What happens when you take on Sophia's head

Mommy consoled her as much as we could. Sophia was already tired and pretty soon thereafter fell asleep on Mommy. We’ve been putting bags of frozen veggies on the back of her head to try to keep the huge bump on the back of her head from growing. Fingers crossed. Given Daddy’s history with head injuries, we’re obviously nervous.

She seems to be doing pretty well now that she is resting on Mommy in their mutually loved glider chair. I think Mommy and Daddy’s hearts are probably done racing now, too.

Oh, yeah, Alexander is out cold on the kitchen table.
Quick Update: Sophia just had her first ever “Children’s Ibuprofen” as opposed to the previous “Infant’s Ibuprofen”. I know we age, but it just seems like she shouldn’t be there yet. :/

Alexander sleeping at home first week

So far everyone, including Sophia, is doing very well. As most parents of more than one kid told us, coming home with the second was much easier. Not sure why, it just was. So far he has slept a fair amount, mostly during the day. He has had a pretty consistent habit of being awake from 10pm -1am.(I am drafting this at 1:00 am on a Sunday morning as he sits wide-eyed in a boppy next to me.) All things considered, not bad at all.

One thing that has been similar to Sophia’s arrival has been his post birth weight drop and slow rebound. At one week he weighed in at 8 pounds and 5 ounces. Still below his birth weight, but on the way up. It’s common and amazingly less stressful this time around. Maybe a it’s a “seasoned parent” thing.

One piece of advice I have for any expecting, or someday to be expecting parents: Stock up on supplies at the hospital. You’re already paying for them, may as well take them. Take those extra diapers, wipes, formula, etc. In fact, ask for more. It will save you a lot of money when you leave the hospital.

One thing I may not have communicated very clearly previously. Alexander’s announcement post may have implied that Michele did not have her scheduled c-section since she went into labor that morning. She was in labor for about 6 hours but did have the c-section as scheduled.

Alexander’s first video – Hours after arrival
(Direct Video Link)

Alexander Moving around in Hospital Bassinet – Day 3
(Direct Video Link)

Alexander napping on mommy

As many of you know, we had a C-section scheduled for 8:45 this morning. Michele went into labor at 3:00 this morning. Michele is recovering and doing well.

Mommy holding Alexander for the first time

Mommy got to hold her baby boy pretty soon after delivery and was very happy. Right now she continues to rest and heal. Thank you to all for your wishes congratulations.

Daddy Dave changed his first ever boy diaper. Far from the last, of course. The early thinking is that he looks like the Hane genes are strong in his veins, just like his sister.

Sophia came by to visit her new brother. Honestly, we were nervous about how it would go. When we got a call telling us she didn’t even want to enter the building, we got even more anxious. She’s not a huge fan of hospitals. When she came into the room, she just wandered around for a while exploring, though at least she greeted Mommy.

Sophia waving to Alexander

Once she got accustomed to the idea of seeing a baby, she was most intrigued. Sophia waved and kept saying “Hi, Baby” and “Baby, bed”. We have video of her being very interested in her brother, but I think the Rex guest wireless network is prohibiting me from uploading the larger files, so that may just have to wait. All in all, a good experience with Sophia.

As time permits, I’ll post more pix, video, and experiences.

Michele and Sophia waiting for the Surgeon

Guess it was bound to happen. Many of you know Sophia has had a running bout with ear infections. She’s had around 8 or 9 in the last year. Having to give her antibiotics all the time can’t be that great. In addition, her inability to sleep through the night wasn’t helping. So, on the advice of her pediatrician and the ENT specialist, Sophia had tubes put in her ear this morning at WakeMed North.

We arrived at hospital at 6:15 for her 7:45 surgery. That meant getting her out of the crib at 5:45 am. Ironically, she decided to sleep through the entire night last night. Can’t say the same was true for Mommy Michele who was anxious and had trouble sleeping. Go Figure.

