BillstronBlog

My wonderful colleagues at the Alcohol Research Group, where I have been doing my predoctoral fellowship, have been taking turns bringing us dinner. Yesterday we returned some things so we got to take Molly to the office and introduce her to some people there. It was so fun! She got passed around and fussed over quite a bit. I have not worked on my dissertation since Molly was born, but I will be starting back on it in August. I have about 8 weeks or so of work left on it (Molly was born just over 8 weeks early). I plan on filing it by the end of the semester.

Thanks for all the advice about burping. They all seemed to work pretty well, especially the warm dr. pepper (note to self: do not let Jason watch Molly without someone supervising him. Otherwise, she will probably be eating whipped cream and cheesy dip for every meal.)

Molly is getting so big. She is having much more alert awake time so Bill and I have really enjoyed her eye contact and super cute expressions. I have said it before, but she is just so cuddly. She loves being in the Moby or just being held. Bill and I are making up for all that time she was in the NICU and couldn’t be held for very long or at all. I was a little worried that she would not like to be held when she was finally out of the hospital. Thank God, I was wrong.

Well, Molly has been home now for two weeks, and we are starting to get used to life as a threesome. We are pretty tired, as we expected, but we are so incredibly happy. Molly is eating a lot. We are having a little trouble burping her–she is fussy after she eats until she lets out a couple of good ones. Does anyone have tips on how they burp or burped their babies? I would appreciate your advice.

Last night she slept for four straight hours. I woke up kind of in a panic because that is the longest she has gone without eating (that is really about five hours from the beginning of the feeding). We got a wedge for her that is supposed to go in her crib to elevate her head. We tried it out yesterday because of the trouble she has when she doesn’t burp enough. It seems to work really well, and we suspect that had a lot to do with her long stretch of sleep.

Bill has been busy with domestic chores–cooking and doing dishes. He even made cookies yesterday!

We also found out that there is going to be another boy in the Burke family soon–congratulations Marisa and family!!!

We took Molly Z back to the pediatrician yesterday, and she gained almost a pound (15 ounces) in 8 days! The doctor said that half an ounce of weight gain per day is acceptable, an ounce per day is good, and Molly gained almost 2 ounces a day! The pediatrician said her weight gain was “incredible” (or “amazing”–Bill and I can’t remember which of those two words she used, but either way it’s great!). She is now 7 pounds, 7 ounces! She has definitely started to get some fat rolls on her arms and legs, too.

Molly really loves hanging out in her Moby, being carried around by Bill or me. She just sleeps and stays really content in it. In fact, she is in it right now as I am writing this post.

Bill got an e-mail earlier this week that a friend of ours from college was coming to San Francisco with his wife for a vacation, and they asked us if we could meet up with them. Bill and I figured a lunch outing would be a bit more feasible than dinner, so we met them this afternoon for lunch at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. We were a little nervous about how Molly would do, and we took a while to decide the best mode of transportation. Taking our car would mean that we could leave quickly if we needed to, but we would have to park, not to mention pay the bridge toll and the $5/gallon for gas. Taking the BART would be okay, but we would have to drive to the BART, fight for a parking spot there, and have Molly’s ears pop when we went under the Bay. We ultimately decided the bus would be best because it would be quickest and cheapest, although not as convenient if we needed to leave quickly because we would be farthest from our car. At least with the other modes we would be close to the car, a refuge. We packed her against my chest in the Moby, and off we went! She did so well! She really loves being held and cuddled, and that carrier is perfect for her! We just walked around for a little while, had some lunch, and caught up with some old friends (which is always wonderful, being so far from home). When we finished lunch, Molly started fussing because she was hungry so we went outside to find a bench so I could feed her, and then Bill changed her diaper on the bench (we had the portable changing pad with us, which is very handy). All in all, it was a very successful and fun outing. We will probably be less hesitant to take her out in the future because she really did well today. Bill posted some pictures of her on her first bus ride, including some of being in the nasty SF bus terminal. She was fortunately held far away from the urine and trash.

Aunt Kelly just left yesterday after being here for the weekend. It was a wonderful visit! Molly loves her Aunt Kelly, who held her for most of the weekend, except when I was feeding her. We went to the farmers market on Saturday, which Bill and I have been looking forward to doing with Molly Z since I got pregnant. We also played a lot of Blokus. It was just such a great weekend, hanging out around the apartment, resting, catching up, and eating the great meals Kelly cooked for us. Bill and I also gave Molly a bath, and Kelly took some pictures, which are posted on flickr.

I LOVE gadgets! The big problem is they all need to be charged, and the resulting tangle of wires invariably falls behind my desk making finding the right cord difficult. I’ve been thinking about a way to deal with these wires for a while, and I’ve seen many, so called, cord management solutions. Nothing really struck me until recently when we received a Sonoma County snack (cheese, crackers, and chocolate) basket, and I had the inspiration (probably not original inspiration, though) to turn this basket into a gadget RnR (Rest aNd Recharge) basket. I’ve documented the quick 20 minute project on Flickr — Gadget Basket on Flickr.

