Random Tidbits VII

I am unclear if this one was a maniacal or a genius move, but I took off work a couple hours early on the afternoon Poppins was bringing her son and husband over to meet us to take the dogs to the dog park.  They are good fun guys, but they are definitely terriers and have some energy and so I figured that having them a bit tired would be wise as I didn't know what her son thought about dogs.  It turned out that I probably didn't need to worry at all as he loved them, but I had a great time and so did they. 

The dog park we normally go to is pretty busy normally, but at 3 on a Wednesday afternoon it was almost dead.  A good part of the time we were there, there was no one!  Since I'm not supposed to be taking them for long walks right now, I might should try to find more times like this when I can take them without taking either boy and let them run some;

I just realized I've never actually written any blogs giving these two stories and so I should definitely work on doing that. 

And, since it was calm, I was able to sit back in a chair with my feet up in another chair.  So nice for everyone!

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We had noticed that Chiron was getting paler.  While we were aware it was February, I figured I should call the pediatrician to confirm that we didn't need to worry.  I told her that she wasn't exhibiting any other signs of anemia, but she decided that since he had been off of his vitamin supplementation for about two months, it probably made sense to go ahead and draw blood.  His H&H was 39.2 and 13.4!  That's the best he's had since the week he was BORN.  His iron reserve (ferretin level or something like that) was significantly lower than she'd like to see (17 maybe?), but since his H&H was so good, we aren't concerned at this time.  We didn't do a retic, so don't know what that is.

Whle the results were great, getting the blood draw drawn was a comedy of errors with the order not being found, needing three sticks and lots of wiggling around, and the like turning a thirty minute trip into 2.5 hours.  However, Chiron wasn't bothered by the wait at all:

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Trajan has been dressing himself entirely on his own on the weekends for around a year now, so I decided it was time he started doing it on the weekdays as well.  He had been dressing himself, but he required someone in the room.  He objected at first, but I think we've got it down.  However, he occasionally puts things on backwards and the like. 

Shirt AND shorts backwards, mismatching socks and unbrushed hair.  But his teeth are brushed and that's all that I actually require.
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I am continually impressed by how great a brother Trajan is.  Chiron really likes to be pretty much on top of him a lot of the time and Trajan not only tolerates this, but enjoys it.  We do make sure and manage Chiron so that he isn't on him when Trajan is working on something Chiron is likely to mess up though and I think this helps to keep Trajan's attitude so fantastic and loving towards Chiron.  I'm hoping that they will stay as close with these new two rather than Trajan retreating for self-preservation.  The little two being girls seems like it may help!

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At some point I received a coupon to try the MyHabit thing from Amazon.  I bought a shirt that ended up costing about a dollar after using the code.  This is my favorite one dollar shirt of all time:

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The story I wrote for the Preemie Power fundraising contest is now up on the Hand to Hold website as a family story.  It's interesting to see their story there for others to read.  Chiron and Aurelia's due date (the 40-week FYI one) was this Saturday, it's kind of crazy to think so much time has passed.

Random Tidbits VI

Bought Trajan clothes a week or so for the first time in two years and got them in 6s!  Gasp!  He has always worn a uniform and since we decided after our tour last week that we are going to send him to the public school for kindergarten, he needed some non-uniform clothes.  He's in 5s now, so went ahead with the 6s.  I was just grabbing from Children's Place or somewhere, but Paul reminded me that the Ralph Lauren stuff has held up much better and they had a sale going on, so I bought from them.  And they ship things in individual boxes, so we have a lot of blue boxes:

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Had my first class party as a room parent and it was a fun-filled, hectic success!

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The boys are cute:

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Sometimes they are funny:

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Pancakes are fun for everyone:

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The dogs are the principal users of pillows on Trajan's bed:

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Trajan prefers to sleep on the floor about half of the time.  This he's done for years, but he set a new record for most "stuff" on the floor with him the other night:

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Last eight weeks have definitely led to some belly growth:

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We may have a great lead on a nanny.  I'm meeting her in person for the first interview tomorrow afternoon, so will update then.  However, the Texas Workforce Commission is VERY frustrating as I try to figure out all the logistics of being a household employer.
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And I think this is the most random of all the random tidbits to date!
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I forgot!  So, I'm editing to add the results of our Sequential Screen.  Despite the two values being higher than what I'd seen with the previous three babies and baby on the left coming in at the 94th percentile for nuchal translucency, we got great results, thereby proving somehow that my excessive reading of medical literature is good as I knew that 94th was actually not bad and so haven't been nervous.

