Having fun

I have not updated the blog in a long time, so I thought I would check in.  We are starting to have a lot of fun with Caroline, and she continues to develop a funny personality.  She smiles all of the time and it's contagious.  She is almost 23" in length and probably 10.5-11 pounds.

I was looking through the blog tonight and it was amazing to see how things have changed.  I had forgotten about many of our days at TCH.  It was great for me to re-read some of the comments from friends.  I really appreciated all of the nice comments at that time and it is still really neat to read now.  We will eventually print every blog entry and comments, put them in a binder and give it to Caroline someday.

We also finally made it to Dallas.  It was great to show off Caroline to her Great-Grandmothers.  They have not been able to travel to Houston to see her, and I know they were anxious to finally meet her in person.  I had a great time watching everyone interact with Caroline.  It was long overdue.

Here are some pictures to catch you up on the last few weeks:

Enjoying time outside

Playing on her rug that finally got here

Getting stronger and stronger

Goof ball

Trying on her swimsuit - Getting ready for summer

Great Grandmothers, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins...and Dad

7 Months

Things are still going well around here.  Caroline is 7 months old and weighs 10 pounds 3 ounces.  She had a birthday party for her daddy last weekend.   Ryan likes to say he celebrated his third 29^th birthday.

 Caroline finally started enjoying solids.  So far she loves rice cereal, squash, pears, mangos and sweet potatoes. 

After a few wonderful record setting days of bottles and eating, Caroline has decided she’s not really into eating or drinking milk.  We think her reflux may be the cause but I took her to the pediatrician yesterday to make sure.   Everything looked good and we are just waiting this out.   

She starting sleeping on her tummy and really pushes up a bunch. 

In one of the Preemie baby books they have a section about funny things people do for their preemies… I thought I would share one of ours.  The other night, during the ongoing hunger strike, Ryan and I fed Caroline in the bath tub.  It was actually successful and she ate and then took a bottle.  You might remember that this is how she ate her first cereal... I am seeing a trend.  :)

Finally, here is a picture of Caroline and her doll.  We will get a better one soon...

Not much to report...

...and that feels great for me to say.

We decided to have an evaluation done to check Caroline's development.  Several different specialist checked Caroline and they all gave us a positive report.  In some areas, she is as developed as a 3-4 month old (her adjusted age).  In other areas, she actually acts like a 6 month old (her birth age).  Either way, she is more mature than her Dad.

Here are some pictures:

Hanging with Mom

We got out the high chair.  She loves rice cereal.
Squash is okay.  Peas are awful.

Loving spring.

Check Up and Solids!!

Caroline had her 6 month checkup today.   She was such a rock star and enjoyed showing all the nurses and staff how cute she is…  She loved watching everyone and smiling at anyone who looked her way.  I think she's gonna be like me, according to Ryan I'm always the last one to leave a party.  She weighs 9 pounds 6.5 ounces.  She is 21.25 inches long and her head circumference is 15.51 inches.  When she was born her stats were:  weight 1 pound 14 ounces, length 13.19 inches and head circumference 10.24 inches.   She is still plotting along on her own growth chart.  Dr. Schlegel is absolutely fine with this as long as she keeps growing.  Caroline got 4 shots today, including a flu shot.  The doctor also told us to start feeding her solids.  We also get to stop waking Caroline up at 3 am!!!

Ryan was getting dinner with some friends so Caroline and I decided we would have a fun night with some new food.  Caroline was pretty cranky this evening and really wanted to be held.  I figured this was due to her vaccines but was determined to try rice cereal.  After she finished her bottle, I got all set up - I made the rice cereal, grabbed the cameras, set up the chair, etc.  While I was doing this Caroline was getting fussier and fussier.  She was so upset that I decided to give her a bath and she finally calmed down.  The Tylenol kicked in and she was finally happy.  So sweet Caroline had her first rice cereal while lounging in a warm bath. I am happy to report she enjoyed it.  Who wouldn't??  Here is a picture, luckily I had my cell phone so I could capture her first cereal. 

Caroline – You are such a sweet little girl.  You love mornings and hanging out with us while we get ready for work.  You are constantly smiling and I love it.  You’ve really started to greet me with a big cheesy smile.  I finally saw you roll over from back to front this past weekend.  I knew you could do it because I kept finding you on your tummy.  You absolutely adore Margot, your nanny.  In the mornings you look for her as soon as you hear her voice.  Recently, you’ve been really interested in Charlie and Jackson, our dogs.  Your Dad and I can almost always calm you by singing or playing music.  Of course, you love all the silly songs your Dad makes up.  “Hey! Hey!” is your favorite.  You love baths, your mobile and activity mat.  You can sleep through almost anything.  

6 months!

Six months ago right this second, I was walking back from TCH to Methodist Hospital after a long, emotional day.  I needed an ambien to go to sleep that night and I woke up at 3 am and could do nothing but think about Caroline.  I cannot believe how much can change in six months.  In some ways, it seems like it has been a lot longer than six months.  It's hard for me to believe that Caroline was still needing a tiny amount of oxygen just three months ago.  Although her lungs are probably not perfect now, she can throw a pretty good temper tantrum at about 7 pm most nights.

