Happy Thanksgiving!!

Gerry, Reed and I headed over the river and through the woods (okay, over the Narrows bridge and through Tacoma) to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving. Gerry and I have hosted for the past few years. I didn't realize quite how much work I was anticipating with hosting again, until my mom offered to host and a wave of relief washed over me. Thanks mom!!

We had a marvelous dinner, and Reed even got to have some mashed potatoes with butter as dairy is his new food for the week. Speaking of Reed and eating, he is finally back to enjoying one of life's simple pleasures, eating, which is nice. He stopped letting us feed him when he decided that all we gave him was food that tasted like metal (a result of briefly putting gross formula into his food to try to boost the calorie and protein content; one of our dietician's "brilliant" ideas). Anyway, it took him a few weeks to figure out that we weren't trying to poison him anymore. That and the addition of his new favorite food, saltine crackers.

And a few milestones, Reed has sprouted a top tooth and is standing, unsupported more and more often and for longer periods of time. He now stands for several seconds or as I discovered yesterday, long enough for me to take 4 digital pictures. He has also taken a few lunging steps on two occasions. I haven't seen him accomplish this yet, but I know I will soon!

Beef up the baby???

One of our friends, Luke, left a very good comment on my previous blog entry and I thought it warranted a little more explanation, partly because it may have left some of you scratching your head, and partly because it is an important issue.

I mentioned that Reed's doctors are concerned about his weight gain. But as Luke quite accurately pointed out, the growth charts that the doctors are using are inaccurate for breastfed babies. Most doctors in the US use growth charts that were produced by the CDC and were created from a sample of both breastfed and formula fed babies. This is an unfair comparison for breastfed babies as they don't tend to be as heavy as their formula fed counterparts. Breastfed babies eat exactly as much as they want, and mom is never concerned about baby taking the last ounce, because that's what he normally drinks. There is widespread belief that formula feeding may actually be a contributing factor in the increasing rate of obesity in the US. We are teaching our children from a very young age to ignore their fullness and continue eating becasue there is still food. (Feel free to add more here Luke!)

So, where does Reed fall on the CDC growth curve? He's somewhere below the third percentile. He misses being in the third percentile by little less than a pound (and falls short of the 50th percentile by about 5 pounds). The World Health Organization has created growth charts for babies that are exclusively breastfed (with solids after 6 months). On this growth chart, Reed is in the third percentile. So, is Reed underweight?

After our appointment with Reed's gastroenterologist and dietician, I was really worried about his weight and concerned about some recommendations the dietician had made that I felt were fairly drastic. To get a little perspective, I scheduled an appointment with our pediatrician. He had noticed Reed's weight gain dropping off, but chalked it up to his genetics (Reed will probably never be a huge fellow) and with that in mind, I hadn't been concerned about his weight (until I met with the specialists). This also made me more willing to trust that he would not want Reed to get fat, just so he fit the growth curve.

As I had hoped, our pediatrician offered some comforting information. First off, he compared Reed's weight gain with his growth in inches and the growth of his head. Of these three, only Reed's weight has been drastically dropping through the percentiles. He said that when they see this, it usually means that the baby just isn't getting enough calories. Considering the very limited diet that has been available to Reed, I would not be surprised if this was the case!

The second thing our pediatrician said was that, in the medical profession, they are trained to look for problems in anybody who falls outside the first two standard deviations (above the 97th percentile or below the 3rd). My response to this was, "somebody has to fall outside the first two standard deviations!" and he thoroughly agreed. He noted again, that Reed may always be small, but that it would certainly be worth weighing him again in a month, just to make sure he was gaining at an appropriate rate. (Have I mentioned that I love our pediatrician?)

So, I'll pose the question again; is Reed underweight? My thought is that he might be, considering the ultra-low protein (virtually no protein aside from breastmilk) low fat diet he's been on. As we are able to introduce him to higher calorie foods (that most babies would have been eating for months now) I'll be interested to see if he starts gaining more weight. But should any of us lose any sleep if he stays small? I don't think so!

And now, just because it would hardly be a blog post without them, some pictures!

Happy birthday and good news

Well, Reed's birthday was yesterday and we had a great time. We had my family and a few friends over to dote on Reed. I thought he might be overwhelmed by all the people, but he seemed to take it all in stride. He received lots of wonderful presents. This egg rattle seemed to be the biggest hit last night though (thanks Uncle Brian!!). The activity center here was a close second, although I think Gerry and I may have played with it more than Reed has so far... but he'll catch up!

It seems a little strange to me to have finally reached this stage. During all the stress of Reed's hospital stay after being born, I kept thinking about how, in a year, the nightmare of his time in the neonatal intensive care unit would seem like a distant memory. And now that I'm here, a year away from it, the memories are not as distant as I had thought they would become, but they are also less painful. I'm mainly left with the positive feelings from his stay, the love and help of my family, the wonderful staff at TG and the incredible feeling of being a brand new mother to the most amazing baby in the world.

Today, we made our way back down to Tacoma General (which was an odd coincidence, as it was a year ago today, that Gerry and I made our way down to TG to join Reed). This time, we were there to revisit Reed's gastroenterologist. The good news is that the doctor does not think that Reed is suffering from allergic colitis (apparently this is not a condition they see in older babies). Hooray!! This means he can start eating more new foods (although we still need to introduce them slowly just to be on the safe side). They are still concerned about his weight, so we're going to do our best to beef our little guy up. Thanks to all of you who thought good thoughts for us!

Sometimes, in all the concern about Reed's health, I lose track of the fact that the bottom line is that he's happy. Should you need evidence of his happiness, just watch the video below!

Surprise!

After months of planning, Courtney and I pulled a big surprise for Cammy, just a few weeks shy of her 30th Birthday (when she'll be so old, we won't want to scare her heart anymore). I "Ran to the Store", but in reality picked Courtney up down at the Ferry and brought her home. Cammy didn't even know she was going to be home for a few weeks. I think she was a bit surprised.


Courtney has spent the last year in Ireland, and left just before Reed was born, so this was his first change to meet his Auntie Courtney.

















I think he likes her! Reed has been moving around quite a bit lately. He's pulling himself up on anything he can, and is becoming a master of fooling gravity. He loves to walk around when we hold his hands, and is standing unsupported for a few seconds at a time.