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Andrew is three months old!

Sept. 22: We woke up singing happy birthday to our little guy who is now three months old.  He’s over 14 lbs, and last night (I almost feel like whispering this) he slept over seven hours.  I haven’t had seven hours of uninterrupted sleep since well before he was born, and I must say that I feel like a new person.  He’s also gotten so interested in his hands that he amuses himself for up to 20 minutes after waking up just by playing with and even sucking on his hands.  He’s adjusting well to our new schedule of work.  I went back on Sept. 15, and he is getting along with his daycare provider, Karen, well.  At first he wasn’t liking to take a bottle from her, but that seems to have sorted itself out.  Karen watches three other babies (most closer to a year), and she said that yesterday Andrew was really smiling at one of the others.  We’re heading up to Northfield this weekend so Andrew can see his future Alma mater (just kidding).
New photos will be forthcoming next week, but in the meantime, you can see some Babler family photos that we had taken in late August and some photos from Andrew’s perspective.

Baby Center.com update

How your baby’s growing: Is your baby strong enough to hold up his head now to see what’s going on? [HE SURE IS!] Better joint flexibility allows many three-month-olds to wave and kick more forcefully, too, and to open their fingers and bring their hands together.

Chances are your little charmer is still bestowing smiles on everyone he meets this month, but he’s getting pickier about the company he keeps. In large groups or with people he doesn’t know very well, he may need some time to get comfortable.

The temporal lobe in your baby’s brain — which handles hearing, language, and smell — is bustling with activity this month. Make the most of it by talking to your baby, playing music, and reading out loud.

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Five weeks of radiation was too much

September 22:  Mom checked in to St. Mary’s hospital yesterday so she can get continuous infusion of iv fluids to help her body recuperate from the nasty chemo side-effects.  She’s been feeling side-effects for the last week, but in the past several days the nausea didn’t allow her to keep down any nutrition.  Early in the week she went into the clinic to get fluids, and they stopped her continuous infusion of the 5-FU chemo drug that she’s been on since Aug. 23.
She did radiation on Monday (and I think on Tuesday), but then on Wednesday she was just feeling so bad that they decided she’s be best off in the hospital for a few days.
The doctor said that she’d made it further on this treatment than anyone else who he had treated had, so that just goes to show how nasty these drugs are on a person’s system.  She’s going to be sleeping lots and regaining her health over the next couple days.  I’m out of town until Monday, but I’ll put up another update then.  Mom is still in good spirits, and I don’t think there’s anything she really needs right now except to rest and get those drugs flushed out of her system.  Let’s hope the 5-FU was as nasty to the tumor as it has been the rest of her systems!

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September 14 Update: Half way through radiation

Mom has completed three weeks out of the six weeks of radiation/continuous chemo infusion.  She goes into the clinic each morning for a dose of radiation and some time putting together the puzzle in the waiting room.  On Monday mornings, she also gets her chemo pump refilled for the week.  It’s stored in a little case that she caries around her waist.
Mom and Joey took Maretta up to college over Labor Day weekend, and Joe started school again as well (he’s a senior this year!).
The radiation and chemo are starting to demonstrate some of the side effects that we were warned about.  Mom is starting to feel more fatigued, she has some hand and foot pain, and the mouth sores are coming back (she jokes that she has hoof and mouth disease).  But she still describes these side effects as tolerable (which is good since there are still a few weeks to go).  She has a great attitude.  Her doctor said he wishes he could bottle it.

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Andrew’s 12 week update

flyingbaby.jpgAndrew is 12 weeks old this week!  Photos from September 4-11 are in the new Fall album of the Gallery (click here).  Photos from late August including a visit from Granny Lu are in the summer album (click  here).
Andrew has developed so many new skills these past few weeks.  He can reach for toys (every once in a while) and pull them toward him.  His smiles are coming  more frequently, and  he’s engaging more and more with the people and environments around him.  He’s wearing his 3-6 month-old  clothes now, and he weighs 13 lbs 10 oz…and ever growing boy!
I go back to work on Sept. 15, and we’ve been doing trial runs of day care so he can get to know Karen and they can start to develop a relationship.
Last weekend we had a picnic with some of our new friends.  Photos are in the gallery.

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August 23 Update: Zap it with radiation!

After three weeks of “recovery time” from the second round of chemotherapy, Mom started radiation on Monday.  She’ll be going in for a quick radiation treatment five days a week for the next six weeks.  Sounds like she experienced some nausea after the first day’s treatment, but a miracle anti-nausea drug did the trick.
In general, she’s feeling good and is enjoying a fun-filled August.  It’s been a lot of fun to be off on maternity leave and spending lots of time together.  Maretta goes back to college on Labor Day weekend, and the Babler household will go back down to one kid again.  Joey is going to be visiting colleges this fall.
Hard to believe!

