Pictures!

Are you having Zoe withdrawal? No need to fear, the pictures are here!

I posted lots of pictures in the "more pics at photobucket" link.

Enjoy!

Things Zoe Can Do

- Smile. At everybody. If she's really excited to see you she'll even kick her legs, move her arms around and let out a little laugh.
- Hold her head up. Her neck is very strong now and she can hold her head up on her own almost 100% of the time.

- Push up when on her belly. She's not so great at this when she's laying on the floor (she's getting better though). But she's REALLY good at this when being held, even if she's laying on me or Mike when we're laying down flat.

- Eat a lot. She's eating so much better!

- Talk. Okay, she can't say words yet...but she talks a lot. We have conversations all the time. I have no idea what she's saying to me but it's fun having fake conversations with her.

- Follow me and Mike with her eyes when we walk across the room.

- She really likes to eat her hands. At first she would just kind of suck on her hand while it was in a fist. Now she has figured out that if she sticks her pointer finger out, she can suck on it. She does this with both hands. But mainly the left hand. I think she's going to be a lefty like me.
- Zoe has discovered that these things that are always moving in front of her and hitting her face are her arms and hands. Oh, and she can make them move too! She will sit and just stare at her arms held out in front of her. It's so cute. Every once in a while she'll hit her face, I think she's figuring out that they do what she wants them to.
- Hold a pacifier in her mouth. For the longest time she couldn't hold it in her mouth by herself. But she can finally do this. Yessssss. It helps her calm down when she's crying.

The Magic 4

Zoe drank her first 4 ounce bottle today (4 ounces has been the goal for about a month now). This is VERY exciting!

Books and Babies

Yesterday I took Zoe to story time at the local public library. It's called "Books and Babies". It was so much fun. There were interactive songs like "The Wheels on the Bus", drums for the kids to bang on, and rattles. Zoe was all over it. She was the youngest one there (it's for kids up to 18 months old) and she couldn't quite bang on the drums yet or hold the rattles but she LOVED the music. She danced and kicked her little legs all over while sitting in my lap. It was a blast.

"Never A Dull Moment" Post Update

A lot has happened since I made the "Never A Dull Moment" post. I'll start with the weekend after I wrote that post:

Zoe vomited all weekend long, pretty much every time we fed her. I know it's normal for babies to spit up, but this was emptying her stomach, I had to change her clothes as well as mine and clean up the chair every time it happened, spit up. That's not normal. But it did look like spit up which was a good thing (not green, bloody, etc.). Even though she was emptying her stomach she still didn't eat very much (you'd think she would have been more hungry than usual).

So, her doctor called me on Monday morning to see how the weekend went with the low birth weight formula. I told him about Zoe's vomiting and not eating very much. He had us go in to his office that day so he could take a look at her.

During that visit he suggested to me that we get some tests done (including the ultrasound) to see if we could tell if there is a neurological connection as to why Zoe doesn't eat much or maybe a genetic condition of some sort. All the extra testing would be done via blood samples. But also if the ultrasound came back abnormal in any way then we would need to get more testing done. He explained to me that we could do this all as an outpatient but it might take a couple weeks to get it done because we would have to schedule everything. However, if we admitted Zoe to the hospital we could get it all done right away and we could also get her on some fluids because of the vomiting and not eating. I agreed that admitting Zoe to the hospital was better so off we went.

Lisa and Megan drove up to spend the night in the hospital with me and Zoe. Thank goodness. I did NOT like seeing Zoe with the fluid IVs in her. While we were there we decided to do a CT scan instead of an ultrasound because it's a more in depth scan. I was able to be in the room while they did the procedure. Zoe slept through it but I was SO scared. I couldn't believe my 2 month old daughter was getting a CT scan!

The results from the CT scan were normal. Whew. And so far all the blood tests have come back normal. Whew. So as far as we can tell there is no neurological connection with Zoe's lack of appetite. There also is no excess fluid around her brain (causing her head and soft spots to be so large). We're still waiting to hear back from some of the Chromosome tests to see if there if a genetic condition that would cause her to not want to eat...or maybe why she's still so tiny (duh, it's because she doesn't eat).

So basically Zoe just doesn't eat very much and is tiny. But she's developing normally in all other areas. She smiles, lifts her head, she looks around and can see and follow objects.

We stayed in the hospital Monday night and Zoe was released Tuesday. On Friday I took her back to the doctor and she weighed 8lbs 4oz. She gained weight!

