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!
Andrew’s Week 8 update
Andrew 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.
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!
Andrew’s Seventh Week Update
August 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.
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.
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.
Andrew’s six week update
August 4: It’s been a fun week! Little Andrew is becoming ever more aware of his surroundings, and he’s really starting to make eye contact and to be entranced by toys and wall hangings and lights. He smiled at me last weekend for the first time, but that miracle hasn’t yet repeated itself. The photo on the right captures a fleeting sleep-smile…a nice idea of what smiles-to-come might look like. I added about 20 photos of Andrew this week to the gallery.In the past few days he has started “talking” a bit by saying ah-goo. He’s staying awake for hours at a time and spends quite a bit of that time interested in the world around him. The rest of the awake time is eating and fussing and getting his diaper changed.
Last week Andrew hit some sort of a growth spurt, and it felt like he ate constantly! I think he wanted to nurse every 20 minutes. His night feedings were close together too. But it just lasted a few days.
Last night he slept from 10-2 and then from 2:30 to 4:30 and then from 5 to 7. That’s been about his standard sleep/wake cycle except that the first chunk is getting longer. He used to wake up at midnight, but these days he’s sleeping for 3-4 hours straight, which feels incredible. I almost felt like getting up for the day at 2 am:)
We weighed him at our mother/baby hour at Happy
Bambino on Tuesday, and he came in at 11 lbs, 1 oz. I checked out a growth chart, and that puts him at the mean weight for his age (see a growth chart). We measured him, and I think he’s 21 or 21.5 inches long. He’s on the shorter side for his age, coming in at the 25 percentile.
We’ve been pretty busy this past week. Yesterday we went to Olbrich gardens with a few friends from our mom-baby group and then had them over to our house for lunch. We went to Concert on the Square both last Wednesday and this Wednesday. This afternoon we drove down to Monroe so Grandma and Grandpa Babler could meet little Andrew. See here for fun photos.
On Friday we go to Jack’s house on the Wisconsin River for the weekend.
We’re really looking forward to it! That’s Andrew’s six week
update. Have a great week:)
~Althea
Last week Andrew hit some sort of a growth spurt, and it felt like he ate constantly! I think he wanted to nurse every 20 minutes. His night feedings were close together too. But it just lasted a few days.
Last night he slept from 10-2 and then from 2:30 to 4:30 and then from 5 to 7. That’s been about his standard sleep/wake cycle except that the first chunk is getting longer. He used to wake up at midnight, but these days he’s sleeping for 3-4 hours straight, which feels incredible. I almost felt like getting up for the day at 2 am:)
We weighed him at our mother/baby hour at Happy
Bambino on Tuesday, and he came in at 11 lbs, 1 oz. I checked out a growth chart, and that puts him at the mean weight for his age (see a growth chart). We measured him, and I think he’s 21 or 21.5 inches long. He’s on the shorter side for his age, coming in at the 25 percentile.
We’ve been pretty busy this past week. Yesterday we went to Olbrich gardens with a few friends from our mom-baby group and then had them over to our house for lunch. We went to Concert on the Square both last Wednesday and this Wednesday. This afternoon we drove down to Monroe so Grandma and Grandpa Babler could meet little Andrew. See here for fun photos.
On Friday we go to Jack’s house on the Wisconsin River for the weekend.
We’re really looking forward to it! That’s Andrew’s six week
update. Have a great week:)
~Althea
BabyCenter.com Six week update
By now roughly half of all babies recognize their parents and openly prefer Mom and Dad to strangers. Your baby may actually smile when she sees you and coo and kick with pleasure.
In general, she’s become more sensitive to her surroundings. If you ring a bell, she’ll respond in some way by starting, crying, or even quieting. She’s beginning to take a real interest in music, whether it’s you singing to her or classical music coming from the radio. She notices things more acutely, too — staring intently at a plush toy, for instance, placed in front of her. For parents, it’s a gratifying experience, especially coming as it does after weeks of diapering, feeding, bathing, kissing,
and cuddling with little response.
Relay for Life
Hello everyone. This is Joe, Althea’s youngest brother.
Since those reading this website have recently been touched by my mother’s illness, I thought you might be the people to ask for some help. On August 12, the American Cancer Society is holding a large fundraiser at my high school’s track. The Relay for Life is an 18 hour event where team members walk around the track from 6 pm to noon the following day. The community comes together to hold candle light vigils, celebrations for survivors, and other activities in memory or support of someone with cancer. This year, I joined our National Honors Society’s Relay for Life team. As a group, we raise money, which we then donate to the American Cancer Society. This is where you come in.
Donations of 10 or 20 dollars would be greatly appreciated.
Checks can be made out to the American Cancer Society. Please send whatever you’re willing to give to this address:
Joseph Babler
4575 Dennis Drive
Madison, WI 53704
For more information on Relay for Life, go to www.cancer.org/Relayonline.
This event takes place on August 12th, and thank you in advance for your support.
~Joe Babler
Our Pooch is Sick
Just after Andrew was born, we discovered a lump on April’s nose.
It was about the size of a walnut and was located on her gums just above her right canine tooth. On Monday (July 25), she had surgery to have the lump removed. We were hoping it was an infected abscess on the tooth, but it turns out that it was a tumor. Got the news from the vet today that it was a fibrosarcoma.
This type of cancer doesn’t tend to metastasize (spread), but it does have a fairly high rate of reoccurrence. From doing a brief tour of info on the web, it looks like surgery (which she has already had) and radiation are the most common treatment options. We should be talking with April’s vet about her treatment and prognosis.
We’re sad to know that our puppy is sick, but she’s feeling great now, so we’ll just take a page from April’s book and enjoy today with as much vigor as sleep deprived new parents can muster.
July 27 Update: Chemo round 2
Mom started her second round of chemo on Monday. Her dosage was decreased this week, so we’re hoping that the side effects (which should really start manifesting themselves this weekend) will be less severe. She’s going in to the clinic every morning for 2-3 hours of infusions. Then she has a little machine she carries around with her that gives her a continuous infusion all week.
She continues to feel good this week, and after her final treatment on Friday, she has three weeks off before she begins six weeks of radiation combined with continuous infusion of the 5-FU chemo drug. Her brother came up from Texas to visit, and they had a fun time traveling around to neighborhoods where they grew up together. That’s the update for now!