Bruce is famous!

He made it on my college roomate/really good friend's blog! Just wanted to share... oh and she's a super talented writer if you want another blog to read!

http://hmamend.blogspot.com/

HE SMILED! And "New Baby Dinner Club..."

Well after all that drama Bruce decided he'd had enough and just opened up and smiled. He was looking straight at me and started smiling and then the real test was whether or not he'd keep doing it...and he did! Yay! And, we managed to catch it so take a look.

Also, we had the first of what I hope to be many "New Baby Dinner Club." Basically we invited two other couples who had boys within a few weeks of Bruce. It was a big hit...the boys loved it! Here they are posing for the camera.

Dr. Appt. Update/Prayer Requests

Well Bruce is up to 14 lbs. 9 oz. and almost 25 inches. The weight part is crazy, but what seems even crazier to me is that in 8 weeks he's grown 4 inches! I mean think about if one of us grew 4 inches in 8 weeks...it's really amazing to me how all this works...the whole baby thing that is!

On the prayer request list goes a few things though. He still has to be on his monitor. I was really hoping we'd go in today and he'd say we could be done with it, but in actuality he said Bruce would probably have it for at least another 2-4 months! Grrr...he has to go an entire month without setting it off at all. When he's setting it off now, it's just a blip and by the time you get there it's stopped. Well, we can't even have any blips... The monitor itself is not that bad and it sure as heck beats Bruce having had to stay in the NICU longer, but it is a big old pain in the butt! It means he has to stay in whatever part of the house he's at...it's not terribly fun to lug it all around and set it up every time I move him so he stays in whatever part of the house I set him up in every morning.

Next prayer request. He apparently always lays on one side and so his head has started flattening and his ears are becoming "off center" (for lack of a better word) from each other. They are currently about a centimeter off from each other, but if they get an inch off we get to do the whole cranial band thing...meaning he'd wear his X-men helmet for 23 hours a day for a specified period. For now, we're supposed to try and make sure he's always looking over his left shoulder when he's lying down to prevent further flattening and see how it goes.

Final prayer request. Bruce is right on cue for his growth, but developmentally he's a little behind. They had warned us this might happen since he was early, and in most things he's right on. He holds his head up well, he can push himself up, he's getting close to being able to roll over, BUT he's still not smiling! He has the occasional flickering smile, but he's definitely not doing the whole "oh look, there's my mom, I love her so I'm going to smile at her." Doctor says he needs to start doing it in the next three weeks or come back in so we can look into other things. Never thought my child would be behind in his smiling!

Bruce also had five shots today which was not fun. I started crying...that horrible "I'm in pain" cry was a little too much for me. And finally, to round out my Debbie Downer post, my office called yesterday and told me that I needed to come back to work yesterday. So I called them back and said, no I don't I'm taking 10 weeks and they said, fine, then take 10 weeks, but this week and next week will either be unpaid, or I have to take vacation time. Uhhh, that's not how they had explained it to me. Of course I got it in writing and of course that email is gone. Office email gets deleted every 30 days and since I got it the day before I went into the hospital I forgot to save it...so I got to spend a couple of hours on and off on the phone only to be told that I have to burn vacation/sick leave to stay home. It's been a frustrating/stressful couple of days. Debbie Downer signing off.

New Pictures

Here are just a few pictures from our last few days.

Here's Bruce taking a little snooze on his "Uncle" Tim...or as Tim put it they were just "farting around..."
Bruce visiting Francie (Grandma) at work.
Bruce taking his Saturday afternoon nap with Francie over the weekend.
Bruce was hanging out playing with his cool play gym that he got from his Aunt Sarah and family while chilling laying on the cool boppy he got from his Aunt Nikki and family.

Pretty much the only part he was interested in was himself...aka the mirror!

And I'm in the process of uploading a lot of past videos to his video site if you're interested!

Over-Advicer

Yes, I spelled that the way I planned...not a real word, but should be. I've begun to feel like an over-advicer. Someone who offers advice all the time. It's not that I'm such a great fountain of knowledge, it's just that I get so excited about the things and methods that have worked for us that I want to make sure everyone knows about them! I seem to remember being somewhat critical of such "over-advicers" in the past, but I now understand the want to help. That being said, I'm going to continue being an "advicer", but hopefully not an "over" one! Here are some of our favorite things around here. We would not have survived these past 7.5 weeks without them!

There are two things tied for first place that we can't live without: Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe Blankets and the Fisher Price Papasan Swing (AKA Miracle Swing!). We tried out various swaddle methods and blankets and with our super wiggle worm these were the best for keeping him in...plus they're a good price! See previous post for the miracle swing!

