I haven’t forgotten

I know I promised to post and update on Brady’s appointment today but somehow with the way our routine has changed and other things coming up, I just never got around to it. Hopefully tomorrow and we’ll all get some more sleep. A post is forthcoming. I leave you with Brady’s latest weight from today…9 pounds 6.5 ounces! She’s gained 10 ounces in 7 days. While on the low end, she is definitely on the growth curve. I can’t wait to see her stats at her 4 month appointment!

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It’s Funny Because its True!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus

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Appointment Scheduled

After another night of broken sleep for both Brady and I, I scheduled an appointment to have her seen by the pediatrician for whatever has changed her eating/sleeping habits and is causing her such distress. From what a couple of you have told me, there’s a good possibility it’s reflux which she’ll eventually outgrow but in the meantime can be treated with medication. I feel kind of bad taking her into the pediatrician’s office so again but at the same time I can’t stand seeing her like this or risk ignoring something that could be more serious than reflux. Pray that it’s something easy recognizable/treatable. Will update later today with the results.

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Wednesday

Sigh. It’s my day off, and not much going on. I had a dentist appointment early this morning, and Kelly has hers later today. So today I’m just going to relax and try not to think about work to much.

Snapped a quick pic of Brady and I sitting here on the couch.

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I was wrong

I think any other time that I’ve chalked Brady’s change in behavior up to a growth spurt, I was wrong. Either that or they’ve all been growth spurts and each one has it’s own unique set of indicators.

Friday didn’t seem like Brady was acting too differently than normal. In retrospect, it was just a preview of things to come. She followed her normal routine but started refusing the bottle and then fussing because she was still hungry. I’d nurse her and that seemed to satisfy her. She wasn’t doing this at every feeding but it did happen more than once.

Saturday morning my mom came over bright in early (before 7) to watch Brady so we could get some sleep. Brady had already nursed twice before she got here and then took a bottle for her. Around 10:30 my mom brought Brady upstairs so she could nurse again. She seemed to eat on her usual schedule but she started taking less and less from the bottle when offered to her and only wanting to nurse. Now don’t get me wrong, I want her to breastfeed but I also enjoy that other people can help feed her too (like in the morning when Casey lets me sleep in after getting up with Brady all night or my mom or whoever).

Today is what made me start thinking she was going through a growth spurt. She was up three times before 7 and could not seem to eat enough. I’d put her down and she’d sleep for just a little while and then be up again ready to eat and fuss when she wasn’t actively eating. Casey got her to take between 2 and 3 ounces when he first brought her downstairs but she started crying again around 10 but would only take an ounce from the bottle so he brought her upstairs to nurse. This was the story of our day. I offered her two more bottles throughout the day today but it was the same kind of deal – the most she would eat was around 2 ounces and then she’d want to nurse. I did manage to get her vitamins in her so at least that’s something (the stuff looks and smells pretty nasty so I mix it with .5ml of milk to dilute it some). Then she’d sleep for only an hour or two and be up again to eat. All day long when she was starting to sleep for 4 hour stretches at a time.

Even this evening after she was done eating she fell asleep when I was burping her. We decided we should probably go to bed while she was asleep so I put her in her basinette and went back downstairs to get the rest of our stuff for the night prepared. Casey made it up there a few minutes before me and she was already awake and making her sucking face no more than 30 minutes after I finished feeding her the last time. Now she just finished nursing on and off for the last hour and a half (she threw up once during that time period so it was like starting all over again).

Does this sound like a growth spurt to you? Does it sound like she’s sick (she’s had more boogers than usual, is sneezing more than usual, has red eyes)? I’ve been thinking it’s allergies because the weather is starting to warm up and pollen counts are extremely high according to weather.com and I’ve been feeling my allergies act up too. I’ve checked her fever several times and she’s running perfectly normal so I just don’t know. Hopefully this is just a short term thing and things go back to normal because today has been pretty exhausting.

All of that aside, Casey made BBQ for the first time this year. He felt he needed to make it up to his stomach for subjecting it to the crappy BBQ we had on Thursday. My parents came over and joined us for some (3 full slabs) of tasty ribs, baked beans, fried okra, and chocolate chip cookies (I didn’t have time to make a cobbler). It was so much better than any of the restaurants around here and was cheaper too! He told us that brisket will be his next conquest.

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11 week pictures

Here are a bunch of super cute pics from this week!

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800th Post and Its a Good One!

Just got this great email in my Inbox at 3:00 on a Friday afternoon. Have a great weekend HP!!!!!

