New pictures

This picture is from late summer/early fall, it is amazing how much older he already looks.

This one I just took earlier this week. I was folding up the blanket on the couch when I heard him whining. I turned around and saw that he had climbed in to the mixing bowl and got stuck. Instead of rescuing him immediately, I ran to get the camera. I just couldn't help myself!

Noah is also a future football hall of famer, in case you didn't know.

His smile just kills me. I think discipline is only going to get harder and harder with this little grin!

New Specs

I took Noah to the eye doctors today (he gets check-ups every 6 months now), and things are looking good! For those of you who don't know the reason for his glasses, he is near sighted in his right eye and far sighted in his left. The difference between the two was enough to make his eye doctor concerned about him developing a lazy eye, so he got glasses almost a year ago to help prevent it. After checking Noah out today, Dr. Berman said that his right eye is unchanged and his left eye is seeing better than before! He wrote a new prescription for glasses (good timing because Noah's old ones don't fit very well anymore) and told me that the chances of him developing a lazy eye are very small now. Even better - he almost certainly will never need any r.o.p. related eye surgery ever again!

I know it seems like I say this every time I post, but Noah is just taking off when it comes to meeting milestones now. He loves to play patty cake and knows when applause it due; he gives us high (or low) fives; he knows where eyes, nose and mouth are; he blows kisses; he is using toys in new ways every day; he is babbling up a storm and trying to mimic us; and he is eating tons of new foods! Our next goal is to get him drinking out of a cup consistently. He has known how to do it for a long time now, but refuses to drink anything other than juice out of it. He still insists on a bottle for his milk. Sometimes I think he is too smart for us, but I know we will eventually outsmart him! ;)

He is also developing quite the personality. His newest thing is to crouch really low, tuck his chin in to his chest, and stick his bottom lip out as far as it will go when we "hurt his feelings" - which is basically whenever we don't let him have his way. It is so hard not to just give in laughing! He is also starting to have a bit of a jealous streak. Last week Ruby, his daycare provider, was rocking one of the other little boys, and when Noah noticed he ran right over and started grunting and groaning until she picked him up and put him next to her. He quieted right down and was happy as a clam. I think we might have some trouble on our hands!

Up, Up, and Away!

Last Saturday, Noah began standing up without holding on to anything else. So instead of needing the coffee table, the couch, or one of our legs, he just gets on all fours and pushes in to the standing position!

This week he is really loving pushing around his grocery cart - usually in an upright walking position, but sometimes on his knees. There are no breaks on that thing, so sometimes he gets going pretty fast! He is also doing great at playing pass with me - we like to bounce a whiffle ball back and forth to each other on the coffee table. And he knows what to do with toy trucks now! He pushes them around on the coffee table and makes a "brmm, brmm," sound. We have been trying to show him forever, but I think it was watching the other little boys at day care that finally made it click for him. :)

Ups and Downs

The end of September was pretty rough in our household. It started with Noah catching a cold which led to an ear infection. The doctor gave us a prescription for antibiotics. A week later, the cold was gone, and we thought the ear infection was too, but he started throwing up. A day later, we could tell his ear was bothering him again. Back to the doctors who said it was all viral and to just keep an eye on his temp. When his ear started to drain that weekend, and he developed a fever, we had a feeling it was more than viral. We went to the doctors again on Monday and a prescription for a new antibiotic along with some ear drops because the ear infection was back, only in both ears, AND and ear drum had ruptured. I can't even describe how guilty I felt, knowing how much pain he must have been in. By the end of the week, he still wasn't himself and the second ear had started to drain. Darren tried to get the doctor to do a culture on ears, but the doctor claimed it wouldn't affect the treatment and instead gave us a super strong antibiotic to try.

Thankfully it did finally work, but we have learned from the experience. We are Noah's parents, and we know him better than anyone. Noah does not normally whine or cry unless he is feeling very unwell (he seems to have a high tolerance for pain - a common preemie characteristic), and he never wakes up during the night unless he is really sick. To be fair to our pediatrician, we were never actually able to see him during this illness. Two visits were on short notice and his schedule couldn't accommodate us, and two visits were on days he was not in the office. Instead we had to see other doctors in the practice that did not know Noah. I do honestly believe things may have been different if we had seen our doctor, especially for the last three visits.

