Pulling up!

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First Haircut

I finally caved in last week and took monkey to have his hair cut. I wanted to wait until he was a year old, but we just couldn't stand his "comb over" any longer. He truly was sporting the Donald Trump hair. Mrs. Rina made a special trip in to her shop on a day it was closed so we could minimize Carter's exposure to so many people. Monkey was such a good boy sitting on Brad's lap while Rina snipped away at his hair, although she did have to give him his own comb (yes, it was sterilized) so he'd stop grabbing at hers.

Monkey meets Sean-Bear

I guess now that we've begun to live a "normal" life, we forget that there are so many of you who have yet to meet little man. Today, we met our friends Dawn and Sean at the park ~ Matt couldn't make it and he sure did miss a good time, although Carter did get to talk to him on the phone (see below). I'm very proud of myself for not wiping down every surface of the park with antibacterial wipes! This was their first time meeting C and it was his first time at a park. Sean showed Carter the turtles and tadpoles in the little pond and is going to be a great big-buddy as they grow older. Thanks so much for meeting us ~ can't wait to do it again soon.

Sorry it's very picture heavy, but when you put two mommas together, you get lots of pics :)

"Hey Mr. Matt! Wanna come play?"

Lovin' on Mrs. Dawn


What a fun Daddy!

Beach Baby loved the sand

Happy Father's Day

hi everyone, it's me, carter. mom and dad are sleeping, so lucy and i are up playing on the computer again. i wanted to say "happy daddy's day" to the best daddy in the whole world ~ MY daddy! i am finally figuring these two people out and boy do i have them wrapped around my finger. they've been trying to get me to say "dada" for a few weeks now ~ ever since i said "mama" to win her over. you noticed that after i said "mama" she gave me chocolate icing, right?

i've been practicing when they aren't around, which is hardly ever. (do these people have a life outside of me? they really need to listen to davis's mommy & daddy and go out to dinner) i decided that if i said "dada" this weekend, i could win him over, too, and it would be the best present in the world. so, today, i was talking and just started babbling "dada dada dada." i think it really made daddy happy!

so happy daddy's day, dada. thanks for everything you do for me, especially cleaning my "p-ewes" in my diaper and my pukes.

i love you,
carter

p.s. lulu says she loves you, too. that's why she licks your knees all the time.

Like Father, Like Son

I blame Bennett (Brad's mom) for the chocolate obsession in my house :)

I made some "practice" cupcakes for C's birthday tonight and the two boys in my life were practically fighting over the chocolate icing spatula with Grandma Bennett in the middle! (by the way, homemade icing is waaaay better than store bought ~ Yummy!) Carter's first taste of chocolate icing was a big hit! (and I was worried he wouldn't want to eat his birthday cake...)

I promise these pictures were not staged...it just happened and of course, we ran to grab the camera.

Brad, a looooooong time ago with Bennett--the start of the obsessionContinuing the tradition...

And, just some cuteness...

Little Monkey climbing the walls!
"Hey! What 'cha doing on the floor, Lucy?"

Who Says I Have An Aversion?

"I'm telling Mommy you're on the couch, Lucy!"

Carter is starting to sit up on his own and weight bare on his arms. He's very weak in his upper body and abdomen, so this is a great sign. All those exercises are paying off!

Almost there...

"I did it!"

We have a local restaurant that gives Dum-Dum suckers with your meal. We had take-out from there last night and Carter seemed interested in the Dum-Dum, so just to see what he'd do with it, we gave him one. I think we created a monster! (don't worry-we didn't leave him unattended with it and he only took a few licks before we took it away from him)

The Reflux Monster is still here. He hides under the couch at night and comes out during the day. To those of you who have been there and have given us advice and hope--THANK YOU! This is just a sampling of our day to show you what I'm talking about. The orange highlites NG feeds and the blue highlites puke sessions after each feed. This does not even show the number of times he pukes a day--just when he does so in connection with a feed.

I Caught It!

Carter's FIRST TOOTH! Thanks to Brad's antics, I finally caught it on camera :)

Laughing, eating, and trying to crawl

I can't keep up with Carter--I think he does something new every day! He's almost 7 months old and we are finding that he gets bored VERY easily now. Keeping him entertained all day is getting very interesting, but also so much fun! Oh, and he's developing quite a little attitude, especially when you take something away from him that he wants. He must still think he's in the NICU and has those Nurses wrapped around his little finger!

This is what he does when you say "Cheese!"

