just because...

i got devin on my back in the mei tai!

i look like poo, but devin is just adorable! he really liked being on my back and stayed there for an hour or so.

here are some great pictures i got tonight! he still loves his jumperoo. we hate it because its huge and ridiculous looking but i cant get rid of it because hes so happy in it ;)

these next ones are borderline sad but so funny and a little strange! he really likes playing in his pack and play but has been doing this when he gets bored for the last few days. he can get himself out of this position, i promise! i know it looks bad but i think he likes it!

playdate!

my friend jeff's friend nikki was watching her friend's daughter savannah today so we went over to introduce the babes and let them play together. wow, devin has a friend of a friend of a friend and hes only 10 months old! anyway, her name is savannah and shes almost 6 months old. they sat and played together and it was oh so cute. they mostly took each others toys. savannah was more interested in devin they he was in her. he started completley ignoring her to pose for pictures at one point! it was a fun day ;)

here's where she realized the camera was just a tiny bit more important than her at the moment.

holding hands... awww!

10 month well visit

we missed devin's 9 month visit and originally just scheduled his one year for a few days after his birthday at the end of june, but i decided to move it up and scheduled it for yesterday just because he hasn't been to the dr. in months! i never imagined we could get away with going so long in between visits but he just hasn't had to go. even with his cold we ended up not bringing him in and he got over it all by himself. i was very curious to see how much he weighed so we went in yesterday for a 10 month well visit. he loved the paper on the table he was on. we went through four new sheets because he kept shredding it!

he weighs 20 lbs. even and is 27.5 inches long! what a chunker! that puts him in the 10th percentile for height and the 25th percentile for weight for his ACTUAL age! his weight is in the 67th percentile for his adjusted age and his length is in the 56th percentile for his adjusted age.

the dr. is very impressed with these numbers as well as his development and told me that he rarely sees preemies catch up to their actual age as fast as devin has. he said it usually takes 26 weekers or the like 2-3 years to even get on the charts for their actual age, sometimes even for their adjusted ages. he said sometimes they don't catch up developmentally until they are school aged. he told me hes officially considering devin caught up as of yesterday! now, i beg to differ, not because im negative or i don't think hes doing well enough, but because i don't think its fair for me or others to consider him to be just like a "normal" 10 month old. being born 3 months early didn't score him extra points or anything, we're very lucky it didn't set him back, but i look at him as a 7 month old and i will continue to do so until further notice. like i've said before, i think only other preemie mamas can really understand the reasoning behind that.

the dr. said everything looks great, his ears look perfect, lungs sound great. he does have a small patch of eczema on his chest that he prescribed a cream for. he said apply it twice daily for 2 weeks. it will clear it up, but its going to come back in a month or two. eczema just sticks around, sometimes until the child is much older. its a very small, dime sized area that he will sometimes scratch at if he doesn't have a shirt on or if he gets hot and sticky. it really doesn't bother him too much which is why i feel absolutely fine NOT using this cream we picked up at the pharmacy. i read the info. and immediately said, "NOPE, this is not going on my kid!" its called triamcinolone 0.1% cream and its really not worth the possible side effects. the link i provided isn't even the scariest part. it doesn't have the same info as the pamphlet i got with it. here's a small portion of info given under the "pediatric use" category:

Pediatric Use: Pediatric patients may demonstrate greater susceptibility to topical corticosteroids-induced HPA axis suppression and Cushing’s syndrome than in mature patients because of a larger skin surface area to body weight ratio. Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis suppression, Cushing’s syndrome, and intracranial hypertension have been reported in children receiving topical corticosteroids. Manifestations of adrenal suppression in children include linear growth retardation, delayed weight gain,low plasma cortisol levels, and absence of response to ACTH stimulation. Manifestations of intracranial hypertension include bulging fontanelles, headaches, and bilateral papilledema. Administration of topical corticosteroids to children should be limited to the least amount compatible with an effective therapeutic regimen. Chronic corticosteroid therapy may interfere with the growth and development of children.

ummmm, yeah, no thanks doc! i think devin can deal with a little itch here and there. WTF?!

so thats that. devin is big, strong and healthy. im so proud of him and never could have imagined being where we are today just 10 months ago, sitting next to his little plastic house looking in at my tiny baby for the first time. hes so amazing!

