Ian is 4 months old!

Happy 4 months old, little I-man! Ian is four months old today. He has come a long way in the four months since he arrived almost 8 weeks premature!

A Growing Boy!
Ian is doing well and growing so big, so fast!  His 4-month well checkup isn't until June 2nd, but last Thursday, he had a follow-up visit at the pediatrician's office for his 2nd ear infection. He had his first ear infections (both ears) in late April, and another one in his right ear just two weeks later.  So he has been to the pediatrician's office three times since his 2-month well checkup.  His weight was at each visit was as follows:

Fri. 4/23 (3 mos. old): 12 lbs. 11 oz.
Thu. 5/6 (3-1/2 mos. old): 13 lbs. 10 oz.
Thu. 5/20 (almost 4 mos. old): 14 lbs. 6 oz.

To put this in perspective, Keira weighed 14 lbs. at her 4-month well checkup, so he weighs more at 4 months old than she did and he was born weighing almost 1-1/2 lbs. less than her. How awesome!

Milestones
Here is a list of some of the things he has been up to over the past two months:

• Mon. 3/29: First Boston Market lunch with my friend Ellen (he became a Laddie who lunches with the "Ladies who Lunch") - Keira and I have been meeting Ellen for lunch at BoMa almost every week since K was born. Ian has joined in on the fun!
• Mon. 4/5: Batting at objects in gym
• Sat 4/10: First real smile (to Mommy)
• Sun. 4/11: Cooing
• Thu. 4/15: Slept in crib for first time
• Fri. 4/23: Sick, ped office: double ear infections, weighed 12 lbs. 11 oz.
• Fri. 4/23 to Mon. 4/26: Trip to NJ to visit Papa and Nana Janet, and meet Aunt Kelly, Uncle Adrian, and Cousin Andy
• Sun. 4/25: 3 mos. old!
• Sat. 5/1: Slept through the night 9:00 pm to 6:30 am
• Sat. 5/1: Began wearing clothing size "3-6 months"
• Sun. 5/2: Slept 10 hours 9:45 pm to 7:45 am
• Thu. 5/6: Sick, ped office: right ear fully infected, weighed 13 lbs. 10 oz.
• Sat. 5/8: Socially smiling often
• Sat. 5/15: Nana Pam arrives for week-long visit! We enjoyed her visit immensely!!
• Sat. 5/15: Moves into size 2 diapers
• Wed. 5/19: Discovered his hands, bringing them up to his mouth when hungry
• Thu. 5/20: Follow up visit for ear infection, fluid still there but pus gone, weighed 14 lbs. 6 oz.
• Fri. 5/21: Kicking up a storm when laying down on back
• Tue. 5/25: 4 mos. old! Sat in Bumbo and holds his head up pretty well, starting to "talk" while playing on gym mat

Another easy baby!
Ian is still just a really good and easy-going baby! He sleeps and eats well and has really become more active in the past month. He makes such wonderfully curious expressions when he looks at you - moving his mouth and scrunching his eyebrows down as if he's really trying to figure you out. I call him my little cuddler as he loves to be held and fall asleep in my arms. He still is not a big cry baby. He has a cute little cry that he saves for when he is hungry or when he is tired. Generally if he is crying and I know he shouldn't be hungry, he will likely fall asleep within a few minutes of soothing or holding him tightly. He does great going to sleep at night. Often times, I will feed him and change his diaper and clothing, then rock him in my arms for a little bit until he looks sleepy. I can then lay him in his crib and he will fall asleep within a few minutes. He is consistently sleeping a stretch of 8-9 hours each night. Once we moved him to his own crib at 11 weeks old, it only took about a week for him to sleep through the night.

While awake during the day, Ian enjoys laying on my legs to look up at me and smile and coo. He loves to grab my fingers and will actually tug at my fingers to pull himself with my assistance to a sitting position then sit and look around. He also likes me to hold him upright on my lap as he "stands" and will bounce a little bit. He really enjoys playing on his baby gym mat. He kicks his feet, moves his arms, looks at the toys and coos at them. Sometimes I catch him looking at himself in the mirror and making funny expressions. Other times he will play on the mat until he wears himself out and falls asleep. He's not such a big fan of tummy time but we are working on that little by little. He likes his big sister Keira and will smile and coo at her. Sometimes he does cry when she is around but it's generally because she is trying to give him too many hugs and kisses or smothers him a little too much. Today I sat him in his Bumbo seat for the first time and he did really well sitting upright and holding his head up. He was still shaky holding it up, but he could do it and didn't slump over like Keira did the first time I put her in it!