We still go to see Mrs. Leah (OT) twice a week. One day she works on PO feeding with the bottle and formula and the other day we work on PO feeding with pureed solids. She also sprinkles in lots of work on rolling, sitting, strength, etc. Today, Carter showed off for her and took 10 bites of sweet potato! She seems very encouraged with this new development and we're hoping this will continue to improve and will also be the bridge we need to teach Carter what to do when he gets liquids in his mouth so he can move on to a sippy cup. He's also improving on his trunk strength and we're hoping he'll be able to sit on his own soon. He's started standing a lot, especially when we try to sit him down. He'll lock his legs and stand up. Leah and Carter's PT said this is a big No-No for Carter, as are Jumpers and Bouncers. Essentially he's standing b/c it's easy and sitting is hard work--standing up and locking his body allows him to avoid "working." Little stinker is outsmarting us at each step!

After working with Mrs. Leah, Carter came home and tried out crawling. Of course, he won't do this when he's in therapy! He's funny because he can't quite coordinate himself and his arms aren't strong enough to support him for very long, so he gets mad. Here are some pictures of his attempt to crawl.

My failed attempt to capture the tooth on camera!

This is what happened when I was trying to take pictures...someone grabbed the camera strap!

I could listen to this laugh all day long!

News Snippets

• Carter fell asleep for the first time on his tummy tonight! We are very nervous about it, but no matter how many times I put him on his back, he rolled to his tummy before I could make it back to the couch. I've been told that it will help with his reflux, so I'm all for it if it helps.
• Carer has another new trick as of tonight--throwing his paci out of the crib!
• Sofia is scheduled for her 3rd reherniation repair tomorrow (finally!!). We will be checking in all day. If you want updates, Jen will be posting them to the blog via Twitter. http://www.sofiascdhstory.com/
• Way to go Riley (he was Carter's NICU roomie at Duke). He had a follow-up clinic appointment today and gained over a POUND in less than 2 weeks!!! He struggles with GI issues and weight gain so this is to be celebrated!! http://lindseysouza.blogspot.com/
• Carter Adler (CDH baby born a few days ago at Cincinnati Children's) seems to be doing well. He's on minimal stimulation and is highly sedated, but is stable. Carrie was discharged from the hospital Tuesday so she'll be able to spend more time with him. They have posted pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/CarterAdler
• I told you about Ella and the baby her parents, Josh & Tina, were expecting. During the ultrasound on Monday, they found out the baby is a little boy, but also discovered that he no longer had a heartbeat. Tina delivered their son Tuesday. Many thoughts and prayers go out to their family during this time of grieving. http://ellawest.com/?p=3911

Lots of stuff to talk about

It's time for another Carter update and we have so much to report. I'll try to do a quick rundown so there's room for pictures.

• We spent Easter week in Ohio with the Dreyers and while we were up there, we took Carter to Cincinnati Children's Hospital for a consultation with their neonatologist/therapy/nutrition team. They gave us lots of suggestions and thought he looks great! They were very impressed that he has no pulmonary issues. He flirted with all the ladies and made lots of friends. We decided to make the 12 hour drive up there overnight and Carter slept the entire drive. Those NG tube feeds come in handy on long trips :) Nash and Kelly were so sweet to let us crash with them and fed us lots of yummy food--Skyline Chili and ribs from Montgomery Inn. Ella and Will were great entertainment and Carter really enjoyed watching them play. I think he was in awe because he's never really been around little kids before. Luckily, they were out of school for Spring Break, so they didn't expose Carter to those icky munchkin germs. Brad even had the honor of watching "High School Musical 3" with Ella!

• Carter started trying to combat crawl while we were in Ohio while reaching for Ella & Will's Easter eggs!
  
• Carter's FIRST tooth popped through today! I will try to catch a photo, but everytime we try to see it, Carter sticks out his tongue.
  
• He had his FIRST well-baby check at the pediatrician today. It's a small world because his pediatrician told us that she went to medical school in Louisville with the neonatologist we saw in Cincinnati! Carter weighed in at 15 pounds, 6 ounces and 26 1/2 inches long. That's a 1/2 pound gain in a week. He also got his 6 month vaccinations, so he was not a happy baby.
  
• We have been given about 3 months to make progress with his feeds before it's time for the g-tube. The team at Cincinnati say the "window" of feeds is around 9-10 months and if he's not PO feeding by then, it's time for a g-tube. I think the team at Duke agrees, except they don't think we should wait that long.
  
• He's now on 26 kcal/oz formula (normal formula is 20 kcal/oz) and we were able to cut back on the volumes just slightly to 800 mLs/day. The goal is to get to 900 mLs/day but we have to make those adjustments very slowly.
  

And now for many pictures because I just couldn't decide which ones to post...

Prayer Bear "Hope" went on the trip, too! Hope spent every single day in Carter's bed in the NICU so we feel like she's our lucky charm.

Will got out his Doctor kit and checked Carter's heart. Sounds good!
Ella buried Carter in all of her stuffies while he laughed and laughed. Can you find him?

Trying to crawl!Kelly & I went shopping and found these monkey sunglasses