hello, im gretchen and im a baby wearaholic

i've been wearing devin since the day he came home from the nicu, which was 2 weeks before he was actually due to be born. i don't know how i came to find out about proper baby wearing, i just knew i wanted a baby k'tan while i was still pregnant. it looked fun and stylish. much better than a baby bjorn type carrier in my uneducated opinion. when devin was born almost 14 weeks early, i knew i would wear him as much as i could when he came home. i started kangaroo care when he was 3 days old and saw how powerful skin to skin contact was for him (and me). his oxygen saturation would instantly improve and his vitals would stabilize as soon as i held him in his first days and weeks. after his 11 week nicu stay i wanted nothing more than to hold him as much as i could, not only because i had gone without him at home for so long but also because the poor guy was bedridden for so long! so baby wearing was just what i did. i wore him in the baby k-tan for at least 3 hours a day for the first several weeks he was home and was able to relax and get a few things done while he was safe and comfy. it was great. i loved the k-tan carrier design, very easy to use and super comfortable. its a stretchy cotton material which is ideal for newborns to 12-15lb. babies. it really started sagging and became very uncomfortable when devin got to be about 12 lbs. i started doing some research on where to go from there because there was no way i was giving up baby wearing!

i joined the baby wearing group on babycenter. com and started checking out thebabywearer.com. i found out about the four main forms of baby wearing that are safe and comfortable.ring slings, mei tais, soft structured carriers and woven wraps. im very interested in woven wraps but they are some of the most expensive so im holding off for now :) i plan on getting one in the fall when its a little cooler. i did make a wrap out of cotton gauze that i used for a few weeks while i made up my mind about what carrier i would get first. cotton gauze is the best fabric to wrap with if you decide to go cheap and not buy an actual woven cotton wrap. i bought 5 yards and cut it to be 30 inches wide. i watched youtube videos to learn how to wrap and it worked out well. i look forward to using a real one in the future.

i decided to get a mei tai. there is a great introduction post on the baby wearing board with a list of reputable brands of each style carrier as well as lots of information and a description of each type of carrier available on the market. i really liked the looks of the mei tai baby brand. i also loved the fact that it could be ordered as a "zippy". this is a mei tai with 3 different panels that you can change whenever you want a different look. it doesn't actually have zippers, its velcro and its very cool! i emailed the creator of mei tai baby mei tais and asked if i could send my own fabric for the panels because i didn't love anything on the website and she said that would be fine. i just got it the other day and am in LOVE!!! it is so comfortable, well made and just beautiful. devin loves it!

the mei tai was custom made so it took about 3 weeks to arrive. in that time i was just longing for a real carrier and ended up talking fabian into letting me get a soft structured carrier as well. i had found an awesome woman named amber who lives very close who has a great website called heavenlyhold.com. she mainly sells soft structured carriers but also a few mei tais. i contacted her and she offered for me to come by and try on whatever i wanted! this was so exciting because for some reason baby wearing really isn't all that popular and i couldn't find anywhere to try stuff on. i knew i wanted something, but i didn't want to just order something without trying it on. so i went to her house with devin and tried many different carriers on. there was another mom there that day too looking at different carriers and she had a baby boy who was the same age as devin at the time and amber has a 9 month old daughter. amber is such a nice person. she knew i wasn't going to buy anything the first time and still offered to let me borrow any carrier i wanted until my mei tai came! shes just so great and wonderful to work with! that was his first playtime with other babies, i didnt have my camera but amber took some pictures and will email them to me soon. anyway... i LOVED  a carrier called the action baby, but this was before i ordered the mei tai and i really wanted that so i left without getting the action baby that day. shes just so great and wonderful to work with! i didn't take her up on her offer but while i was waiting on the mei tai i went back and got the action baby. its different than the mei tai and i use both of them everyday for different things. the action baby is good for quick trips in and out of a store, the mei tai is nice for a long walk or grocery shopping. it may seem like i wouldn't need 2, but until you become a baby wearing fiend, you wont understand ;)

this is entirely too long and shows just how obsessed i am. baby wearing is lots of fun and much easier than using a stroller all the time. i hope someone that reads this gets into wearing their baby because its just an awesome thing to do and a very fun hobby! i also hope this post was helpful. its hard to find out about all this when baby bjorns and infantino type carriers are really the only things available at most popular baby stores. ahhhh! now i have to go into that for a second... sorry! so the baby bjorn, infantino, chicco, basically all the popular baby carriers are no good at all. i know many people have these and their babies are happy while they are in them but they are called "crotch danglers" by us baby wearing snobs and they're called that for a reason, thats what they do, they dangle the baby by his or her crotch! not so comfy. they also are made to have the baby face out. this is not an ideal position for an infants hips or spine. its just not a natural position for them. babies should always be worn facing in towards the wearer of looking over a shoulder in a back carry. their legs should be in a "froggy" position instead of dangling straight down. mei tais, good soft structured carriers and wraps are the best way to achieve that. its annoying that the proper carriers are so obsolete and i hope that changes in years to come. the carriers im raving about are so much more comfortable than any of the "crotch danglers", i promise! okay, like i said, this was waaaay too long, and i kind of rambled a lot... sorry! :)

here are some great examples of crotch dangling:

this baby is being worn facing out, dangling from his crotch and is sitting very low on the mother. i guarantee that is not comfortable for either of them.

