Big Day for a Big Boy

Logan, do you know whose birthday it is on Sunday?

My birthday.

How old are you going to be?

I'm going to be three! And Ollie's one!

Three is a big deal, isn't it?

I'm a big deal. And Ollie's a little deal.

Wrapped Up

Another photo from the archives of this time last year. I actually found that little cap when I was cleaning out Oliver's drawers yesterday. I'd put it in a Ziploc and it smelled like NICU. Talk about sense memory overload. Sheesh. I almost said "Oh, no you DINT!" to the Ziploc when I got a whiff, but managed to pull myself back to reality and put it away.

By the way, not trying to make people sad or anxious by posting these photos. Look at big fat Oliver now (and these fellows and this guy) and clearly what I'm providing here is a record of good things in the world.

Web 2.0 Parenting

For those of you no longer dealing with babies, here's how we Web 2.0 parents communicate when the one-year-old wakes up at 2 AM struggling for air with a cough that sounds like a seal barking and does not respond to the nebulizer or a steamy bathroom. What did we do before text messaging? What did we do before cell phones??

3:39 AM: We're here*. Checked in and waiting. Pulse ox** 96.

3:39 AM: Oh, boy. You were right to take him please text when they see him.

4:02 AM: Lungs are clear. Seems to be from the throat up.

4:58 AM: Good.

Anyway, Oliver is fine after a day home with Grammy. I thought we would not be worrying about croup until winter but evidently it is still possible to develop a "croup like cough" in summer. Oh, Ollie!

*Dell Children's.
**Pulse oximeter, measures oxygen saturation in blood.

Things That Should Not Have to Be Said

Things that should not have to be said (but are):

• Kitty does not like strawberries.
• Baby brother does not go in the laundry basket.
• Baby brother does not go in the dryer.
• Baby brother does not go in the dishwasher.
• What do you mean, "Let's go clean the wall?"
• We do not have black ice cream.
• Cheese is not for playing.
• "Water" with olives is just for Mommy.

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Memory Lane Is Kind of Rocky

Went to Central Market to pick up lunch today and passed by a few people in scrubs. This is normal for Central Market at midday because Seton, the Heart Hospital and many medical buildings are nearby and of course, St. David's is five minutes away. Seeing people in scrubs gave me a momentary jolt as I was transported back to the times I would stop by on my way home from my afternoon NICU shift to make sure we had. I'm amazed Central Market isn't totally ruined for me as an experience. I'm pretty sure I will never eat Rold Gold pretzels again, for example. The sense memory connection of opening the bag, which I would often eat as a snack when the nurses kicked us out for rounds, would be overwhelming.

Even more jarring is the photo folder on our home computer. Our digital photos are saved by date, so as I save new photos I'm now seeing all of the ones from exactly a year ago.

A Well Check Goes Well

Ollie's well check went very...um, well. He's in the lowest percentiles for weight and height, but at least he's on the chart! His lil' noggin is in the 50th percentile.

Dr. P said there were "no neurological red flags" and that he looked "perfect." He also said "good work to Mom and Dad!" which made me love him just a little.

We are cleared to move him to whole milk, which will be such a relief. No more smelly formula, no more mixing bottles. Although I have to say, thank you, Neosure and then regular Enfamil, for helping us make sure Ollie got what he needed. You were worth every penny.

We are also OK'd to have Ollie's skin tags checked out. We will probably start with the ENT who did Logan's tubes. I'm sure there will be many updates on that.

The Big Well Check Is Tomorrow

Baby Ollie has a big day tomorrow: his 1-year well check. For term babies this is a pretty standard appointment, of course. For Ollie, well, it's a little bit of a big deal because we'll get an official read on how much he's "caught up" and if there are any red flags we need to worry about.

I don't think there are. I think he's doing great. Even though he is not quite hitting 1-year milestones, he is making steady progress. Nonetheless, it will be a long time before I can shake the "expect anxiety" feeling of Oliver's medical monitoring and thus I am remaining cautiously optimistic.

Things I hope to discuss:

Switching to whole milk. Since I weaned Ollie in May he's been on formula for two months. It's stinky and expensive and I'd love to be done with it. But, if we need a few more months, that's OK.

The ear tags. Oliver was born with skin tags near his ears. This is not uncommon, although it was a little scary. Skin tags near the ears can be a signal of kidney problems, the NICU docs told us--with Ollie that was not the case. We had two of them removed in the doctor's office about 6 months ago. The others are more complicated and will require surgery. We agreed we didn't want to put him through anything like that until he was at least 1, so tomorrow I will probably get a referral at least to have someone take a look and tell us what's what.