Our Downs risk started at 1 in 680 and is now 1 in 4,400 for both babies.
Our Spina Bifida risks started at 1 in 1000 and is not 1 in 1,400 for both babies.

Good job girls, way to ace your first standardized assessment.

Random Tidbits V

No grand thought to communicate to the world (though I have a rant based on being told we were making Trajan gay that I've been considering for weeks that may come out soon, but I just get too agitated to really write it), so I thought I'd just spew some of the random contents of my mind and my phone.

• Mustard is really, really good.  Trying to surreptitiously drink mustard blend while waiting for your cheesesteak takes some skill, but can be done.

• Related to food, a few more thoughts on the weight gain attempt.
  I’m not actually the biggest fan of dairy.  It just makes me feel a little blah and almost nauseous, so I can’t use copious milk shakes to gain weight.  More avocados sounds like a very good idea!  And hadn’t thought of grits and now I’m happy.  As long as I’ve already confessed my weird relationship with peanut butter having not tried it until I was 23, I might as well confess that I’m not a fan of chocolate either. 
•  I'm not stressing too much about meeting all of Barbara Luke's specifications, but just trying to do a pretty good job of it.  And that's enough to make me happy.

• Also related to food, Chiron is still a very big fan of bread.  Tried it as toast for the first time the other morning and he voted an emphatic YES

• I was by myself in our house for a night (actually two nights) this weekend for the first time since before Trajan was born.  It was kinda crazy.  But I succeeded in organizing oh so much, wrangling junk, cleaning and just generally improving the universe that is our house.  And got two good nights of time in bed (I would say sleep, but I just seem incapable of sleeping more than two hours at a time at the moment).
  Included within this, I decided to pull out all my 2-6 clothes and put them in plastic storage bins.  They are many of my favorites, particularly work clothes, so I'm not quite ready to part with them, but decided I didn't really need them taking up space.  I was at a tight 6 this December before things started ballooning back up, so it's definitely conceivable that I will some day get back into this clothing as I was under two months out from breastfeeding when I started going up again, and thus the storing rather than getting rid of.



That's all those clothes.  And yes, these are just bottoms.  I probably own too many pairs of jeans particularly since I can not wear them for work!

•  Where were the boys, you ask?  They went to Houston and visited the zoo with Paul's parents!
  
  
• And Chiron has a new skill.  He can hit two blocks together while standing which thus means he isn't holding onto anything.  I think this means real walking rather than just cruising is probably coming before too long.

• In my cleaning up this weekend, I actually came across the information sheet from Trajan's 12-month well visit.  I'm backwards from typical and I have all the stats from almost every time my second child has ever been measured, but oddly didn't really have any of Trajan's, so this was interesting to me.  He was 32 inches tall (so 4 inches taller than X at that age) and weighed 23lb, 1oz (so yeah, heavier), but interestingly, his head was only 47.2 centimeters, so smaller than Chiron's!

I should write about my face rot as I actually went to a dermatologist last week, but I've exhausted my attention span, so I am positive I have anyone who has been reading as well ;-). I also attended a party for Trajan's school Friday night that was actually at the home of one of Chiron's neonatologist and had a really good conversation that I will perhaps write about sometime in the next few days. But seriously, the face rot, people.  It's not promising.

Random Tidbits IV

Oops, Trajan's birthday party got me distracted and so I stopped the habit of posting and then I had two work trips and Chiron spent a week in the hospital, so it's now been over a month.  Oops.  And instead of a coherent summary or tale, I'm just going to do the little thoughts that are in my phone's notes and voice memos.

I imagine I will always think of her.  Whenever I am sitting "bride's side".  Whenever I see sass in a young girl.  In the couple seconds after I answer the question of how many kids I have.

Trajan: "Did you go the right school to be a mommy?  I go to teh right school to be able to be whatever I want."

It's disturbing that my four-year-old understands the concept of death more clearly than a restaurant closing.

Odd moment of joy that my phone corrects og to of instead of OG now.

Chiron now weighs a stone.  He is also now on Neocate instead of breastmilk as of the end of his hospital stay.  I am tapering off of pumping as a result (I considered pumping just to donate, but it's such a significant time commitment and I'd like to be able to take a Tylenol, so I decided to retire).  Bonus trivia fact: I've pumped over 90 gallons.

Random Tidbits III

Chiron, I love you very, very outerspace until it gets to infinity.  - Trajan


We are in some sort of honeymoon period where Trajan has the language skills and the memory to tell me about his day as well as the desire and willingness to do so.  And I like this.