this guy looks like a creepy ken doll, he just doesn't know any better, we all know ken and barbie and their "little sisters" (a.k.a. illegitimate children) don't have real "parts" anyway.

here's devin with his "froggy legs", sitting comfortably and ergonomically correct:

 

i met an online friend! (and so did devin) :)

most people who read this blog already know im a babycenter addict (because they are too), but for those who dont know, you should check it out! i frequent the preemie parenting group on the babycenter community site. these women played a huge role in me surviving the NICU experience. i've made some truly wonderful friends who i will most likely never meet face to face but today i got the privilege of doing just that! a fellow preemie mama named jen and i met in a park for a playdate today and it was so much fun. we read each others blogs, so we already kind of knew each other! she has some very fun to read stuff over at a a surprise rainbow. and some more pictures from today. shes way cool and down to earth and her son cooper is an adorable little guy! hes 6 months actual, 4 months adjusted so just a bit younger than devin. i knew from reading her blog that devin just happened to have the same outfit as cooper, so i hesitantly asked jen if she might want to dress them the same when we met... her answer was a very happy "YES!" so its not all my fault ;)

devin says "get in my belly!" to coopers bumbo

                                         

it was  lots of fun and i hope we'll have many more adventures in the future!

gymboree!

the one thing i couldn't wait to do with devin was a gymboree type class! i wished i could have brought him the whole time we were stuck inside but we were very patient and the time has finally come that i feel ok about starting him in some classes to let him socialize and have some fun. there is a place very close to the house called the little gym. i called and they offered me a free intro. class to see how we like it so we went on wednesday last week. the place seemed nice enough, the class would be 45 minutes long and there were about 8 other babies in attendance. the teacher was ok, but the actual activities ended up being pretty crappy! devin started out happy. he loved looking at the other babies. there was only 1 baby who was younger than him and one who was the same age adjusted. the rest were months older and crawling and cruising already. him and the little girl who was the same age as him were right on track with each other developmentally which is always nice for me to see :) anyway, this is why it was crap... the teacher had a remote in her hand the whole time and this really obnoxious recoding of a man singing and giving instructions was playing really loud! she would rush through activities trying to blow bubbles and have the babies dance with mom at record speeds before mr. recording told us all to move on to the next activity. it was so lame. the worst activity by far was when the parachute came out. it was ok at first. all the babies seemed to like watching us lift it up and down. then mr. recording told us to sit the babies on it and "lets go for a RIDE!!!" she hurriedly explained that we should sit them in the middle facing out towards us, lift the edges and spin them slowly around without lifting them off the ground. we started slowly and after a short moment the first baby went down, then the next, then the next and so on. crying, started, arms were flailing. it got very loud and the the a baby next to devin had landed very heavily on the baby next to her and was just so sad and screaming. her mom wanted to grab her, but the instructor kept up the pace. we had to wait until the all knowing mr. recording told us to stop to pick up our parachute traumatized babies. devin has a scratch in his ear from the flailing baby nest to him. it was pretty bad. i left super quick afterwards so i didn't awkwardly have to say, "no i wont be forking over $225 for a 2 month once a week membership".

the next day we had a trial with gymboree. it was HEAVEN! as soon as i walked in and met the teacher and saw the playroom it just gave off great vibes. parents and babies were hanging out calmly playing and waiting for the fun to begin. the teacher was bubbly and caring. she remembered talking to me on the phone a few days back and had name tags made up for us already. she remembered that devin was born early and proudly showed off her many bottles of hand sanitizer placed on different surfaces and told me about the "drool basket" where the chewed on toys go to be sanitized after class. i hadn't even told her anything about quarantine or my worries about germs. she was educated enough to know that this is a preemie mama concern. she did all the singing and games herself, with her own voice! the activities were fun and kept devin smiling the whole time. there were babies closer to his adjusted age and nothing was overwhelming or rushed. the play stuff they have there was just perfect for encouraging babies of all ages to learn so many things. it was really great. devin laughed at so many things and played with babies and had a great time. she explained how each activity helped with different milestones and i really feel like we got more out of that one session than we have with our monthly early intervention in home visits to date. we will definitely be enrolling! i cant wait! they have a deal where you can enroll for 6 months of classes instead of 1 month and you get an extra class every week and an "open gym"session. so that means devin can go three times a week! twice for classes and once when no classes are in session, just to play with the equipment. that is a waaaay better deal than the first place we went and its so much more fun! im so happy we found this place. i feel like its really going to help in so many areas, socialization for devin (and me), something to do a few times a week just to get out of the house on boring days, it will definitely help with hitting milestones. yay! for the atlanta area mamas, this is the sandy springs gymboree location:) here are just a few pictures of after we got home.

and some from bath time last night just because he's so cute!