Thursday, July 28, 2011

Serious Stink

Amelia has serious farts. They are frequent and they stink. (BTW, my mom swears this is a Lipshultz trait) To see if I can help, I am giving up dairy for a week. If she stops farting so much then we'll know that's the culprit. I LOVE my dairy products (I could live on cereal) so this is a big deal for me, but I love the little stinker so, I'll do what needs done.

Still no news on tests, I promise to post as soon as we know. Also, for anyone who wants to see her, we're getting up on Skype so ping us there. Love to all, blog again soon.

Monday, July 25, 2011

All the News

First a kidling udpate...
Amelia had a great drs appt today. She weighed in at 7 lbs 5.6 oz, meaning she gained 9 oz in 6 days, more than the ounce per day they were looking for. She's now on track and we won't have to worry about another drs appt until her 2 month checkup.

Still no news on her testing for MCADD, so we continue to feed her every 2-3 hrs, even if we must wake her. Ken and I have begun splitting the nights as she (like her brother before her) will not sleep unless she's held. We're hopeful that as she's older (in a few weeks) we'll be able to move her into her crib and Ken & I could sleep in the same bed at the same time... well, we can dream.

Other news...
My grandfather passed away on Sunday morning. He was 97 and an amazing man. This is my maternal grandfather and we've told Kieran though I'm not sure he really grasps the concept of death. The funeral is on Wednesday, Mom asked if I wanted to say anything and while I have lots of great memories of my grandfather, I don't think I could put into words how much respect and love I had for the man. He was not a lovey-dovey man, not someone who showed affection readily (or at all, really), but I knew he loved me. And I guess that's all that matters.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Was This Pun Intended?

Kieran (leaving the dinner table): Bye, I'm off to college.
Ken: Where are you going?
Kieran: To college. Like in Toy Story.
Ken: Oh, OK. Have fun.

Kieran comes back. (He was in the bathroom)

Kieran: I'm back. I was pottying in college.
Ken: Yes, I expect you will.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Two Week Checkup

She's gaining weight but not as much as the doctor would like, so I've got to go back on Tuesday. Here's the stats:

Height - 20 inches (I think she wasn't really at the top, so I'd say probably a little shorter than this)
Weight - 6 lbs, 9.4 oz.
Head Circumference: 12.75 inches

She's got a tiny head and they also want to keep an eye on that. She's in the low percentiles, like Kieran was. Still eating tons and still have to be sure she wakes up every 2-3 hrs to eat. That's it, love to all, blog again soon.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Two Week Mark

So, she's two weeks old as of Monday. That was Amelia's original due date, which is somewhat strange. We've got a drs appt on Friday for her 2 week checkup, I'll post more after that.

Still waiting on test results - first set not due until late next week (waiting sucks, just have to say it again) so nighttime is pretty rough. For some reason she's decided to feast between 9-midnight or 10- 1 am every night. I'm talking non-stop eating. She'll feed for about 15-20 mins, seem to be done then start to root when I put her upright to burp. So, we'll switch sides and start all over again. For the ENTIRE time. Can you say 'exhausting'?

Still mostly asleep during the day - working on that but it is hard when I'm so beat. I get no more than 2.5 hrs of sleep at a clip - usually just 1 or 2 b/c I have to keep waking her to feed every 3 hrs. So she'll eat at say 1 am, then I have to wake up a bit before 4 to get her back up to eat again, even if she'd rather sleep.

On the plus side, she's feeding solely on breastmilk, so I'm happy about that. And she seems to be gaining weight. When we brought her in for her last checkup she was nearly back at birthweight, can't wait to see how chubb she's getting on Friday. A little worried about the "short frenulum" which was noted last week, Kieran had tongue tie when he was born, and I asked repeatedly for them to check Mia for this, in the hospital they said she was fine, but the lactation consultant we saw last week said her frenulum was short, but if she's eating OK we shouldn't worry about it though we'll have to keep an eye on it in case it messes with her speech. Something else to have the dr check out on Friday.

That's all for now. Love to all, blog again... sometime...

Friday, July 08, 2011

I Hate Waiting

Yesterday was rough. Ken called our dr and we got a follow-up appointment for Mia at 5PM (weigh in to ensure she was still gaining). I am still not allowed to drive so Ken was going to get Kieran at 3 and head home so we could all go.

Right after we got off the phone, I got a call from the MD govt about the newborn screening that's routinely done at the hospital. The woman I spoke with prefaced what she said to me by saying the lab got all new equipment last week so the results are not definitive, but that Mia had some indicators that she could have MCADD. This is a deficiency in the way her body breaks down stores of fat.

So, instead of seeing one doctor yesterday, we saw two. Ken got us an appointment with a genetic specialist at University of Maryland Medical Center who went over what our next steps are. They took some blood and will do two tests - one will be an initial test, probably will not tell us much more than the first one and the second is a DNA test which will be definitive as to whether or not Amelia has MCADD. In the meantime, we simply treat her as if she has the disorder. We won't know anything for certain until August as the DNA test takes about 4 weeks. Have I mentioned that I hate waiting?