Chiron's head is more than six centimeters more around now than all of Chiron was long when he was born.


Discussing cremation with an almost four-year-old definitely makes a drive more interesting.  Turns out I don't really know many of the details.  Cremation was the longest topic, but a lot of other questions as well.  Why didn't you help her or tell a doctor so they could heal her before she died in your tummy?  The doctor took her out so you could have more babies in your tummy?  Why can't we name another sister Aurelia? Plus one more reflection which really impressed me at how old Trajan is and how much his mind works:  when Chiron was playing with Aurelia in your tummy, he thought they would be grownups together.


Is it normal for a pretty-much-four-year-old to switch to referring to himself in the third person at this age?  Including both saying Trajan and he in reference to himself?

I was at a conference the last few days and I gained a new life experience and determined that I may be too competitive.  One of the things they had brought in for one of the dinner/receptions was a guy rolling cigars.  One of our clients asked if I'd ever smoked one and I explained that no, despite having gone to Cuba in college with a license from the Treasury Department, I'd never actually figured out how to smoke one.  Then he said something to the effect of he wasn't surprised that I couldn't.  So, I decided I could. 

It was an interesting experience.  I choked, coughed and sputtered on the first inhale, but then I pretty much figured it out.  It lead to a light-headed feeling and a bit of tingling in my face.  However, I don't understand the habit and don't anticipate I will be adopting it soon.  While a shower when I got up to my room took care of the smell on my body including my hair, I woke up at least three more times during the night to go brush my teeth again and rinse with mouthwash because the taste was just so disgusting.  It was still there part of the way through the next day!

I was an intense smoker.

Baby Planking!

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Random Tidbits II

• I live with Alf.  And she has a hard life.

• I love the fact that our boys seem to really enjoy each other.  It's becoming more of a two-way street as Chiron has developed and it just makes me happy.  Yes, I know they will hate each other at times too, but I feel no need to think about that!

• I have no idea how we would actually do it, but I just had the idea of someday having a birthday party for Trajan themed around Trajan (the typeface) and this made me giggle.

• I will miss the day that my son wants to hold my hand in the movie theater.

• Is there such a concept as "rationally paranoid"?

• I've thought more on the argument of having three or more kids allowing them to support each other in the case of the loss of one and I think it's more than that.  I think it's more lines of support in almost everything, throughout life.

• Before going out and buying a new pump-in-style, I luckily remembered that our local nursing store will test pumps.  So I took it in and she said it tested perfectly.  It is just not a Symphony.  So, I've made a concentrated effort to pay attention to it and experiment to find what conditions will get me the best results.  First step was I went ahead and changed out the membranes on all of my flanges (doing this every 4-6 months is just generally a good idea and as Chiron is 7 months, I was well overdue).  Second, I have found that for some reason I have more luck with the Pumpin Pals flanges than the Medela ones (I don't find this with the Symphony for some reason).  And third and probably most importantly, I take the time to make sure all connections are tight and the membranes start firmly depressed.  It's still not as good as the Symphony, but I think it is good enough to keep using.

• I got a call this morning from the pediatricians that Chiron's brain CT was fine, but that one of the pediatricians would be calling me Monday to talk about it and what future monitoring they want to do.  Why Monday?  Well, his normal pediatrician is now almost two weeks overdue, so they are inducing her tomorrow and the other pediatrician in the office is out sick herself.  I'm guessing they are having a bad day today!

• I love the things we learn through our kids.  I've always hated the fact that if I choose to take a bath, I still have to take a shower after to clean my hair.  Well, after almost four years of washing a child, I suddenly had to the idea to use a cup in the bathtub.  Tada!

• We are proceeding on a multi-disciplinary front with Trajan re: Mr. Hyde.  He has an appointment with a neurologist on November 2nd, but the pediatrician called and got him on their urgent fill-in list, so hopefully he will get in there earlier.  He has an appointment with the psychologist we had been seeing for play therapy on Tuesday to continue giving her opportunities to work with him and particular in hopes that she can ferret out whether or not he actually has any awareness/memory of the episodes.  Then we are probably taking him to a psychiatrist as well for some other evaluation.  Seems like a lot to me for something that only happens about once a month, but they are of pretty severe intensity and we want to help him to make life as easy as possible, so I think it makes sense.

• I still haven't written an actual submission for the "whole story" prompt for Hand to Hold as they requested, but I have had one more thought:  

Is this the end of our story?  No.  It's not even the end of Chiron's birth story for how and when we are born impacts all of our lives.  Is there another shoe that will drop?  I don't know, but we never know.  Life is fragile.