We seem to finally be over the worst though. He is back at day care and loving it. He is making great gains with his motor skills, he knows how to put balls in the basketball hoop and the other toys that come with them, and he can put his rings on his stacker. He gets so excited when we do it together, and he says "Yay!" with me when he gets it in/on just right. He likes to bounce a ball across the coffee table to me, and when I bounce it back, he almost always catches it. He climbs stairs like monkey, and is super sneaky at it, so we have to keep a very close eye on him whenever we let him out of the gated living room. In fact, he is pretty sneaky with anything he knows he is not supposed to be doing. After we say no to something, he will stop and act like he is going to do something else, stop, go back to what he was originally doing and watch us with a big smile on his face, waiting to see if we stop him again. When he is on our laps with a bottle, he likes to look at our ears, and if we turn to look at him, he will push on our chins so he can see our ear again. He likes to play "beep, beep" with our noses too. :)

He is eating lots of big boy foods now (only by finger though, he won't let us feed him much more than yogurt or fruit and cereal). His favorites are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, banana, bacon (maybe he is channeling Elvis?), toast with yummy toppings (peanut butter, jam, or cinnamon sugar) and pretty much anything Darren and I are eating at the time - but it has to be something we are actually eating. He loves to eat things from our own plates/bowls like a little bird, but if we try to give it to him on his tray he is NOT interested!

It is amazing to watch him change and grow. He is looking more and more like a little boy and less like a baby. It makes me both sad and excited! As each month goes by, I think to myself, this is my favorite age, only to find out it gets even better the next month. This will be the first year we take him out to trick or treat, and he will be collecting change for the Ronald McDonald House. His memere is making him a Flintstones "Bam Bam" costume to go with the plastic bat he got at the beach this summer (which he loves to swing around everywhere). And we are so excited for this Christmas, now that he will have a better idea of what is going on and what to do with all that paper (tear it up, of course!). He will have a new baby cousin by then too, and we can't wait to take pictures of them together!

Even though there are bumps in the road with illnesses and other stresses, I have to say that here on the Brann Rollercoaster, life is good!

First Steps!

Noah just let go of the love seat and took three steps towards me before grabbing on to his toy shopping cart! The crazy thing is, he was just so nonchalant and easy about it, like he had been doing it for months now. Of course now that I have the video camera out he refuses to budge. But I saw him do it with my own eyes, and that is good enough for me!

They keep coming!

One more tooth for Noah, on the bottom. That makes three total on the bottom and two on top. Today was also the first time I actually heard Noah crunch something with his teeth - a cheerio. It was so cute to hear coming from him! (Of course in my book, everything - well almost everything- i so cute!)

I head back to work next week. I can't believe it is time already! Tomorrow I will be bringing Noah to Ruby's house, his new day care, so he can start getting used to it. I think he will enjoy being around other kids, but I am still a little nervous to leave him. He is getting to be a little mama's boy, and I don't want him to miss me too badly (a little would be good for my ego though!). And of course, after his rough start in this world, I can't help but worry a little extra about him. I know he will be in good hands though, and I am sure it will be harder on me than it is on him!

And for those of you doing some back-to-school shopping, check out the great deals:

Tops!

Noah got two, top front teeth this past weekend, bringing him to a grand total of four. So cute!




Finally Firsts!

A short post about two new milestones that we have been waiting for very impatiently ;)

This weekend, while staying at Grammy Shorty's, Noah finally starting feeding himself little finger foods, like cheerios and puffs. He has been feeding himself big things, like crackers, for a long time. And he has been picking up and inspecting little finger foods like cheerios for a long time too, but he just wouldn't put them in his mouth. Now he has put it all together and is eating them like a champ!

He has also started to wave bye-bye! He did it once this weekend, but we weren't sure if he was actually waving or just trying to bat at the person he was supposed to be waving at. Today we know for sure because he waved to two different people - his memere, and even more importantly, his speech therapist (Jane). She and I were both sooooo excited. Yayyyyy, Noah!!!

