2 Month Update

The kid hit 10 lbs. 13 oz. today.

That being said, he wasn't happy with today's visit. We all know what the two month visit means... Vaccinations. He recieved three shots in one leg, two in the other, and one by mouth.

"Yippee...!" he probably thought. "You give me this weird grape tasting stuff first to butter me up, and then you hold me down and stab me over and over in both legs and tell me it's for my own good..?!? Your the BEST parents I've ever had..." (No sarcasm genes in this family by god... Nope!)

Needless to say he's been a bit perturbed with us all night.

On another note: check out the little pole on the right side of the page--->

We'll let everyone know what the result is as soon as it happens (oh such giddy, young parents...).

Early On

Back when we were still in the NICU, the resident social worker asked if we wanted to take part in a program called Early On.

Basically what it boils down to is a program through your local school district where a registered nurse comes to your house once a month to evaluate the physical, social, emotional, etc. development of your new baby. Babies should be doing certain things at certain ages. If the nurse sees a lack of development in any of those areas during one of her visits, she'll come back with a specialist to evaluate, advise, and set goals.

It's all about setting goals and making sure your kid is on track in all these areas and making sure he gets the right person to help him and us reevaluate, reach, and set new goals.

Any baby, newborn to 3 years, who have some sort of development "need" or who where born premature qualify. And the best part is it's at no cost to us.

Today we had our second visit, and instead of having Max get his two-month evaluation, the nurse decided we would wait another month due to the fact (according to his due-date) developmentally he's only two weeks old. (ummm. duh..) And if we sit down and think about it, it makes perfect sense. We figure, with some of the progress he's made since coming into this world, he'll be ahead of the game a bit when his evaluation finally comes up.

It seems like a great program, and so far we really like our nurse. Her name's Joy by the way, and boy was she named right. Anyone, in my humble opinion, would be a complete idiot to turn down this program if it was offered.

Two for two

Max survived his second Christmas gathering virtually in the same fashion as the previous one. He slept.

Survival mode.

I can't remember him being on my lap once the whole time we were there.

He's a popular guy that little chunk. He made out like a bandit.

A fine showing

Max went to his first Christmas gathering yesterday. You want to talk about having to be the center of attention... Geez....!

Passed from lap to lap and dressed in an outfit bought by dad, Max handled the day just like any other newborn boy would have.

He slept. Barely cracked an eyelid the whole night.

That is until we were preparing to head home and he decided to give Nanny the pleasure of changing a very heavy diaper. Two diapers worth actually. Made her day...

Side note: for those who have access to the photobucket account, they're having trouble with the guest log-in process. We've been emailing back and forth, and basically the word is "they know about the problem and are working on it." We'll see if it takes much longer. If it does, I may move to another site. I'll keep you posted.

Trial by fire. (Or something like that...)

Even though Annie and I are both new parents and flying by the seat of our pants sometimes, my wife still knows a heck of a lot more than I do about Max just by virtue of growing up as a girl always wanting to have a baby and asking this and that whenever someone she knew had a baby of their own.

The latest thing I've learned: Breast fed babies sometimes don't poop but once or twice a week. When they do poop sometimes it's a whole hell of a lot more than these little preemie or newborn diapers can hold.

That's all I have to say about that...

Due Date = New look

As you can see, things have changed a bit here at Max's site. I decided to change formats a bit to make it easier for any of our many visitors to leave Max a comment, word of advice, or just a plain "You listen to your grandparents young man..!" It's easy enough, just click the "comments" link at the bottom of each post and you're in business. We'd love to hear from you.

It's amazing to think tomorrow is Max's original due date. December 14, 2007. He was supposed to be a Christmas baby and ended up being more of a Halloween guy.

Seven weeks, two days early. Almost two months early. wow.......

He's doing great by the way. Since the beginning of November, he's gone from 4 lbs. 4 oz. to damn near 9 lbs. (And he probably just hit it lying next to me on the couch).