Random Tidbits

I feared for his life near constantly while he was inside, but I really think I only feared for his existence once after he was out and in the NICU

I may have answered what's behind space with "space, the final frontier"

There's this link going around of 10 things not to say to preemie parents and I've got to say, these generally don't bother me.  I guess I credit most people with good intentions.  When you congratulate us on our savings that he can stay in small clothes longer, you don't mean anything bad by this, just commenting.  And recognizing that he's just a part of existence.

I love Chiron's face when his brother cries:

Luckily, Trajan doesn't cry often, but this is consistently Chiron's response to it, great concern.  This particular night, Paul actually had to just take him outside until Trajan was calmed down.

Trajan is a goober and I love him immensely:

Including his fashion sense and his energy:

And Chiron has giant eyes:

And in celebration of being about to hit 6 months now fits in 3-6 month clothes!

And I just realized that it will be a blink of an eye until he goes from that Bumbo to the Learning Tower in the edge of the picture.

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Random Short Thoughts II

• Progress from last Random Short Thoughts as the Bristol Zoo lions now only produce smiles from me.

• Sometimes I wonder why we bother to feed this kid.  Obviously, not really, but I do get frustrated with the reflux.  Paul has a better attitude: "net is a percentage of gross"

• I may never get these events/picture posts up recapping his life.  I really did start them as requested, but progress isn't too fast.  Maybe when we all get back at work full-time I'll get more productive.

• I have now thought I was depressed-like twice since Chiron was born.  Both turned out to be blocked ducts/mastitis/breast infection type things.  So, if I claim to be depressed again, someone tell me to do a breast exam.

• It's odd to have a living, breather example of exactly how old a stillborn child would be at any moment.

• I really am going to write my pumping summary guide.  Really, before a good friend who asked about it goes into labor.

• I find it very amusing when I read Wordless Wednesday posts that are chockfull of words

• I think this is a great article.  We aren't there yet, but it's nice to know people think about it.  And it happens to be written by my fabulous OB.

• And I love this picture.  There are some that are more traditionally "sweet", but this just makes me happy

• I am really having fun being able to experience both boys together "on my own".  This is probably a normal thing for most parents, but between Chiron being in the NICU and not being able to go most places, I'm just starting to have opportunities where I can do things with the two of them.  And I like it.

Random Short Thoughts

• I heart Trixie Tracker.  Main reason is for the pump logging, but the sleep and intake/output logs are definitely useful as well. There are definitely some things they could do to improve and clean it up, but it's good enough to justify my use already (even after the free trial ended!).

• What's the likelihood that both the delivering obstetrician (my actual one :-) ) and the last antepartum nurse that I had (who administered the last Terb protocol because L&D was full) would both be named Felicia?

• My phone is back to correcting og to of instead of OG and this makes me smile.

• Chiron's appearance no longer hints towards an alien chimpanzee and really not even so much a chimpanzee at all anymore.  He was cute as heck, but definitely open for a bit of humor.

• I was looking at the few posts here and it seems disproportionately shifted towards Aurelia.  That's not because it's the focus of our lives, but because she does only exist in our minds.  The boys are a part of our every day.  That said, I'm working on something as a followup to a conversation with a friend that is Aurelia based.

• On that note, I was told to guard myself against twins, but they haven't ever bothered me.  Saw a bunch in the NICU and seem to see them nearly daily.  I would say I'm more cognizant of them, but not bothered.  However, this did upset me a bit, proving that I'm totally random.  Just a moment of pause, but enough that I noticed it.  They are cute as heck though, so go look.  These lions were born the day after Chiron and Aurelia.

• Wonder if there is any developmental effect on Trajan of all his work with breast milk.  How many 3.5-year-olds can assemble a breast flange including the membrane and getting the tubing in?  Know the location on a breast milk storage container where the NICU likes the label to be placed?  Practice their counting by putting 20 containers into each bag for breastmilk drop-offs to the milk bank?  He really is helpful though and it is great because it gives us something to work on together that also gets something that needs to be accomplished done.

• I really want breast milk to be one word instead of two.

• How does my boss magically know just when I have hooked up the breastpump two minutes before?  And then I can't bring myself to bother to set up again, so just stick with the partial pump.  Oh well.

• Maybe I should be worried about my development instead of Trajan's considering how much time I spend thinking about breast milk!

• On a final random breast milk note, Chiron actually ate enough at the breast yesterday to need no top off and to leave over a 100 mL deficit in my pumping on that side!  Woot :-)