Makes You Wonder

If Noah had made it to his due date, he would be one year old today. Hard to believe, isn't it? Especially when you consider the results of his 15 month check up on Monday. He weighs 23 lbs, 12 oz., and he is 32 inches long. That makes him heavier than 45% of other 15 month old babies and taller than 75% of them! His head is in the 97th percentile. That means really big brains, right? ;) It makes you wonder what he would be like today if he hadn't been 15 weeks premature. It is easy to assume that he would be even bigger, but you never know. I've always kind of thought in the back of my mind, that as crazy as it sounds, maybe Noah needed to be born early. If I hadn't gone in to labor on April 8th, maybe things wouldn't have turned out as perfectly as they seem now. That's the thing with "what if's" - you just never know. The one thing I do know is that Noah is a happy, healthy, thriving, soon-to-be toddler, and I could not be more grateful for that.

Noah's second tooth has finally come in as well. And just like with the first one, he was crankier the two days following its appearance than he ever was before it arrived. He seems to be over the worst of the pain though, and is back to his darling self. We have yet to get a good shot of either of his teeth; he refuses to show off for the camera. Instead, we have another beach picture. They were both taken by Auntie Amber, who also visited us at the beach. Thanks Auntie!

Where is the summer going?

Summer is flying right by, despite the fact that the weather has rarely been worthy of the summer.

We just returned from our first vacation on the beach. We rented a cottage on Hills Beach in Biddeford Pool with Memere and Pepere, just in time for the sun to arrive. Everyone back home claims it continued to rain, but where we were - it was pure fun in the sun. Thank goodness!

Other than a slight disruption to his normally generous sleep schedule, Noah had a fantastic time. He loved the cottage - no gates to stop his exploring! He especially loved the kitchen where he would bang on the oven's drawer and look at his own reflection on the oven door. (Don't worry, never when there was any cooking going on!) He was a little angel on the beach, never budging from his beach blanket under the cabana (he didn't even mind being slathered in sun screen. He is his father's ghostly pale son, after all!). He loved having his feet dipped in the ocean - he didn't even mind the freezing temperature! He wasn't crazy about the feel of the sand, but overall, his beach experience was a success. He had a visit from Auntie Jaime and Rylee on Wednesday and got to spend two and a half days with his NC cousins - Rachel and Derrick. He especially liked watching Derrick play the Wii. And of course, having Memere and Pepere around to love for a whole week was the icing on the cake!

We have tons of cute pics, you can check them out soon on our shutterfly page (check the link on the side of the page), but here is one of my favorites in the meantime!

New Smile!

Noah woke up this morning with his first tooth peeking out of his gums, and we were soooooo excited! It is his front, right, bottom tooth, and pictures will be coming soon I hope.

He just keeps getting cuter by the day, and such a little smarty pants - he obviously gets it from me! ;) Just kidding Honey! He just got his first pull toy today, and he already knows that if it is too far away, he can pull on the string and then the toy comes within reach. And if anything is on his blanket that he can't reach, he knows to yank the blanket, and he will get what he wants. What a little problem solver!

Tomorrow he sees his first parade, and then off to Memere's and Pepere's for a cookout! Can't wait!

Here we come marching!

So the March of Dimes is this Sunday! I have met my personal goal of $500 - thank you to my most recent donors - Uncle Paul & Aunt Sue, Jaime & Rylee, Donny, Tia, Audrey, Sue, Shelley, Amy, and several workers at the state! It looks my team is also going to reach its goal of $2000. So exciting!!

I hadn't seen anything in the local papers about the March, so over vacation I emailed the KJ and the Advertiser about covering the March, and they actually responded by interviewing me and running stories on Noah, our family, and the March. Noah is a star! :o) You can read the KJ article here - http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/6256252.html (unfortunately the online article doesn't have the picture they ran in the paper). The advertiser isn't online though, so you will need a hard copy to see that article.

They mis-quoted me in a few places, mainly having to do with medical procedure jargon. But overall they were really great pieces, and more importantly, the brought attention to this great cause!!

Keep your fingers crossed for good marching weather!

Brief Update

So Noah's first birthday flew by - he had two fantastic family parties and one quiet "real" birthday night with just Darren and I. He has some new favorite toys and some new adorable outfits and we have many new memories to make us more thankful than ever!

