The entries here are arranged from most recent to least recent. That way you can find out the latest news easily!
Max trick for the day: I had him playing piano again. He's getting better at hitting different notes (including the black ones) and even getting some chords into the action when I turn on the casio-matic chord feature on our keyboard. The amazing thing is that when we brought him home his thumb-to-pinky span was just about the width of a key. Now it's about three keys! We can't expect too much jamming until he can reach about an octave.
Today I learned that Max's head control is really quite impressive. His bad left ear is feeling much better so I thought it would be a good time for him to learn to rest his head on it. (I think it's really important because the right side of his face is getting flat and the hair on his right side is almost non-existent.) So I put him on his left side. He was able to lay on his left side with his head straight out to the side (i.e., not resting on the ear). He held this position for several minutes before he got angry and actually rolled himself into a ``safer'' position. Impressive but probably not a good thing. So I'll think about how to convince him that it's ok. Only other thing is that he has developed a little cyst on his gums that Pearl and I thought might be a tooth. It's not and it will go away on its own shortly.
I'm doing ok. I was home with Max yesterday and I had fun with him and was productive. We'll see if we can keep it up.
Lisa has been doing make-up call for the last few weeks. She starts full-time after the weekend. That's when my schedule really hits the fan, I guess. We're looking for someone to come in twice a week to let me have some uninterrupted work time. Unfortunately, none of our first 4 interviews showed up. We have a few more possibilities so we'll see what happens. In any event, Lisa's sister is going to come down from Boston every Tuesday to help out.
(I was asked about Max's hospital bills...)
Lisa's insurance is with a community health plan and they've picked up all the bills. I don't even know for sure what they came to. I am curious but in a sense I think I'd prefer not to know. I don't think Lisa got any professional courtesy since the insurance company paid the bills. However, I think one of the hospital administrators thanked her for not getting a certain doctor-oriented insurance company because they make the hospital eat most of the (quite substantial) cost. I don't know the details.
For the holidays we had our parents up for Christmas and New Years and that allowed us to go out to dinner alone and with some old friends (sans Max, for the first time).
Some of his latest tricks include: smiling, cooing, three kinds of laughing (a low ``huh-huh'', a coy laugh, and a more of a high-pitched squeal), clunking his hands down on our little synthesized piano, and balancing his head as if it were a broomstick (actually, he's getting better at that now). Recently he's started some simple reaching motions but his dexterity is still pretty minimal. Very expressive face though.
Just got back from ``followup clinic'' with Max. They think he's doing very well (``Max looks great''). Latest statistics are:
Trying to arrange for babysitting has been a hassle. We've had 4 interviews scheduled and no one has shown up yet. Two were canceled an hour or so in advance and the other two just didn't show up.
The Early Intervention people gave us several brochures that I should be able to use to help Max move to the next level without letting his ear get in the way. All in all, I think it went very well.
Yesterday evening we took Max in to a studio for a photo shoot. He wore his little penguin outfit and was posed on several different backgrounds. The photo person did a good job of getting him to smile so we think several of the photos will come out quite nicely. We get to see the proofs next Thursday.
We left from the photo place to see our friends Phil and Lauren and Max's friend Molly. Molly is so tiny! She slept the entire time (except for briefly when she was eating) but Max got a chance to stare at her. It was very cute. At the end of the evening they were asleep in their carrier seats next to each other and we got lots of pictures.
Today was a pediatrician's appointment. He gained about an ounce a day since his last weighing and is now up to 9 lb, 13 oz. Big boy! That should put him over 10 pounds by Tuesday.
Sadly he got a few shots and they are making him cranky right now. I should sign off and help Lisa make him feel better.
(January 5th) Today he has ``early intervention'' and tomorrow a pediatrician appt. Then early next week there is a neonatal follow-up and then about a week later, his initial appointment with the urologist (finally).
(January 4th) Max slept for 3 hours in his crib today (while I was out selling the car). He's eating bananas and peaches now.
(January 3rd) He seems to be doing fine. Lisa was on overnight call last night and she's asleep on the couch with Max asleep in his chair next to her.
We took him on a little outing today. One of Lisa's colleagues had a party and we brought him along. We also took him car shopping yesterday. Grueling, but he handled it well (until we got home and he got fussy). It seemed only fair to bring him because we're getting the car to have something safe to transport him around in.
His ear is doing ok. There is still some scabbing (the dermatologist wants that to disappear before we discontinue the medication) but it isn't sore any longer. He still hates getting the medicine put on but now he doesn't scream if his ear gets bumped accidentally.
He is getting very good at peek-a-boo. He smiles and almost giggles when we say ``There he is!'' He's enjoying his other games more as well and is almost starting to reach for things on his own.
Yesterday morning we went to the hospital and Max got an echocardiogram. This was to follow up to track the progress of the clot he developed in his heart while in the special care nursery. Again, no results yet. Then, in the afternoon, we saw a pediatrician and dermatologist to follow up on the infection Max developed on the big birthmark on his ear. That, fortunately, is doing quite well.
While we were there, we had his weight checked because he has been eating substantially less than the pediatrician said he should be. We were very worried that he had actually lost weight since the previous visit. In fact, he's doing ok. He's up to 8 pounds, 5 ounces which puts him just over the ``8-times-his-birthweight'' mark. Not bad!
Saturday night we fed him cereal for the first time with a tiny little spoon. It surprised him but I think he liked it. It was so cute. Right now Max is having a ``chat'' with Lisa in which he lets out a high-pitched squeak every 5 seconds. I guess he's in a chatty mood.
The other news is that Lisa is working out the details of when she'll go back to work and what she'll be responsible for. Apparently some people would like to saddle her with all the calls she missed to be made up before June. That would mean she'd be on call just about every weekend. She met with the department chair yesterday and he'll report back to us in the next week or so. Max, for his part, is wonderful.
Well, Max is fussing. I've got him on my lap right now. Gotta go!
We're planning to throw Max a ``brit chaim'' probably in spring or early summer in New Jersey. A brit chaim is something reform Jews invented for girls --- it's a bris without the circumcision. His circumcision will be a major medical event (since there are several problems that will be fixed surgically at that time) so we figured we'd have to make a party for something else.
Max is now over 7 1/2 pounds, presumedly from the pureed latkes we've been feeding him, and he's getting very chatty (in terms of cooing). Lisa feels like she never wants to leave him. I seem to remember something similar happening to an acquaintance of mine. I think I understand a bit better why someone would feel like she wanted to ditch her promising career to hang out with a baby.