To EDS Business Unit Employees in the United States and Puerto Rico:
Since becoming part of HP last year, we have accomplished a great deal and should be proud of what we have delivered together. Our service excellence remains high, and we have closed a number of significant deals. Our execution during the transition phase has been outstanding. As we move from the integration phase into the transformation phase, we know from experience with our own client projects this will be the most difficult part of our journey.
Our goal is to transform the business into a future state, which will grow faster than the market and enable us to take share from our competitors. We will then be able to deliver above-industry benchmark returns to our shareholders and price deals that win more business while providing flexibility to invest in innovation, delivering greater value to our clients.
The gap between where we are today and accomplishing our goals is widened by the current economic climate. As a result, we need to take temporary actions to get us through this difficult period. Our customers expect EDS to be a financially strong partner and, as employees, we expect a healthy company as well. With this in mind, we announced specific actions on March 9 to reduce our cost structure and enable the business to improve operating profit and grow as we enter fiscal year 2010.
Unfortunately, we need to take additional action. Specifically, we have decided to make a temporary, additional reduction in base salary affecting EDS business unit employees in the United States and Puerto Rico.
Base salaries for all United States and Puerto Rico employees in the EDS business unit will be temporarily reduced beyond those reductions previously announced by HP on February 18, as follows:
• An additional, temporary reduction of 10 percent in base salary effective for April 2009
• Base salary will not be reduced for employees below an annualized, full-time equivalent income of $40,000 by this additional, temporary action
In May 2009, base salary for United States and Puerto Rico employees in the EDS business unit will be reinstated to the levels of base salary effective on March 16. This includes reductions previously outlined in HP’s February 18 announcement. While we have no plans for an additional base salary reduction, we will continue to closely monitor the performance of our business and make further adjustments as required in the coming months.
We recognize these are tough actions, and you can be assured we made this decision after much thought and assessment. We ask for your support and understanding as we work through these very difficult times. We are confident we will strengthen our position in a consolidating market. We will be one of the industry’s strongest and safest pairs of hands, trusted by our clients to solve their technology challenges.
Sincerely,
The EDS Senior Leadership Team

Wow, HP/EDS is now just stealing from its employees. Taking advantage of the economic climate to rob from the people that work hard for you is pretty low. Yes its only temporary, but still bullshit if you ask me.

Monster.Com

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Discontinued (weight update included)

While sleeping Tuesday night, we did Brady’s pulse ox test. The oxygen company picked up the recorder yesterday but since the pediatrician was off we didn’t hear anything until this morning. Our pediatrician (actually her not a nurse or other member of her staff) called this morning and let us know that Brady no longer had to be on oxygen! Her average oxygen saturation level was 97 and she stayed between 90-100, 97% of the time! For comparison her last overnight test at 6 weeks old, she was only between 90-100, 84% of the time.

While Casey had the pediatrician on the phone, he mentioned to her that one side of Brady’s forehead was flatter than the other. Because it’s hard to make a diagnosis or suggestion over the phone she suggested we make an appointment to bring Brady in to see her. So this morning I took Brady in to have her head looked at. She lays on her right head so much that for some reason the left side of her head is flat. I don’t really understand why the side she lays on would be more rounded than the other side but somehow it’s true and has to do with her ears and the pressure and her heads still molding. From now until she’s 4 months old we’re going to have to be very vigilant in ensuring that she lays on the flattened side so that her head starts rounding out. At her next appointment in 2 weeks we’re going to follow up and see what kind of changes have taken place and hope for the best. Then if at her 4 month appointment not enough progress has been made, we’ll have to meet with an occupational therapist and have her fitted for a helmet. From what we’ve read online she’d have to wear the helmet 23 hours a day. The pedi did say that because she’s so young and her head is still so malleable that she wouldn’t have to wear the helmet for long. But still, come on! We *just* got the oxygen off we do not need something else to worry about. So now we’re just going to pray that her head shapes back up. By the way, her head measures 37cm now.

After the nurse brought us into the exam room she told me to lay Brady on the counter. I had already started taking her outfit off like I normally do when she said I didn’t have to get her naked weight unless I wanted to. Of course I wanted to get her naked weight so it would be consistent against her other weights. I’m surprised they haven’t had enough preemie moms in there to know that weights are the highlight of our appointments. Our babies are fighting an uphill battle to get up to where full-term babes are so we need to make sure that they’re making progress in the right direction. Also, I was curious to see what her weight was since we’ve added in the extra breastfeeding session. It’s been 9 days since her last appointment where she weighted 7 pounds 15.5 ounces. Casey predicted that Brady would be up to 8 pounds 7 ounces but she shocked us all and is now up to 8 pounds 12.5 ounces! Since she’s done so well just in the last week (and with her not eating very well the day she had her shots) we’ve added in another nursing session. Which means that I can drop another pumping session! From the schedule I posted on Monday, you can see how much more time that’s going to free up! Now we’re hoping for her to be 10 pounds by her next appointment!

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WTF is up with Facebook

So I recently joined Facebook, canceled my account, than enabled it again. Not sure why. I really don’t care for the site at all. I have never really understood the whole social networking deal. Also I have never been very good about emailing or calling people to keep in touch. And this site is something that I just can’t excited about. I mean I did find a buddy of mine who I hadn’t spoken to since the Air Force, and that was cool, but that has been the only highlight of the whole deal. Kelly has this whole deal with Facebook, with loads of people that she messages etc etc. Mostly that would just annoy the piss out of me, I really don’t care about people at all enough to want to know whats going on in that many peoples lives.

I really need to decide if I’m going to migrate to a new hosting service soon. It sounds like GoDaddy will provide me with 10X the storage space that we have currently for nearly about the same price. But Bluehost and Dreamhost both have great packages offering unlimited storage and such, which I could use for online backups etc. But I guess right now I should be looking for cost savings. Bah, the geek in me wants all the features…

Brady is hopefully doing her last oxygen test tonight. Hopefully after tomorrow we can take her off the oxygen for good. At that point she will be completely mobile.

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Daily Rate

After having the claim for a month, United Health Care has finally processed the hospital bill for Brady’s NICU stay. We could only dream of staying at a hotel or villa in a tropical paradise posh enough to demand the nightly rate that the NICU did…$2,800 PER day for 40 days. WOW!

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