I know that I am terrible about posting pics on here, and that is partly because I don't really know how to post more than one at a time (also partly because I am just a slacker). But I have uploaded a bunch of photos to our shutterfly family page, so you can always check them out there. The link is http://noahourlittlepumpkin.shutterfly.com/ (it is also listed in our blogroll on the right side of this page.)

And I hate to be a pest, except that it is for such an amazing cause - PLEASE help us with the March for Babies on May 3rd. You can join our team or donate anything you have to spare. My team's goal is $2000 and we are currently at $1250. My personal goal was $500 and I am up to $260 (if you count pledges made specifically to me and the ones friends of mine made to the team overall. I am taking credit for anything I can ;) !). That means if I can just find 7 other people to donate $20, I will have made my goal, and they will have helped future babies to be born healthy! You can pledge at http://www.marchforbabies.org/michelleybelle or if you would like to walk with us you can sign up here http://www.marchforbabies.org/teams/640050

A very special thanks to my friends Sarah Jamison, Abby Ellingwood McPheters, Jesse Fish, Susan Strout, Melanie Hickey, and Robin Miller for their generous donations!! Darren, Noah, and I (and all the babies out there) thank you!
*edit* Let's add Uncle Tom to the list of donors we are so thankful for too!

Happy First Birthday Pumpkin!

Today is Noah's first birthday. One whole year since the school bus dropped me off on the side of the road, I walked myself into Maine General in Waterville, and I found out that no, I was not having Braxton-Hicks contractions, I was going to have my baby boy much, much too early.

I was so excited last night and this morning, thinking about the post I would get to write, wishing Noah a happy birthday. It was going to include all of my most vivid memories - from the absolute terror we had wdonering if he was going to make it through those first days, to the excitement of seeing him breathe on his own for the first time, the pure joy we had when we finally took him home, and of course all of the giggles, frustrations, and milestones we have experienced since. Instead, I am sitting here sobbing as I write this, having just found out that the beautiful 17 month old daughter of another preemie mom blogger passed away last night. I never met Heather or her gorgeous daughter Maddy, but following her blog and Maddy's exploits always left me feeling more excited than ever about my family's futute with Noah. Unfortunately, like many preemies, Maddy's lungs were just not as healthy as she needed them to be, and she passed away last night, soon after being admitted to the hospital.

So instead of being able to enjoy this moment for what it should be, a momentous milestone, and the first of many more to come for my beautiful baby boy, I am reminded again of just how terrifying the ride is for a preemie and his family. I know that Noah doesn't have the same lung issues Maddy had (thank GOD), but I am reminded of how excruciatingly fast life can take away what matters most to you. At the same time, Maddy's passing also reminds me of just how lucky I am to have my baby.

More than ever, I wish I could do something to help all of the Maddys and the Noahs to be born healthy and to stay healthy. As some of you may know, my family is planning on walking in the March of Dimes March for Babies this year for the first time. I have been meaning to send out letters, asking friends and family to donate or walk with us, just like I have been meaning to find some students at school interested in getting involved too. Unfortunately, meaning without action doesn't accomplish much. And so today, in honor of all 365 days Noah has been with us so far, and the thousands and thousands of days he will continue to be with us, I am turning my intentions into action and I am asking you to please help babies everywhere and support the March of Dimes.

http://www.marchforbabies.org/michelleybelle

Walk with us, cheer us on, donate, or just forward this message along - whatever works for you! And when you do, know that you are helping another Noah, Maddy, etc. spend one more day with their loved ones.

Love,
Michelle

One more week!

One more week and Noah will turn the big 0-1! ;)

Spring is moving right along, now that it is finally here. We are looking forward to both of his birthday parties, and we are so thankful to have made it through cold and flu season relatively unscathed (croup last fall and a nasty chest cold following February vacation - and YES, I am knocking on wood as I type this).

The funny thing is that the college visit field trip that I was chaperoning last year when I went into labor with Noah is happening again this year - the day before Noah's birthday. Nothing like a big reminder, huh?

Not much more to say tonight, I'm hoping to make it to bed early, but I wanted to get at least a little update in. I especially wanted to finally get a picture posted. Try not to be overcome with the cuteness! ;)

Elevn Months - How is this possible?!