Hopefully, this new baby and the time I’m spending at home will allow me to catch up on some projects. Molly is in the Moby wrap on my chest as I write this.

Molly had her first major blowout this morning. I picked her up to change her diaper before breakfast, and I noticed some wetness. “She must have leaked through” I said to my wife. I had no idea the scope of disaster that lay beneath her layers. After getting her on the changing pad, I quickly realized that this was no leak through. This was complete diaper failure traceable to human error, i.e. it wasn’t on tight enough. She had wiggled out of the diaper and managed to make a mess in her once cute sleep sack. The mess had leaked all of the way through the swaddle onto the sheets beneath her. When I got everything opened up, I found her diaper completely off her body at the foot of her sleep sack, and there was poo everywhere — butt, legs, feet.

The only way to get her clean was a bath. Bath time is fun, so at this point the story takes a nicer turn. It’s all cleaned up now, and there’s no use pointing fingers (*cough* Momma… *cough*). We just have to remember to tighten her diaper better.

That’s a picture of our exit from the NICU. Phil is holding Molly up to the sign. He walked us to the car.

We haven’t been apart from Molly for four days straight now, and it’s been the best four days of my life. She doesn’t really do much yet besides poo and fuss, but just having her near makes me terribly happy. I still have a little work to do before I can completely focus on the family, and today I put her on my chest in her Moby carrier while I started some simulations. She just laid there in very content sleep filling her poppa with endorphins while he worked.

It hasn’t been all fun and games though. It’s been a little stressful too. She feels infinitely more robust than she did 5 weeks ago, but I’m still worried something bad might happen. I just need to remember: she’s a Burke therefore she’s robust, and every day she gets stronger.

I just posted a bunch of pictures on the previous flickr set, Introducing Molly Zelda, and I created a new set to chronicle our near-term post NICU time — Molly’s Home At Last. Check them out.

It has been WONDERFUL having our baby home with us. She did really well last night. We got home around 7 or so, and we expected Daisy to be really excited about the new member of the pack. She just sniffed Molly and then didn’t really pay any more attention to her. She howled a little bit like she usually does when we come home or anyone comes over, but Molly didn’t even bat an eye. Saidy the cat, on the other hand, has found a new friend. She has been really interested in Molly. When I have been feeding MZ, Saidy has hung out around us and has even patted Molly a little bit. I took a nap with Molly today, and Saidy came in and slept near us. Right now, Molly is asleep in her cradle in our room, and Saidy is in there on our bed.

Last night we went on a walk with Daisy and Molly in her stroller. It was really fun! We did not have any problems with the cloth diapers, except that the covers are a tiny bit too big for her. I’m sure she’ll grow into them very soon. We had a lot of fun putting her in her pajamas and putting her to bed. She has been eating really well, eating about every two to three hours. Overnight, she let me sleep for three hour stretches. The first time she woke up, I changed her diaper and then fed her. The second time, Bill got up to change her diaper and brought her back into me to feed her.

Today we went to the pediatrician. We picked the pediatrician yesterday without having met her. We needed to have a pediatrician appointment before we left the NICU so Bill talked with her over the phone, and he really liked her so we went ahead and made the appointment with her. She was recommended by one of the NICU doctors, her office is really close to our apartment, and she works a lot with preemies. We really liked her when we met her today. We talked with her, too, about the milk fortifier, and her opinion is that Molly does not need it as long as she continues to grow at a good rate. She is also taking a multi-vitamin and an iron supplement, and the doctor thinks that is plenty to provide all her nutrition. We will have weekly appointments with her for a month or so, so we can monitor her growth pretty well.

After the doctor visit we went to Target. It was so fun to take our baby with us instead of leaving her at the NICU. We also gave Molly a bath tonight together so now she smells really good.

Many of you have probably already talked with Grandma and Lola, but Molly Z is home!!!!!! Last night we got her home around 7:30 and had a great night. I will post more a little later today. We have a pediatrician appointment this morning so we need to get moving so we can make that.

Molly had a good day today! Bill and I went to the CPR class, which was required for all the parents of babies in the NICU. It was informative, but all classes like that have a certain scare factor associated with them. Regardless, we got that out of the way. She also had her car seat test today. You can see a picture of her on the flickr page in her car seat, and she just looks tiny! They require parents to bring the carseat in so the baby can sit in it for 30 minutes or more (depending on how far you live from the hospital) to make sure she doesn’t have any trouble with her heart rate or her breathing. She passed that.

I talked with the doctors today, and Molly is medically ready to be discharged tomorrow, but they want to wait until we have an appointment with a pediatrician. We have meetings set up with two pediatricians, one on Monday and one on Tuesday. As soon as we pick one, we can make an appointment and go get Molly Z from the NICU and take her home. So….probably on Monday if we like that doctor, we will go ahead and make an appointment with him for later in the week, and then go bring MZ home.

So if all goes well, and Molly doesn’t have any episodes, we should have her home by Tuesday at the latest! She is up to 5 pounds, 15 ounces. One more ounce to 6 pounds!