Monday, March 21, 2011
Quick administrative note
I've added a component on the sidebar that will let you subscribe to this blog via email (for those of you not into the RSS thing). I presume it will send you an email any time I post an update. If anyone tries it and it doesn't do that, let me know.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
David is sick!
I had expected/planned to use this space to update David's progress as a baby, talk about all of his firsts, post pictures and videos of him doing awesome things, letting everyone know when he learns to crawl and walk and all those fun things. I didn't really expect for the first "first" to be that David has his first (infectious) illness.
Christy has been feeling under the weather for a few days, and a couple days ago David started with a light cough, mostly at night. We didn't really think much of it, but it persisted, and yesterday we just figured that it couldn't hurt to be cautious. He already lives life with an 85% blood oxygen saturation (normal is 100%), all he needs is to get fluid filled lungs that would make that saturation drop. So this morning, David went to the doctor for a non-checkup for the first time.
We told the doctor that Christy had been sick, David had developed a little cough, and we just wanted to be careful. His first comment was that they weren't going to treat him prophylacticly - i.e., they weren't going to do anything preventative just because Christy was sick. Apparently he's had this issue before with parents, which is kinda sad. Anyway, he proceeds to look in his ears. Lo and behold, he has the beginnings of an infection in his left ear!
Long story short, Paul and Christy are awesome parents who do, in fact, know when their child is getting sick, and furthermore are able to realize it before it turns into a full blown illness. *patsselfontheback.
So David now has 10 days worth of the infamous "pink stuff" (amoxycillin) that he has to take twice a day. Also of note is that it didn't require a shot, which I'm sure would make David happy if he knew.
In truth, he's doing very well and I doubt he has any idea that anything is amiss. He hasn't been fussy or anything, and even though he coughs a little bit at night it doesn't seem to be enough to wake him up or make him mad. He likes the pink stuff (he's always been a really good medicine taker), so no problems on that front either. Basically, he is the awesomest baby ever. Even when he's sick.
In other (administrative) news, Christy and I have been taking pictures and videos like crazy, and they're all getting stuffed into the links on the sidebar. It's kinda funny how digital media and cheap storage basically lets you take constant pictures of anything that you want. When I was little, I felt like mom took unreasonable amounts of pictures of us. I can't even imagine how bad it would have been if she'd had a camera in her phone and infinite film.
Christy has been feeling under the weather for a few days, and a couple days ago David started with a light cough, mostly at night. We didn't really think much of it, but it persisted, and yesterday we just figured that it couldn't hurt to be cautious. He already lives life with an 85% blood oxygen saturation (normal is 100%), all he needs is to get fluid filled lungs that would make that saturation drop. So this morning, David went to the doctor for a non-checkup for the first time.
We told the doctor that Christy had been sick, David had developed a little cough, and we just wanted to be careful. His first comment was that they weren't going to treat him prophylacticly - i.e., they weren't going to do anything preventative just because Christy was sick. Apparently he's had this issue before with parents, which is kinda sad. Anyway, he proceeds to look in his ears. Lo and behold, he has the beginnings of an infection in his left ear!
Long story short, Paul and Christy are awesome parents who do, in fact, know when their child is getting sick, and furthermore are able to realize it before it turns into a full blown illness. *patsselfontheback.
So David now has 10 days worth of the infamous "pink stuff" (amoxycillin) that he has to take twice a day. Also of note is that it didn't require a shot, which I'm sure would make David happy if he knew.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Update emails have been archived
Last night I went through all of the David update emails that I sent out prior to staring this blog, and assimilated them into a PDF that you can see here: David Update Email Archive. If anyone has a problem seeing it, email me or comment below and I'll try to see what the problem is and fix it.