Zoe also got her 2 month immunization shots on Friday. She cried and cried and cried. It was so sad. The shots made her sick for a couple days but she's feeling much better now.

One more thing. Mike and I think that she was vomiting all last weekend because we fed her too much formula and not enough breast milk. The formula was a lot heavier than the breast milk and since she was used to eating mostly breast milk it was just too hard on her stomach. Now we feed her only 1 or 2 formula bottles a day. She has vomited a couple times since last weekend but not too often. I'm not scared to hold her anymore. :)

Time Flies

I made an observation today.

Today was only the second Sunday since Zoe was born in which we were able to stay for all three hours of church. We made it through the first week we took Zoe to church (when she was a couple weeks old...she slept through the entire thing). Since then we've had to leave for various reasons: Zoe drank all the milk we brought for her, all the diapers/extra outfits were used up, etc.). Today was different though, we brought enough extras...we were determined to make it through.

Now to my observation: church goes by REALLY fast now.

During sacrament meeting Mike had to take Zoe outside because she was screaming so loud. Then he switched with me so I could feed Zoe in the mother's lounge.

During Sunday school Zoe got really fussy again so I took her into the hall where she wouldn't bother anybody (I found an empty classroom and sang her to sleep (I'm glad nobody could hear me)).

During Relief Society Zoe had a messy diaper then wanted to eat, so we spent the time in the mother's lounge again.

Though Mike and I each missed a lot of the speakers and lessons, we still got more out of it than we would have if we had just gone or stayed home.

It was a good day...a REALLY fast good day.

Family Photos

Here are some family pictures we had taken for Zoe's one month anniversary:

Never A Dull Moment

During our drive up to Charlotte I noticed in one of Zoe's wet diapers that there was an orange spot. It looked as if somebody had been eating Cheetos and then touched her diaper. I was the one that had put her diaper on, and I hadn't eaten any Cheetos. Weird. But we were on the road and it didn't seem odd enough to warrant finding an emergency room to go to. So we moved on.

Last week I noticed another spot of orange during a wet diaper change. Hmmm. Zoe needs her two month appointment anyways, I figured I would mention it during the visit.

I've been having a hard time finding a doctor. It's scary to go to a new doctor blind, not knowing anything about him or her.

Last night there were two orange spots in Zoe's diaper. So today I called a doctor who a lady at church uses. They had us take Zoe in for a check-up.

The doctor (who I really liked, by the way) said that it is most likely a metabolic issue with her liver. Because Zoe's body is so new, her kidneys just didn't filter that out so little bits are coming through her urine. He said it's no big deal and it will go away. If it still happens when Zoe is older (toddler) then we might need to get concerned about it.

Overall Zoe seems to be moving along just fine. She is smiling a lot. She recognizes me and Mike and can follow us with her eyes. She now weighs 8lbs. She's 20 inches long. She was determined healthy at the appointment today. Except she still has a really big head. Her height and weight are around the 15th percentile and her head is around the 60th percentile. Ugh. The doctor suggested to us that we get an ultrasound done on Zoe's head just to make sure nothing is going on (i.e. excess fluid). Since he was not the first of her doctors to mention an ultrasound, and since we are overly concerned parents who want to make sure everything is okay, we decided to go for it.

So, Zoe will be getting her ultrasound on Monday...Mike's first day of work...me by myself...ahhh! Hopefully Lisa and Megan (who live in South Carolina) will be able to drive up and spend the day with me. Not that I wouldn't be able to handle the ultrasound by myself, it'll just be nice to have extra eyes and ears (and besides, I look for excuses to hang with Lisa and Megan all the time).

The doctor also gave us some formula for preemie/low weight babies. He suggested we feed her one or two bottles of that each day. He also suggested that I use the formula as an opportunity to take a break from pumping. I've been having a rigorous cycle of: feed Zoe--sit Zoe up for 30 minutes so she doesn't spit it all up--change Zoe's diaper--pump--take a break for an hour--feed Zoe, etc. This means not much sleeping and not a whole lot of down time. (Mike does help with the feedings a lot (advantage of bottle feeding)). Zoe eats breast milk better than formula though so it's worth it. But I'll give this new stuff a try.

The doctor wants to see Zoe again at the end of next week to see how much she has grown since today so he can get a good handle on her growth and also to give her the two month immunization shots.

Zoe's Lullaby

Don't let these photos fool you! She doesn't really sleep that much. She likes to be heard!