Four Whole Months?!?

Well....Joe turned four months old this week. Four months! That's one third of a year! It's shocking for me to say this now, but I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. If you had asked me one month in, I couldn't have imagined how well we all would have adjusted in just four months. Actually, I probably would have said I didn't know if I'd make it four months! (I couldn't see past the sleepless nights at that point)

He's grown so much! We don't know exactly how much he weighs but he is definitely filling out his 3 month clothes and he's got chunky little legs, arms and cheeks now! He goes to the doctor on Monday for his 4 month vaccinations so we'll have the official results then. I can't wait to see! And yet....sometimes I'm so sad to see him growing up. Everyday he looks more and more like a little boy.

For any Aggie's out there, you'll appreciate that he had his first trip to Freebirds (burritos for anyone not familiar). He slept through the entire visit. I had him in the sling and as loud as it is in there, he slept like a log. THAT's how much he loved Freebirds. I'm sure he'll be a regular.....once he's on solid foods that is.

We also went to the day care center Joe will be attending and met his teachers. The class is really small. There are four babies (all boys) and two teachers. He'll have lots of time to play and will even be learning sign language. I can't wait to see how that works! He starts day care on August 3rd, but Grandma will be staying for a while to pick him up half day and ease him in gently. He's a really easy going baby, so hopefully it will be an easy transition. I really don't know how we are going to do mornings once Grandma leaves. Mom and Dad are going to have to do alot more planning ahead of time....for sure.

Joe's been really busy lately. Here are a few of his latest activities:

• Watching TV - It's facinating. He will just stare at the TV when we turn on Noggin. If we are holding him and we turn away from the TV, he will turn his whole body around to watch it again!
• Touching EVERYTHING with his feet - he loves to touch leaves and push around papers and kick around in the sink water.
• He's starting to reach for things and grab a hold of toys. He doesn't have great control over his hands yet, but he's learning.
• Talking - he loves to tell me about his day when I get home from work. He even makes facial expressions to go along with the stories. Its so convincing! I think he'll be talking soon. He clearly has a lot to say.
• Hugging - ok...this one may just be accidentally on his part, but I love it anyway. So does Grandma.
• Teething - we think he's started teething. He's chewing on his hands and our hands, drooling like crazy and crying like he's in pain until he starts chewing on something. I think it's too early for this....I hope that doesn't mean it will go on for longer than it needs to.

Alex and Maddie are on vacation this week in California and I know Joe misses them. They are having tons of fun, but I'm sure he'll be so excited to see them when they come back tomorrow and happy, happy, happy their back.

What's been going on with us lately

My niece and nephew, Easton and Lauren, came to visit from San Diego. We were so excited to see them and they were so excited to meet Joe for the first time! It's been about 7 months since we've spent time with them. We took them to visit NASA and The Children's Museum and rode the train in Hermann Park. Mostly, we did a lot of swimming since its been SO hot here and Joe got to show off his new water moves. He's a natural if I do say so myself.

We attempted to take Joe to his first July 4th fireworks show. I say attempted, because we were great all the way up until about 5 minutes before we needed to leave. Then the meltdown ensued. Needless to say Alex, Maddie and Paul had to go without us. We did manage to get a really cute picture of him in his "All American Hunk" outfit that was purchased just for the occasion.

The major news of the week is that we had Joe's follow up appointment with his pulmonologist to take a reading from his monitor and see if he has officially been episode free for a month. And the verdict is.....YES! NO MORE MONITOR! He's a free baby! I think Mommy and Daddy are happier than him. He actually didn't seem bothered by it at all. He didn't even wake up when the alarms went off....but we sure did.

For anyone keeping track, Joe is now 11 lb and growing like a weed. He looks so "healthy" these days. I visited a friend of mine who just had a baby on July 3 and her daugher is about 6.5 lb. She looked incredibly tiny. It's hard to remember that Joe was even smaller than that! We were so excited when he reached 5 lb when we brought him home and look at him now! Amazing how time flies and how fast they grow. Everyone always says that but now that I'm living it I can see how very true it is.

I promise to do better about writing posts. I really never realized how very little time I'd have to do these things once I went back to work. But I quickly found out.

Just Chillin'

This picture is from this past weekend. Alex went in to check on him when he was napping in his bassinet and found him like this. We were hysterical!

