First Shots

On Friday, Jadyn had her first round of shots. She did pretty good. She let out a scream during the needles but quickly went to sucking her ninnie again and calmed down. Thank goodness Momma has seen lots of babies get needles and given them too which helped me keep it together, although it was still a little hard since this time the baby was mine =). Daddy stood back and didn't want any part of it.

Overall, Jadyn is doing well. She weighed in at 12 pounds 4 ounces at 7 weeks 2 days old. She is 24 and a quarter inches long and both weight and length are 90 percentile. Her head circumference is still 75th. Not really too much more to report for the pediatrician's visit. We are cleared until the end of April for her next check up and round of shots for 4 months old. Unfortunately, we will be visiting the pediatirican again if we need pre-op work up done. I'm praying we don't just yet.

We got Jadyn's next head sono appointment in the mail for Tuesday, March 16th which is exactly 1 month from her last appointment last week. She has the head sono and then appt. with neurosurg. I'm already a basket of nerves. I just keep hoping that maybe she is just one with big vents and everything has correctly itself... and there isn't a back up. Yeah... so it's a long shot based off in utero ultrasounds and last week's head sono but a Mom can dream, right?

Jadyn has been staying awake more during the day which is nice. She is so alert and active and not to mention smiley. She has started a new trick of standing up while getting burped. She is very strong. I usually burp her sitting on my leg bent over my with my hand on her chin. She gets very feisty when it's time to burp because she just wants to eat the entire bottle straight through and then some. Well she pushes on the couch because she is so angry and stands straight up. I'm not sure if this is something most 7 week old children do because I don't have too much nursing experience with babies this young but it seems a little early to be pushing up to a standing position already, haha.

Jay goes back to work on Wednesday and we'll miss him. He says he is ready to do something but not really going back to work. I've decided to return back to work early at 10.5 weeks saving 1.5 weeks of FMLA time. That means I'm REALLY on the downhill slope and it's sad. I know I'm going to start counting the days and getting more mad I'm not rich everyday. I may start playing the lottery. I don't feel I would want to stay home everyday because I'd spend a boat load of money but I don't want to work full time either. A little mix of both would be great. We'll see how it goes.

Well, enjoy the new pictures. I'll go back to stewing over March 15th-back to work date, hehe.

Peds Neurosurg Appt.

Jadyn's appt didn't go as well as we hoped. The fluid has built up slightly from her at birth head sono from today's head sono. Dr. Ahn's bringing us back in 4 weeks for another head ultrasound and follow up with him to see the progression. She will most likely still need surgery and get a shunt placed if there is more fluid build up-increased pressure next appt. He believes a slight increase in fluid will continue being seen. However, he is comfortable waiting another 4 weeks to double check the progression since she is doing well and head circum has remained fine. She is in the 75th percentile for head circum which is still fine. I also was pushing for holding off because the scans side by side on the computer screen weren't that impressive of more fluid build up. I'm not saying it wasn't there or it won't be slightly worse in 4 weeks but as long as she is fine and doing well, we would rather wait and see more progression before throwing a shunt in her body.

It's not what we wanted to hear so of course we are hoping for a miracle in the next month with the fluid being stable or decreasing some. Although we knew what we were getting into with her health concerns and we were even prepared for shunt surgery on New Years Day it's still hard to deal with after the good news...we thought maybe we had dodged the bullet, at least longer than this.

The bright side is Jadyn is here and doing well. She is otherwise healthy with no other concerns. She is doing fabulous with her head control and holds her head on her own a lot of the time. She is smiling up a storm. Eating like a champ and gaining weight like she is supposed to be.

In the meantime, I'm following up again at A.I. Dupont for the semi-new procedure that might eliminate the need for a shunt. Shunts are good and they do the trick however they can have a high infection rate and malfunction rate. Some people get a shunt and it can last them a lifetime (rare!!) however some get a shunt and for some odd reason, they are in the hospital every couple months because of an issue. And there is always the in between.... an every 5-10 year issue that really isn't that big of a deal.. in and out procedure. I guess we got our hopes up that she might not need it so this is really a letdown. I also would like to get another scan rather than shunting based off a head ultrasound. I'll bring that up next meeting.

