Grading on a Curve

Jordan has hit a special milestone at today’s doctor’s appointment. He is 14 pounds 5 ounces. That places him on the growth curve for kids born on his birth date. He is larger than 1% of kids born July 9th. Well, actually less than 1%, but he is on the curve. He is also officially heavier than my bowling ball and my biggest dog. All of the books say that kids born early tend to catch up, but golly! We buy diapers by the case. By the time he’s done with the case, we have to get a bigger size. He didn’t even finish the size 1 case. We have already started saving clothes and diapers for the next baby. Don’t get excited, we are no where near ready to have another one – maybe in a couple of years. Jordan gets to go several months without seeing the doctor again. He still has monthly shots for RSV, but the doctor says he’s doing well enough that they don’t need to do a checkup until April.

Jordan is starting to sleep through the night! About half the time he can go from 10pm to 6am. The rest of the time he either needs a diaper or a bottle. Last week, he went 3 consecutive days of sleeping the entire night! I tell you, we have entered one of the best parts of parenting. He sleeps better now, and he doesn’t cry that much. He cries when something is wrong, otherwise he’s pretty calm. He is always down for some playtime when he’s awake, but he isn’t ready for toys yet. We have to play with him, and if you do well, he smiles. When you get tired of playing with him, put him in his chair and he’s fine. He can easily sit in his chair for 30 minutes looking at me and eating his fist. He’s too old to stay up all night, and too young to make a mess or talk back to us.

The Naked Truth

No one from the blog has seen him smile before.

This is his favorite toy.

This is a good sample of some of the stuff he can do. He can get his hands to his mouth, but never sucks his thumb. He can make noises, he can kick off the blanket, and he can tear up his face while trying to get rid of the cannula.

On Saturday, Jordan made a mess in his diaper. In fact, the diaper couldn't hold it all. Anyone who has spent enough time around babies has been there. I had to change everything that he got to. As a result, for the first time since July 9th, he was totally naked. Ever since his birthday he's never gone a few seconds without xtra oxygen, or sensors on his chest or usually both. Even his baths were with a cannula. Saturday, he was totally nekkid. As you can see above, he looks completely different without it on his face.

It is getting so much easier having a cordless baby. About 5 pounds ago he would spend an entire week in our bedroom and wouldn't leave except to take a bath in the adjoining bathroom. Now, when we get home, we unhook him from the tank and spend several hours out of the bedroom. He watches us cook dinner, or read, or watch TV. We don't let him watch yet, but he REALLY wants to watch. We even spent Sunday putting the finishing touches on the nursery. We never 100% finished because we would never consider him sleeping in there before he was off the oxygen. Now, we let him nap in there. As soon as the doctors get rid of the damn monitor, he's moving to his own place. His parents could use some alone time.

Weaning Weekend

Jordan sits on grandma's lap.

This is the closest he came to smiling today.

He looks so serious.

Getting ready to eat.

This was a great weekend! Friday we went to visit the pulmonolgist. The first time we visited, was the first time and I didn’t expect much. The 2nd visit, Jordan was hungry during the visit and wanted nothing to do with anyone. This visit, I knew Jordan would do better because I could definitely hear his cry getting louder over the last month. Well, Jordan passed his test! We get to start weaning him. The doctor said we don’t have to keep him hooked up to the damn monitor during the day – just the night. Also, we are to start taking him off of the monitor for up to 3 hours per day this week while he is awake. Next week, up to 6 hours while he is awake. By the next doctor visit, it will be at night time only. Within a couple of months he’ll be totally off the gas. We were so happy about that, that we took Jordan out to watch us eat dinner. He had some milk to drink.

We also took him back to the NICU to visit some old friends. I remember when I never thought we would get to do that walk with him. This time we did. I remember the sights, the fights we would have in the hallway, even the sounds. The thing that struck me most was the smell. I don’t think I could ever forget the smell – not bad, but distinctive. The nurses that were there remembered us, and couldn’t stop talking about how big he was. That was the first time we let someone pick him up without washing their hands first – because they constantly wash their hands. I think my favorite part was leaving with the baby. It’s nice to visit the NICU, but it’s even nicer when you get to leave with your baby.

Jordan got to visit both sets of his grandparents houses for the first time on Sunday. He sees his grandparents all of the time, but they usually have to visit him. This time, he visited them. He’s been awake a lot lately, so they were very happy to see him. That’s when we took the above pictures. Make sure you look at the video.

Don't hate the player, hate the toys.

First of all, let me tell everyone that you should not get internet service with BellSouth. It seems as if I can’t go 2 months without something going wrong with my service. Anyway, on to the baby. His development is really starting to speed up. He is starting to control his movements a lot better. He is controlling is kicks a little better, and that makes them harder. He can also swing his arms in general directions now. He can swing at our faces now with one arm, and usually hit us. Of course, this leads us to an important stage in his life. Over xmas he got several of those play gyms and mats and the like. His cousin Terri gave us one that all 3 of us like. It helps him with his arm swinging. He also has one that he kicks, and he just loves the way it feels. In the world we currently live in, you can’t buy a toy for a baby that doesn’t light up or make noise. All of his toys make music or sing the alphabet, or teach colors, or count, or some other racket. It gets him pretty happy, but it really interferes with me watching the playoffs.

He had such a good weekend with his toys, that he has started to smile. He saved his biggest smile for Sunday morning. I was sleeping late with him in the room. His mother was on the other side of the house with the baby monitor turned off. If the baby needed something, I would have heard him cry. Well, after being out of the room for a little while, his mother comes in to check on him. He has a smile across his face and vomit on his face, bed, and clothes. We will never know how long he was lying in his vomit, but he didn’t seem to mind as he didn’t bother to tell us. His mother did not smile. Jordan has an appointment with the pulmonolgist this Friday, so everyone keep their fingers crossed.

Happy New Year!

We got several gift cards for xmas, and decided to try and use them yesterday since we both had the day off. We even bought the baby along. I saw something that absolutely blew my mind. A pair of shoes for 0-3 months with memory foam in the soles! A shoe with extra cushioning for a 3 month old baby! That’s about 3 months before crawling. I suppose next up there will be athletic equipment for him. Maybe a football helmet, or a baseball glove. Anyway, sorry about the rant, but I couldn’t believe it. Jordan got fussy yesterday when it was time to eat, so I took him over to the food court while mama was looking at shoes. I asked a guy at the pizza place for a cup of hot water to heat the bottle. He was happy to help, but when he looked at the baby he asked if the baby was ok. I said he’s fine, he had just been scratching at the cannula a lot lately. The guy looked at me like I was crazy. It took me several minutes to realize why. I looked at Jordan and saw the scratch under his eye as the only thing unusual. I forgot that babies tend not to have oxygen cannulas taped to their face to help them breathe.

When you see photos of babies you see them in 2 stages. The first stage is the blob where they just sit there and do nothing, but they are tiny and cute. The second stage is where they are sitting up or crawling and playing with toys and laughing at everything. Jordan is in between right now. He is awake a lot of the time and is just starting to use his big muscles. He kicks all the time. In fact, he’s strong enough to stand up. Don’t get me wrong, he has no balance, but he’s strong. He moves his arms around a lot, but can’t control where he moves them, so he just hits his parents – hard. He isn’t really interested in toys yet, but he takes great pride in what he can do. The reason he has a scratch on his face is he is becoming really good at moving that darn cannula. He loves kicking during diaper changes. He really likes hitting his mother – hard. It’s going to be a really good year for Jordan. I even dipped his pacifier into the greens yesterday.