Noah is eleven months old today. I know that I am always saying how it blows my mind how old he is, but for some reason his age seems to be something that I am incapable of comprehending! I have all of his 1st birthday party supplies ordered for my family's party, and Darren's mom already got tons of cute things for his family's party (I know it may sound weird that we are having separate parties. But don't worry, it's not because we have warring in-laws, we just have HUGE families!). We are hoping to get our invitations out this week, we just have to finalize the site.

I have wanted to post a million times lately, but we have switched computers, and I have yet to upload any of his recent photos. Obviously I could just post without them, but it seemed like all of my photos needed photos with them, so I kept putting it off. I finally gave in tonight in honor of his birthday, but hopefully we will have lots of new pics to share this week - including ones with his glasses!

Button Update

Holy cow, the thing is already closed. I don't even get nauseous when I look at now. Hooray for healing fast Noah! (this post would have been so much more entertaining if I had left what I originally wrote - "hooray for heeling fats Noah!" Good thing my internal spell check does occasionally function.)

On a side note, the eye care center where Noah sees his eye specialist wanted to charge us almost $300 for his glasses, and that is after their generous 15% off discount. All for something he will probably lose/break and definitely outgrow within a year. And by the way, insurance won't pay for them. They will pay for glasses to fix a lazy eye, but not to prevent them. Insurance companies are cool like that. So instead, we found a place in Augusta with a kids' special - if the frames cost more than $120, you get the lens free - wheeeee! So that is where we are going. Photos of Professor Noah coming soon!

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

The button is G O N E !!! Wooooo Hooooo!

We took him to the G.I. specialist yesterday who kindly asked us why we bothered to drive nearly two hours to see him when we could have done it ourselves. That's right folks, all he did was take the button out, wipe around it and tape some dry gauze on it. Simple as that. Too bad the thought of the little open whole on his belly, even if it is hiding under the gauze, totally makes me want to barf. The doctor assures us it will be closed up within a few days though, so if that is all it takes, I guess we should be thankful. It certainly is nice that he won't have to be put under for it to be surgically closed.

Baby Big Head

So Noah and I survived our first extended separation, and I am absolutely positive it was harder on me than it was on him. In fact, I have a feeling he didn't even realize he was gone. I guess my mother was right when she said that this trip would be a lot easier to take with him at this age than if I tried to do it next year. From all reports he had a great time with Daddy and Meemaw (Darren's mom).

He had a pediatrician's appointment on Monday while I was gone. He is officially on the unadjusted growth chart in all three major areas now - very exciting!! He is in the 5th percentile for weight, 10th for length, and 75th for head circumference - wowza! After measuring Darren's head and hearing about my own, the doctor was pretty sure we are just a family of big-heads, but he scheduled us for a head ultrasound down at Maine Med just to make sure nothing was going on. We went yesterday, and everything is a-ok! Just big heads for all of us (and big brains too, obviously!!!).

Noah has been pretty constipated lately, so we have been mixing in some prune juice a couple of times a day, but he was still have some round rock hard poops. We knew they were pretty painful for him, and the prune juice usually made him crampy too on top of everything else, so we asked about other options. The nurse suggested Karo syrup, which started using yesterday, and it must to the trick because he had two giant stinky, fudgey poops. Woo hoo for poops!

Our pediatrician also finely gave us the go ahead to see the g.i. specialist about having his button taken out. We meet with him on Tuesday and are very excited. It is really the only thing left to physically remind us of his preemie status (emotionally we will continue to be extra cautious, especially when it comes to cold and flu germs). Hopefully by the time he turns ten months, he will be button free!

And finally, the most fun news, we can start on food! So we are going to start with rice cereal tomorrow, and if he does well with that each day, we hope to try our first veggie by the end of the week. What a big boy!!!!

Our Little Four-Eyes

It's official - Noah is getting glasses. We had our second follow-up appointment with his eye doctor yesterday. As a side effect of the r.o.p. (retinopathy of prematurity) that he developed in the NICU and received laser treatment for, he now has one near-sighted eye and one far-sighted eye. On their own, neither would be much of a worry, but since there is such a big difference between the two of them, Dr. Berman is concerned that he might eventually develop a lazy eye, so baby glasses it is! It certainly will be interesting to see how he reacts to them!

