedly sent things to Schaeller Anderson, I have found some of their claimed "time line of events" questionable.

OK. I'm off my soap box (for now). Back to work.

Good Day, but Not that Hungry

Henry's appetite has diminished significantly the last few days. It started before the flu shot. Over the last two days, Henry's intake has been small. I don't think he even drank 20 ozs today.

We had a nice walk in the morning. Grandpa joined us on the walk. Grammy came in the afternoon, while I went to school. I had extra office hours today, because there's a lab paper due on Monday. Two students showed up. As usual, it is the students who know what they are doing who come to office hours; they just needed some validation that they are on the right track, which they were. The SBS tech guys came for my laptop. But I had problems backing up the data, so they are going to pick it up Monday. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a backup done. I went to a talk on negative advertising in Latin America, which was held by the political science department.

While I was out and about, Grammy had Henry do some tummy time. Jeff said that Henry was looking really good. He's almost holding his head at a 90 degree angle to his body. And Jeff said he didn't hear him screaming in protest, which is nice.

At some point in the day, Jeff told me that Henry had been staring at his hand. He had been grabbing one of his toys. Staring at hands is a good thing. Another step in his development.

When I came home, Henry and Jeff had already gone out to take the dogs for a walk. I managed to find them. Evonne and Hal love seeing Henry. The new hat is a hit!













We gave Henry a bath tonight. He doesn't seem to mind bathes, which is great. He even was OK with washing his "hair." I think that he enjoyed having the cannula off his face for a little while. The duoderm was looking pretty shabby, so we decided it was time for a complete change. Jeff lights up when Henry has all of the tubes off his face (see picture to left of text). It is fun walking around with him when the tubes are off. We finally weighed him tonight: 12 lbs 9.5 ozs.

After the bath, I nursed Henry for a while on the couch. He fell asleep soundly. Jeff just put him to bed in the crib.

Flu Shot Received

Today Henry had his flu shot from the Pima County Health Department. It was a much better experience than I expected. They have a rather stream lined operation, and it wasn't too busy so we were in and out quickly. The people were also very nice and knowledgeable.

Henry did very well with the shot. I was wondering what his reaction would be. We could hear several other babies and children crying. Henry gave a shriek as the needle was stuck in but didn't make a peep after that. I think he has been stuck with so many needles that has built up a high pain threshold.

He didn't eat very much today. I think that may be due to the flu shot, which may have tired him out a bit. Also, the traveling seems to tire him out. We were out for a while when he got the flu shot because we had to pick up our car from the shop and it wasn't ready. We went to a park and had lunch while Henry slept in his car seat on the picnic table. He does very well on car rides, typically sleeping much of the time.

Grandma came in the morning and Grandpa visited in the evening. He weighed 12lbs 8ozs today.

Henry slept on grandpa through the U of A versus Oregon football game. Shockingly the U of A upset an Oregon team that lost their star quarterback early in the game. I tried to watch but fell asleep on the couch as I am becoming more prone to doing.

Roger Helps Out

Henry wasn't a good sleeper last night. I took the first shift. He did OK. Jeff took the second. Henry didn't sleep much at all. He had some digestive issues, which made him a tad irritable.

We went for a walk this morning. Another beautiful day. Henry was wearing a cute outfit that Carmen gave him. Grandpa visited for an hour and a half in the morning. After eating, Henry required a change of clothes. We figured that it was a good opportunity to weigh him. Today's weight: 12 lbs 8 ozs. His next outfit was a gift from his Aunt Jennifer.

After the weighing, I forced him to do some tummy time. He was in a really good mood prior to tummy time. He wasn't too happy about being on his stomach, but then after inching forward a bit, he noticed that Roger (our LabraPitt) was on the floor too. Staring at Roger seemed to distract him from the perceived horrors of tummy time. He spent at least 10 minutes straight on his stomach.

It is hard for us to understand why Henry feels that tummy time is such an awful experience. When he was first born, his tummy was his favorite position. As he got older in the NICU, the nurses didn't put him on his tummy much, unless we requested it. They don't put the babies on their tummies, because they are afraid that parents will adopt this position when their babies leave the NICU. It is one thing to let a child sleep on his tummy when he's being watched 24/7. And it is another thing when babies are at home, because there isn't the same level of monitoring (by people or machines) that there is in the NICU, and the risks of SIDS do increase significantly when babies sleep on their stomachs. I thought that Henry would have been thrilled to get some variety in his positioning. Hopefully, he'll come to appreciate tummy time soon.









Henry and I played around a bit when he was on his back. He continued to be in a good mood. He did a lot of squealing. I tried tummy time again. This time, I placed him in front of a mirror so that he could stare at himself. He did an excellent job. He got his head up high. He has excellent back muscles, but his arm strength is still kind of weak (but it is improving).