We all couldn't be happier. (minus the sleep debt)

We like to think of Max's arrival as a two month head start. We'll teach him not to "jump the gun" later.

The oh-so-popular reflux

We ended up going to the doctor yesterday to confirm what we already knew-- he has an umbilical hernia. No worries. New parents being reassured it should take care of itself in the next 1-3 years.

Three days ago we estimated Max's weight at about 8 pounds. Right. The nurse threw him on the scale when we first got there, and then later the doctor threw him back on the scale figuring her nurse made a mistake. Nope. Confirmed. 8 lbs. 14 lbs. He's damn close to doubling his birth weight. He's already doubled his lowest weight recorded a few days after he was born at 4 lbs. 4 oz.

Due to his fantastic rate of weight gain, he's now off the formula (which is good because he hates it) and on vitamin drops. Also the doc prescribed Zantac due to Max showing some signs of reflux. We've already noticed a decrease in his fussiness over the last 24 hours. Gotta love the gastroesophageal reflux.

As Nanny says, he's our own little "el chunko"...

Oinker

In a completely unscientific procedure, using an old, beat up regular bathroom scale and a cloth tape, we estimate Max to be right around 8 lbs. and 20 inches long. No surprise, he should be with the way he's been sucking down his milk lately. My wife's down to around... (uh uh. I'm not that stupid.)

The little guy is making a valiant effort holding his head up, looking around the room or at whoever might be feeding him, before his little neck muscles give out and the old mellon flops down to the nearest shoulder.

Also, just as we thought we might have a quiet baby on our hands, Max has begun to LET US KNOW, every three hours, that it's time to eat. The boy has some lungs.

I'm not sure about the rest of his genes, but he definitely has some Bloxom in him to blame for his insatiable hunger and very short temper.

A day in the life...

12am-2am: get ready for and hopefully be in bed
2am-3am: feed &/or pump
3am-5am: sleep
5am-6am: feed &/or pump
6am-8am: sleep
8am-9am: feed &/or pump
9am-11am: think about doing laundry or other chores
11am-12pm: feed &/or pump
12pm-3pm: first decide, then make & eat lunch
3pm-4pm: feed &/or pump
4pm-6pm: first decide, then make & eat dinner
6pm-7pm: feed &/or pump
7pm-9pm: maybe catch some tv / update site
9pm-10pm: feed &/or pump
10pm-12am: try to stay awake

But it never really goes like this...

"Updated" Max Update location

Scratch that last post. By popular demand, we'll continue to keep everyone apprised of Max's adventures on this page. It would be better to keep news of the little guy separate from the blithering opinions of his father.

Speaking of news. Max had his 2-week appointment with his pediatrician yesterday. Everything is great, and the oinker topped out at 7 lbs 4 oz. (As we all remember, he bottomed out at 4 lbs. 4 oz. way back when in the NICU.) He's eating like his dad.

Or is it his mom...?

Max Updates

Any future Max updates will be posted here.

Thank You

Just wanted to thank everyone for their support and thoughts during Max's stay at the hospital. Five days home now and we're just barely starting to get used to the sleepless nights, loads of laundry and poopy diapers.

A big thank you to everyone, especially our parents and siblings, who not only supported us, but had to "deal" with us as well.

All is good here. As you can see, Vinnie is patiently waiting for his little buddy to get a bit older.

Corey, Annie & Max

11/20: Buddies

Home

The best day ever. Maxwell is home.

t-minus 24 hours and counting...

A GREAT day. Our little chow-hound was given the OK to come home tomorrow. He sat in his car-seat hooked up to the monitor for a couple hours just to make sure, and passed with flying colors. Actually, it was just after a feeding and I think all he did was sleep and pass gas. That's one way to do it I guess.

Tomorrow is 3 weeks to the day and he's coming home.

Let the real work begin...

