Baby Boss

June 3, 2013

By Lisa

I keep meaning to post this text between me and my sister – it just kinda cracks me up.

Photo Blast, Take II

June 3, 2013

By Lisa

Well, not too many updates for you today. We went home for a couple of hours this morning, just to make sure the house is in one piece. Our roomies have been taking care of the kitties and watering the garden and picking the squash before they turn into blunt weapons. Each time I go home, I bring a bag of huge zucchinis and patty pans back to the RM House and put most of it out for other residents to take. I love seeing the squash grow, but for me the big treat when I go home is the berry harvest. The strawberries are sort of floundering from the lack of attention, but I picked a nice container full of blueberries and blackberries today, and I can see that the raspberry plant is starting to flower. I hope to get a bigger harvest than I did last year (all of about three raspberries). We may also start getting to pick some bell peppers soon; I see lots of green ones growing in but most of mine are red varieties so they still have some time before harvest. Here’s hoping I can eat them by the time they’re ready for picking!

And now back to what you’re really here for: Baby report! Leah is just a smidge over 4 lbs 5 oz as of yesterday (Sunday), meaning she’s gained about an ounce per day since she hit the 4 lb mark. We put her in another newborn shirt today while the preemie clothes were in the wash, and once again it looked like a nightgown (see below). Her feeding remains on three hour cycles, but they are easing her into interval feeding (can’t remember if I mentioned that) and at this point they’re giving her the entire feed over an hour, followed by a two-hour break. I think the goal is to get her down to a half-hour feed to make it more closely resemble a typical infant’s feeding pattern.

A good 40% of Leah’s Sunday visitors were celebrating a birthday (that sounds a lot more impressive than “two out of five”). Leah’s Gran came with Mandy’s brother, Ralph, who turned 48 on Sunday. Happy birthday bro! Grandma Barbie (my mom) and Aunti Staci brought Leah’s Great-Grandpa Mannie to visit for his 94th birthday. Happy birthday Grandpa! In case we haven’t already explained, Leah is named after my grandmother – this grandpa’s wife – who passed away when I was in high school. Leah’s middle name, Valerie, is for Mandy’s aunt, who has been gone almost 4 years now. It is an Ashkenazi Jewish custom to name babies after beloved relatives who are no longer with us.

And on that note… pictures!

Stop the Mamarazzi!

Freedoooom! Freedoooooom!

Mainly added this picture so you can see that we’re finally starting to see the whites of her little eyes!

Peekaboo!

Scruuuuuunchyface

Sometimes you just need to skip the fingers and nomnomnom your arm.

Hula baby

ComfyBug

Family portrait

Almost thumb-sucking, but not quite.

“Let me tell you, Mama – you don’t even know the half of it. There are crying babies in this room!”

I haz a dolly!

High five for Mama Lisa!

Pinky swearz!

She’s just shooooo kyuuuuute. It keeeeelz me.

Lounging in a newborn shirt, a.k.a. a preemie nightgown.

Newborn shirt. This sleeve is folded nearly to the elbow.

Just to give you some perspective on the lamby lamb preemie shirt from the other day…

“I’m cute? Oh stop, please, no, continue.”

Adoooooorbs.

Cute overload. She looks so content.

And just for the heck of it…

Today’s berry harvest

A quick update

June 1, 2013

By Lisa

Not a whole lot of time today so I’ll just post a quick update and then do a longer one tomorrow with pics and hopefully more video. I’m typing on my phone so I apologize if there are any typos. Leah seems to have gained about an ounce per day since she hit 4 lbs. Today she was 4 lbs 4 oz. What a good girl! Her hair also looked particularly red today. I’m just saying.

Mama Lisa spent the better part of the day in the ER again, making three trips in thirty days. Soooo hoping my June 5 procedure brings some relief, even if it is a temporary fix.

We went to Mandy’s choir’s performance tonight – she took the season off because of the pregnancy but since the show was literally next door to the hospital we took the opportunity to go be entertained for a couple of hours. It was a great show, and it was so nice to see everybody. One thing that really struck me was how many people mentioned that they have been following the blog and checking on Leah’s progress. I know I’ve said this before but it makes me so happy and hopeful to know that Leah has so many cheerleaders who care about how she is doing and send out positive thoughts and energy and prayers. So I offer a giant THANK YOU to everybody who checks the blog to see how LeahBug is doing. We appreciate it more than you know.

We’re still standing!

June 1, 2013

By Lisa

Don’t worry, we haven’t fallen off the edge of the earth! We’re still here. Just got a little busy.

Update on the Mamas:

Mama Mandy: SLEEPY but otherwise doing okay, all things considered. She’s still wearing her brace, but the pain from the c-section is decreasing a lot. Mostly she’s dealing with the trials and tribulations of pumping every three hours.

Mama Lisa: Not good these past few days. Just not good at all. Thankfully June 5 is just around the corner.

Update on the BabyBug:

Leah is at 4 lbs 3 oz today. She’s had a little bit of trouble the past couple of days. As you know, she yanked her tube out on Wednesday. Yesterday it was Mandy’s turn to have kangaroo time cut short when she noticed there was blood in Leah’s suction tube. The nurses said sometimes the tube can irritate the lining of the throat, but still they wanted to put her back to monitor her. Today we got a call from the doctor (that’s never good…) letting us know that she hears a bit of a murmur from Leah’s VSD – the little hole in her heart. They are monitoring that as well. I don’t think this is anything particularly new, except that it’s a little bit more on their radar now that it’s causing detectable signs. I guess. The doc is still hoping it will close on its own and not require further intervention, but the possibility is there. They are going to do another ultrasound of her brain soon to check on the choroid plexus cyst.

The good news for today is that the sweet BabyBug got to wear some sweet preemie shirts furnished by her dear Auntie Z. I seriously thought the shirts were going to be too small. These things are TINY. Like, they could lie flat in the palm of your hand and maybe a little bit would poke off the edges, but not enough to droop down over the edge of your hand. I’m talking TINY. Did they fit her? Yes. Were they too small? Uh, no. The preemie shirts are loose on this kid. She’s just that little!

Below are pictures for your enjoyment. Don’t blame me if they’re like, 10 of the same picture. She is uniquely cute in every picture so you must see them all. I’m just saying. (No, you’re not really seeing them all. We passed 15 GB of photos and video at some point this week. For real.)

A pic from Thursday. Our little elf.

Random thought: Frequently children with Down Syndrome have pinky fingers that look a little different, e.g. bent or hooked. In this case, though, I can’t tell whether Leah’s cute little bent pinky is a product of her Down Syndrome or her genetics – my pinkies are bent too! Go figure.