Hope everyone had some lovely snow days and a great Valentine's Day. Jadyn joined us Saturday night for her first trip to Little Italy. I'm happy she doesn't eat table food yet or we would have really been broke, hehe. We ate at Ciao Bella which was pretty tasty, expensive but still good. She was of course a gem, besides some loud gas at the start of the meal.

Jay goes back to work next Wednesday and we still have no great sleeping schedule, lol. She gives us about a good 4 at the most 5 hour stretch at the beginning of the night and then it seems every 2-3 hours she is up the rest of the morning. Let's hope things get better before I have to head back to work...which might be earlier than I thought. If Jadyn does have to get surgery, I want to be able to take off and stay in the hospital with her and home, naturally. So, I may have to get back to work at 10 weeks to save some FMLA time to take off around surgery. Since this has all taken place today, I haven't given it too much more thought or even contact HR about this plan but I will get around to it soon. Hope you enjoy the new pictures.

Love, Us!

6 weeks old and Snowed In!

Here are some recent pics of the lil peanut. She is growing like a weed and loves to eat...all the time. Daddy is currently feeding her again which is only 2 hours and 25 minutes later after her other bottle. I'm starting to wean the breastfeeding. I decided I gave it "my all" and I'm on the downhill slope. It'll probably be about 8 weeks/2 months worth of breastfeeding so that is better than nothing. The weaning stuff is very tricky because you have to time it perfect almost everyday. I was doing a pretty good job then I thought maybe I wouldn't stop just yet... so I got off schedule and started nursing again but now I'm back to thinking I should just wean once and for all! If you know me, you know I can't make a decision to save my life, ugh.
Jadyn is doing well. Still continues to do everything she is supposed to do... working on head control and she is doing great with that. She stays awake more these days and has been socially smiling for about 2 weeks now. I included a picture of that smile. It's just so darn cute.
I had my 6 week OB check up yesterday that went well. I said my final goodbyes to the office docs, nurses and assistants for at least 3 years or more, lol.
If anyone has been watching the news, you'll know we are completely snowed-in in Baltimore. It's really insane the amount of snow we have had in the past week. My aunt from Ga. came to visit us last Thursday and ended up spending another day because of the airport being shut down. That was great for us. The airport opened up just in time for her to fly back out and it's laying another foot to two feet of snow right now. The wind is fierce and I am praying out deck doesn't collapse because it's packed full of snow.
Our peds neurosurg follow up appointment was pushed back to next Tuesday so we will be going for a head ultrasound and then neurosurg appt. at Johns Hopkins next Tuesday morning. Fingers crossed and prayers that things continue to look good and are stable. I haven't measured her head but it doesn't look like any pressure has increased. Her fontanel remains normal.
Around the house we are slowing doing a couple odds and ends. We found a guy to tile our foyer. I must say it looks very nice. I'm glad we decided to do it. I was second guessing our decision because it was a little bit more expensive than I thought but we did it anyway. I just didn't want to spend a ton on a foyer we don't even see that much. Next on the list is carpet on the main floor and eventually a new kitchen floor. Jay goes back to work in 2 weeks from today. This snow has really messed up our "to do" plans but we'll have to get it all done before he goes back to work.
By the looks of it, we'll probably be locked in the house again tomorrow but that's okay. I'm trying to get some things done around here as well but I sure can waste a whole day doing nothing. Actually, I can waste more than 1 day doing nothing. =)
Jadyn is currently crying for more to eat so Jay had to give her a couple more ounces. Sometimes 4 oz does the trick but sometimes it doesn't. The other evening she sucked down 6 ounces and seemed like she couldn't have taken more.
That's about all that is going on in our world right now. I'll post next Tuesday or Wednesday about our appointment. Enjoy the new pics.