Open Nostrils

That little switch in Max's brain to suck-swallow has been tripped. Now it's his stamina we're working on. The falling asleep during meal-time is all that's left to get over (besides the "circ" as the nurses call it) before the little guy can come home. He's getting better and better at the breast feeding thing, taking between 25 and 30 ml yesterday, and up to 38 ml before we came home tonight. His diet is calling for 45 ml, so he's finishing up with a bottle each time. I gotta say the boy can chug too. We had to stop him at 53 ml total tonight so he'd again be hungry in 3 hours. He's become so good at the nipple thing, the nurse decided to take the feeding tube right out. It probably doesn't have to be said the yanking of the tube was immediately followed by a round of sneezes.

As far as "little guy" is concerned, today Max hit 5 lbs. 11 oz., a full pound up from his birth weight. You can see it in his face, fingers and toes.

So close now...

Moving forward

Things are progressing. Yesterday Max set a personal record latching on to mom at one feeding with 26 ml. He also proceeded to top that today in one feeding with 30 ml. He's getting it, but has a hard time staying awake for the 30 minute duration required by the nurses. Usually at about the 20 minute mark they cut him off and finish filling his little belly via tube. We're getting closer though.

Still no word on the circumcision. He was on the list to get it done a couple of days ago, but other babies get bumped up based on when they're going home. Should be soon. On another "skin" note: Max finally lost his dried up little umbilical cord today. It happened this morning before we got to the hospital and the day nurse was kind enough to tape it to the side of Max's crib pending our decision to keep it or not. (Hmph.) It didn't last long after we both turned it over in our hands a few times.

Weight. Yesterday: 5 lbs. 6.2 oz. / Today: 5 lbs. 8.9 oz. The boy's a machine.

Starting to work

We want to thank everyone out there who silently conveyed their thoughts to Max to "suck". It's starting to work.

Twice today he managed to swallow 20 ml from Mom, which is half of a regular feeding. The second time he finished the last 20 ml via bottle in about 10 minutes. He's very much like his dad at this point (nodding off during dinner), but that will change as we go along.

All this feeding is adding up: 5 lbs 5.6 oz tonight.

Why there's a NICU

Max is doing great today. He's looking and acting more and more like a little newborn versus a premee. We can see those little, hard-fought ounces as he gains weight, especially in places like his cheeks and belly.

We didn't get a weight for him tonight due to experiencing a pretty real and scary realty check. Not with Max, but with the baby in the incubator next to him.

We had just set up some privacy screens to do a little Kangaroo Care, when we heard what sounded like the baby next to us choke on the bottle he was being fed. An alarm sounded, and as I glanced over the screen at the monitor, I saw the baby's heart rate racing between 260 and 280 bpm. Within seconds there were approximately (we couldn't see much behind the screens) 4-5 nurses and a doctor, cooly and calmly addressing the situation, and within 10 minutes, the baby's heart rate was down to normal, he wasn't screaming, and there was peace in the room again.

Let me explain something, the choreagraphy of the nurses in the immediate area leaving their posts and responding to the situation while nurses from other areas quietly covered for them, the speed and utter calm in their voices and actions, and how they took care of and comforted the young mother who I think was too scared to even panic, was amazing.

Annie and I saw nothing, but heard everything behind those screens, and it comforts us to no end to know our boy Max, with the only thing wrong is he was a bit too early, is in the best possible place he can be right now.

It takes a special person to do what those people do.

E.S.P.

5 lbs. 2 oz.

Everyone please do us this favor and do your best sending Max your telepathic thoughts of, "...just suck..." Although we have come to find out the doctors now say it could be anywhere from 32 to 36 weeks before that mechanism kicks in, not 33-34 as we originally thought. In a sense that's good, as there's not as much pressure right now, even though we would like him home as soon as "yesterday".

Our boy is beefing up.

