New tricks

Hide your small toys

This guy is growing up too fast. He started scooting a month ago. Yesterday, he sat up all by himself. And today he did this 

Happy New year: Time flies when you're having...fun?

2017 has been a crazy year. Derek and I celebrated 13 years of marriage. Nora turned 3 and Maya 6. We added a wonderful sweet little guy to our family. His breathing issues worried us and his pediatrician for months. We bought our first house. We began remodeling said dump/house. We moved in August and spent months without a kitchen. I learned to cook solely with waffle iron by tiny lamp light. Maya started first grade. Nora finally potty trained and started preschool. It rained out of season while we had large holes in our roof. We finally got lights and a working microwave and then stove. The year ended with two months of sickness and sleepless nights. I hurt my back at the being of November. Then maybe had a cold. Then Evan had the cold and was up all night long. Then Nora got croup and retired a middle of the night emergency room visit . (Out really was 4 ER visits, 3 hospital stays, and something like 40 doctor visits for our family in 2017) Then I had a stomach virus followed immediately by a cold. Then Nora brought home a cold and shared. Then Maya had the flu. Then I had the flu. Then Evan and Nora has the flu. Then Nora had another virus/cold. We largely hibernated over the break. My mom and then the inlaws visited us. Still remodeling to close or the year. Welcome 2018. May you be gentle on us.

Somehow Evan's almost 8 months old. He is working on his 5th and 6th teeth so he's been a bit of a grump. He weighed 21 lbs 14oz and was 29 inches long at the pulmonologist last week. He almost as big as Nora was at 2.

He's mad that I won't share my coffee

Maya's last day of kindergarten

Today was Maya's last day of kindergarten. They had a little ceremony and celebration yesterday. Maya cried last night when she realized that it's really over. I might have shed a few tears with her. We will miss her teachers. They were really wonderful. I hope that 1st grade goes as well.

Compared to the first day of school

Also Maya lost her fourth tooth this afternoon. She had a sippy cup in her mouth and Nora tried to pull it out. Maya's front tooth came out with it. There was much screaming and blood. The tooth fairy will bring a dollar folded like a peacock I've heard. 

Evan's follow-up

I left off at Evan's two weeks old and we meet with his pediatrician. We scheduled a follow up with her colleague for the following Friday, June 2nd. He hit 3 weeks old and was still breathing fast. She repeated the CBC and the metabolic panels just to make sure everything was still normal. I went by myself because Derek was volunteering at field day at Maya's school. They both had a blast. But I had to hold Evan down for the stick alone. It was painful but quick. On my way home they called and said that the blood had clotted so they had to do it again. After Derek came home we went back. That evening Derek took Maya to the end of year girl scout ceremony. As he was walking out the door the doctor called. Evan's carbon dioxide was elevated. She wanted us to go to the intermediate care nursery at the children's hospital for an arterial blood gas and observation. We checked in around 8:30. They took vitals and got the artery poke out of the way quickly. Then they sent him downstairs and watched him over night. Derek and I were fortunately able to sleep on couches in the family area of the nursery. I could hear him cry if I was awake but it didn't always wake me up. The nurse would generally change his diaper and knock on my door. Evan looked extra huge and sounded extra loud compared to the preemies who were surrounding him. Evan's breathing was oddly slower. The nurses joked about a therapeutic hospital visit.

Saturday (6/3) late morning, Derek came home to see the girls and take Maya to a birthday party. Evan and I hung out and waited for doctors. Around lunchtime, he had another chest x-ray. It was clear so the pulmonologist didn't want to see him before discharge and we were free to go. Before we left around 4:30pm and Evan's breathing was fast again.

Monday (6/5), Evan saw the pulmonologist. She took a thorough history, checked him over, counted his respiration rate a number of times, set up a follow-up for the next week then sent us on our way. It was...anticlimactic. She and everyone else is like well he looks healthy other than the breathing thing, shrug, come back next week for a follow-up. (While we were waiting for the pulmonologist Evan looked at me, good and then smiled. He seems young to be socially smiling but it sure looked like it to me and Derek.)

Tuesday night (6/6), I got a call from the pulmonologist. She had consulted several of her colleagues and they THINK that Evan's respiratory drive regulation is immature and he will out grow it by 6 to 12 months.

Evan is 2 weeks and a bit of a trouble maker

It's been quite a week around here. Last Sunday, we noticed that Evan was breathing faster than a newborn should. I called the on call pediatrician and she said to take him to the ER. Apparently urgent care isn't set up to handle the little bitties. At the ER they monitored him forever. His vitals were all perfect except for his respiration rate. The ER doctor called down a pediatrician from the children's hospital. She finally came and checked him out. She agreed he looks perfect other than the breathing. She called the neonatologist. They finally decided to send us home to follow up with our pediatrician.

