Pediatrician's visit update

SO much is new in the world of Graham:

1) He is now 10 pounds, 2 ounces. 10 pounds! Glad I didn't have to push out baby-as-he-is-now, in some ways.
2) We have gotten permission to take him off the extra calorie supplement, which is fantastic, because it definitely makes him more gassy. We'll do a weight check in a month to make sure he's still growing as well as he is now (which, like I said, 10 POUNDS. Yikes! As his pediatrician said: "He has no right to even be ON the normal growth curve. But there he is!"). That also means that I can finally move to just breastfeeding. I'm still going to pump, since our insurance did buy me the fancy one, and maybe have Joe take one of the nighttime feedings, but I have always been really committed to doing straight breastfeeding, and now I can.
3) And in other news about how our son is enormous, he no longer really fits in his 0-3 month clothes, much less his newborn stuff. So our 2 month premature baby who is now officially a newborn is wearing the clothes of an average 3 month-old.
4) Graham also got his first band-aids today, because he had to have 5 injections (regular 2 month-er injections, minus his second Hep B which we'll do when he go back for the weight check, plus his Synagis for RSV, and the rotavirus drink on top of all that). They were Snoopy. The band-aids, that is. Graham wasn't impressed.
5) He also has a touch of the reflux, as I diagnosed earlier, so he's going on baby Zantac. Again, like father, like son! I feel like there will definitely be an evening sometime soon when both my boys are moaning and groaning, and I have to check with both of them to see if they took their acid reducer.
6) He even smiled at his doctor! We've been debating whether his smiles are real smiles or not (since he technically shouldn't be smiling for another month or so), but his doctor definitely thought it was a real, social smile! He's so advanced. I think I will send his med school applications in next week.

Sidenote

Left is Graham when Joe got excited giving him a baby mohawk. Right is me, age 3 days old. Pretty close, right??? I just found this photo when we got home to Rochester. I win, I win!

Graham has friends!

So we're finally at a point where the house is functional, semi-clean, and while we are very tired, we are not the walking dead. Which is extremely nice. So, visitors welcome! Above, Graham is chilling out with Liz. He was absolutely mesmerized.

This establishment of even the semblance of a routine means that I will be attempting to post more regularly. Joe also finally got himself in gear and is ready to post as well. Tomorrow Graham has his first pediatrician appointment in Rochester, which is very exciting. However, I don't think he will be as excited once he gets the whole round of 2 month immunizations. Sorry, buddy. An update on that visit tomorrow afternoon, hopefully.

Also, Tuesday is a big day - his official due date. He will finally be zero!

New and novel ways to keep the binky in, by Graham

So Graham has had a tough go of it the past couple days. Lots of spitting up, lots of crying, lots of gas. My working diagnosis is reflux, although I know that everyone is quick to jump to that. However, preemies are especially susceptible to reflux, and the symptoms fit. The triage nurse at his pediatrician's office is also having me do a trial of a lactose-free diet to see if he has an allergy that might be causing it all. Oh, how I suffer! Cathy Lee and all my asian friends, I feel your pain. No cheese, no yogurt, no BREAD for the most part. There's milk in bread! I forgot about that. Sad sad.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

Phew! We did make it home to Rochester just fine on Saturday, regardless of the snow storm that hit the Northeast Friday night. We were considering delaying our departure, but when we got up Saturday morning, the roads were clear and the forecast was good. So we packed up (having to leave mountains of things at my parents' house) and headed out. At one point during the packing, I asked Joe where something could go in the car, and he turned to stare at me and said: "Unless it is a stick of deodorant or smaller, it's not going in the trunk." Got it.

So, the car was ridiculously full. In our infant safety class, they told us about a million times over - "don't have anything loose in the car that you wouldn't be willing to throw at your child." So after the trunk was full, that became our uncomfortable running joke as we stuffed the front seat of the car (and under my feet as well in the back): "Am I willing to throw a laptop computer at my child? Yes, it appears that I am. How about a cool mist humidifier? Why, certainly!" Lo, we are bad parents already.

Since getting home, Graham is doing well overall, but is having a bit of a hard time with the transition. He's not sleeping as well, and definitely spitting up more and being unpredictable in his eating. It's not so beyond his usual that we are concerned, but he's clearly stressed. It's very similar to what we went through the first week he was home from the hospital, so we're hoping we only have a few more days of this. And again, overall he is handling it really well. I, on the other hand, am flipping out every minute or so with the number of things to do and new items to cram into an already tight space (i.e. our house). Poor Joe - there have been multiple occasions already when he has come upstairs to change Graham or something and found me weeping over a pile of bills or baby clothes. The nadir was when I got to the bottom of the bags we brought home and realized that there were still bags of Christmas presents to unpack and find places for. Because I haven't been home since 3 days before Christmas.

Today is my last big push to try to get the house in reasonable order and then it's on to whatever our normal everyday schedule will be, because Joe goes back to work tomorrow and it's just me and the G-man. Whoa.

Big boy!

Graham went to the pediatrician today (for the last time in Massachusetts, hopefully) and got excellent reports across the board. He's 8 pounds, 14 ounces now! Whoa. And has also grown 1/4 inch in the past two weeks. So since birth, Graham has gained 4 pounds, 4 ounces and two and a quarter inches. Hooray for breastmilk!

And of course, as Murphy would have it, as we try to get everything in order to come home to Rochester things have gotten a little snarled. The battery light in our car came on yesterday, which didn't freak me out too much - I figured the battery just needed to be replaced. So today I took the car to a place to get the oil changed (they actually advertised a Ladies' Day for oil changes - how could I pass that up?) and also get the battery replaced. The guy called me into the garage (it was all very hush-hush, like we were at the hospital and couldn't violate the car's HIPAA rights) and told me that they actually thought our alternator needed to be replaced at the low low price of $550. Ahem. Yes.

Luckily, my parents have a mechanic they trust beyond measure, and my mom had an appointment tomorrow to get a headlight replaced. Mike the mechanic was nice enough to let me steal my mom's appointment. So we still may need to have our alternator replaced, and may still be expensive, but at least we'll know that the expense is real and not just a made-up number as I always suspect when it comes to cars.

Newest satellite location of Harris Interactive

Now that Joe and I and Graham are starting to settle into a routine, we decided that we'd better mess with it, and go back to Rochester. The tentative plan is to head home on Saturday, weather permitting. It should be an interesting trip, given that Graham really can't go in to various rest stops (lots of grungy strangers and whatnot), which means diaper changes, breastfeeding, etc. all in the car. And while in my nanny days I have certainly changed a diaper in the backseat, that was at the beach with the door open on an 80 degree day. Not so much crunched into the backseat with the heat on full blast because it is -12 in Utica.

Now we just have to figure out how to get all our stuff home....