On a side note, I will be leaving Noah overnight for the first time since bringing him home from the NICU. I am chaperoning a group of students on a trip to Washington, DC for the presidential inauguration. Of course I am very excited about it, it's something I began planning before I even became pregnant with Noah. But as the day of departure (this Sunday) gets closer, I continue to get more and more nervous. Darren will still be here with him, and my mother-in-law Audrey will be taking care of him when Darren is at work, but I am going to miss him so much!

This is the post where I finally get off my butt and write something!

So it has been over two months since I last posted, and it is probably beginning to seem pointless to even have a blog. I don't even really have a good excuse, since I manage to find the time nearly every day to catch up on other people's posts. The reason I keep giving myself is that I want to sit down and write a really long and meaningful post. But honestly, I don't think there is a whole lot of long and meaningful in me. I think maybe a better goal will be to update frequently with small snapshot entries - the kinds of things that crack me up or make me melt at the time but are probably too insignificant to make their way in to my long term memory. It makes me so sad to think about how much I have already forgotten or will soon forget without ever having documented it. I hope this kind of goal will be more manageable for me, and who knows, maybe taken as a whole, the entire blog will become long and meaningful. Small steps, right? So after today's somewhat long but not necessarily meaningful post, I will begin my honest effort to post at least a couple of times a week.

Noah slept in his own room in his "big boy" crib last night for the first time. It was a lot harder for me than I thought it would be. Up until last night, Noah had still been sleeping in the co-sleeper next to our bed (on my side except during the two colds I have had). He really is getting too big for it at this point, and I had told myself that we would make the switch over Christmas vacation but it never happened. After some gentle prodding from Darren, we decided last night was the night. We have a video monitor installed in his bedroom, so I can watch him from our room. To be honest, I think it actually contributed to my anxiety, because every time I heard him make a peep or rustle, I had to switch on the video feed. This not only temporarily blinded me, it also woke me up enough that I never really fell asleep until a little past one. Not great, especially when you consider I had set my alarm for 2:30 so I could check on him (it made sense to me when I went to bed expecting to fall asleep immediately). Needless to say, Noah did just fine in his big boy crib, sleeping straight through the night, waking up to see Pepere after I had already left for work. I have a feeling many of these milestones will cause considerably more stress for me than it will for them. Ahhhh, the joys of motherhood.

So many fun milestones since I last posted - Noah started blowing raspberries last weekend, and we crack up every time. He is actually getting pretty good at them, and I swear he already has the sarcastic timing to give a good raspberry exactly when it is needed. That's my boy!

He found his voice over New Years and is babbling non-stop - by far my favorite sound in the entire universe. He was diagnosed with a lazy vocal chord when he was in the NICU, so we always wondered what effect that would have on his voice. And I had begun to worry more recently that he still wasn't babbling or even cooing much. Let this be a lesson to me (one of many I am sure!) that he will do things at his own pace, we just need to be patient. I cannot explain how joyful I feel when I wake up last on a weekend morning and hear Noah's squeals from playing with Darren downstairs - one of the best feelings in the world!

Noah rolls from belly to back and back to belly now, although definitely only when he feels like - which is basically never if the physical or occupational therapist is working with him. Oh well, that just means he is too modest to show off, right?

He is doing great with his trunk/torso control, and I don't think it will much longer before he is sitting on his own. He loooooves books, and will pay attention while he and I look at several of them. He loves to reach for the pages and is getting pretty good at turning them. He has even held a book himself a couple of times, although the one time he did it while laying on his back the book slipped out of his hands and before I could catch it, it bopped him on the head. Sorry Noah!

His favorite game is peekaboo right now, and Noah LOVES to be surprised! Darren and Memere seem to be best at it, but he is happy to play with anyone.

I think that is probably the most important thing to mention about Noah. He is just so happy. He is the most content baby that I have ever known. He lights up the moment he sees a face he knows, and even for some he doesn't. We would feel blessed regardless of his temperament, but to have a baby as sweet-tempered as Noah is, just seems like more luck than either Darren or I deserve. I just can't get over how perfect he is.

And to prove it - just check out the above adorable picture of him from the holidays!