The nursing staff at WakeMed was fantastic. They were kind, patient, and interacted fantastically with Sophia. Sophia endeared herself to them by successfully being “that really cute kid.” After the 19 month old in the bed next to her was wheeled out on “the train”, Sophia spent the next 30 minutes asking, “Baby, are you?” (The “where” in the statement is, of course, understood. At least by her parents.) The nursing staff was kind enough to let us walk around the PACU so that she was sedentary the whole time. Acknowledging our bias right up front, I think other patients and their families were enjoying Sophia and her antics. They chuckled and smiled as Sophia said hello to the clock; asked “Baby, are you?”; and instructed Daddy to stand on one scale while she stood on the other.

Sophia getting some love during pre-op

Mommy and Daddy continued to work up the story that her bed was a train and that the doors to the OR were “outside”. This made her very interested in sitting on the bed and going through those doors.  That’s a really good thing since our surgeon ended up being 20 minutes late. In effect, Sophia had been awake almost 2 1/2 hours without anything in her stomach.

She was still in an awesome mood. You can see that in the pictures. Our huge fear was that the other kids would start returning from their surgeries before Sophia left. Other kids crying probably would not help sustain her positive outlook.  Luckily, we were able to let her ride her “choo-choo” “outside” before anyone else got back. As nerve-wracking as it was to see her going down that hallway on the bed with the nurses, we were so proud of her for just sitting on the bed and looking forward. (Did I mention she was awesome?)

We were in the waiting room for around 15-20 minutes before the surgeon came out to tell us everything was great. Surgery went great. She had no fluid in her ears. (Probably because she’s wrapping up this round of antibiotics.) She was very well behaved.

That last part changed after we went to recovery. Once the anesthesia wore off, she was very disoriented and confused. (We were not to her yet when she came to, but we heard her.) It took about 2o minutes of the world’s best medicine – cuddling, singing, and soothing from mommy – for Sophia to relax and be ready to go.

Recently, Michele encouraged Sophia to take her wrapped-up diapers and discarding them in the trash can. Sophia has really taken to it. She actually *enjoys* taking the diapers and tossing them in the trash can. Of course, we kinda dig it, too, and hope that she continues to be that helpful when her brother arrives.

As some of you may know, Sophia recently had the flu. She simultaneously had an emerging ear infection and a bit of wheezing, for which she was prescribed antibiotics and 5 days of breathing treatments, respectively. You might recall that Sophia has had breathing treatments before, and is *not* a fan of getting that mask strapped to her face. She pretty much balled everytime we put it on her.

After her last treatment this time, she worked up the courage to cautiously approach the dinosaur face-inspired mask. She gingerly grabbed it and examined it. I praised her for her courage and willingness to see that it wasn’t that bad.

She then marched to the trash can and dropped it in.

This is Sophia's brother doing his best Alfred Hitchcock impersonation.

To quote a colleague from work, “the title says it all.”  We are very excited to announce that we are expecting an expansion to our family. This is even more exciting and wonderful than the addition of the Honda Odyssey to the family in May.

Some of you may already know this, but I guess the quick details most folks want to know:

• Due Date – February 20, 2010
• Boy – but we already covered that in the title
• Name – Not a clue. Leave your suggestions as comments. (We were mildly relieved when we found out the first time around that we were expecting a girl because we could not agree on any boy names.)

Mommy Michele has felt quite well most of this pregnancy. For those in the know, that is a bit a of a departure from her pregnancy with Sophia. Daddy Dave figured that was a sign that:

• this child was going to be a boy (just as sound a logic as all other gender identification techniques. I’m partial to the Drano technique.)
• This child will be more “rambunctious and spirited” than Sophia has been. (I guess we’ll all have to tune in for future blog posts to see how accurate that prediction is.)

Sophia's Bro - Straight Ahead

So far everything looks good, so we are happy. Mommy Michele is very much looking forward to her glucose test in a few weeks.  (For those who do not actually know me, you now know I sometimes inject a healthy dose of sarcasm into, well, everything.)  We have been amused by the number of people we know that we have bumped into at the OB’s office. That I can recall, we have learned of three friends’ pregnancies that way. Go figure.

One quick aside. Some of you may know that our friends (and former neighbors), the Allsbrook’s, welcomed their first child into this world the same week Sophia was born. Shortly thereafter, they abandoned us and became slumlords. (Just kidding, we love ‘em.) Anyway, we were tickled to learn that we were once again co-expecting.  (Congrats to them on the recent birth of their beautiful daughter, Harper.)