As I read through all of that stuff again, it brought back a lot of memories and emotions. It's really amazing how far our little family has come from that first time of being told that something might be wrong to now. I was also entertained at how much we learned through all of this stuff. When I wrote the first 2 emails, I had no idea what was really going on. I used the wrong words in a few places, had details way off, all sorts of stuff. Then I go down and read the email that I sent to our local cardiologist after the second surgery and I'm throwing out hospital acronyms and drug names like I invented them. As difficult as that whole process was, it's really rather interesting to watch (and remember) the progression.
Anyway, I just wanted to get all of this stuff in one place, so now I think it officially is. Feel free to let me know if I missed any emails. I think I got them all, but it seems like there are holes where I should have sent something out but I don't have anything. Oh well.
As I read through all of that stuff again, it brought back a lot of memories and emotions. It's really amazing how far our little family has come from that first time of being told that something might be wrong to now. I was also entertained at how much we learned through all of this stuff. When I wrote the first 2 emails, I had no idea what was really going on. I used the wrong words in a few places, had details way off, all sorts of stuff. Then I go down and read the email that I sent to our local cardiologist after the second surgery and I'm throwing out hospital acronyms and drug names like I invented them. As difficult as that whole process was, it's really rather interesting to watch (and remember) the progression.
Anyway, I just wanted to get all of this stuff in one place, so now I think it officially is. Feel free to let me know if I missed any emails. I think I got them all, but it seems like there are holes where I should have sent something out but I don't have anything. Oh well.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Adventures in Ferberizing
So not much interesting has been going on recently. But I figure I should do 1 or 2 of these a month, so even though this isn't really an update per-se, here is this month's David update...
There are 2 books that every new parent needs. The names of these sacred texts were passed on to us by some awesome friends when we had David, and now I'm passing them on to you:
1. The Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp. We managed to read this one before he was born. It's a pretty quick read that could really be condensed into 2 8.5x11 sheets of paper, but I fully credit it with keeping us out of the emergency room before the Glenn. As you may or may not know, David was not allowed to cry for more than like 10 minutes until that surgery had passed. That book taught us how to comfort him quickly so that he never did.
2. Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber. When you do a google search for "Ferber" (probably bing too, since they just copy google's results), every hit is a link saying OMG DON'T FERBERIZE YOUR BABY UNLESS YOU HATE HIM. I am here to tell you that's a load of crap. We went back and forth about going the Ferber route for 2 months before we just decided to just get the book from the library and see what it says. Needless to say, the interwebs critics have probably never actually read what he has to say.
David never has liked going to bed at night. He would get mad as soon as he realized what time it was. It didn't matter whether we held him or put him in bed, he was crying. Most of the time, for a minimum of 30 minutes before sleepiness started overcoming anger. And truth be told, it wasn't THAT bothersome, we just knew it wasn't sustainable. He was going to have to figure out how to fall asleep by himself one way or another.
Ferber has a chart of how long to let the baby cry before you go check on him the first time, second time, etc. He tells you in the book that night 1 is the worst in terms of how long it takes for them to fall asleep, night 2 takes about half the time of night 1, then night 3 and on are smooth sailing. So night 1 was Saturday. We put him in bed at 9 P.M. It took him 25 minutes to fall asleep. Yes, that's right, he cried LESS for the worst part of being Ferberized than he ever had with anything else we had done. Night 2 (Sunday), right at 12 minutes. And on top of all of that, he sleeps through the night. As in 11 hours straight last night without even waking up from being hungry. We will see how tonight goes, but I am wildly optimistic.
Otherwise, everything seems to be going swimmingly. David has started eating some solid foods once a day. He started with brown rice, which he was kinda meh on. 2 weekends ago, we (read: Christy) made him some barley & carrot mush, and he has had a change of heart on solid foods. She started throwing in random fresh herbs this weekend, and he seems to like that also.
David has a short pediatrician visit this week to get his last Synegis shot (respiratory syncytial virus or RSV antigen) of the year, then he gets his second flu booster early next week. The doctors are all really paranoid about him getting any kind of respiratory sickness, so David gets lots of extra preventative maintenance. He's gotten pretty good about shots though, last time he only cried while he was actually getting the shot and stopped almost as soon as it was over. I keep telling him that a shot should be no big deal when you've had your chest cracked open, but he disagrees.
