Word count

July 31st, 2008

Someone this afternoon asked if I was keeping track of all the words Ave is saying and milestones. My first reaction was no, and I have an empty book and box full of stuff waiting to be put together into an album. Then I remembered the website and realized I should put something up before I forget. He’s actually just in the last few weeks putting together 2 words.

First word: Uh-oh or Dada

Current words: NO

2 word combos:

We swear we’ve heard him try some curse words (he’s got things ending in -uck down pretty good), so we’ll have to watch what we’re f*cking saying.

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18 months

June 24th, 2008

Can you believe he’s already on his way to 2 years old?!

Last Monday we went for his 18 month check up. The stats:

Never going to hit 20lb consistently. Taking a look at the growth chart, you might notice he’s waaay down below the lowest weight line. That line is for the 5th percentile.

18mo_heightandweight_avery

Of course, him being preemie didn’t help, but by now he should have made some progress on catching up on weight gain (by 2 years old caught up). Unfortunately (or fortunately, I can’t really tell anymore) he prefers low-calorie foods over high calorie foods. If given the choice between a blueberry and some ice cream, he’ll take the blueberry without question. This isn’t helping at all. That combined with childhood sicknesses (Hand, foot, and mouth 2 weeks ago, and apparently Roseola this weekend) he isn’t exactly packing on the pounds. The pediatrician ran some tests (blood counts, liver enzymes, electrolytes, thyroid, and celiac disease test). All came out totally fine. Going to check for malabsorption (I won’t tell you the fun details of that), but I’m sure it will be fine. The last remote thing to check for would be cystic fibrosis, which would be unlikely since he has no other symptoms really.

So we continue, trying to maximize the calories with our finicky, fruit-eating, ice-cream shunning, toddler who runs around like crazy burning off every last calorie that enters his lightweight body.

After the doctor’s visit, blood draw, and shots.

Post month checkup naptime




15 months old

March 17th, 2008

Today Avery had his 15 month old checkup. He’s still scraping the bottom percentiles on size. Doing great on milestones:walking, spoon/fork holding, words.

The stats:

Words (not all completely clear yet):




12-month check-up

December 19th, 2007

Monday we took Ave in to the doctor for his 12 month check up.

The stats:

We discussed his lack of gaining much weight, since he only gained ~1.5lbs in the last 3 months. The weight issue is exacerbated by his unending energy and newfound mobility. In general, he should have been starting to catch up on weight some by now, not just continually hug the bottom percentiles for his adjusted age of ~10months. They checked his iron levels in case of anemia (perfect). Also checked lead levels, just in case (no results yet). Suggested trying to get him to drink pediasure (30cal/oz vs. cows milk @17cal/oz), especially since hes coming to an age when kids often dip in weight because they’re too distractable to eat. Amazingly enough, he’s still breastfeeding, thought more for comfort than calories. We’ve also been referred to a nutritionist to find the most efficient ways to get high calories in low volumes into him. I’ve got to call the insurance to sort out the nutritionist and setup an appointment. Developmentally, he’s right on track. He just may be a small guy for a while.




November already!

November 6th, 2007

Things have been busy busy over here, hence the lack of postings. I’ve been forever writing my paper (which is actually finally coming together) and Corey has been doing all kinds of crazy things like Startup Weekend. To top things off, Avery has come down with another cold thus restarting the cycle of family infections. But enough about us, its all about Ave.

No, we did not dress him up for Halloween. We were busy, and we didn’t feel like trying to wrangle him into a $20 costume that would last 5 miserable minutes and he wouldn’t remember anyway. He won’t even keep hats on his head let alone a monkey costume. So, sorry. Next year definitely though! I already have an idea in mind.

He’s become a giant at a whopping 16 lbs 9 oz. He feeds himself pretty much now (sometimes you can get him to take some bites off a spoon- like, yogurt). He’s officially crawling and pulls to stand in 5 secs flat, any chance he gets. I’ve got some video of these events I’m hoping to post later. He’s ramped up the fussy-meter these days and has no problem making his desires known. Like his extreme dislike of being strapped into the carseat, or his desire to eat more cinnamon apples. He says dadadadada and babababa, and mmmmMmmMmMmmm. I swear he said book, which he loves.