Tuesday we saw our pediatrician. His weight was up to 9 lbs 6 oz. Someone tell him to stop growing so fast. His pediatrician ordered a chest x-ray. Not fun on such a little guy. Tuesday evening the pediatrician called with the results. His lungs looked great. But his heart looked large. She refers us to a pediatric cardiologist for an echocardiogram.

Wednesday morning we talked to the cardiologist and set up an appointment for Thursday morning. Wednesday evening, we started to worry about the color around his mouth. Was it blueish or just white? If it weren't for everything else going on I probably would have chalked it up to typical newborn weirdness. But given everything else, back to the ER we went. They decided to admit him for observation and do the echocardiogram in patient on Thursday. His umbilical cord "tag" fell off while we were in the ER.

Newborn with adult sized electrodes

his tag fell off between this picture and the one above

It was midnight before they finally sent us to the children's hospital wing. Then they had to do all all the intake stuff and then they wanted to draw blood to check for some metabolic issues. It took 2+ hours to get blood. It was not pleasant. We finally catch a few hours of sleep. Derek leaves to take Maya to school. At some point I talked to the pediatrician. Derek returned. The cardiologist got stuck in traffic. Finally get the echocardiogram around 11. His heart looked perfect. We were discharged around 2:30 with instructions to follow up with his pediatrician the following day.

Infant sized electrodes

Friday we had his 2 week appointment already scheduled for Friday morning. He was 21.5 inches (90th percentile), 9 lbs 11 oz (82nd percentile), and his head was 38 cm (97th percentile, up from 34.5 cm 50th percentile at birth). His pediatrician commented on his weight gain and head growing faster than expected so we should keep an eye on it. We still aren't sure what's going on with his. His pediatrician is out of the office for the next two weeks so she brings in her colleague to get to know Evan. He words were something like "I don't want anyone to freak out when they see him". So that's comforting? At this point we still don't have an explanation but have ruled out many of the most nasty cause. After our appointment, our pediatrician and her colleague were apparently discussing Evan and what to do next. Or pediatrician called us in the afternoon and asked us to bring him back for a CBC. The colleague called Friday evening with results. Still no answers.

Introducing Evan Martin

tldr version: Evan Martin was born on 5/12. He was 8 lb 6 oz and 20 inches long. His two big sisters are in love.

Long version: Friday (5/12) was my due date. I woke up a little before 4 to use the bathroom. Before I got up I coughed and felt a gush. I thought that I had just peed myself since pregnancy is glamorous. I went to the bathroom and notice some blood. I don't think too much of it since I'd had a cervical check the day before (was dilated to 3) that had caused some bleeding. I got back in bed and contractions start. They were uncomfortable and around 7 to 10 minutes apart. Around 7, the contractions slowed way down. I took Maya to school, did a mother's day activity with her class, made arrangements for a friend's mom to take Maya to girls scouts and then home. The whole time I'm concerned that my water is going to break dramatically in front of 23 kindergartners. I got home a little after 10 and the contractions pick back up again. Nora and I had lunch. I called my ob at 11:30 and he said to head to labor and delivery. I called dh and he headed home from work. We got to triage around 12:30. I went to the restroom to get changed into a gown and when I stood up I left a puddle on the floor. I was dilated to 6 and yes my water was in fact broken. We moved to a room and got settled. I walked around, sat on the ball, watched a movie, tried to nap. The contractions continued but didn't get much stronger. Around 6 pm, I was still at a six. The on call ob wanted to start pitocin. My contractions were starting to get more painful at this point so I requested that we wait an hour and check again before augmenting. My nurse agreed. After an hour, still not really any progress. A new ob was on call and she was also pushing the pitocin. I decided to get the epidural and pitocin at this point because I was in pain, exhausted, and just wanted him out safely. After a very short time on a low dose of pitocin, my contractions were back to back and strong. LO's heart rate was decelerating with each contraction and he was showing other signs of distress. I was stuck on my left side because that made him the happiest.  At some point, they turned off the pitocin. It was finally go time. Then the ob got a phone call and left. She finally came back and lo was born at 10:58 pm after about 4 pushes. He had a nuchal cord and that is why he was showing signs of disress. They untangled him and put him on my chest. He immediately peed on me. The ob gushed about how perfect his umbilical cord was. They took him to try to get him to cry more and clear out his lungs and to measure him. He was 8 lbs 6 oz and 20 inches long (a full pound heavier and inch longer than Nora and 2 lb 5 oz and 2 inches up on Maya). I get him back for skin to skin and he nursed beautifully. He didn't get a name until mid morning Saturday. He's named after my dad and Derek's brother.