First Week Back at Work and Update on The Monitor

June 15 was my first day back at work after having spent 12 weeks at home with Joe (with the exception of the first two and half weeks he spent in the NICU). I will say that the first month after he was born was tough and I was exhausted. At that point, work sounded like a vacation. But as Joe and I got to know each other and we started settling in...I just didn't want to leave him! At the same time, I missed having a routine and I love and missed the people I work with. I'm finding now how hard it is to acheive a work/life balance and that you just can't do any of it perfectly. I'll have to keep working on that...

That being said, I really thought my first day of work would be tough. However, I was at peace with it all because I knew he was in the best hands possible (if it wasn't going to be mine or Paul's). He was with Grandma Lesley (my Mom)! That first day, she sat outside on the rocking chair with him to greet me when I got home. And it was such a special greeting....I'll never, ever forget it. He was facing away from me when I drove up and when I got out of the car, I said "Well hello little one!" When he heard my voice, his little lip stuck out and started quivering. He still hadn't seen me. Then I went over and picked him up and his whole face lit up. He got a giant grin on his face and he reached out and touched my face. It was priceless and so worth the day away from him just to get that reaction. It was honestly the first time I realized that he knew me and that I was someone special to him (and not just the "grocery lady" as my NICU nurse friend, Jill, used to say). I suppose I'd never really been away from him for more than an hour prior to that for him to have an opportunity to miss me.

Grandma is such a wonderful teacher! I come home every day and she's had him on another adventure! He's learned how to slam the shutters down with his feet. He's made friends with the bushes in the back yard. He's been on lots of walks, and even loves "running" in the pool! Grandma likes to say he's "brilliant." I think I'll agree.

As for the monitor, the doctor said he has to keep it on until he's been episode free for 4 weeks. We go back on July 8 to get the latest reading and see how he's been doing. When we went last time, he had been episode free for 2 weeks..... Keep your fingers crossed everyone!

Mafiapalooza

So, this past weekend we attended the retirement party of my mother-in-law, Lesley, which was held at the Ft. Hood army base in the quaint little town of Kileen, TX. As a side note, I fondly refer to Kileen, my wife's home town, as a "town," while she refers to it as a "city." I had to explain to her that when your town's number one employer (outside of Uncle Sam) is WalMart, then you in fact reside within a town and not a city. Seriously though, I do this more as a jab at my wife, because... well because I like to, that's why. She quite often rebuts my claims by noting that Kileen's population was last calculated at around 110,000. And despite the fact that this is about 10,000 more than they get for a Saturday afternoon football game in Ann Arbor, that is most impressive. With all that being said, I should probably get back to the party. Now, I had always wondered exactly what type of teacher Lesley was, but upon being greeted by the loudest and most intrusive mariachi band known to man, I came to the conclusion that she must have just spent the past 21 years as an instructor at Kileen's finest bull fighting academy. Now, I like a good mariachi with my chips and salsa now and then, don't get me wrong, but this seemed a bit out of place.

My mind was put at ease however when it was explained to me that the school of note was fondly known amongst its peers as "The Hispanic Mafia." I'm still not sure if that is in reference to the high percentage of Hispanic-Americans within its student population and faculty, or rather the high level of organized crime operating within its walls, but either way, I think it set the stage for a great party. I anticipated that the remaining acts would follow suit and stick to the festive mariachi mafia theme, but alas, I was soon proved very, very wrong. We were soon treated to an energetic performance by a group of Hawaiian dancers, which I can only assume was inspired by the Honolulu Cartel, also know as the school's janitorial staff. They performed what they described as a tribute to the various Hawaiian islands and landmarks, which would have been fine had I known there were more than 4,000 documented Hawaiian islands and landmarks. Now, i'm not going to say it went on forever, but after the second intermission, I was looking all over for the mariachi band.

Now I jest, mostly because I can, but it was actually a very special night. Lesley was fondly honored by her peers and district administration, and was even allowed the chance to speak at the podium. It was a first rate event that was well deserved after 21 years of service in what I have always said is one of the most important and underappreciated professions in the world, bull fighter, er... I mean teacher.

Congrats, Lesley. We can't wait to hear what your second career will bring.

Paul

That Darned Monitor

The monitor.....oh, the monitor. As I mentioned in my last post, Joe came home from the hospital on an apnea monitor. It consists of a band wrapped around his chest with two sensors that alarm if either his heart rate goes up or down beyond a certain threshold or if he stops breathing for 20 seconds. And the sensors are attached to a monitor that is in a carry bag about the size of a camcorder. I'd say it's about 5 pounds.