Grammy came in the afternoon to watch Henry while I had an NAES conference call. Henry decided that eating and napping were more important that suggestion revisions to the survey. While I was on the telephone, Henry apparently had the mother of all diaper loads. Can't say that I was sorry to miss it. He snoozed for about 3 hours on Grammy's chest (with one brief awakening for a quick bit to eat).

Henry got to play with his new butterfly toy. He was having a good time chewing on it.

We went for a nice walk in the evening. Henry got to wear his new Kenneally designer ware, a blue and white hat. Jeff was hoping that we'd run into someone on the walk so that we could show it off. Luckily, we ran into Evonne, who said how cute he was in it!







Grandpa came back in the evening to spend more time with Henry. Henry was eating up a storm. He was way behind on his eating as of the afternoon. But by evening, he went crazy, consuming much larger volumes of food than we had ever seen in the past. Thank goodness for our stockpile in the freezer!

Tomorrow, our big adventure will be to the Pima County Health Department flu shot clinic. We are a bit nervous about taking him to the waiting room of the health department. Having spent so much time at UMC and being around people with atrocious hygiene and then having our lovely experience in the ER waiting room at UMC after Henry came home, I confess that I have a negative, visceral reaction when I hear the words "Henry," "public," and "waiting room" put together in the same sentence. I'm hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. If it looks questionable, we'll turn around and come home.

Talking Up a Storm

We went for a walk this morning. Jeff was going to let me sleep in, but after lying in bed for a few minutes thinking of all the things I needed to do, I decided to get up for our walk. It was a nice morning.

Grandpa Kenski came in the morning, and Grammy Kenski came in the afternoon. Henry weighed 12 lbs 7 ozs. Both grandparents reported that Henry played for at least an hour in his bassinet on their respective shifts. He likes to kick up against the side of the bassinet. Over the weekend, we switched the Pack 'N Play around, so that it no longer has the diaper changing station on one half. This makes the bassinet twice as large. Jeff was also able to reposition the toys on the mobile so that Henry could reach some of them and kick others. Henry likes to talk to his toys. He's very vocal when he's in the bassinet.

I called Dr. Bianchi's office this morning to schedule Henry's December appointment and to ask if they could order the non-preservative flu shot. Ruth called me back. Basically, they won't order it. They said to check with the Pima County Health Department. I had called them earlier in the morning (got the number off their website for the immunizations division, but no one answered). I explained to Ruth that I didn't really want Henry to spend an afternoon in the waiting room of the health department. He's more likely to catch something there than if he didn't get a shot at all. It didn't help. They won't order it. I said that I'd pay for any extra charges that they'd incur. No go. But she gave me a different number at the health department. Called them, and they do have Fluzone preservative-free shots upon request. So, it looks like that's where Henry will get his flu shot from the county health department on Thursday during the afternoon clinic. I plan to call them tomorrow to ask about non-peak hours and if they can arrange any appointment (considering he's still on oxygen).

Jeff and I have looked at some of the research on shots. We recognize that the results aren't conclusive about the relationship between autism and shots, but we don't want to take any risks. We'd rather be conservative about it. I don't think that it is unrealistic for doctors to listen to parents about not wanting mercury (thimerisol) in shots. I read some articles that said that many pediatricians are refusing to order the preservative-free shots because they feel it validates parental concern over thimerosal. Given that the results are inconclusive, I find it maddening that pediatricians as a group could be so arrogant as to presume that they know everything about autism, because they don't. The research is not conclusive at all. There are three major hypotheses about the causes of autism from shots. (1) Mercury in the shots causes autism, (2) An immune response is trigger by shots that results in autism. and (3) Some kids have a genetic predisposition for autism, which is facilitated by the shots. I'm guessing that a combination of 2 and 3 are the most plausible suspects. That said, I don't want to chance it with number 1. The studies claiming that thimerisol doesn't cause autism are rather weak (for a wide variety of reasons that I won't detail here). And we know of a few parents whose children developed signs of autism within a couple days of having their MMRs.

I called the secondary pulmonologist's office to make the Synagis appointment. Rhoda from Schaeller Anderson called on Friday to say that the shots had been approved. We have an appointment on Friday at 3PM for the shot. Apparently, it is a rather painful shot.

I headed to the mall this afternoon to get some new clothes. I hadn't gone shopping for clothes since I bought my maternity ware in March/April. I stopped by Babies R Us and bought Henry a bunch of the toys that he can put in his mouth. I also bought him a new tub...the current one has a terrible design that leaks every time we use it.

Jeff took Henry for a walk while I was out. We had dinner while watching the UofA vs. NAU game. Henry liked to watch the television. I think that it has facilitated his head movement. We'll be feeding him a bottle, and he'll turn his head well past 90 degrees to see what's going on. Normally, I wouldn't be too pleased about the TV watching, but the head turning is great for overcoming the torticollis.

Henry is sleeping now. I'm on the first watch of the night.

