1st birthday countdown - devin's 5th month...

devin's 5th month brought his first "fun" holiday... halloween!!! i love halloween and if you read my blog regularly, you know i love a good excuse to dress devin up in ridiculous outfits, so this one was really great for me! he was a hotdog ;)

an adorable hot dog that will probably say "moooooom! why did you do that to me?!" one day.

another great thing that happened in this time period was his first smile! im sure the first smile is wonderful for all moms and dads, but after watching him suffer through the NICU i believe it was even more rewarding to me when i saw it! he hasn't stopped smiling since!

he really started watching toys and enjoying things more. he has a rain forest mobile that he just loved, loves actually, hes still intrigued by it today. in those days though, sometimes it was the only thing he would smile at despite everything we tried to do to get a smirk. it was such a fun time realizing that this baby has a personality that was starting to shine.

we got him a bumbo seat towards the end of this month that he wasn't quite ready for yet. i convinced myself he was so strong and loved sitting in it even though his head would get very heavy after a few minutes ;) if only i knew how quickly the squishy , adorable, newborn days pass, i would have savored it a bit more. oh well, im still doing stuff like that every day!

like i mentioned last night, we finally found a solution to his restless nights. he was just so uncomfortable sleeping flat and we ended up letting him sleep in his bouncey seat overnight. i didn't sleep very well because i didn't like the thought of that so i was very relieved when the napnanny arrived and devin actually slept through the night in it! im obsessed and have recommend it to everyone i know with a baby. devin still sleeps in it every night and he's almost a year old!

this is also the time when i first started this blog! here is my first blog post ever! im so glad im a blogger now. i think its great to look back on old posts now and i imagine it will be even better as time goes by. i hope devin likes it one day too.

1st birthday countdown - devin's 4th month...

devin's 4th month began with his original due date! he was due on september 24th 2009. all preemie mamas have mixed emotions when their child's due date rolls around and up until that day i really had no idea how i would feel. i ended up feeling happy and excited. i didn't have bitter feelings at all. im sure i would have felt much, much differently if devin was still in the NICU. thankfully he had been home with us for 2 weeks and we were already settling into a routine. for me, the day felt like a fresh start. i could finally stop thinking devin should still be growing inside me! this thought had haunted me his whole life up until that day. i finally had a "newborn" and i felt like i could put all the scary times we had gone through together behind us. to celebrate and capture the moment, my mom came over and we had a photo shoot. she was using her old 35mm camera that used to take great pictures. key word is used to... apparently the flash battery was weak and she may have been a little rusty as well and most of the would be adorable pictures came out dark and blurry. we did manage to get a few good ones though...

i think of this month as the month of the bouncey seat. devin loved his bouncey. he spent most of his time in there and by the end of the month, had taken to sleeping during the night in there too. we had issues with him sleeping flat on his back. the NICU had the head of his bed elevated for the entire time he was there. they did this in hopes of easing reflux symptoms which he never had. he never suffered from relux but i guess because so many babies do, they were trying to help. it really didn't help anything though and we were left to suffer the consequences at home. he was much more comfortable in an elevated position so we had him in the boppy at first, then the bouncy seat. both of them made me nervous because they are not for sleeping unsupervised. we found a solution the next month that i will talk about tomorrow. but basically, this whole month devin was in the bouncey seat. i dont know what we would have done without it.

he was still an easy going lovable little nugget and we loved getting to know him and catering to his every whim! i was getting used to life as a stay at home mom, i wasnt getting much sleep of course and fabian had gotten back into the swing of things at work. he didn't have nearly as many dr. appointments as i thought he would, just about 2 a month for the first few months. not bad at all. since he still slept most of the day, i spent alot of my time on babycenter.com talking to other moms of preemies who were going through just about the same stuff i was. it was a lifesaver at the time. we were all a little over paranoid about our newly non NICUized babes and it was nice to have some people to bring you back down to reality when you needed it ;) i really cant remember anything specific happening that was out of the ordinary this month so this will be a post with a bunch of pictures. devin got chubbier and cuter by the day, what a sweet, sweet boy!