Caroline has her six month appointment on Wednesday.  We are hoping that she weighs around 9.5 pounds.  She is growing kind of slow but steady.  In the last month, Caroline has continued to develop.  She is rolling over in both directions.  Also, I think she is about to start the teething process.  She is slowly starting to eat bigger meals.  I think that we are about to have a breakthrough and we will be able to feed her fewer times a day.  We still feed her 9-11 times a day.  She is becoming very observant and watches every move we make.  She was imitating us eating dinner last night.  It was pretty funny.  Click here to see what Katie looks like when she eats pizza.

To sum it up, I am a very proud Dad.

Here are a bunch of pictures:

It even gets cold in Houston

Her new friend

Going on a walk in the nice weather

The serious side of her personality

Happy to be six months old

Serious again

...and happy again.  You get the picture...

Superwoman

We have to have a picture of the doll, of course.  Most people do not realize how small the doll really is...  I tried to find something about the same size that most everyone would recognize.  Please do not make fun of me...

I've posted it a million times, but here is Caroline at about 2 weeks:

6 months!

Goodbye Adam and Ginny

Last July/August, a lot of great things happened at just the right time.  Maybe we were lucky, or maybe there were a lot of answered prayers.  At the very beginning of Katie's bed rest, we met Ginny and Adam Schrader.  Ginny's water broke at 20 weeks or so and she was on bed rest at St. Luke's, which connected to Methodist by underground tunnels.  One night, I was taking Katie for a wheel chair ride to see the tunnels from Methodist to TCH so that we could see the journey that "mini Cooper" would eventually have to make.  We ran into Adam and Ginny in the middle of one of their own wheel chair trips.  Our due dates were exactly one week apart, so we had something in common.  We became "facebook friends" and encouraged each other along the way.  We even had a date night with pizza and everything.  It was great.

Adam and Ginny are originally from New York, but this would be their first baby born in Texas.  Their little boy would be named Austin, a great Texas name.  We all planned to get together outside of the hospital when things slowed down.  However, we just recently found out that Adam and Ginny are moving to Ohio, so out get together will be delayed.  

Good luck to Adam and Ginny.  Texas will miss you.

For those wondering, Austin is doing wonderfully.  I think I remember Adam telling me that the baby only had 5-10% of survival when Ginny's water broke at 20 weeks.  Ginny was on bed rest for 11 or 12 weeks after her water broke.  Just amazing to me.

Date night

Out with the old, in with the new...

After 5 and a half months, Caroline has outgrown her newborn clothes.  They are out of her dresser and in the attic.  I did not realize that I would become found of some of her outfits.  We are excited she is finally wearing 0-3 months. If she is not already 9 pounds, we think she is getting close.

We had a fun weekend!  Caroline was loved by lots of family.  Her Aunt Kim and Uncle Jeff came down from Dallas for Friday and Saturday and her Aunt Emily and Uncle Jason had us over for dinner on Sunday.  Caroline loves to snuggle and hang out with her sweet aunts and uncles.

Cheering on the Longhorn basketball team

She loves bath time.

Checking out her jump 'n jive - still plenty of room for her.

Mom and Caroline.

Long, but good 7 days / 5 month update

Katie had her surgery last Friday, or as she called it, a "tune up".  A little over 5 years ago, Katie was feeling bad and started experiencing some pain in her abdomen.  Her liver was extremely enlarged, but doctors did not know why.  After numerous tests, she found out that that her inferior vena cava was very narrow and not functioning.  The inferior vena cava is a large vein that carries blood from the liver to the heart.  So, obviously not a good situation, and extremely rare.  If I remember correctly, there is not another known case out there.  Katie was referred to an amazing team of doctors that helped dream up a surgery to fix the problem.  They put in a bypass which has worked with incredible success...until this last December.  Her surgeon, Dr. Peden, noticed some narrowing in the bypass.  Last Friday, Dr. Peden inserted a stent to hold the bypass open in the portion that was narrowing.  After a follow up visit this week, the stent has fixed the issue, and Dr. Peden says that it should work for "...a long time".  We are happy that she has proactive doctors keeping her healthy.

Katie could not pick up anything heavy, including Caroline, for about 48 hours.  That doesn't sound like a big deal, but it slowly wore me out.  I didn't realize how tired I was until about 9 a.m. on Monday morning.  I am looking forward to this weekend.  Katie got some good rest with a great friend.

Two Texas Medical Center miracles

Okay, okay, it wasn't all work and no play

Caroline had her 5 month check up on Monday.  She is now 8 pounds, 8 ounces.  She is growing about 1/2 an ounce a day, which is fine with her doctor.  She continues to improve with her bottle feeding.  She is eating about 22 to 23 ounces of milk a day, which is up about 7 ounces from just a few weeks ago.  Overall, her pediatrician is thrilled with her development and is amazed that she is doing so well.  Here is a picture of her at 5 months with her doll.

5 Months

Caroline is five months old today.  Her check up is on Monday.  I am anxious to find out her weight.  She was 7 pounds, 15 ounces almost three weeks ago.  Here are some pictures from tonight:

Video from Great Day Houston

Here is the video from the show.  There is a guy on the video that looks kind of like me...

Thanks to Shannon at FirstMemories.  Y'all do great work!

http://www.khou.com/great-day/gdh_011111_seg5-113289089.html