stuff and more stuff

baby stuff

I have managed, through a careful regimen of stuffing him like a Thanksgiving turkey, to get my son ONTO THE WEIGHT CURVE!!!!! Sure, he's 5th percentile, but dammit, he is on the chart!

We had our feeding clinic appointment this morning, downtown at our Children's Hospital. It was 4 degrees when we left the house, cars were spun out everywhere, traffic was ridiculous, and a trip that should take 20-25 minutes took 50. Thankfully, the parking ramp was not full, and I even got a spot right on the first level. Hallelujah. I had allowed just enough time and we made it exactly at 8:30, so I scrapped my plan of running through the hospital lobby for a coffee and danish from the nice coffee guy I befriended during our son's hostage crisis*. However, they were just turning the lights on in the clinic when we walked in, and we had to stand around and wait! Screw it, next time I'm getting me some breakfast.

Anyway, I was more impressed with this visit than I was the last, though the only person I find truly useful is the speech pathologist, who helps us with the actual feeding of our child. I expressed my concerns about starting him on rice cereal, and she chirped, "let's try him!" So we did. And he ate it. And did not push it out of his mouth or choke on it. Yessssssss. These are the little victories that help me get through my life right now. So we are to go forth and try him twice a day with extremely thin, milky cereal - just a few spoons at a time so he can acclimate to it.

In other news, we saw the geneticist yesterday, who had nothing to offer. Well, she told my son he has a "pathetic little half-smile," to which I responded, "well, that's all you're gonna get, lady." Neither of my children has an upturned smile. And it turns out Daughter cannot close her eyes all the way, nor can she scrunch them up. It was very cute watching her try - she ended up pushing on them with her fingers in an attempt to do as she was asked. Having seen both of my children together, the doctor remains at a loss. We will return when AJ is 9 months old to see if anything else presents itself.

And, drum roll please, my sweet boy can finally lift his head in the prone position! It's so awesome to see him do it, and with no screaming and crying. I believe it is because he finally has a heavy enough body to balance out his giant baby head.

award-worthy stuff

In other news, I got Daughter signed up for a playschool! Yay! Granted, my mom did the legwork and found out the info, but on Monday morning Daughter and I toodled over there and checked it out. It's in a huge, brand-spanking-new church that has an extensive preschool program. I didn't look into preschool yet, though, just a play program for socializing. Poor girl needs to get out of the house and play with some kids her age. This program fits the bill...and you sign up week to week and pay as you go, so there is no commitment and it's pretty inexpensive too ($5/hr). I'm sending her Tuesday and Thursday mornings for two hours.

Yes, I would like an award. I accomplished something, dangit!

And now I must go seek out and consume some caffeine. I limit myself, of course, so my darling son won't spaz out, but the 5.5 hours of sleep I got last night are catching up with me. Oy.


*Thank you, Pam. I use that line all the time to describe our NICU stay!