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!

Milestones

Noah continues to amaze us more and more every day.

I am back at work now, and it is a struggle to leave him those four days a week, even knowing what wonderful care he has when I'm not there. Even harder is not being there for every new amazing thing he does. Darren called today while I was covering study hall to tell me that Noah rolled over, all by himself, for the first time today. Darren said he was doing tummy time and just got so sick of it that he decided to roll over on to his back. I was absolutely ecstatic, and after sharing the news with my study hall students, I called my mom to let her know. It wasn't until I had had a few minutes to sit there and let it sink in, that the sadness crept in - he will only roll over for the first time once, and I didn't get to see it. It was so spur of the moment that Darren didn't get to video tape it either. Obviously every milestone he reaches is something to celebrate, regardless of whether or not I am there to see it. But I still can't help the little tiny bit of bittersweetness I feel.

On a brighter note, it's definitely a sign of more big things to come. The occupational therapist visits every Monday now, and after her session with Noah this week (just her second visit overall), she told me she was confident he would be rolling over by the end of the month. Who knew it would actually be by the end of the week?! Every day he is doing better and better at grabbing for and holding on to objects. He is already starting to try to get them to his mouth :o) And more importantly, he has totally embraced bottle feeding, beyond any of our expectations. He absolutely loves drinking from the bottle, holding on to our hands while eating, whining if we take the bottle away to burp him. He has yet to need a tube feeding during the day this week! The only tube feedings he is getting now are his continuous feed at night. After talking with the speech therapist yesterday during her visit, we have decided to slowly start increasing the size of his bottles during the day, so that we can start decreasing what he gets at night. Eventually, maybe even by Thanksgiving, he won't need the night (and therefore tube) feedings at all. Now that is something to be really thankful for!

I keep trying to come up with the right words to end this post with - to sum up how excited, encouraged, blessed, thankful, etc. we feel, but I don't think any of those words do it justice. I don't know if there are ANY words out there that can adequately explain how we feel. It's amazing. HE is amazing. Our life is amazing :o)