reuben's adventure

We all hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I know that ours was an absolute joy. Of course, everyday with Reuben is an absolute joy so we are a bit spoiled. Jonna's parents and grandmother came up to have Christmas dinner which was nice.

Reuben is 7 months now and he is starting to show some "stranger anxiety" When other people hold him he kind of swivels his head around looking for Jonna or I. I would be lying if I didn't say it feels pretty special. To be that important to someone, to see his eyes light-up when he catches our attention....it is all the most wonderful Christmas gift.

Having a child has been the most amazing experience ever - and I am not even talking about the terror inducing first 80 days! He is always changing, always surprising me, and always bring a smile to my face - and anyone who can make me smile at 3:30 in the morning must have magical powers! It has only been 7 months and already I have forgotten what the world was like without him....although I think it had a lot less stuff all over the floors and no attachment on the toilet for spraying off poopy diapers! I know that is cliche stuff to say but Christmas brings it out in me, sorry.

Much love and holiday cheer from the Higgins-Freese family - Reuben, Eric, Jonna, JD, Carrie, Bea, and Annabelle

I must say that I almost like going to the doctor with Reuben now.  I think it is pretty normal that for the first bit of his life I really never enjoyed seeing the doctors.  In the NICU days when the doctors were not hovering around were the good days because it meant he was doing ok.  However since getting out all his visits have been stellar.

Today was Reuben's "high risk" infant follow-up and it involved lots of laughing, picture taking, and general good cheer!  He impressed the heck out of them with his sitting up, interest in the world, his laugh, and how well he did off the oxygen.  Dr. Lepp said more than once that Reuben was the type of baby he wouldn't mind having around all day.  He smiled and giggled for everyone (Reuben not Dr. Lepp...he was just generally happy).  

On the practical side nothing really changed.  Reuben is staying on the same oxygen through the winter - mostly has support so he can devote all those extra calories to healing.  We are DCing the lansoprozal which was for acid reflux.  He hardly every throws up (never say never with a baby) so it really didn't serve much purpose.  We will continue the enriched feedings but we are increasing them to 450ml a day!  It is going to be a good trick to get that much extra food in him - 450ml is about 13oz. but we will find a way.  

For fun we are going to expand the solid foods to twice a day and try some different foods. So far he thinks solid food is much less interesting to put in his mouth than the newspaper (or toys, or magazines, or plates, or the keyboard...well almost anything)  Hopefully he will start to find new tastes as fascinating as his toes...actually I doubt he will every find something as interesting as his toes, but hopefully he will at least like it!

All in all it was a great visit.   

Eric, Jonna and Reuben 

For those of you who aren't Star Trek fans, Kardassians look a lot like humans, but have a little bump right between their eyebrows.  Reuben does look exactly like a Kardassian in the wake of his first real baby "booboo." Yesterday he was sitting up and leaning forward on his arms, which he's getting pretty good at.   All of a sudden he decided to move his arms and -bonk- straight down on his forehead. He immediately got a knot right between his eyes that's a little bruised. He stopped crying after about 20 seconds, but I put ice on it and called the Family Practice nurse. I knew in my heart that it was okay, but I was just really freaked out. One upside of all of Reuben's medical issues is that we've never had to deal with anything without a doctor just a few steps away, and it took me a while to convince myself that it WAS just a boo-boo. It doesn't even show up enough to take a picture.

In other news, Reuben had gained 7 oz. when Tai was here on Wednesday, which is 2 ounces more than the minimum they'd like to see. Apparently increasing his enriched hung feedings and making sure I'm always here at nursing time is making a difference, so we'll keep up with that.

We're also giving Reuben a bit of solid food every day. He's tried rice cereal mixed with his enriched mother's milk, as well as mashed bananas. He is definitely following the "Kid Manual" on this one, Rule #42: "Put everything in your mouth except food." You can just see him thinking, "Newspaper? Shove it on in. Mommy's hair? Delicious. Mashed bananas? Hey! What are mommy and daddy trying to pull?

Love,

Jonna, Eric, and Reuben

Reuben obviously doesn't understand his role as an American.  At his 6 month "well baby" check-up* Reuben was calculated to only be gaining 5 grams a day average which is not as much as we want.  A normal baby would be gaining 20-30 a day at 6 months of age.  I really wish he would read all the articles about how Americans are obese and getting larger.  He just doesn't have an interest in food.  I worry that we will go to MacDonalds and he will order fruit instead of fries!  :)  I keep trying to explain how he should want to put butter on everything, how a double quarter pounder is almost not enough but he won't listen. 

So now, like good parents we are sneaking extra food into him at night! We have increased his enriched feedings from 330ml (about 10 ounces) to 400ml (about 12 ounces).  Hopefully he will be able to put all that extra food straight into wonderful baby fat!

*I find it very ironic that we have a "well baby" check up one week and then a "high risk" infant follow-up a couple weeks later!