Henry Consults for the NAES

Henry slept for four hours straight after his bath last night. Then, he got up every two hours and ate. He slept in-between feedings. This is a marked improvement over the first two months of him being home. Jeff let me sleep. I think that I slept 6 hours straight, which was amazing.

Jeff took care of Henry today, as I had work to catch up on. I'm very far behind in my work. I had hoped to catch up Sunday, but then the whole cold-allergy thing came up. Jeff and I don't want to take chances with Henry's health. Preemies, especially chronic lung disease babies like Henry, are more susceptible to being hospitalized if they catch RSV. 2% of 125,000 kids who are hospitalized for RSV each year die from it. We are doing everything we can to keep him from being hospitalized. Jeff came to the conclusion that we shouldn’t go to any of the UofA basketball games. Just as Henry can catch something from a crowd, so can we. I agree (unfortunately). My parents have awesome basketball seats. We love going to the games. But we can wait a year and watch the games on our TV. Henry is certainly worth this small sacrifice.

As I began working on editing a book chapter this morning, the "blue screen of death" popped up when I started my computer. My computer is a Gateway laptop and truly a piece of fill-in-the-blank. I hadn't backed up my computer in a really long time, and I got a bit nervous when I saw the "blue screen of death." So, Jeff went off to get me a backup hard drive. About 10 minutes after he left the house, the National Annenberg Election Survey (NAES) team called. We had a conference call...I managed to miss the email. Took my by surprise, but Henry was pretty good during it. He did voice his opinions a couple times during the meeting (e.g., he felt committed to the religion battery and said so).







After Jeff got back, he took over Henry duty while I finished up the call. Then, I got the backup going. Luckily, my computer did boot up so that I could transfer files to the new hard drive. Unfortunately, my keyboard has been hit and miss on working. This computer...well, it is junk. In fact, last Monday, when I was at school, one of the computer staff members came by to install the new version of SPSS 15 on it. The school's new rules are that we (the faculty) aren't allowed to be the administrators on our own machines, because we might download software and viruses inappropriately. It's a stupid rule. Incidentally, it means that we can't download software updates (including virus protection software) without the assistance of the SBS computer staff. Anyway, the computer guy, Kellen, said, "I'd kill myself if I had to work on your laptop each day." This was after working on my computer less than 10 minutes. Again, it is a piece of junk.

Henry weighed 12 lbs 4.5 ozs today. Same as yesterday.

Jeff and I took Henry out for a walk around 3:30PM (much earlier than usual). Henry had been fusing. He didn't want his bottle. He didn't want to play in the bassinet. He was just cranky. He seemed to calm down when put in the Baby Bjorn. By the time we made it past Swani and Hal's house (the house next to us), Henry had already passed out. Guess he just needed a nap.

When we got back home, Henry had some food and passed out on Jeff for about two hours. We decided that it was OK for my dad to come over for a little bit. My mom is fairly certain that she had allergies, not a cold. And my dad hasn’t had any symptoms. So he came over to hold Henry for awhile. He arrived right around the time that Henry woke up. Henry was mad, mad, mad. He woke up screaming for food.

Jeff went to bed around 9:15PM. My dad left around 9:45PM. Henry slept on the couch, cuddling into me until 12:45AM. He woke up very upset again. I guess he’s just not used to the feeling of an empty stomach yet. I gave him a 105 ml bottle, which he drank and fell asleep. I woke Jeff up around 1:45AM, so I could pump and get some shut-eye for a little bit. Hopefully, Henry will repeat the sleeping every 2 plus hours before needing to eat. It really is nice when we get to nap in-between them.

3 Months Old (Age Corrected)

Today was Henry's due date birthday of 3 months. We went on walks in the morning and evening. Jeff did most of the Henry sitting today, so that I could work. I believe that they watched a lot of football together. At one point in the afternoon, Jeff took Henry on the back porch to get some fresh air. Henry weighed 12 lbs 4.5 ozs. He didn't eat that much today and was a bit of a pain to feed. He kept sticking his tongue out, which usually means he is hungry, but then he would move his head a lot, as though he didn't want the bottle.









Henry was supposed to go over to my parents' house today. But my mom called and said that she had a stuffy nose. She thought it was allergies, but we didn't want to take any chances. My dad was going to come over and watch him, but considering that one is a carrier of the cold a day or two before one shows symptoms, we decided that we'd take care of Henry today. My dad didn't want to break his streak of seeing Henry every day. So he went to Walgreens and got a face mask. He stopped by for 12 minutes, just to say hello. There is some controversy over the effectiveness of the face mask. But some of the NICU nurses said that it was OK to use, but the effectiveness wears off after 12 minutes or so. My dad's Henry streak is still intact.




In the evening, Henry was indecisive about eating. I did some tummy time with him. It didn't go well. He kept face planting himself. Frustrating. We ended up giving him a bath, which tired him out. He and Jeff are asleep. I'm signing off to sleep now too.