The Lung Doctor

Hannah saw the pulmonologist on Tuesday, and he saw her. She got a clean bill of health and we've gotten permission to wean her off two of her four remaining medicines (the diuretic to keep fluids out of the lungs, and the sodium chloride that replaces the salt she loses from the diuretic). She's gone to half doses of each, and if she's still doing fine two weeks later, we'll drop those two completely. The other two meds (Prevacid for reflux and Pulmacort for lung function) will probably be dropped within the next couple months as well.

Hannah's up to fifteen pounds today, 10 times her birth weight (by contrast, most children take 10 years to reach 10 times their birth weight). Looking at her today, it's hard to imagine that when she was born, she weighed about the same as the 20-ounce sodas we bought from the vending machine at the hospital, on our way in to visit her.






I don't go a single day without thinking about all the other children and their parents that are still spending their nights and days in hospitals. Having been there, my heart aches for them and I almost feel guilty for Hannah's miraculous progress. It bothers me that if Hannah had been born perfectly healthy, I probably would have taken it for granted and not realized what an absolute blessing a baby's carefree smile is. You just don't value things properly until they are almost taken away.

Please say a prayer or spare a thought for Ethan, Avery, and every other child still fighting for their health, and for all the parents and healthcare workers that silently shoulder the immense burden of caring for them.

What Does Eight Pounds Look Like?

It's hard to notice the differences day by day, but occasionally I'll take a photo of Hannah that reminds me of one I took before, and I'll go back and compare the two. Below are side-by-side photos taken October 27th, the day Hannah came home weighing 6 lbs . . . and one taken yesterday at 14 lbs, 5 months later. I've scaled them both to be the same relative size (note the car seat buckles), so you can see the actual size difference.



I also managed to wrest Hannah's attention away from her newfound feet just long enough to snap a few pictures in her Easter finery. I had to hold down the hem of her dress with one hand and take the pictures with the other, because she seems to think that dresses are open at the bottom to make them easier to eat, and kept pulling up the hem and cramming it in her mouth.

Attack of the Killer Baby Bottles

"Look, we're trying to have a conversation here. Do you mind?"

"Hey Baby . . . you hang out here often?"

The blue chair above is called a Bumbo Seat, and helps exercise the sit-up muscles and coordination until she's able to sit up on her own. More importantly, it give us another way to change her environment and orientation when she gets bored. Bouncer-playpen-playmat-activity center-couch-recliner-arms, lather, rinse, repeat. OK, so maybe "arms" is actually repeated between each of those entertainment stations. It's very hard not to pick her up when she smiles and flings out those pudgy little arms.

Hannah has outgrown the small bottles (5oz), so we had to venture out to Babies-R-Us to pick up new BPA-free nursers. Not bottles, mind you, but nursers. BPA, in case you missed the latest health scare, is an additive that has been in all plastic baby bottles for several decades, turning us all into drooling mutants shortly after birth. Unfortunately, since we all drank from the same types of bottles, we just look at each other and see fellow drooling mutants, and so didn't notice this alarming threat. Scientists have just recently discovered that mice, when fed a constant diet of shredded baby bottles containing BPA, stop running through the mazes and develop large disfiguring tumors in their stomachs.

To avoid further damage and ensure that our children can run mazes as well as they did back before plastic was invented, the scientists (who couldn't possibly be funded by bottle manufacturers, perish the thought) recommend that we all rush out and buy all new nursers that don't contain BPA. Once all the old bottles are safely entombed in the landfills about this time next year, a new batch of scientists will find that BPA, in moderation, actually stimulates healthy brain cell growth and that parents should buy new BPA-enriched bottles, just not feed the shredded bottles to our children.

Learning to Laugh

Hannah still hasn't gotten the hang of laughing yet, but it's hilarious to hear her try. She sounds like a baby goat on a vibrating bed (don't ask how I would know).

We've switched from five bottles a day to four slightly larger feedings, after she started turning up her nose at the bottles when she'd eaten just three or four hours before. She seems to like the new schedule, where we give her time to get hungry before the next bottle.

Carla's crazy about a new outfit we tried on Hannah yesterday . . . it's a onesie (t-shirt that snaps at the crotch) with a skirt sewed on the outside. Looks like an ensemble, but easier to take off, put on, and keep in place. Also looks more girly than a typical unisex onesie.

Carla's parents will be in town tomorrow for Aunt Cat's birthday, so Hannah won't be starving for attention for a few days.

Toys!

I see that it's been a week since the last blog update. Sorry about that.

Hannah is over 14 lbs now, and has learned how to use her hands to grab and hold toys. She has a couple of new favorite toys that our friends Raoon and Hooria (and family) brought over last weekend. And she likes to hug and paw at the various stuffed animals she's accumulated from her admirers.

We're having so much fun that the days just fly by, and it's hard to tear myself away to get things like blog updates done. But I know that some of you might abandon all reason and phone in an Amber alert if I make you go a full week without pictures, so here they are: