Seven Months

The calendar keeps moving - I can't believe we have a seven-month-old in our house!

Nora continues to surprise us with her developing personality and milestones.  Here's a quick run-down:

CRAWLS.  That's right - our little girl started crawling somewhere around 6.5 months.  Everyday she gets faster and more agile.  Is our house baby-proofed?  Of course not.  Here's a video of her going after some dangling cords - uh oh!

Waves hello and says "Hi!".  She more or less waves at herself, but I remember when my niece did the same thing.  I think all babies start waving at themselves before they turn their little hands around.

Says "Dada."  It was hard for me to admit that - not only is she her Daddy's twin, Nora is saying his name.  Never mind the fact that I endured the 42 week pregnancy, 20 hour labor and delivery for our 7 pound, 4 ounce miracle, and then breastfed said miracle for almost 5 months.  Nada for Mama.

Works on her name in sign language.  When I was in college, I spent time volunteering for the Mississippi School for the Deaf and have a big heart for the deaf culture.  While I can no longer carry on a conversation in sign language, I'd always heard what a great tool baby sign language (Mommy, Daddy, Milk, More, All Gone, Dog, etc.) was in communicating with your baby.  In addition to teaching her basic signs, I have been hand-spelling Nora's name.  She loves to mimic me!

Back in the brace.  I know what you're thinking - that we had gotten the second opinion on her hip dysplasia and decided to take her out of the brace.  After we made that decision, I kept having this nagging feeling that we leapt too soon when we heard what we wanted to hear.  I had conversations with her physical therapist, a neighbor who is a pediatric anesthesiologist and her pediatrician who all encouraged a third opinion.  The ultimate sticking point was the fact that Nora's old pediatric orthopedic doctor wrote us a typed, three-page letter detailing the reasons why she felt that we received 'imprudent' advice from our second opinion doc.  She even attached references and articles supporting her position.  We never received the letter because it was sent to our old address - the pediatrician mentioned it to me, which is when I found out about its existence.  We decided to have her fitted for a long-term brace that Nora will wear when she sleeps until she is at least 3 or 4 years old.  Will surgery still be in her future?  Possibly, but at least we will know that we did everything we could to prevent Nora's hip operation if that happens.

Working on standing.  This is turning into the 'motor skills' blog post.  Now that Nora is crawling, I'll put an object that she wants up on the edge of the couch or something.  She will try to pull up.  If I put her in a standing position, I really don't have to support her that much while she grabs the object.

Eating more formula and food.  JD and I had wondered off and on if we were feeding Nora enough.  I had already increased her veggie baby food intake to two containers a day when her daycare workers mentioned that Nora always seemed hungry.  We increased the amount of formula she receives to 32 ounces a day (from 29 ounces), and have been feeding her real bits of food.  The other day, I gave her a few bits of my sandwich to see if she would eat any of it - she gobbled up every piece of turkey, avocado and tomato.  My girl loves to eat everything!  The highest her weight percentage has ever been was 25% for her age, so we aren't worried too much about overfeeding her at this stage.

Here is the latest photo dump:

Nora hangs out in my bathroom every morning while I get ready.  I guess she got a little tired of waiting on Mommy and passed out.

Headed to dinner with our friends to celebrate their new baby, Meredith.

One of my old co-workers, Carmen, gave me this shopping cart cover at a baby shower.  This was our first time trying it out!  So much easier than having a car seat in the basket, but it does tire her out a little bit.  I have to wedge my purse between her and the side of the cart so she can lean over and relax:)

We like to play on the floor of her closet.  Nora crawled over to the piled up bumper pads (JD won't let me use them in her crib) and the whole pile fell on top of her, much to her delight!

My mother and sister gave this to me at one of my baby showers - it's a toy that is supposed to help kids learn how to walk.  At her age, she can put the balls is specific places for the noisemaker to work.  She played with it for ten minutes before she started 'connecting the dots' and attempting to put the pieces in their similar sized holes.  So smart!  In a few months she will hopefully be pushing it around on those little baby legs!

First time playing with my Uncle John.  He's been sick off and on since this summer, and we went to visit them on my day off on Friday.  He loved Nora!

This was the first time she met my Aunt Candice, she loved hanging out with my aunt and uncle!

A pretty good idea of my mornings - Nora plays on the floor of our bathroom and spits up.  Buddy watches for the spit up and tries to lick it up before I chase him away.  Every. Morning.

Nora gets to wear the medal for being related to her Uncle Kevin, who finished first in his age range and fourth overall for the LeBonheur Pumpkin Run 5K.  Good job, Kev!

Post-bath in her Princess hooded towel.  How fitting in our house:)

Thirty ONE-derful Years

Last weekend, I celebrated my 31st birthday.  I am officially 'in my 30s'.  I told one of my doctors a few days before my birthday that I was 31, and then he corrected me and asked why I was in a rush to turn another year older?  I laughed and said that nothing makes you feel older than being a parent.  Being the father of three, he knew exactly what I was talking about.

JD planned a very special surprise day for my birthday (actually the day before):

It started out with a beautiful flower delivery - in a pumpkin!  JD always has the florist do something unique with my flowers - either the actual arrangement or the container.

Three years ago, I learned how to play disc golf during one my sessions with Leadership Germantown. I had such a good time, and have been asking JD for THREE YEARS to play disc golf with me to no avail.  He thought it looked silly, etc.  He had a babysitter come over to our house on Friday afternoon, and told me to get dressed 'casually', that we would be walking around in the woods.  I rolled my eyes, but complied.  As we left the house on foot, he was carrying a huge wrapped present.  I kept peppering him with questions about the present, but he just acted like he always carries wrapped presents on his walks.  As we got closer to the park, I realized what we were about to do - he was going to play disc golf with me!  Our neighborhood park has a really well-known 18-hole disc golf trail.  After we located the first tee box, I was allowed to unwrap my first present - two disc golf sets and a carrying case.  We played nine holes, and JD was hooked.  I enjoyed muttering phrases like "I'm going to need my putter for that," and "I can't believe I lost my driver in the water."  We are already recruiting friends to play with us:)

As we got back to the house, JD told me I had to hurry to get ready because we needed to be in East Memphis by 5:45 p.m., but wouldn't say why.  About a month or so ago, I ordered so many clothes for Nora that JD made me promise to stop for a little while.  I agreed, but kept lamenting about how much I loved dressing Nora up in unique, adorable clothes (IMO).  At 5:45, JD parked in front of one of my favorite baby boutiques in Memphis.  He said - "they close at 6 p.m., I'll buy Nora anything you pick out in the next 15 minutes"...or at least, that's what I think he said because I was already out of the car and headed for the door!  I think he underestimated my shopping abilities because about ten minutes into my 'baby shopping spree', he gave me a look and said that I had been 'most efficient.'  We had fun, and JD even picked out a few outfits.  FYI - his weakness is pink clothes for our little girl.  If I think he is wary about me buying clothes for Nora, I just have to show him something pink.  Haha!

After the baby shopping spree, he took me across the street to pick out one book from my favorite bookstore.  Of course I convinced him to purchase three;)

Then we headed downtown for dinner.  JD knows how much I love dining outdoors, so he found the perfect combo - a new restaurant with a patio!  We ate amazing things like lobster pronto pups and split a bottle of wine.  After a quick walk for ice cream, we headed home to our sweet, sleeping baby.

The next day, on my actual birthday, I got to open my other presents - a gift card from Nora to my salon (she is always pulling on my hair), a ping pong net for our recently acquired ping pong table (the previous homeowner left it for us and I love to play) and a volleyball net for pool volleyball (the new house has a pool with holes in the floor of the pool for volleyball net poles).  We spent the day running around together, getting Nora's hand print made at Itty Bitty Bella (of course I had to buy her another outfit!) and doing projects during Nora's naps.  What a fun weekend!

Second Opinion Update

Most of our friends and family are familiar with Nora's orthopedic issues from birth.  Though temporary in nature, they required many trips to the doctor and physical therapist on a weekly basis.  In a nutshell, the pediatrician who examined her at birth felt that Nora might have hip dysplasia.  It took a couple of weeks to show up on an ultrasound, but Nora was diagnosed with both hip dysplasia and torticollis.  These conditions arose from development in the womb.

Nora at birth.  Her legs appear 'twisted' and she always looked to one side.

I had a blissfully easy pregnancy with no complications.  For whatever reason, my uterus never grew large enough to accommodate her growth and she was "smushed" for the whole pregnancy.  Her hip was dislocated, dysplastic (misformed) and her neck muscles were weak on one side.  The good news was that these conditions are temporary.  The bad news was that the treatment was pretty intensive to correct these issues.  At three weeks old, she was suited up for a Wheaton-Pavlik harness and sent to physical therapy for her neck muscles.

Nora in her harness.  Don't diaper changes look like fun??

Initially, 12 weeks of treatment was prescribed with six weeks of full-time harness wear and six weeks of part-time harness wear.  However, her hip dysplasia was pretty severe warranting full-time harness wear for almost four months.  Once the follow-up ultrasounds began to show improvement, her pediatric ortho downgraded her to part-time wear, finally allowing this Mommy to put that sweet baby in all those adorable outfits!  We were fully expecting the doctor to release Nora from the harness when I took her in for a check-up last week.  Unfortunately, the doctor very casually explained that she wanted Nora to be fitted for a long-term brace that she would wear for 3-4 years at bed time.  I was pretty upset to say the least.  We really like Nora's ortho doctor, but this was completely the opposite of what I had been expecting.  My sister suggested (in a very loving, helpful way, not bossy) that I get a second opinion.  I had thought about getting a second opinion before, but it took us so long to find a pediatric ortho that was in our insurance's network that I knew seeing anyone else would be expensive. After the prescription for a long-term brace, I decided to bite the bullet and get a fresh pair of eyes on Nora.

Nora at our appointment.

The new doctor agreed with the initial diagnosis of Nora at birth - she needed the brace to stabilize that hip and capture any opportunity of normal formation due to the rapid growth of infants.  However, he felt that the hip had stabilized.  The X-rays showed that her right hip still hasn't caught up to the left hip in terms of development, but he felt that the hip socket would form more normally as she began crawling and walking.  In fact, he went in to the controversy in the pediatric orthopedic field about bracing children and treating them for orthopedic issues for which they have no symptoms or complications but might have issues when they are adults.  Nothing we had done for Nora up until this point hampered her development, he just didn't feel that extended brace wear was necessary. He said that a third of pediatric orthos would tell us to brace Nora until she was 5, a third of them would say to brace her until she refused to wear it, and a third of the doctors would tell us to take the brace off.  There just wasn't enough science to justify either approach once the hip stabilized.  So, we made the decision.  No more brace for Nora!  We will miss her sweet pediatric ortho she has seen every week since birth because we will schedule her annual follow-ups with the new doctor, but it had to be done.  Next week, she should be released from physical therapy for her torticollis treatment.  Everything is really coming together for our little girl - she will be crawling before we know it!

Happy 6 Months!

On Friday, September 13th, our little monkey turned 6 months old:

We've had a fun time with Nora, especially now that we are beginning to see her personality develop.  Here a few fun facts about our little girl:

Weighs 14 lbs, 6 oz (25% of her weight range), and is 26 inches long (50% of her height range).  Her pediatrician seems to think that she is on track to be somewhere between 5'4" and 5'8".  I was hoping she'd be closer to my height - 5'10" or even taller - but it looks like she might be a shorty:(

Wears mostly size 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers.  Baby clothes have crazy sizing - Nora has a 9 month outfit that won't fit over her head, but a newborn dress that fits just fine.

Rolls everywhere.  Has even "slow-crawled" a few times.  Nora gets angry after she slow-crawls, like she meant to roll instead.

Sleeps un-swaddled.  This is a bigger deal than it sounds.  I was so afraid to stop swaddling Nora, but I knew we were overdue.  Knowing that I would probably never stop swaddling her, JD put her to bed one night without swaddling her.  The result?  She slept just fine.  Turns out she spent the first few minutes of sleep always busting out of her swaddle before she settled down, I just never made the connection!  We quit cold turkey without any problems.

Still sleeps from 8-8.  These past few weeks she has been randomly waking up in the middle of the night, so we have been sleep training Nora again.  I think we are almost back to her sleeping 12 hours again.

Has FIVE boyfriends.  Seriously.  Her daycare room has six babies, all boys, all older than her.  When I pick her up after work, a few of the boys cry when Nora leaves.  I think being the youngest in her room has encouraged her to develop quicker.  She is one of the few babies who can hold her own bottle, play on her own, etc.  She can even sit up on her own for a short bit.

Still wears her harness to sleep.  After our last ultrasound, Nora's pediatric ortho was confident that she would not need surgery anymore.  However, after an X-ray today, Nora is going to be fitted for a different harness that she will wear long-term.  Unfortunately, it looks like she will be wearing a harness to sleep until she is at least 3-4 years old.  I was upset about this latest update, but I am choosing to just be thankful that she doesn't need surgery.

LOVES vegetables and her sippy cup.  She doesn't seem to be a picky eater, but I know that can change.  She conned my mother into thinking that Nora didn't like her high chair or green beans, that she needed to be held when eating her veggies.  I just rolled my eyes when my mother reported that to me when I got home that evening - what a sucker!

Continues to be the happiest baby - we love her so much!

Here are a few more photos:

Houston airport waiting on our flight back to Memphis - Nora has been on eight planes!

Goofing around on the new patio at Soul Fish in Germantown

Such a happy baby

Nora and Mommy before church

Daddy and Nora before church

Rolling around on Aunt Sarah's floor in Houston

One of the 'About Me' cards on the wall in her room at daycare - Buddy really did that.  Nora held onto his collar and he pulled her around the kitchen (slowly).  She was shrieking with laughter, but of course I had to intervene!