Sharp dressed 'little' man

We're continuing to get closer. Max topped out today at 4 lb 15.5 oz. (notice the ".5") He showed even more promise with latching on to mom. Just waiting for the switch to trip...

The nurses seemed optimistic about him coming home not too long after he learns to breast feed. It's been about 4 days since his last apnea, and the criteria is to go at least 5. So he's doing great in that area.

I have to admit, thanks to Mom filling the drawer to his crib with nice clean, new and donated clothes, Max is argueably the best dressed stud in the unit. I think he has more hats than his dad at this point.

Snip snip

Max finally surpassed his birth weight yesterday, surpassing 4 lb 11 oz to a whopping 4 lb 14 oz. We're tinkering with that 5 lb mark. What a beast.

Other notes of the day: Max had his first of 3 hepatitis-B shots today. He wasn't very a happy with that giant needle in his thigh. We also signed him up for -- ahem -- his circumcision. He has no idea what's in store shortly. At least he won't remember it. Hopefully...

Thank You

Maxwell was a popular guy today. So many visitors I think we wore the the little guy out. Not only did he get to meet the some more of his grandparents, but his great grandma Helen Mary (who we think tried to sneak him out of the NICU a couple of times).

Minus all the visitors, Max's day was mostly uneventful. We're continuing the Kangaroo Care (which Max loves, and Mom REALLY loves), and he seems to be getting closer everyday to latching on. He's right on the line age-wise where that little "suck/swallow" switch in his brain will be turned on. Anyday now.

Annie and I want to make sure all the people who have been helping us out for the last couple of weeks taking care of the house, the dogs, emotional & moral support, tiny little clothes, etc., know how much it means to us and we appreciate every little thing you do. Hopefully soon we can thank you all personally once Max comes home and we get all settled in.

THANK YOU SO MUCH...

Kangaroo Care

Today Max and Mom tried out what everyone is calling Kangaroo Care. Basically it's skin-to-skin contact held against the mother's chest. Studies show if an infant's temperature is above or below normal, the mother's own temperature will actually raise or lower a few degrees to help regulate the baby's during this contact. Crazy. Max seemed to enjoy this bonding session almost as much as Mom, glancing up at her face and grinning every so often.

Although he hasn't latched on yet, he managed to down two 40 ml bottles of milk today, one in about 10 minutes. They've also added a milk fortifier to his diet, being as young as he is he needs more vitamins and minerals than the breast milk provides.

The fortifier also adds calories to put some meat on his bones. All that being said, Max weighed in at almost 4 lbs 11 oz.

Slowly but surely...

New Digs

Another great day. Max seems to have taken a couple steps forward today. Not only did he move from his very luxuriously climate controlled Giraffe Omnibed incubater to a more spacious and open-aired crib, the little fella decided (while his parents were off stuffing themselves with a nutritionally balanced dinner c/o the hospital cafeteria) to chug his 40 ml of milk not via a feeding tube, but from a bottle! He also established a personal record of eating in 20 minutes versus the 30 minutes the feeding pump had always been set at.

Mom and Dad had the chance to bath him for the second time, and then Mom had a little time to play dress up. I'm sure he'll appreciate THOSE pictures in about 10 years.

Weight today almost 4 lbs 10oz. Still moving forward...

7 days and counting

At 4:34 AM this morning Max became 1 week old. He is doing amazing. We came in this morning and his IV and IV port are completely out. The only things still attached are his feeding tube and the monitor leads. He's up to 40 ml of milk every three hours which is the ideal amount for his size. He has slight touch of jaundice and is right on the line as far as putting him under the bilirubin light again. And if they do, it's completely normal until he starts stooling regularly.

The day before yesterday his weight had dropped to 4 lbs 4 oz, and was back up to 4 lbs 8 oz yesterday. Looks like the milk is starting work a bit. Before you know it he'll be arm wrestling his dad.

Practice

Max continues to do great. We were able to hold and rock him quite a bit today. We also tried to get him to latch on and then with a bottle to no avail. Practice, practice, practice...

