11/12/06: Day 121 (Sun.) I Missed The Steeler Win!

Today was one looong day! My Theta girls held their nominating committee meeting to create the slate of new officers. In the past, these meetings last a few hours...but this time we set a record I hope will never be broken...12 hours. Thanks to my right-hand-lady Catherine for sticking it out with me!

Since I was sequestered away all day, I didn't get to watch the Steelers finally win a game!
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Chronological age: 17 weeks and 2 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 3 weeks and 6 days
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11/11/06: Day 120 (Sat.) Bath Day For Pups!*

Bath day for pups is always such a fun day! The dogs know when it's coming when Dad gets the "special" towels out of the closet. I added a "*" in the title of any posts with video in case you want to revisit old video clips without having to click on each post.

Earlier, Evan was in the lotus "Ohm" position....feet crossed, hands on his knees with his palms facing up. I couldn't get a picture of it in time.

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Chronological age: 17 weeks and 1 day
Adjusted/developmental age: 2 month 0 weeks and 0 days
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11/10/06: Day 119 (Fri.) 17 Weeks Old!

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Chronological age: 4 months 1 weeks and 0 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 3 weeks and 6 days
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11/7/06: Day 116 (Tues.) Doctor Visit

Evan had his "well-baby" check-up with Dr. Ettinger today. When they weighed him, he was 9lbs. 4oz., which is less than when I weighed him on our home scale on Friday. I would guess my home scale is off a bit. We had thought Evan would get some shots today, but that has been put off for a few weeks. He is due for his Synagis shot...that is the shot to help prevent RSV that is crazy-expensive (over $2000 a shot). The nurse said they are waiting on word from our insurance to o.k. the shot. Once they get the o.k., we'll bring him in for that shot. He will get his 4 month shots at the start of December. I am anticipating that will not be fun.

The doc said his lungs sounded great (yea)! He predicted Dr. Morgan will take him off the O2 when we see him again on December 15th. When Evan hits the 10 pound mark (which I think will be in about a week and a half), we can stop giving him the Lasix dose. He is still getting the Poly Visol vitamins once a day. During feedings, we have been mixing his formula to equal 24 calories per ounce to give him a bot more calories per day to help boost his weight. Dr. Ettinger says we can back off on that and just mix his formula to be 22 cal/ounce, which will be a bit easier on his digestive tract.

So, he's doing just great...slowly (slowly) catching up to where he needs to be on weight and length. Dr. Ettinger commented on how he is getting baby fat, and that's a good thing. His cheeks, arms and legs are getting chubby! He is starting smile a bit more also.

On a different note...Evan slept AGAIN from midnight until 6am...two nights in a row! Fingers crossed it will last!
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**Weight check: 9 lbs. 4oz.**
Chronological age: 4 months 0 weeks and 4 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 3 weeks and 3 days
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11/6/06: Day 115 (Mon.) 6 Hours of Sleep!

O.k....a little milestone...Evan slept from midnight until 6:15am...completely missing his 3am feeding. We'll see if this was an anomaly...or could he be getting into the routine of sleeping longer?
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Chronological age: 4 months 0 weeks and 3 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 3 weeks and 2 days
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11/5/06: Day 114 (Sun.) Me and My Buddy

Evan and Sadie were watching football games from their perch.

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Chronological age: 4 months 0 weeks and 2 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 3 weeks and 1 day
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11/4/06: Day 113 (Sat.) Updating the timeline

I've updated Evan's timeline of significant events from a previous post:

October 17 (Day 95): Appointment with Dr. Morgan at Pediatric Pulmonary Clinic in Tucson (Evan still on O2)
September 19 (Day 67): Evan discharged from Sierra Vista Hospital! Comes home on oxygen
September 16 (day 64): His original due date
September 14 (Day 62): Got his Hepatitis & Synagis shots
August 29 (Day 46): Transferred back to Sierra Vista Hospital
August 25 (Day 42): Started bottle-feeding
August 18 (Day 35): PIC line removed; off the IV; up to full feeds with gavage
August 15 (Day 32): Passed hearing test; had ROP test done
August 13 (Day 30): CPAP removed; put on nasal cannula; classified as Level II care
August 11 (Day 28): T gets to hold Evan for first time
August 9 (Day 26): Got his first bath by mom
August 8 (Day 25): Moved into the 3rd pod/condition downgraded
August 7 (day 24): Respirator removed; put on nasal CPAP; held by Jen for the first time; moved into a crib
August 5 (Day 22): Oscillating respirator removed, put on conventional respirator
August 2 (Day 19): Arterial line removed
July 31 (Day 17): PDA healed
July 28 (Day 14): PDA discovered
July 25 (Day 11): Off the bilights; bi-carb burn on his right foot discovered; Jen's first diaper change
July 23 (day 9): PIC line inserted
July 21 (Day 7): mild IVH grades detected in brain
July 18 (Day 4): Pulmonary hemmorhage detected; put on ocillating respirator
July 14 (Day 1): Born by emergency c-section in Sierra Vista Hospital and air-evac'ed to University Medical Center in Tucson

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Chronological age: 4 months 0 weeks and 1 day
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 3 weeks and 0 days
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11/3/06: Day 112 (Fri.) TGIF!

Thank God It's Friday! It was nice that I started back to work mid-week. It made the week go a little faster. I found it hard to keep up with posting this week...I hope to not be so lax in the future! This weekend I'll get caught up on posting some vids of the little guy for those of you who need your Evan-fix! ;-)

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** Unoffical Weight Check Update: 9 lbs. 10 oz. **
Chronological age: 4 months 0 weeks and 0 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 2 weeks and 6 days
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11/2/06: Day 111 (Thurs.) Sleep? What's that?