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Andrew’s Week 8 update

butterfly.jpgAndrew is two months old!  He had his doctor’s appointment on Monday, and he seems to be growing right on track.  The vital statistics: weight – 12 lbs, 10 oz; height – 23 in; head circumference – 40 cm.  That put him at the 73rd percentile in weight, 64th percentile in height, and 52nd percentile in head circumference.
He’s been having a pretty good week in terms of evening fussiness, which makes his mama and papa breathe more easily:)
We went to Wichita to see his great-grandparents and great-aunts and uncles.  We had a fabulous time, and he was as quiet as a sleeping baby on the airplane flights.  Photos of our weekend are available in our gallery.  We haven’t taken many photos in the last week, but a few are available in the gallery.

BabyCenter.com Two Month Update

The first real smiles
This month your baby will reward all your loving care with a beaming, toothless, just-for-you smile. This will probably disarm you, even if you’ve just had your worst night yet. For Ron Heckman, a new father in Piedmont, California, that first smile from his 6-week-old daughter, Hadley, brought tears to his eyes. “It was a lousy day at work,” he recalls. “I was sleep-deprived and the commute traffic that day was incredibly thick. When I finally got home and my wife handed me the
baby, who looked straight at me and smiled this gorgeous all-gums grin, I remember thinking, ‘She knows me’ — and nothing else mattered.”

A growing preference for complex designs
By 2 months of age your baby will begin to move beyond his early preferences for two-tone objects toward more detailed and complicated designs, colors, and shapes. Show your baby — and let him touch — a wider variety of objects now. Good choices include plastic cookie molds and soft balls.

Sleeping for longer chunks of time
If your baby is sleeping through the night now, you’re one of the lucky few. Most babies still want a middle-of-the-night feeding at 2 months.
But the good news is, he should be sleeping and staying awake for longer intervals instead of cycling back and forth so much. Most 2-month-olds have two to four long sleep periods and as many as ten hours a day when they’re awake.

Movements are less jerky
He’s no Fred Astaire yet, but your little guy is now coordinating his movements better. You’ll notice that the jerky arm and leg movements of his newborn days have given way to smoother, more circular motions.
While in the early days grabbing was mostly involuntary and instinctual, your 2-month-old is also able to purposely grab objects now.

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Aug. 11 Update: Mom’s feeling great

We’re all really enjoying these days.  Mom’s last round of chemo went really smoothly, and she’s been feeling like herself.
It’s a relief to be well-past the treatment decision-making, so we’re in a comfortable place where we’re just ignoring the fact that she’s sick (because she sure doesn’t seem sick), and we’re all just going about our day-to-day activities and enjoying spending time together.  Speaking of which, it’s been great to be home this summer!  I get to hang out with Mom quite a bit, and we always have a good time together.  They get to watch April while Bryan, Andrew, and I go to Wichita for the weekend.
The next treatment step is radiation and continuous chemotherapy.
That starts on Monday, August 22 and runs for six weeks.  The main side-effect they warn of is fatigue, which increases over the course of the treatment.  More details when we start that adventure!

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Andrew’s Seventh Week Update

Maretta_and_Andrew.jpgAugust 11 Update:  It’s been a busy week, and I’m now typing with Andrew sleeping on my lap and the laptop perched on my knees.  It works!  We had a great time at our annual pilgrimage to Jack’s house on the Wisconsin River.  The prairie was just beautiful, and the stars were unbelievably clear and plentiful.  Southeast Wisconsin is a fantastic corner of the earth.  Photos are available in the gallery.
Andrew did a major amount of eating during week five, and the past week, I imagine he was doing a lot of growing because he has been unusually fussy.  It’s been challenging to have our happy baby become a grouchy baby, but I think it’s temporary.  The past few days he’s been having awake-and-content times, so that’s been a welcome change.  I have just a few photos up this week.  They’re in the gallery.
We’re off to Wichita on an airplane on Friday morning.  Should be a really fun trip!

Lots of little fun things going on this week.  Andrew slept in his own crib several times this week.  He even has been letting us put him down while he’s still awake and he sometimes will sooth himself to sleep.  He’s still eating every 2-3 hours in the night.  Sometimes  we’ll get a four hour stretch, but in general that’s working alright.

On Monday we went shopping with my mom most of the day.  Andrew did a great job.  We found a big-boy car seat for him, and the cover is just perfect.  I thought we should wait until Christmas, but Mom went ahead and got it for him now.  There’s a photo of him in it in the gallery.  It’s fun to imagine how big he’ll be when he outgrows that seat!