Other front runners would be the Playtex Drop Ins bottles. Can't beat not having to wash bottles all the time plus Bruce has done really well with those which says a lot considering we were told he can't have bottles because of his whole breathing thing... I'm also going to pass along some advice I got from a friend...don't get a lot of the 4 oz. bottles. They "outgrow" those FAST! Granted Bruce eats more than most, but he's already at 5 oz. bottles so we can't use those anymore.

The best diapers for us have been the Pampers Swaddlers...no leaks in those bad boys!

The best smelling baby lotion and wash is definitely the Johnson's Cucumber Melon.

The best crib thingee: Basically anything that plays music and lights up. This is the one we have: Rainforest Waterfall Peek-a-Boo Soother.

Finally, for breastfeeding moms these are two things another friend showed me: Gilligan & O'Malley Nursing Tanks and Breast pads that you freeze...Gerber Warm or Cool Relief Packs

Of course there are the standard must haves: Boppy or Breast Friend (I use both...not at the same time!), the stroller, and my glider.

And no, I don't get commission off any of these items, but I sure as heck should. If someone could work that out for me I'd appreciate it! :-)

One last tidbit while we're talking about advice. This is what a friend said to me and every new mom should take to heart. "You do what you have to in order to survive the moment." So for me when Bruce absolutely would NOT calm down during the days of BMS (Before Miracle Swing) I put him in his other swing plopped it in front of the TV and turned on Baby Einstein. Felt like a bad mom for a few minutes, but when the screaming stopped I quit beating myself up...

Perspective...

Geez, three posts in just a few days. This'll be short. Nothing like medical bills to put things into perspective! I was checking out all of our claims and if we didn't have insurance (which we do) my total medical bills for having Bruce would have come out to:

$23, 754!

Now to really put things into perspective...without insurance Bruce's bill would have been...drum roll please...

$70, 791!

That makes for a total of:

$94,545!!!!

As it turns out we're still paying Methodist hospital a nice chunk of change but nothing near what it could have been!

God totally answers prayers!

I have been SO stressed about finding a place for Bruce to go when I go back to work in three weeks. It has not been a fun experience trying to figure out what to do. We went and checked out daycares and had actually picked the one we were going to go with. After visiting I got back in the car and just started bawling. I didn't want to post all my stuff on here because obviously there are many different viewpoints on mom's working. In our case it's really the best thing for our family, but it doesn't make it any less difficult for me. There's definitely a level of guilt that accompanies a working mom, but I do know that for right now I'm doing what's best for my family.

Anyway, Greg and I have both been praying very hard that the right thing would come along. Last night I posted my "status" on Facebook as being stressed about finding somewhere for Bruce to go when I go back in three weeks. Then this morning I get a call from a long time family friend who saw that on Facebook and wants to watch my son! I'm still getting goosebumps from it! She has four kids, three of which are now in college. She's nutty, and crazy, and wonderful. Best of all she'll love him almost as much as I do...as close as she can without being his mother. She's that kind of person. God is so good!

Also an answered pray although not as fervent...we've now discovered the "happiest place on earth" for Bruce...okay second happiest. First happiest is, of course, with me! :-) Second happiest is in his new swing. The video speaks for itself...well not so much for itself...I mean I guess I had to speak for it...

Doctor's Office Nostalgia

So I had my 6 week follow up appointment the other day and was cleared for a year. No more doctor's office for a year. I have to be honest...there was a small part of me that's going to miss it! I mean, I've spent quite a bit of time in there over the past 9 months and I really did like my doctor a lot. It's just kind of weird knowing that part of my life is now over. As much as I did not enjoy the actual being pregnant part it's still weird now not being pregnant! I also understand how quickly people forget the bad parts of it because I no longer swear that I'll only be having one child...don't get me wrong I in NO way want to do this again any time soon...I've just now decided that I would be willing to have a second child at some point in my life. :-)

Bruce is doing really well. He's still growing and growing! We go to the doctor next week so I'll update his weight then. That's the number one question everyone asks: "So how much does he weigh now?" He's huge...he was sqeezing into the 0-3 month clothes, but a lot of those are getting tight now. He's such a cutie though! He sure does love snuggling which is nice most of the time, but sometimes I would like to be able to do other things like, I don't know, take a shower! He's still wearing his apnea monitor, but he hasn't set it off for quite a while now. Hopefully the doctor will give us the go ahead to get rid of it. It's really not that bad since it hardly ever goes off, it's just hard having him confined to wherever the monitor's plugged in! For example, the doorbell rings and I can't just jump up and go answer...I have to figure out where to put him down first and then get the door. So in case you hadn't noticed, I didn't really have much new to write...'til next time!