So, what does this mean and what the heck is MCADD? It means that, should she have this, she will need to eat every 2-3 hours and cannot go beyond that. Period. As she gets older the timeframe she can go without food will increase. It is not life-threatening if you know you have it. There is no cure, but there are treatments to help and mostly it is simply a matter of ensuring that Mia eats regularly.

So, the other drs appointment went well and Mia is nearly at her birth weight already (they hope to see her gain back to birth weight by 2 weeks, she's more than on her way). At University of MD they weighed her at 6 lbs 2.5 oz and at our drs office they weighed her at 6 lbs 3.6 oz, apparently scales can be sensitive by a few ounces, but either way she's definitely eating well and gaining weight. Her 2 week checkup is next Friday (when I'm able to drive again).

That's it, for now. Please don't freak out all you family out there. Mia is fine, eating well, I still have to wake her up to eat if she doesn't wake on her own every 2-3 hours, but once I do she eats well. I'm happy to say we're 100% on breastmilk so far and I really hope to keep it that way, at least until she's 6 months old. Will keep everyone informed but we probably won't know anything of note until early August.

Monday, July 04, 2011

Happy Fourth (and one week birthday)!

So, here we are. Our new family of four. Kieran continues to amaze me. Even though I know his sleep is disrupted he's still very doting on Amelia. When she's awake, he makes sure she knows he's there and that he loves her. He's been active (mostly) by playing in his room because I'm still working on the feeding thing. Hope to get that a bit more squared away this week as we have some serious mom/Mia bonding time when Kieran goes back to school and Ken goes to work.

Still weird, but we're adjusting. She wouldn't sleep in her bassinet last night but she did sleep on me and we both slept for about 3 hrs. It was great, though I don't like doing that.

OK, off to the real world. Love to all will try to keep blogging more since I'll be home and all.

Saturday, July 02, 2011

The New Normal

It's been an exciting few days. Came home from the hospital on Thursday, had a relatively sleepless night feeding kiddo. Because her weight was very close to the 10% of birth weight, we had to go in for a pediatrician appt yesterday. She went from weighing 5 lbs 9.8 oz on Thurs to 5 lbs 13 oz on Friday.  They want to see us again next week just to ensure that Mia's weight is trending in the right direction.

So, Thursday night Amelia had "cluster feedings" nearly every hour so I got near to zero sleep. Ken figured out that when she got way too fussy we could "prime the pump" by giving her a little formula or pumped milk via syringe to calm her down enough to eat. We were so proud on Friday when they told us how much she had gained. I was doing everything right, very little to no formula, mostly breastmilk and mostly from me. We even had to feed her at the drs office (which took an hour). We got her home, however, and things went downhill.

Right around dinnertime was her feeding time, she got so angry and screaming that Kieran went upstairs to his room without finishing his dinner because he couldn't take the noise. It took nearly 1 1/2 hours to get her to eat calmly (formula from a bottle) and I was in tears by the end. We had another episode like that last night (though I only let her get really cranked for about 15 mins because I didn't want to wake Kieran - I'm still hanging out on the first floor because of the c-sec). But this morning it's so far so good. Mostly we have to get in front of her feeding cues and to get her woken up enough to eat before she gets too hungry. She is also semi-lazy and doesn't like to work so hard to get the milk so I definitely don't want her getting used to the bottle - though we specifically have a system that still makes her work for her food.

Anyway, last night went (mostly) better and I got Ken to come down and help me twice, she's fed once this morning. We'll see how the rest of it goes. I'm operating well on little sleep. Thank goodness Ken insists that I get some shut eye or I'd probably "soldier through" and then regret it later.

For my own healing, that seems to be going well. I am being very good about using the stairs sparingly though I would dearly love to sleep in my own bed, probably won't be doing that for a few weeks. I still hurt and have ridiculous elephantine feet, but this too should pass. I am not allowed to drive for another 2 weeks (frustrating but does make me glad we live in the city), stairs are roughly the same - only once up and once down for about a week and then I can start increasing my usage. I've already broken that rule but I still take it slowly and am ensuring that I also get healing as Ken reminds me that I need to be well in order to take care of our little bundles of joy.

Kieran has been (mostly) amazing. I feel bad because we are cooped up at home - with Mia feeding every 2 hours she eats for about 15-30 mins of that which means going anywhere for a bit may be difficult until we've got this whole thing down. Way too much TV and video time are going on, I am ashamed to admit, but I am hopeful that once things get back to normal (next week after the holiday Kieran goes back to school, I'll get a better handle on getting out with an infant who needs to feed) we'll be able to do more trips. Thank goodness I have a been-there, done-that mom in Katie (my cousin's wife) who has a little boy a little younger than Kieran and a baby girl who is just about 7 months.

For all those who want photos - most are up on Facebook right now. Hopefully we'll get those moved here but it takes a bit to blog and now I have to go and wake her up for her next feeding.