Ryan and I both agree that Ian is as easy-going a baby as Keira was, but is different in many ways:

• He likes his swing and bouncy seat more than Keira did.
• He wants to stand on our laps (even though he's not old enough to be holding his own weight yet) while Keira didn't want to do that even at 10 or 11 months old!
• He is very active with his legs and we stopped swaddling him when we put him in his own room whereas Keira loved to be swaddled until she was six months old and started turning over onto her tummy at night.
• He is very easy to put to sleep at night but isn't as easy to get to sleep for a nap in the afternoon unless he is in your arms, whereas Keira would sleep well both in her crib and in the Pack 'n Play.

Given the circumstances of my pregnancy, his birth, and the first three weeks of his life, we couldn't have asked for things to have turned out any better! And Ryan and I both would never have guessed that our second baby would be as good and easy a baby as the first. We thought for sure we were in for a whole lot of trouble. So far, so good!

Ian is definitely a keeper :)

Ian is 2 months old!

Two months ago today, Ian was born! He was due just 8 days ago. For being born 7-1/2 weeks ago, he is doing really, really well.

Ian had a visit to the pediatrician today for his 2-month well visit. He had several vaccines administered (including Synagis to help prevent RSV) via two shots in the thigh and one orally. Tonight, he is a bit fussy when awake, but is sleeping a lot. A couple of weeks ago, he started having tears when he cries really hard so he teared up today when he got his shots and cried as hard as I have seen him cry yet. Poor baby!

Growth Statistics
Today at 2 months old:
- Weight: 10 lb. 8 oz. (23rd percentile)
- Length: 22 in. (18th percentile)
- Head circumference: 39 cm. (28th percentile)

Last checkup at 1 month old (2/25):
- Weight: 7 lb. 10 oz. (7th percentile)
- Length: 20-1/2 in. (15th percentile)
- Head circumference: ? (25th percentile)

At NICU discharge (2/17):
- Weight: 6 lb. 15 oz.

At birth (1/25):
- Weight: 5 lb. 11 oz.
- Length: 19 in.
- Head circumference: 33 cm.

Feeding
Ian gained almost 3 lbs in 1 month! At his 1-month well visit, he had only just started breastfeeding one or two full feedings per day and was on bottles of breastmilk or preemie formula for the rest of his feedings. A few weeks ago, we had progressed to him taking all of his daytime feedings via nursing and doing two preemie formula bottles and an expressed milk bottle through the night. Last week (7 weeks old), we stopped the two formula bottles and I began nursing him for those feedings so we were down to one bottle of expressed milk at 3 am. Until that time, Ryan and I were sharing the nighttime duties with me taking the 9 pm and 12 midnight feedings and pumping at 3 am, and Ryan taking the 3 am and 6 am feedings. As of Monday (8 weeks old), he is now taking all of his feedings via nursing. No more bottles and no more breast pumping for me! I made a trip to the hospital with the kids yesterday to return the breast pump that I had been renting. That means I get more time back in my day: 20 min. x 4-6 pumpings per day, 30 min. x 2 washing and drying bottles and breast pump flanges.

Ian loves nursing! When he gets hungry, he is known to try to nurse on my chin or neck when I have him upright against my shoulder or try to nurse Daddy's shirt. Because my milk production has been so good, I only have Ian nurse from one side each feeding and just alternate sides throughout the day (I did this with Keira too). Even so, he will often overeat at a feeding and then experiences what Ryan termed "Exorcist spitup" if we have a difficult time burping him. An "Exorcist spitup" episode is spitup which is expelled from the body with such force as to fly through the air more than a foot or two and with a volume that coats the surrounding area (or person). I experienced one such episode the other night and it startled me so much that I screamed loud enough for Ryan to hear me upstairs from our bedroom. Due to this episode, my shirt and jeans required changing, Ian's outfit, blanket, and burp cloth required changing, and cleaning of the carpet and couch was required. A good burping is definitely required with him!

Ryan and I both think we each possibly experienced a "spell" while feeding him during his first week at home, but since then nothing has happened to concern us in that regard.

Sleeping
Up until now, we have been waking Ian up every 3 hours for feedings. Because Ian is growing so well, we can now let him sleep and awake on his own for feedings. Ryan was getting pretty cranky with having to wake during the night to feed him, so he has been doing much better this week now that I am exclusively breastfeeding Ian, but that now means that I am getting up more often during the night now that I am taking the 6 am feeding too. So being able to let Ian sleep as long as he wants will be very nice for me! Even a stretch of 4-5 hours would be helpful. He is still sleeping in his mini-crib in our room, but we will be moving him into his room probably in the next month or so. We moved Keira into her room right before she turned two months old, but since Ian is still "younger" than she was, gestationally speaking, we are going to delay that move a little longer for him.

Wakefulness
Ian is still sleeping quite a bit, but he usually has a couple hour stretch of alert time during the day and then again in the evening. Now that he is no longer taking any bottles, he is sleeping better during the night since he doesn't have as much gas in his tummy to keep him awake (which means we get to sleep better too!).

Milestones
Because Ian is a preemie, many of his milestones will come later than the average child. He is holding up his head quite well when up on my shoulder or laying on his stomach, he will follow a close object with his eyes, and he startles in response to loud noises. He is not socially smiling or cooing yet. The doctor said that by nine months old Ian will likely have caught up and will no longer have much of a delay, if any, in when he meets his developmental milestones. At the end of July, we have an appointment at the hospital to have him evaluated to see where he stands developmental and see if any additional evaluations or "help" would benefit him.

Concerns
Because Ian sleeps on his back and LOVES to turn his head to the right when he sleeps, his head is getting a little flat on that one side. This is only of concern cosmetically because as a boy with short hair, a flat spot on his head would be much more noticeable than if he was a girl. His neck muscles are fine at this point, his turning his head is just a preference that he has.  If his head does not round out, he would get a helmet to help reshape his head which obviously we would like to prevent. Soooo...we need to work on getting him to turn his head to the left when he is sleeping and give him as much time on his tummy (and therefore his head off the mattress) as possible. When he is sleeping, I have been trying to get him to turn to the left by propping a blanket under his back to get him to go to the left and I also turn his head to the left whenever I can. Also I have him sleep on my chest a couple times during the day. His "flat head" was the only concern the doctor had with his growth so far!

Disposition
Overall, Ian is a really good baby. He does have some times when he cries, but it's usually due to hunger or a gassy tummy. He is very expressive and makes such cute faces while he sleeps and smiles a lot when sleeping (he must be having some good dreams about nursing!). When falling asleep, he grunts and groans A LOT and sometimes for quite a long time. He just makes all sorts of grunting noises while sleeping or stretching. The doctor even laughed about it today. Ian really seems to calm down quickly when he is in my arms and loves to sleep on my chest or next to me on the bed while I watch TV. When he is awake, he will spend a lot of time looking at me and gets his little mouth moving like he is ready to eat (one track mind!). He took a pacifier more often during the first week or so after coming home from the NICU, but doesn't really take it much now. I really only use it for emergency situations (like post-vaccinations today when leaving the doctor's office or a middle of the night crying jag when nothing else is working).

I'm excited to see him becoming more alert and interactive over the next month! And hopefully sleeping longer and longer stretches during the night time hours.  Now that I'm getting some more time to relax, I will get some pictures of him up, just not tonight!

3 weeks 2 days - Ian is home!

We brought Ian home from the hospital this evening!  Today he reached 36 weeks gestation and it is one month from the day he was due. If you remember, 36 weeks and 2/17 was my long-term goal to make it to while on bedrest. It turned out to be a milestone of a different kind: homecoming!

On Monday, he was circumcised and Tuesday he passed his car seat challenge so the only thing holding him back was continuing to succeed at bottle feeding and going spell-free for 5-7 days or so. Since Thursday, he has been taking all of his feedings by bottle and doing better each day with them. His last spell was around 10 pm last Friday. I got a call from the neonatalogist yesterday afternoon at about 4 o'clock and he said that we could take Ian home today assuming that he tolerated his feedings through this morning and did not have any more spells. He would get his Synagis shot (to help fight against RSV) yesterday afternoon or this morning. I called this morning and Ian was still doing well so we could take him home!

Ryan and I dropped Keira off at a friend's house about 3 pm and we got to the hospital around 3:45 pm.  We spent about 30-40 minutes talking with the nurse regarding his discharge instructions, gathering up his things, and putting him in his carseat (a longer process than I remembered since he is so tiny!).  We picked up Keira a little after 5 pm and got home by 5:30 pm.

Keira was very excited to see Ian in the car and kept talking to him and calling out "Baby Ian." When we got home, she immediately wanted him out of the car seat so she could hold him. She has been talking about holding him and helping me change his diaper all week.  "Me hold Ian. Me help Mommy change Ian's diaper." So I got Ian out of his car seat and brought him and Keira into the family room so that she could hold him. She sat down on the sofa and I put him in her arms and Ryan helped her to hold him. She had the biggest smile on her face! All night she was very interested in what "Baby Ian" was doing (mostly laying in the Pack 'n Play).  When I fed him at 6 pm, she was right next to us the entire time and watching him try to nurse then drink milk from the bottle.  While he was drinking his bottle, she kept trying to hug him (read: crush him!) and give him LOTS of love. I don't think things could have gone better, she seemed so excited to have "Baby Ian" home.

Tomorrow I will take Ian to see the pediatrician while Ryan stays home with Keira during her nap.

A new adventure has officially begun...life as parents of two and big sister to baby Ian. We couldn't be happier to have Ian home!

(Okay, time to go to bed as he will be eating again shortly...I'm tired just thinking about it.)