Rough sleeping last night now that we are both working at the same time! Of course Evan didn't want to sleep in his playyard...so he ended up in the bed between us. Shocking...he slept like a baby. Now, before all of you blast us with your comments on how bad it is to have a baby sleep in bed with you...rest assured that we're not going to suffocate him since he sleeps with the apnea monitor! Let me tell you...at this point...it's all about getting a good night's sleep for everyone (Evan and us)! We'll work on getting him to sleep in his crib at a later time!

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Chronological age: 3 months 3 weeks and 6 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 2 weeks and 5 days
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11/1/06: Day 110 (Wed.) Back to Work (Again)

Back to work.....again...bummer! It's just like I never left!
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Chronological age: 3 months 3 weeks and 5 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 2 weeks and 4 days
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10/31/06: Day 109 (Tues.) Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays (even though we did no decorating this year). Arizona Halloweens are nice since you don't completely freeze your butt off waiting for trick-or-treaters. The area where we live makes trick-or-treating very easy for kids...too easy that you'll see vehicles with Mexican license plates parked all over. It reminds me of those Halloweens when we were in Germany when the locals would arrive in droves to the American housing areas.

I didn't put Evan in a Halloween costume...just a little romper with a Halloween design. He had red-eye in the pic, so when T edited it, he sort of looks like an alien-eyes now! ;-)
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Chronological age: 3 months 3 weeks and 4 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 2 weeks and 3 days
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10/30/06: Day 108 (Mon.)

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Chronological age: 3 months 3 weeks and 3 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 2 weeks and 2 days
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10/29/06: Day 107 (Sun.) Will the Steelers ever win? :-(

Wow, another Steeler loss today (and to the Raiders of all teams...thugs)! Evan is getting used to our new house guest, T's mom. She'll be watching Evan during the day when I go back to work on Wednesday. T has been able to get Evan to take about 3.5 ounces during a feeding which is a good increse in volume. He never finishes that much when I feed him. He slept really well last night, he only got up around 4:30am after going to bed around 11pm. Of course he always sleeps well when it's T's night to take care of him. ;-)

A reminder now that the rest of the world fell back an hour, Arizona doesn't...so we're on back Mountain time zone (2 hours behind the east coast, 1 hour ahead of Cali).
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Chronological age: 3 months 3 weeks and 2 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 2 weeks and 1 day
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10/28/06: Day 106 (Sat.) Baby Einstein

This picture is actually from last night. Luckily I was able to snap it before Sadie had moved. We had Evan sitting in his Bumbo chair watching a Baby Einstein video (I'm lovin' these)! It was the Baby Beethoven one. Anyway...Sadie comes in and plops herself right down beside him to watch the video also. It helped that T was sitting there, since Sadie is always wanting to be near him. It was a funny sight! Evan was pretty attentive to parts of the video.

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Chronological age: 3 months 3 weeks and 1 day
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 2 weeks and 0 days
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10/27/06: Day 105 (Fri.) 15 Weeks Old!

Since Evan didn't have a weight check at the doctor's office, I did an "unofficial" weight/height check at home. The results are listed below.



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**Weight Check (unofficial): 9lbs. even
**Length (unofficial): 21 inches
Chronological age: 3 months 3 weeks and 0 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 1 week and 6 days
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10/26/06: Day 104 (Thurs.) Sleeping In My Crib

So proud of Evan! He has slept the past two nights in his crib in his room! Now, sleeping through the night is a whole other matter we're not even close to yet! It's interesting to listen to him through the monitor when he is sleeping. There are times it sounds like he's waking up to demand his night feeding, but it's like he is just dreaming and goes back to sleep. He makes lots of grunts and whines when he sleeps. :-)

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Chronological age: 3 months 2 weeks and 6 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 1 week and 5 days
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10/25/06: Day 103 (Wed.) Picture Day!

We had Evan's pictures taken today at Sears. We were worried we wouldn't get any good pictures out of him since he isn't a very smiley guy. The pics turned out pretty good. I had a handful of the pictures done in black & white since it seemed to tone down the redness in his cheeks from the cannula adhesive.
















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Chronological age: 3 months 2 weeks and 5 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 1 week and 4 days
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10/24/06: Day 102 (Tues.) The Bumbo Chair*

We got Evan one of those Bumbo baby seats that allows him to sit upright. Today was
the second time I put him in the seat. At first he cried (when I snapped the still picture), but a few moments later, he was just fine (when I took the vid). He is still small for the seat, so I had to bolster his back up with a towel. He is always enthralled with the ceiling fan, as you can see. Thanks to Sadie-pup for trying to make a guest appearance.



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Chronological age: 3 months 2 weeks and 4 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 1 week and 3 days
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10/23/06: Day 101 (Mon.) "Maxstoplicking"

Don't get us wrong, we love our dogs...but Max our German Shepherd can be very annoying when he licks his feet all the time. He's always had this allergy problem since he was a puppy when we lived in Germany. My big worry at this point is that Evan is going to think his name is "maxstoplicking" since we seem to say it all the time! It takes saying it at least three times before Max will give you this look and a groan as if to say "I wasn't doing anything".
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Chronological age: 3 months 2 weeks and 3 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 1 week and 2 days
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10/22/06: Day 100 (Sun.) Triple Digits!

Wow! Evan finally hits triple digits on his age! He's come so far in 100 days! Here's a toast to many, many, many more great days ahead! We hoped to also celebrate a Steeler win today, but we came up short against Atlanta.

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Chronological age: 3 months 2 weeks and 2 days
Adjusted/developmental age: 1 month 1 week and 1 day
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