The Fam

We managed to get finally get our hands on an Amby Baby Hammock. One of our neighbors on the street had just finished using theirs and were happy to let it go for a reduced price.

I’m not sure what the little guy thinks of it yet. We put him in it and gave him some time to thrash around. It didn’t seem to bother him, but he didn’t seem too eager to get to sleep, either.

One thing that did seem to work well was to swaddle him before putting him in the hammock. So far, it hasn’t been too bad. He’s slept in it for a while now. His reflux hasn’t been too bad lately, so I don’t know how well it will work. Time will tell!

“Some plans were made and rice was thrown
A house was built, a baby born
How time can move both fast and slow
Amazes me” - Bright Eyes / I Believe In Symmetry

Zayne,

Today you’re 16 weeks old. You’re growing so quickly and learning new things every day.

You had your first solid food the other day. You weren’t sure what to think at first, but now you practically beg for it. It’s so cute to watch you stare as someone spoons the food out of the container - sometimes you’re so excited it’s hard not to laugh. When the spoon gets close enough, you grab the hand of the person feeding you and start pulling it towards your mouth, as if you don’t trust them to do it right.

You’re such a happy baby. Nothing brightens my day more than coming home and having you smile and goo at me. Even if you’re upset about something, you’ve still got a smile. It’s kind of funny sometimes to watch a pout change into a brief smile and back into a pout, so if mommy and I laugh we’re just loving how hard you try to be happy.

Now that you’ve started solid food, you’ve been trying to put anything you can get your hands on into your mouth. We have to be careful where we leave your burp cloths and such, since you usually end up with one corner shoved in your mouth if we look away for a minute. You even tried to eat daddy’s finger!

You don’t know it, but mommy and I worry a lot about you. When you’re sleeping, we sneak in a lot just to make sure you’re OK. Someday when you’re older we’ll tell you about your sister Ashlynn and maybe you’ll understand why we’re more paranoid than your average parents.

I can’t wait to see what the next weeks hold. Just remember, no pizza after eight and no dates until you’re 16.

Love,
Daddy

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks now with the new formula, and I must say that I am very impressed with the stuff. Zayne hardly spits up at all now, and overall just seems to be feeling good all of the time. Now when he gets overly fussy, we know it’s usually because he’s really tired. (His “hungry” fussiness is pretty distinct, so we usually don’t get them mixed up.)

It looks like the little guy is suffering from Gastrosophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). We always thought he was just an extra spitty baby, but it looks like the poor kid’s got reflux. I know how much fun that can be as an adult - I don’t even want to imagine how Zayne feels.

There’s an organization called PAGER, which stands for the Pediatric / Adolescent Gastroesophageal Reflux Association. They seem to have some really good information about reflux in kids, along with tips about how to minimize symptoms.

One of the products that PAGER reccommends is the Amby Baby Hammock. This thing looks basically like a baby swing specially designed for sleeping in. It may a bit out of our range at US$230, but if it works it may be well worth it.

As far as food, the pediatrician suggested switching to the Enfamil AR formula. It’s got rice starch in it that thickens in the stomach, supposedly keeping it from coming back up. We’ll see how it goes.

Zayne had his 2 month checkup recently. He weighed in at 10 pounds 13 ounces, and was 23 inches long. Not bad for a kid who made his entrance four weeks early. I was glad I missed the doctor’s appointment, however - he also got three shots. I was told he didn’t handle them very well, which means I probably wouldn’t have dealt very well. I seem to have developed some kind of hair-trigger emotional response when the kid gets upset enough to cry. (Not the “I’m hungry”, “I’m tired”, etc. cries).

…while burping the kid:

• “Go Zayne, it’s your burp-day”
• “If you love your burp, set it free”
• “The burp is not your friend. Send it away”

Generally followed by:

• “Did he get it on me?”
• “Don’t rub your face in it, kiddo”
• “How far did it go?”
• “It came out your nose again?”
• “Aw man, I gotta wash my goatee!”

I’ve added a new link under “Pages” so that I can post some of the small movies we’ve been taking with our digital camera. Quality’s not great, but I’m sure most of you won’t mind if you can see and hear Zayne.

We’re going to try to teach the little guy some sign language. We’ve picked up some books put out by Sign2Me, which look to be very informative. For some reason, a lot of the other techniques on the market will teach your kids signs, but they aren’t based on American Sign Language. Sign2Me is based on ASL, so given how well any of us retain it, it might be a good introduction into learning full blown ASL.

There seem to be many benefits to signing, chief of which is the fact that the little guy will be able to communicate some of his needs before he can verbalize them. Anything we can do to reduce frustration on his part or our own is certainly worth looking into.

The little guy’s a bit yellow lately. This is apparently quite normal for boys and preemies. It’s caused by an excess of red blood cells in the system that break down. The parts, called bilirubin, are then processed by the liver into bile. In jaundice, the liver usually can’t process the bilirubin fast enough, and the infant may have an excessive number of red blood cells anyway.

Treatment of jaundice is usually with UV lights. Apparently the UV rays do something, but I haven’t been able to figure out what yet. All of the information I’ve found treats is like a “then magic happens” phenomena, but I’m a science geek and want to know more.

Anybody care to enlighten me?

Zayne Louis arrived at 12:57 AM on Friday, the 20th of May. He weighed 6 pounds 4 ounces, and was 18 1/2 inches long.

The birth itself was rather tense for The Mom and I. When Zayne crowned and began to come out, he had a loop of cord around his neck, and the doctor began to get excited, saying that we were “abrupting”. After he was delivered, he was placed on Mom’s chest for only a moment before he was whisked to the corner where several nurses began to work on him at once. At this point, he was deathly grey, and hadn’t moved or breathed on his own yet. He began to get some color after some vigorous massaging, and was given oxygen. I think that may have been the point when I finally remembered to breathe.

Zayne was moved to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) almost immediately. I got to follow and watch while they hooked him to seemingly every piece of equipment available, plus a few brought in for good measure. It turned out that it was a good thing that he hadn’t taken a breath during delivery, as the abruption caused extra bleeding that would have harmed his lungs if he’d taken it in. In the end, all Zayne really needed was a device called CPAP. This device is used primarily for people that have sleep apnea. It basically provides a little bit of positive pressure to make taking in a breath easier.

If you look at the pictures (link on the right), you’ll see that Zayne had way more than just the CPAP hanging off his little body. Almost everything else is just to monitor his condition - he was never really in need of “intensive” care. The CPAP made it impossible for him to feed normally, so an IV was used to keep his blood sugar up. It looks worse than it was, but to The Mom and I, it looked horrible.

Over the course of the next couple of days, Zayne was weaned off of the CPAP onto a low setting of oxygen. Once this happened, he could start feeding normally. Every time he ate well, they turned down his IV until they were able to remove it completely. By Sunday, we were able to bring the little guy home.

I must give a huge “Thanks” to all of the doctors and nurses we worked with in the couple of days Zayne was in the NICU. Every single one was kind and helpful, and willing to take the time to answer our silly questions and assure us that everything was going to be OK. Having a baby in the NICU is tough, but I felt completely assured that he was getting the absolute best care possible.