Stay tuned for more updates on “Sophia’s Brother”, past events that we should have blogged about long ago, and other random happenings at Casa Lennon.

The post is taking longer and longer each time. This time, it is Michele doing the post. I broke the pictures out into four different groups: Friends, Family, Around the House, and Around Town.

Here are a few quick items since the last posting about a month ago:

We are really happy and enjoying spending time with our precious, happy girl. She has been sick a termendous amount (ear infections, pink eye, stomach bug ….) and we are fortunate to have jobs that let us be flexible about how we get our hours. Since Sophia started Jan 12th, she has only been to daycare all five days in a week twice! I think she missed more school than she went in March.

Sophia just moved into the next class at Primrose. I think she is in love with the teacher, Mrs. Lopez. She is from Columbia and speaks Spanish to Sophia. When I used to get her, she was ready to go and held onto me for dear life. Today, her first full day in the new class, she kept pushing me away to get down and play and move around. She also ate and slept really well there. It made me really happy that she enjoys where she spends so much time.

With how much Sophia was sick, her 9-month check up revealed what we guessed … she weighed less than she did at her 6-month check up. She went from the 75% in weight to the 25% in weight. Luckily, she’s already gained a few pounds since then and is well on her way again. The leeks, potatoes, carrots, and peas puree is one of her favorites along with yogurt, apple sauce and the always popular Cheerios.

Even though we don’t get out as much as we used to, I realized when looking at the pictures that we get around alot still. Two weekends again we spent some time with Layna from KY, Maryjo read Sophia her bedtime stories and put her to bed, and we visited the Floyds, the Tanners, and the Turners. By Sunday though, we skipped out on a BBQ b/c Sophia napped the entire time of the BBQ.

For Easter weekend, we took a trip to DC to visit Dave’s family and celebrate Grandpa Peter and Great Aunt Eileen (the twins) turning 70. Mike and Renee spent alot of time organizing and Elizabeth flew in from Spain. Sophia had a blast getting to know her family better.

Tonight Sophia moved from the infant tub to the real tub (pictures in the slide show). Luckily, I had no items on the Town Council agenda, so I got to play with Sophia instead. Other updates include her almost walking on her own (she now holds just one of my hands), three more teeth are coming in (that will make five), and she now knows Ma-Ma and Pa-Pa. I LOVE hearing her blabber Ma ma ma ma. She is happy and doesn’t really whine … her nickname with many is the “amazing baby”. We truly adore her.

Without out any more blabber from ma ma, here are the links to the pictures. I’m going to leave the posting of the videos to Daddy Dave.

Click here to see Pictures of Sophia–Friends if your Flash isn’t working.

Several pictures (about 30)–only the die hards will sit through this .

The three of us took an unplanned trip to DC to spend time with the grandparents after Sophia’s abuelo had a medical scare. Thankfully, he is doing very well. Sophia had a great time entertaining family in DC in her exersaucer. She absolutely loves that thing. See pix for proof.

From a development perspective, Sophia is advancing very well. At about 8 months, she decided to start crawling. She literally picked it up in about 3 days. It was an amazingly quick transition. As Mommy Michele said, “I think she just downloaded the ‘crawl’ program.” (View this clip, if you don’t get the Matrix reference.) She’s actually pulling herself up, too. But no doubt, she is crawling around quickly.

Another step in Sophia’s development is her ability (and interest) in holding her own bottle and feeding herself. For non-parents, that might just sound kind of neat. As other parents know, this is a super-cool step. It makes getting out the door easier. It enables the three of us to eat together and engage more than we have been able to. It really makes things a lot easier.

(The pic to the left is from a day stroll we took to Dunkin Donuts.)

One thing that Sophia has been wrestling with of late is being sick. I’m sure it is the combination of winter season and starting day care. Nevertheless, her nostrils are ever-flowing “snaucets”. (snot-faucets; charming I know.) She’s had a few trips to the pediatrician. She is doing much better now.