That alarm is LOUD. So loud that you can hear it from any room in the house and Maddie woke up in the middle of the night when it went off one night thinking it was a fire alarm. Besides it being loud, it's really cumbersome to carry the baby and the monitor around everywhere. The bigger he gets, the heavier baby + accessories become. As you can imagine, I'm anxious to have an untethered baby!

Over time, since he came home, the alarms have been going off less and less frequently to the point that it rarely went off at all! So we had the data pulled and analyzed so that the doctor could look it over and see if he still needed to be on it at all. I went on May 22 and unfortunately she hadn't received the results yet, but based on what I was telling her, she said he only had to have the monitor on at night. Woooo-hoooo! THAT I can handle!

Then on June 1, we got the call that based on the analysis she was finally able to review, he needs to go BACK on the monitor all the time and we have to go see a Pediatric Pulmonary specialist. Boo. Back to baby on a rope.

The Past Two(ish) Months

As most everyone knows by now, we had a BABY! What I'm not sure if everyone knows is how it was that he got to be here so darn early (besides the obvious....that he couldn't wait to meet us). Well, here's that story....

On March 18, I had a doctors appointment. On my way in, I started noticing that something wasn't right. The doctor sent me over to the hospital to be checked out on the monitors and lo and behold I was having contractions. Normally that might have been exciting news....in this case, baby was 7 weeks early and we wanted him to cook a little longer before coming to join us! The doctors spent the next three days trying to stop the contraction to no avail and baby Joe joined the world on Saturday March 21.

That morning was crazy! Both Grandmas just happened to be there when the doctor decided it was time. Paul had only just arrived back to the hospital from going home to change clothes. I just kept thinking....no, it's not time! It's only March! We have until May to get everything done! Not so. We didn't even have time to call anyone before hand and let them know it was happening. Needless to say, everyone was as shocked as we were.

Joseph Paul Spanos (Joe)
March 21, 2009 11:46 am
4 lb 6.4 oz
17 3/4 in

This picture is of him just after he was born when they brought him to the NICU. Notice how the preemie diaper doesn't even fit him.

With his proud big sisters Alex and Maddie

With Grandma Lesley. Look how tiny he is!

With Mommy the night he was born. I was still so out of it I could barely hold him. Paul convinced the nurse in the NICU to bring him to see me since I'd only gotten to see him for a minute or so right after he was born.

With Do (spelling????) - Doesn't he look proud?

And he's in his isolette here (also known as an incubator). He still had his IV in here. That's what the white arm brace is.


Luckily, he came out screaming (and biting the doctor) and had healthy lungs despite his early arrival. Even so, he had to spend the next two and a half weeks in the NICU being monitored for his heart rate and breathing and learning how to eat. (He was first eating through a tube in his nose.) Before he was allowed to leave the NICE, they had Paul and I spend the night there taking care of him for 24 hours under their monitoring to ensure he was going to be eating sufficiently and not having any other issues. They also had to do a carseat challenge to make sure that he fit ok and didn't have any breathing problems in the seat before they'd let him leave. Fortunately we passed the parent test (whew!) and were allowed to bring our new baby boy home on April 8! This is a picture of his first carseat experience during the challenge. Can you tell how happy he was??

When he left the NICU, he was just about 5 pounds. Since he's been home, he's been eating like a champ (Mommy and Daddy have the bags under their eyes to prove it) and gaining weight like crazy! As of his two month doctors appointment on May 22, he was 7 lb 12.5 oz!!! He's finally the size of a newborn and it only took him two months to get there!

We've been having a lot of fun getting him situated into the household. Alex and Maddie are so great with him and they love to help out and hold him and take care of him. All except diapers....we haven't convinced them that they can change a diaper yet. One day.....

Here are some more recent pictures. Look how much he's grown!

Grandma Sherri just can't get enough of him!

Alex and Maddie lovin' on their brother

He LOVES his bathtime!!! This was at 8 weeks old.

Joe "sitting up" in the Boppy for the first time. Paul likes to say he looks like he was watching the Rockets game or something. He was 6 wks old here.

Joe and Grandpa Jim (staring contest)


Time sure flies. I'm headed back to work on June 15. Thankfully Mom (Grandma Lesley) will be here to take care of Joe for a few months until he can start day care. I'm so excited to have her coming here. I just wish I didn't have to go back to work yet. Where have all the weeks gone?

More to come from The Family Spanos! Take care all! --Nikki