The Continuing Adventures of Puke Man

For the most part, this week has been uneventful. At our house, that is happy news! Jim and I got to go out to a friend's wedding last Saturday and even came home after midnight. Both grandmas babysat and Adam didn't even throw up for them. The Prevacid has been a pain in the neck so far. Adam won't take it mixed with water since he has texture issues with thin liquids. So in the end, it was actually starting to make him throw up more than he was before--plus we had to give him 2 or 3 pills before any of it stayed in him for more than 30 seconds. I called the nurse and she said go ahead and dissolve it and mix it in the a whole container of baby food if that's what it takes. We may not notice a difference immediately, but he's on a BIG dose (15mg 2x a day) so it should still be fine. The jury is still out on this stuff. It may not help the vomiting, but at least it won't burn his esophogus. The good news is that he weighed 19 pounds this morning. He's holding tight to the 3rd percentile (unadjusted). Strangely enough, I'm still as worried as I've always been about him. I looked at what the 50th percentile is for weigh of a 1 year old boy. Twenty-three pounds! I shouldn't have looked. In other stress-out-Michelle-news, I noticed little lumps on Adam's neck tonight and flipped out. We called my brother-in-law the pediatrician (isn't that the BEST?!) and he came over and looked at him. There are actually little lumps under his armpits and on the back of his head, too--wherever there are lymph nodes. We think this might be a small reaction to the MMR vaccine he received about 10 days ago. Thank goodness he came over and calmed me down. Thanks, Dan!
Eleanor has become a little giggle queen. She giggles all the time now. At the TV, at Alex smiling at her, at a paper plate we gave her to play with while we tried to eat dinner, at her dad walking by in the hallway. I love seeing her so happy.

I had gone to get her bath ready and when I came back, this is what I found--the little stinker standing right up in her crib. A year ago yesterday she had her PDA surgery on her heart. When I look at the pictures, it's just incredible how much both of them have accomplished in such a short amount of time. This is Eleanor one year ago with my hand. Can you believe she was already on a cannula at only 3 1/2 weeks? She's been going beyond what was expected of her from the very beginning.

Her favorite thing to do is to pull herself up on the end table and reach like crazy for my iPod, or pull herself up on the exersaucer while Adam is in it and play "Who Can Hold on to the Toy the Longest". Another preemie mom, Kim (see Ava and Jackson's blog!) mentioned that kids this small aren't supposed to play together--they more or less do their own thing and bump into one another once in awhile. But her twins who are several months ahead of Adam and Eleanor are doing the same thing, only more involved. The research must be different for twins because they are obviously interacting while at play.
This is Adam one year ago on his best friend and worst enemy, the CPAP. He was on CPAP forever.

When I take a good look at those photos I realize that it's no wonder the little guy doesn't like anything on his head or in his mouth--look at all that stuff! I can't believe how far he's come.


Note from Adam to Cole: Hey, Cole, you gotta get yourself a pair of these flannel lined courderoy overalls my grandpa and nana bought for me. I look like I just packed on an extra five pounds. I hoping they won't make me eat for a day or two this way. What?? You live in Arizona?? Shoot, maybe you could make them into shorts...