Christy has continued to keep the picture albums updated, along with one or 2 videos that she randomly takes. So be sure to check back occasionally to watch him get bigger. Until next time...
There are 2 books that every new parent needs. The names of these sacred texts were passed on to us by some awesome friends when we had David, and now I'm passing them on to you:
1. The Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp. We managed to read this one before he was born. It's a pretty quick read that could really be condensed into 2 8.5x11 sheets of paper, but I fully credit it with keeping us out of the emergency room before the Glenn. As you may or may not know, David was not allowed to cry for more than like 10 minutes until that surgery had passed. That book taught us how to comfort him quickly so that he never did.
2. Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber. When you do a google search for "Ferber" (probably bing too, since they just copy google's results), every hit is a link saying OMG DON'T FERBERIZE YOUR BABY UNLESS YOU HATE HIM. I am here to tell you that's a load of crap. We went back and forth about going the Ferber route for 2 months before we just decided to just get the book from the library and see what it says. Needless to say, the interwebs critics have probably never actually read what he has to say.
David never has liked going to bed at night. He would get mad as soon as he realized what time it was. It didn't matter whether we held him or put him in bed, he was crying. Most of the time, for a minimum of 30 minutes before sleepiness started overcoming anger. And truth be told, it wasn't THAT bothersome, we just knew it wasn't sustainable. He was going to have to figure out how to fall asleep by himself one way or another.
Ferber has a chart of how long to let the baby cry before you go check on him the first time, second time, etc. He tells you in the book that night 1 is the worst in terms of how long it takes for them to fall asleep, night 2 takes about half the time of night 1, then night 3 and on are smooth sailing. So night 1 was Saturday. We put him in bed at 9 P.M. It took him 25 minutes to fall asleep. Yes, that's right, he cried LESS for the worst part of being Ferberized than he ever had with anything else we had done. Night 2 (Sunday), right at 12 minutes. And on top of all of that, he sleeps through the night. As in 11 hours straight last night without even waking up from being hungry. We will see how tonight goes, but I am wildly optimistic.
Otherwise, everything seems to be going swimmingly. David has started eating some solid foods once a day. He started with brown rice, which he was kinda meh on. 2 weekends ago, we (read: Christy) made him some barley & carrot mush, and he has had a change of heart on solid foods. She started throwing in random fresh herbs this weekend, and he seems to like that also.
David has a short pediatrician visit this week to get his last Synegis shot (respiratory syncytial virus or RSV antigen) of the year, then he gets his second flu booster early next week. The doctors are all really paranoid about him getting any kind of respiratory sickness, so David gets lots of extra preventative maintenance. He's gotten pretty good about shots though, last time he only cried while he was actually getting the shot and stopped almost as soon as it was over. I keep telling him that a shot should be no big deal when you've had your chest cracked open, but he disagrees.
Christy has continued to keep the picture albums updated, along with one or 2 videos that she randomly takes. So be sure to check back occasionally to watch him get bigger. Until next time...
Friday, February 4, 2011
Pardon my progress..
I'm re-jiggering the picasa albums into manageable sizes, so if you try to visit any of them in the next 48 hours or so, you may not be able to find what you're looking for. I'll update the side perma-links when I'm done. TIA.
5:00 PM Edit:
Ok, everything is fixed now. Links on the right work, albums are sorted by month (mostly), and I've separated out the surgery pictures into their own albums so that you don't have to look at Borg-baby every time you open an album. Happy viewing!
5:00 PM Edit:
Ok, everything is fixed now. Links on the right work, albums are sorted by month (mostly), and I've separated out the surgery pictures into their own albums so that you don't have to look at Borg-baby every time you open an album. Happy viewing!
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