On Tuesday we went to our Happy Bambino mom’s group again.  Had a great time and then went out to lunch with several girls afterwards.  Mom and her friend Mary came by our place in the afternoon.  Mary brought a basket of fun gifts for Andrew including some great bibs that she sewed.  She was really impressed by the quilt that LuAnn made for Andrew.

On Wednesday, I went into work and had lunch with some of my co-workers.  It was wonderful to see them all again.  Then Andrew and I walked down State Street to the Union to pick up Maretta from work.  We ran some errands together (which included stopping at Coldstone Creamery for ice cream) and she came over for dinner and a movie.

Now it’s Thursday.  I spent some time packing for our trip this weekend, but Andrew hasn’t given me much time to work on anything else.  He wants to sleep on my lap, NOT in his cradle, crib, or our bed.  I got some new books to read.  Last weekend I read Eragon by Christopher Paolini and really enjoyed it.  The sequel comes out in a couple weeks, so to tide me over until then, I got Trickster’s Choice by Tamora Pierce.

I’m sure that’s more info than almost anyone wanted to know about my week.  We’re off to Wichita tomorrow morning, and it should be a lot of fun!  Andrew’s first plane ride:)
Love,
Althea

Here’s the last weekly update from BabyCenter.com.  From now on, they have monthly updates:

Does your baby coo at you when you pick him up in the morning?
[ANDREW IS HAPPIEST IN THE MORNINGS.  HE’S STARTING TO COO AND GOO AT US SOMETIMES.  IT’S THE SWEETEST SOUND!]  Researchers say 50 percent of babies this age recognize their own parents, and a few even reward them with a big gummy grin. Recognizing Mom and Dad is just one sign that your baby is becoming more attuned to what’s going on around him.

Your baby’s head is fairly steady now and she’s able to exercise more motor control over her feet and hands instead of just swinging them wildly. To see this new skill in action, hold a toy or rattle up in front of your baby and watch her grab for it. Don’t forget to cheer her when she gets it. She’ll thrive on your encouragement for the rest of her life! [ANDREW’S NOT QUITE READY TO GRAB FOR THINGS YET.  HE LOOKS TOWARD VOICES AND FOUND HIS THUMB ONCE THE OTHER DAY.  I’VE EVEN SEEN HIM REACHING TOWARD HIS STUFFED ANIMALS WE KEEP BY THE CHANGING TABLE, BUT HE HAS YET TO GRAB A TOY:)

How your baby’s growing: Your baby has lost his pinched newborn look and appears steady and alert when held upright. [THIS LITTLE GUY LOVES TO PRACTICE STANDING.  SOMETIMES IT’S THE ONLY THING THAT WILL KEEP HIM FROM CRYING.]  When on his tummy, he’s able to lift his head and chest for short periods, almost as if he’s doing mini-pushups. [ANDREW ENJOYS HIS TUMMY TIME]  He might even be able to roll from back to front or front t back. [NOT YET! AND I HOPE HE HOLDS OFF A WHILE LONGER.  I’LL HAVE TO WATCH HIM MORE CLOSELY WHEN HE STARTS MOVING!]

He’s tuning in to you more each day. When you speak, he may stop sucking his thumb or interrupt a feeding to listen to you. [HE’S STARTING TO DO THIS ONCE IN A WHILE.  IT’S REALLY SPECIAL!]
Use your voice to connect with him. Repeat his coos and noises. Narrate your actions — speaking to your baby stimulates language development and is comforting. Make him the center of conversation. When you’re with friends, include him and let him hear the richness of human interaction. He’ll soon start to make all sorts of different noises himself.

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Weekend at Jack’s was great!

August 7:  We just got back from a wonderful weekend at Jack’s house on the Wisconsin River.  We had 14 people there this year.
Mom and Andrew and I stayed home during the annual float this time, but that didn’t diminish the fun we all had.  Photos of the weekend are in the gallery.

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August 4 Update: Chemo side-effects not bad

Mom finished her second round of chemotherapy on Friday (July 29).  She went into the clinic every morning for 2-4 hours of infusion.  They decreased the concentration of the chemo drugs from the first round, and that’s meant that this week the side-effects are much less debilitating than they were for round one.  She’s been experiencing some nausea and fatigue, but those effects seem quite manageable.  Mon-Wed. this week she went into the clinic for infusions of saline to help her body flush the chemo drugs and help her feel perkier.
She’s up and about and is planning on participating in our annual pilgrimage out to Jack’s house on the Wisconsin River this weekend.  I’m sure to have lots of photos from that trip sometime next week.
Mom has a break from her treatments until August 22.  Then she starts radiation in combination with continuous infusion of chemo.  That takes place daily for six weeks (through September).  More details to come on that new adventure as we get closer.  In the meantime, Mom should be feeling increasingly better.  Just in time to enjoy these last lovely weeks of pure summer.