Diaper Distraction

A little video of Grace dancing and cooing to a lullaby, being distracted after the trauma of a diaper change. (There's sound involved, so adjust your speakers accordingly.)

Ten Weeks

The Peanut is now ten weeks old, and couldn't be doing better. We're so thankful! At her two-month checkup, she was pronounced healthy and happy, developing well. She's still on the low end of the percentile charts for weight, but continues to gain steadily, so apparently she's just decided to keep a petite figure. On the other hand, she's at the 97th percentile for height and, after seeing the Olympic athletes this summer, we're guessing she's aiming to be a high jumper (wow, those girls are tall).

Grace eats well (although messily), coos, smiles, burps, cries, and does a myriad of other things for which babies are praised and for which the rest of us have to say "Excuse me." She watches TV (The Price is Right is a favorite). She also sleeps -- consistently 6-7 hours per night and, for the first time, 10 hours last night. Wow. More of those, please. And she and her feet look beautiful in pictures...

Melinda

Living in the Country

Grace is not the only baby in our house.

I don't really consider Kenmore to be "the country" but we certainly have our share of wild animals coming through the backyard. You've seen pictures of the deer who visited a few months ago. There are mole holes dotting the landscape. A blue heron perches nearby occasionally. Once in a while a floppy dog drops by (okay, not exactly a wild animal).

We've known for a while that a raccoon was living somewhere near our house. Then, right around the time Grace was born, we discovered that it wasn't living near our house. It's living under our house. And it's not alone. There are two baby raccoons as well. And these guys don't seem to have learned yet that they're supposed to be nocturnal -- we see them during the day pretty frequently.



Thankfully, these babies don't need diaper changes or middle-of-the-night feedings.

Melinda

Our Own Little Gnome

We have a lot of nicknames for Grace these days: Peanut, Wingnut, Widget, Wiglet, Pooper, Thunderpants, Little G, and Baby Bird. We had never considered calling her a gnome. On our trip to Wyoming last week, however, we took pictures of her in a number of scenic spots, leading to a comparison with the Travelocity Gnome (seen here).

It was a six day trip (two days each way, two days/three nights there) for a mini family reunion with the Lipseys. Grace got to meet her Grandmom Lipsey for the first time, as well as a number of great-aunts and uncles and cousins. The peanut slept well in the car, and we stopped for an hour every three for food, diaper changes, and stretching our legs. Our pace was definitely slower than it would previously have been, but that's not a bad thing.

The drive through Yellowstone and our stay in the Tetons were absolutely beautiful. This is the area where we spent most of our honeymoon, and to return with Grace was a lot of fun.

So here are some photos -- enjoy!

Melinda

A Month Already?

Our little peanut is now one month old, and growing like crazy. Her earlier problems with slow weight gain are a thing of the past, and she's in the 95th percentile for length/height. She holds her head up for 20-30 seconds at a time, still has huge feet for her size, and has slept for 5-6 hours during the night on three occasions in the last week or so. Of course, she also cries regularly, fills diapers constantly, keeps us up most nights, and grunts quite unfemininely. But the pediatrician gave her a thumbs up at her one-month checkup yesterday, and we're so glad.

A few photos of our beautiful girl...

How Grace is Doing

Our little peanut is two weeks old, and she's doing great!

To recap the last two weeks, the doctors were concerned at our first appointment because Grace had dropped more than 12 ounces since birth. All babies lose weight after they're born, but this was a bit more than they'd have liked. They told us to wake her every two hours to feed her, then the following day the instructions were to continue with that plus supplement with formula. Waking a sleeping, satisfied baby to try to get her to eat is ridiculously difficult, and after about two days of that we'd had enough. We needed to do what would work for us and for Grace. So we let her sleep, but filled her little tummy to the brim whenever she would eat. At the next appointment, she had gained four ounces -- enough to let us avoid a fourth doctor visit until a week later.

In the meantime, we set an appointment with a lactation consultant at the hospital so we could check to make sure Grace is eating well. While we were there, the consultant noticed some redness and swelling on Grace's chest, and was concerned enough to send us to our pediatrician that afternoon. The pediatrician was concerned enough to call back to the hospital for a consult with another doctor. That doctor (who, incidentally, had spent the day reading about the exact symptoms Grace had) was concerned enough to recommend that we come back to the hospital and have Grace admitted for two days so they could give her antibiotics via an IV. Apparently newborn babies don't have the immune system developed yet and they don't have the barriers between body systems that older children and adults have. So, for example, if they get an infection in their blood, it could spread easily and quickly to their lymph system, nervous system, brain, organs, etc. Given this explanation, we completely agreed with the doctor's recommendation. After a quick trip home for a few essentials, we went immediately to the hospital. Grace did so well, surviving the IV in her hand and several blood draws via a poke in her foot. And, after two days, the redness had completely gone and the swelling was significantly reduced. The hospital released her, and she's now on an oral antibiotic for several more days to finish off the infection.

We don't recommend five doctor visits and a two-day hospital stay within the first ten days of a baby's life, but if it should happen to you, we do recommend Providence Everett Medical Center and the Everett Clinic. The doctors and nurses there were great during Melinda's pregnancy, Grace's delivery, and the stay last week.

So what now? Well, we're home, trying to get some sleep between feedings and diaper changes. Vic is back to work and Melinda is establishing a pattern for her days with Grace. Thanks to all who sent their congrats, brought food, prayed, helped, and encouraged. We like our little girl a lot and can't wait to introduce her to you!

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