The nurse today speculated Max might get rid of his I.V. tomorrow. That would be fantastic since he's had it put in multiple times in each foot, hand, and even both sides of his scalp. Pain and nuisance for him, just pain for us.

We'll find out his weight tonight when we go back, as that's when they schedule it.

Pajamas

The days seem to be getting better than the day before. We walked in and found Max in
his incubator with little pj's on which meant he had no CPAP or oxygen in his nose, nor the superhero goggles or biliruben light shining down on him. He had also gone from 8 ml's of food last night to 12 ml's, and while we were there they pushed it up to 16 ml's. His digestion is finally getting the hang of things.

Not only did Annie get to change a nice, messy, black diaper, but she also got to try feeding him again. Not quite there yet, but there are signs of progress. We both were able to hold and rock him for quite a long time, thanks to Supermax deciding he didn't need some of Sparrow's high-tech assistance for the time being.

We all like taking steps forward...

Open the valves, testing the plumbing

Home for a couple hours for dinner. Max, Annie and I had a great day so far. Max started to digest his colostrum last night. Between his feeding at 12:30pm and his feeding at 3:45pm while we were there he managed to get 10 ml from his stomach into his intestines. A far cry from none over the last 3 days. His breathing is evening out and they've turned the pressure down on the CPAP. Indications are he might be off it in the next day or so.

We also had the chance to given him a bath. His eyes were open and looking around and he was calm as can be - until the nurse came back and ticked him off...

Good news! We came back to find Max without the CPAP. Not only that but he produced a pretty good sized stool while we were there. Now that he's starting to get the plumbing working, hopefully he'll start getting rid of the bilirubin, breathing even better, and start putting on some weight. One day at a time...

But today Max had a GREAT day...

A hard 5 ml

Max was pretty much stable today. Still has the CPAP hooked up and a feeding tube. We watched him get his 5 ml of colostrum this afternoon. Upon return after dinner, the nurse found it still in his stomach in time for his second feeding. She proceeded to remove the 5 ml and replace it with new. I guess it's just going to be a waiting game before his lungs and digestive process begin to function. We're told at 33-34 weeks is usually when things start to move.

Super Max

Came in this morning to see Max still has his CPAP on and we were informed the neonatalogist has postponed a feeding attempt until tomorrow. Not only that, but he now has a bright blue bilirubin light shining down on him to help with converting the bilirubin in his skin to a form that can be excreted when his digetive system finally kicks in. (jaundice)

So now we wears these foam goggles that make him look like a superhero. We call him Super Max.

CPAP

Today we came in and Max wasn't wearing the CPAP. Just a little oxygen running in through his nose. His little knit cap was off and we could finally see his whole face and head. He's got a good head of dark brown hair, and we spent part of the day determining who's hair-line he might have.

Since Max has no "suck" instinct yet, he's being fed colostrum via feeding tube. We tried breast feeding a bit, even though he's too young. Not much luck yet, but there were signs Max thought there might be something to this nipple thing...

Came in after dinner to find Max back on the CPAP. His digestion hasn't quite kicked in so his full stomach was hindering his breathing somehow. They emptied his stomach, put the CPAP back on, and now we'll have to wait until tomorrow to see about
feeding him again.

Maxwell Thomas

Maxwell Thomas Bloxom decided, without consulting his parents, it was his
time to emerge from his warm, dark, safe, and cozy little existence into the real cold, real dry, real loud, and real REAL world in which he was intended -- albeit 8 weeks early. 4 lbs. 11 oz. & 18" long.

My wife was amazing. Our kid was amazing. His first little ticked-off cry exactly 1.3 seconds into the open air completely floored me, and I think all of us in the room let out one giant collective sigh of relief. He's got some work to do getting used to breathing and digesting, but other than that, there are no defects we can see. His 5 minute APGAR was 9 of 10.

We will never be the same...