  

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:

 

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!

happy 10 months devin!

i cant believe devin turned 10 months old today! DOUBLE DIGITS???!!! only 2 more months until his first birthday :( here are his 10 months shots i took today at a park today.

 i have'nt posted in so long and he's doing so many new things. we've been very busy and devin is just getting over his first cold :( it finally happened, he got sick. the crazy thing is that after all this time we've been so careful and paranoid about him catching a cold and fabian is the one who gave it to him. he was sick all of the week before this last one and devin was holding up ok until last friday night when i heard him become a little stuffy overnight. all of a sudden he would sniffle a little and wake himself up. he was very restless and i sat awake all night hoping he wasnt actually coming down with something but when he woke up that morning his temp. was 100.5. i called the dr. and they told me not to worry about the fever, just to pay attention to his symptoms and bring him to the e.r. if he had trouble breathing or started wheezing. he was very stuffy and his fever went up to 101.5 that day at its highest but he never had any breathing issues :) he really scared me at one point while fabian was out (of course it happens while im alone). he had eaten great all day but all of a sudden he would get a little snot attack and start gagging on it :( he would gag and throw up, gag and throw up, about 4-5 times in about 15 minutes. i was panicking! i was trying to call fabian in and call the pediatrician at the same time. when fabian got back in (he was outside) and didnt really "get" the severity of what was going on... (yeah, annoying!) we put him in the car and started rushing to the e.r. about 5 minutes later devin was happy as can be and breathing clear so we turned around. i wasnt ready to take him to the e.r. and have 8 different people try to draw blood and run a bunch of tests if it wasnt 100% necessary and im glad we did'nt go because he has gotten better and better very fast since then. his fever was gone by the next day and his feedings started picking back up by the 3rd day. the tail end of day one he started not wanting to eat at all because he was stuffy and not able to breathe from his nose while on the bottle. now hes eating normal and just has a tiny bit of  congestion lingering and he coughs 3 times a day or so but thats it. it was hard but he did so well! for so long we just did'nt know how his little body would handle even the smallest cold and he certainly put my mind at ease. he was a trooper. we got him california baby cold and flu aromatherapy bubble bath and gave him a bath 1-2 times a day for the first few days because he loved it and i really think it helped him feel better. it smells great, like a light version of vicks (i love vicks and just inhale it over and over even when im not sick! :) he has his 2 bottom teeth now, they're almost completley in. he got his second one right after the first. the next day in fact! his first showed up march 30th and his second came out on april 1st. in these pictures you'll notice devin's handsome little necklace, its a baltic amber teething necklace and he wears it everyday now. the amber stones contain succinic acid  and when they sit against skin, the heat lets trace amounts into the bloodstream and it acts as a natural pain reliever. its supposed to be great for teething and growing pains. its safe for babies to wear because there is a double knot in between each bead and its designed to break if its pulled to hard instead of choking the child. it fits snug so he doesnt evne notice it. its not for him to chew on which is what i thought at first, its all about the natural pain relief. im not sure if it works, but i'll try anything safe that will help keep teething pains to a minimum. i'll try to judge if his next teeth that come are accompanied by less fussiness. i ordered myself one too, so we have matching necklaces, which some people think is weird, but i think its awesome and devin loves pulling on mine :) plus, i think it makes him look like the coolest baby on the block.

in other news... he's becoming much more independent and capable of doing things for himself. his new favorite activity is to sit and play with one toy at a time out of his toy basket. he reaches in, takes something out , plays until hes bored with it and goes in for another when he's ready. so cute!

we also had to bring the pack and play out and take the newborn thing out of it that raised up the base so he was up higher. we took it out and use it as a little playpen now for when i have to make a bottle or get some chores done. he sits in there and plays and LOVES it!

and please, please tell me why my "little baby" loves to STAND up holding onto the edge??? when did this happen? he can stand there for any length of time and is just so proud of himself!

we still try new finger foods every once in a while. he really likes baby mum mums. hes getting the pincer grip down and will eat a few puffs, yogurt melts or baby cheetos but hes still not very fond of pureed foods.

once again, i have to mention that im in no way "ok" with the fact that my sweet babe is 10 months now when he would only be 7 months but what can i do? i just have to suck it up and deal! he makes it pretty easy because he's perfect no matter what his age is!