One thing that we are very happy about is that for the first time since she started day care in mid March, Sophia has finally gone all 5 days in one week. It took 2 months, but she finally made it one complete week. We need we could do it, we just had to be patient. Sophia has adjusted pretty well to day care. We were just informed that the second week of April she will begin her transition to the next class. We are very excited about that because Sophia is enamored with the main teacher in that classroom. Mrs’ Lopez is Columbian and speaks to Sophia in Spanish. Sophia totally lights up when she speaks to her in Spanish. Incidentally, we estimate that Sophia’s Spanish will be at Daddy Dave’s level within 3 months.

One last anecdote that we find very amusing is Sophia’s interest and fascination with brushing her teeth. Both of them. Sophia always seemed transfixed when we brushed our teeth. So Mommy Michele gave her a toothbrush once while brushing her teeth, and Sophia mimicked perfectly. Sophia now has her own toothbrush that she uses to brush her teeth. It’s quite cute actually.

Alright, enough for now. Here are the pix and video.

Pictures from Months 7 – 8
Here is a slideshow of the pix. As always, you can view the pictures directly by going to the Picasa web folder.
Videos from Months 7 – 8
Here a few videos from the last couple of months. I love the first one.
This is Daddy Dave goofing around with Sophia and having a good time. (Direct Link to video.)

Sophia playing with Michele and crawling at 8 months (Direct Link to Video.)

A video of the 3 of us relaxing one night. Sophia at 8 months. Likely something only family might like. (Direct Link to Video.)

THE PLAN
- Daddy Dave takes Sophia to day care a few times before she actually begins.
- Sophia starts day care on Monday January 12.
- Daddy Dave returns to work on Monday January 12.
(Sounds simple enough, right?)

THE REALITY
- Sophia got pretty sick the Friday night before she was to go to day care. Hmm, that’s ominous.
- Sunday before day care, Mommy Michele gets that bug. Hmm, this is getting worse before it gets better.
- Monday, January 12 (first day of day care), Daddy Dave stays home to take care of the girls.
- Tuesday, Daddy Dave gets sick, too. Another day not going to work and Sophia still not in day care.
- Wednesday, January 14 – Daddy Dave finally makes it back to work for about a half a day. Mommy Michele still looking after Sophia.
- January 16 – We finally take Sophia to day care. (Yeah!) It lasts about an hour before they tell us she threw up (and more). Mommy Michele goes to get her.
(Quite an interesting “first week” of day care)
- Second week shortened by snow day and Sophia getting sent home Thursday afternoon with a rash (along with two classmates. OY!)

You can tell Sophia was not well because she was really “clingy” and quiet. (See pic on the right. ) So what made this return even more special was an insurance fiasco. Apparently, Sophia’s pediatrician is no longer covered by Daddy Dave’s insurance. Duke emailed this information to Daddy Dave about a week after he went on leave, so he didn’t get it until about 3 months later. In the mean time, Sophia’s pediatrician, Rex Pediatrics of Cary, has been submitting claims that have been refused for about 2 months. Sure wish someone would have told us. Especially before Sophia had some blood samples and chest X-Ray. Long story short (too late), Duke allowed us to switch insurance providers retroactively to January 1 so that claims could be refiled. (Thank you, Duke!)

Well, this has been a pretty gloomy post so far (sorry), so thought we would end on a more positive note. Sophia got to experience her first snow. We hesitated to take outside since she was not doing well. But, thankfully, abuela Lennon and Mimi both got her snow suits and we felt better taking her out. Sophia enjoyed the fresh air and weird white stuff.

More importantly, Sophia is doing well now and is acting like her usual cheerful, smiling, laughing self. Having a sick kid is awful because you want nothing more than to have them get better. But when they get better, you seem to appreciate and love them even more. (Is that possible?)

Oh yeah, Sophia has made it successfully through two consecutive days of day care. Of course, she was not there for 8 hours either day, but oh well. Daddy Dave dropped her off and Mommy Michele picked her up. I think picking up may be the easier of the two. Although Michele got to take Sophia out of Dave’s Accord coupe. I think we may be closer to getting Daddy Dave’s much desired Honda Odyssey.