Nora's "magic cape" as demonstrated by her Mimi

Tugging on Buddy's whiskers - he is so patient with her!

Her first swing

Sweet potatoes everywhere

Nora wearing Daddy's SF hat

First day of school

Summer Snapshots

I got an email the other day - "Are you coming back to work?"  What do they mean, of course I am coming back to work!  I told my office I would be back at the end of the summer from maternity leave.  Oh wait, it is the end of the summer.  Why can't it still be June??  What happened to this summer?  That's right - a whole lot!

Here is our summer in snapshots:

It started with a sleepy baby and a quiet toast to the end of the semester.  Summer of fun just beginning!

We made a stop at the Miracle Baby Celebration for Fertility Associates of Memphis.  So fun seeing all those babies!  Nora was wearing one my bubbles from when I was a baby.

My niece, Emma, hurt her hand at school and needed surgery to fix her finger.  To cheer her up, we surprised her in Atlanta and spent the Memorial Day weekend with my sister and her family.

Nora had her *BIG* ultrasound for her hip on May 29th.  Her pediatric ortho thought the hip dysplasia was almost gone after all the physical exams.  The ultrasound results?  Nora flunked.  Her hip looked WORSE than before.  So, six more weeks of full-time harness wear was prescribed:(

We took that news in stride and enjoyed a lake weekend with Nora's godparents, Brent and Stephanie.

JD's friend from high school, Jake, and his wife Morgan visited us with their little girl, Frances.  Their son, Cass, was at camp.  We swam in the back yard, took in a Redbirds game and enjoyed visiting with them.

Nora had her first experience in the swimming pool!  JD's friend/business partner, Colin, came over with his wife Eden and their two adorable little girls, Violet and Juliette.  The girls played with Buddy and we all had a good time splashing around in the pool.

Nora was baptized at Germantown United Methodist Church.  I love this church, and we were so glad that Rev. Rebecca Luter could do the honors!  Our families came in from Atlanta, GA, Hattiesburg, MS and Nashville, TN.  After the baptism, we had a catered brunch at the house for the family and friends.

A few days after the baptism, we headed to the beach!  Not without a quick stop at Millsaps to show Nora her future college campus;)

Nora liked the beach, but she probably enjoyed sharing a room with Mommy and Daddy even better.  She has been sleeping in her own crib since she was about five weeks old.  She would turn her head at night to look at us in the bed from her crib, and just smile.  Goofy girl.

We hosted the annual 3rd of July party for our Sunday School class.  Every year it's a little bit different.  The first year we held this party, no one had kids and everyone stayed until after 2 am.  Now people leave early to put kids down to bed, or we all have our kids there and it's so much fun to watch them all interact.  In 2013, our Sunday School will welcome SIX babies.  That is quite the baby boom for our little group:)

Nora had another follow-up ultrasound for her hip - the results?  She is doing great!  The hip is only a few degrees outside of normal.  She was downgraded to part-time wear for six more weeks.

I had lunch with two of my good friends, Ursula and Andrea.  At the lunch, both of them were pregnant with little girls.  Ursula (with her sweet daughter, Baylor) was pregnant with Mallory, who is a now a few weeks old.  Andrea is due any day now with Madeline Grace.  Hope we get to have another Mother-Daughter lunch soon!

JD opened a second office in Portland, OR months ago.  Since neither one of us had ever even visited the area, JD worked out of the Portland office for NINE days while Nora and I strolled around downtown Portland. It was boring at times, but I ran a three-mile loop around the river each morning before Nora and I would sightsee, shop or do whatever.

I spent my second year volunteering at Camp Good Grief through the Junior League of Memphis.  It was also the longest I had ever been separated from Nora.  I missed her terribly that first day, but made it through just fine the second and third days.  Leaving her for a full day is inevitable, I was just glad I did it while doing something I enjoy - volunteering at a fantastic camp!

JD, Nora and I flew to DC so that I could attend a meeting for the National Association for Business Economists.  I know what you're thinking - sounds like a blast??  It was fun and informative.  The conference was three days long and JD got to have quality time with Nora in the hotel room while I was in session.  We also got to catch up with my college roommate, Crickett, while we were there.  Love that girl!

We posted our house online for sale - and what happened?  Less than 48 hours we were under contract.  I hadn't planned on things to move that quickly, but the buyer is motivated.

We might have to move to an apartment in the interim until we find another house.  No worries, we will be staying in Germantown.  Just keep us in your prayers please that the closing process goes smoothly and that we find a house soon!