Soon, I’m going to make a “wishlist” of stuff we need/want. Like toys and gear and such, in case anyone is just itching to buy him something for his birthday (1 in a month!) or certain winter holidays. Crazy. I can’t believe he’s going to be a year old in a month. The time really does fly!




Stats

September 22nd, 2007

We went to our 9 month check up last monday. He’s a long and lean baby.

He’s not crawling yet, but he moves around by a combo of rolling, spinning on his belly, and occasionally pushing off with one leg. He’s doing the pincer grasp (though it’s not perfected yet) to pick up food. He’s quite a babbler. He spent one whole trip to the store blowing raspberries constantly. He likes to play the “lets push the toy on the floor and whine until someone picks it up, then repeat” game. He looks for stuff that falls on the floor.

He is, however, small. He’s above average for height, right at average for head circumference, but not even close to on the chart for weight. The fact that he’s constantly moving (and burning calories) doesn’t help. The doctor isn’t worried, because he’s steadily gaining weight, he’s just not making up any weight, and he started at the bottom of the charts for gestational age to begin with. Given that I was a very skinny baby and kid, it may just be that he has my metabolism. Weight gain slows down after 6 months anyway (since they’re more mobile). We’re just supposed to get lots of fats into his diet whenever possible. Needless to say, the fact that he LOVES yogurt is working in our favor.




Busy, Busy!

July 25th, 2007

We apologize for the lack of updates. We haven’t forgotten about everyone, we are just extremely busy. In addition to taking care of a very grabby, i-want-you-to-sit-here-with-me-while-I-play 7 month old, I’m writing a paper on my research, and Corey is working it seems on a gadzillion side projects. You can always check out our pictures on flickr which is where the pictures go before they are linked here.

The stats:

It’s amazing how time flies when you’re having fun. This time last year we were contemplating when to tell everyone we were pregnant!




The Avery Update

February 13th, 2007

Last Thursday Avery had his 2 month well-baby visit and got his first round of shots. Needless to say, it was not a good day for him. He was supposed to have the visit this week, but they moved it up since he needed to have his Synagis shot sooner rather than later. He was very unhappy when we got to the doctor since he was hungry, so I fed him while we waited for the doctor. He weighed in a 6lbs 5 oz and measured 18.5 inches. He’s still slowly moving up in the percentiles on the premature baby growth scale. Then came the not-so-fun for baby part. He got an oral vaccine first which he didn’t think was so bad. Next he got 2 shots in each leg. The 2 nurses did them at the same time to minimize the amount of times he would have to go through it. He also had to repeat the newborn genetic screen because he was premature which meant he had to have another heel stick. Overall, he was not having fun. We had to stick around for a while to make sure he didn’t have any reactions to the vaccines and Synagis, and I held him and he fell right asleep. I think he was exhausted after all that crying. We gave him a little infant tylenol before the shots and another dose 4 hrs later, but he didn’t run a fever and he didn’t seem too uncomfortable when we got home.

In other news, we confirmed at a previous weight check that his “outtie” belly button is actually an umbilical hernia. They’re not that uncommon, but they’re more common in preemies. Basically, the abdominal wall doesn’t close entirely at the umbilicus, and a little hole remains which allows things to poke through. His is completely reducible which means when you push it, everything goes back through the hole. It might resolve on its own, or when he’s older we can have surgery to repair it. Hopefully, it heals on its own.

Also, I’m still using the nursing supplementer and breastfeeding. Apparently it’s been going well since hes gaining weight consistently every week. I’m still enriching the breastmilk in the supplementer to 22cal/oz. Milk supply has been OK… Today was the first day in 5 days that I had to give him some formula because I didn’t have enough pumped milk for the supplementer, so things have been better than they were. I’ve got a few last-ditch efforts to increase milk supply that I’m trying so we’ll see how that goes. I’m hoping to try and wean him off the supplementer soon, but that really depends on having enough milk. So we will see. Time is running out, because pumping alone is known to decrease milk supply and bottles could be the end of breastfeeding. Cross your fingers!




and then there were 3

December 15th, 2006

Avery Eliot Reece Whittle is slightly less than a day old. He was born at 12:35 in the morning. He weighed 1372 g and measured 40 cm long. His apgar score was 9. Since this was only the 32nd week, they took him to the NICU. However, he did cry with his first breath and did not require assistance for breathing.

Here is a photo:

More will definitely follow but we are exhausted now.