six months old

Sibyl is six months old. The time has gone by so quickly! We've all adjusted to the routine of going to school and both girls love their classrooms. Sibyl has two teeth coming in and possibly a third. She has started eating peas, green beans, oatmeal, and cream of wheat. Everything that comes close to her has to be in her mouth so she is pretty easy to feed. 

I am pretty sure Sibyl is left-handed. They say that you aren't supposed to know until they're older, but she goes for everything with her left hand... it just seems obvious to me. Some of her favorite things are: blowing raspberries, whacking toys on different surfaces to hear the sounds they make, putting everything in her mouth, and being sung to. Iris sings this song to her, thanks to Bubble Guppies. 

Evan has started his new job and his level of stress has plummeted, partially because he works from home primarily, but mostly because he no longer is working on nights and weekends. He has read maybe 3 books (for pleasure) since he started about four weeks ago. Two of those are: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time by Arianna Huffington. 

For my part, I've submitted a first final draft of my dissertation to my advisor. I have lots of work to do still, but I plan to defend my dissertation before October so I can graduate in December. Once I'm done with it, I've decided to take up a couple hobbies: crocheting and photography. 

six months old

sisters

news

Iris had a pulmonary check up at the end of July. The visit itself was pretty uneventful, so really, no news is good news. Iris is making progress on coming off the oxygen. She is down to 1/8LPM and is frequently pulling the cannula out of her nose. This is a good sign, because it means she doesn't want the extra help. She puts the cannula back in her nose when she needs it. Last night I asked her to put it in her nose, and she did it pretty easily. She is also at the stage where she is shaking her head, "no," so if she doesn't want it in her nose, she makes it very clear by squirming, flailing her hands, and shaking her head.

As far as her growth goes, it's looking great. The nurse didn't do her weight quite right -- she forgot to account for the diaper Iris was wearing. But basically, everything is looking really good.  Notice that on the length-for-age chart (the last chart) that she is basically off the curve. She is very tall. (I can access these charts from her hospital chart online. They don't make all the doctors' notes available to us online, but the charts are fun to look at.)

Going back to the hospital for our clinic visits is always a surreal experience, and I expect it will be forever. Every time I see the logo and pull in to the parking lot, I have little flashbacks to the weeks we spent in the hospital.

It's a nice logo, right? Playful, hopeful. It has to be because after a (short) while in the hospital, you realize how much pain and sadness lives there, too. Thankfully, we have a lot of hope and the pain and sadness lessens with each day. Even so, it would be very easy to fall into self-pity, especially when worn down due to sleeplessness or other stressors.

The second bit of news I have to share is: I got a job. A full-time job. I'm very excited about the basics of the job, and also about the people I'll be working with. They are letting me start part-time while I get care situated for Iris. Our nanny, who is wonderful, isn't available full-time, and she just finished massage therapy school, so wants to pursue that.

The last several days have been stressful because I have been screening potential nannies and have been looking at in-home childcare options, as well as day care centers. A bit of advice to everyone: Google yourself every once in a while -- it's amazing what I've been able to find out about some of these possible nannies based on their names, location, and sometimes a phone number. It's very easy to decide which ones I don't want to hire after I see what they're talking about on Twitter, for example. My current nanny posts things about accepting yourself for who you are, being helpful to others, and generally inspiring things. She's great.

lows & highs

When I was in college my roommates and I had a weekly roommate dinner. During that time we'd share our weekly highs & lows. For this post I'll start with some lows and end on highs.

Iris seems to have had an SVT episode last night. She's on medication that is supposed to keep them from happening, but it's possible that it's not working as well since she's gotten bigger and is on the low end of the dosage. Apparently it's possible to have SVT episodes that go by totally unnoticed by parents. But in Iris's case she screams at the top of her lungs and can't stop crying for the duration of the episode. This is what happened last night around 9:30. Evan and I were both asleep and she started wailing out of nowhere. We tried some Vegel maneuvers on her, which slow the heart down. I've seen her heart rate get up in the 220 range. When she sleeps she's averaging about 100 these days and when we finally were able to get a reading on her last night she was at 170. We don't know for sure that it was an SVT episode but it seems likely, mostly because there's nothing else that we can think of to explain it.

Yesterday morning we had an appointment with genetics. Her first round of genetic testing showed no abnormalities, which is a relief. However the geneticist suggested we get additional testing to see whether Iris has some other syndromes that would change her future care. The idea is that she might be more susceptible to aneurysms. I was dismayed to hear this...I want to believe that the worst is behind us, but I have the nagging suspicion that it is not and I frequently wonder whether Evan and I will outlive our daughter.  

After we were done with the appointment, Iris and I walked [well, she sat in the stroller] across the Anschutz Medical Campus to get food at Udi's. I became very wistful when I saw all the people there taking breaks from their jobs. It's very difficult for me not to have any kind of professional life right now. Yes, I love spending time with Iris but the days can be very long and there's a constant feeling that I'm not spending enough time with her when I try to do other work.  

Something that is both a high and a low: Evan has been working really, really hard. I think I write that in almost every post. Despite the diluvial rains he managed to stain our interior doors in the garage and finished installing the kitchen cabinets. I'm grateful that he has worked so hard on the house but he has worn himself out and had to come home early on Monday to take a nap and buy himself some meat to eat. 

Now the highs.

We went to Costco this morning. That's not the high. The people in the Costco parking lot are the high. They are some of the best people in Denver. Every time I go [once a week] someone in the parking lot helps me. Today it was an older gentleman with a New York accent who said, "I'll take that cart for you. You've done enough work." Another high -- Evan and I took Iris out for breakfast this weekend. She did great and we thoroughly enjoyed our morning. Third, having a babysitter come to watch Iris is amazing. I was able to get a little work done on my dissertation and ended up going to get my hair cut. It's a bit shorter than I had wanted but it feels good to have short hair again.