Some Recent Pictures
OK, well here are a series of pics from January.
(Note: You can view all the pictures at your own pace here.)
Some Recent Videos
I like this first video because there are a couple of cute smiles by Sophia.

Well, I failed to actually post before the end of 2008. C’est la vie. (That’s for you, Jacob. Look it up.) Since we have so many pix and videos since the last post, I figured I would break up this post into 3 mini-posts. This is a really long post, so I apologize in advance. Each section has its own set of pix and videos. If you want to see them all, have at them. The 3 general categories are:

• Health, Development, & General Stuff
• Thanksgiving 2008
• Christmas in Florida – 2008

A note on viewing the pix. For the time being, I am simply putting slide shows in the post. You can view the albums at your pace at any time by going to Dave’s Picasa Albums.

Been a while since we last posted so I figure starting with some of her recent developments is a good place to start.

• Sophia had her 6 month checkup in early December.
  • 18 pounds and 6 oz – ~70 percentile
  • 25 3/4 inches tall – ~70 percentile
• Of course this was technically a week late. Sophia had her first sickness. When all the Lennons got together for Thanksgiving (more on that later) Daddy Dave got sick. Sure enough, Sophia got sick a little later. And lastly Mommy Michele got sick last. We all ended up taking antibiotics to clear things up. It was Daddy Dave and Sophia’s first time ever taking antibiotics. The only scary time was when Sophia’s temperature got up to 102 F. The after hours nurse told us to give her a cold bath and not to really worry until she got to 105. Frankly, I don’t think that’s very good advice, but I’m sure she stayed a Holiday Inn Express the night before. I have to admit that I now know what it feels like to feel completely powerless. We wanted nothing more than for Sophia to get better, or at least feel good. But we could only soothe her as best our biological instincts (and many google searches) allowed. When Sophia was young (hah! I guess a couple of months old) she didn’t mind the aspirator. At 6 months, she minded. And now she is mobile, strong, and independent enough to avoid our efforts to help her breathe. As many parents before us know, that is most fun at 03:17am.
• Getting around. Sophia has made some good progress in this arena. She can scoot around the room pretty easily now. (See videos below.) She’s also able to roll over from her back to her belly consistently. The other way still requires some effort. (Or is it dumb luck?)
• Along these same lines, in the last few weeks, Sophia has started being able to remain sitting up straight unassisted. Well, for up to a minute or so at which point – “Timber.”
  

  From Casa Lennon Pics for December 2008

• Our friends, the Turners, gave us a Johnny Jump Up. (See Video below.) Holy guacamole. She loves that thing. All newer-than-us parents or parents-to-be must invest in one, especially all our extended volleyball family. What’s funny is that ever since she started using that, all she wants to do is bounce, hop, jump, etc. The sad part is that she now has mo’ mad ups than Daddy Dave.

Here are some pix from the last month
(Remember – Xmas and Tgiving photos are further down the page)
December 2008 Videos
1 of 4 -Many people seem quite intrigued by how Sophia gets around while she is lying on her back. I figured I would try to capture it. It isn’t until about 25 seconds in that she actually starts moving. Anyway, you’ll see why she has a bald spot on the back of her head.

2 of 4 - Sophia can only move forward on her back, so, of course, she can only move backwards on her belly.

3 of 4 - This is a video of Michele and Sophia playing one night. I love Sophia’s giggling. I also like the face Sophia gives the camera at the end of the video.

4 of 4 - Our good friends, the Turner family, passed their Johnny Jump Up to us. We are eternally grateful because Sophia absolutely loves it. She is just getting used to it in this video, but she can’t get enough of it now.

We had the good fortune of celebrating Thanksgiving twice this year. Once with friends when the Dois hosted a Thanksgiving dinner the weekend before, then our family get together on Turkey day. Dinner with the Dois was great and Sophia definitely enjoyed playing with people her own size.
Turkey Day was especially sweet this year because the Lennon Clan descended on North Carolina. It definitely made “traveling” easier for us since we only had to drive to Chapel Hill for a phenomenal Thanksgiving meal prepared by my cousin Travis and Michelle. YUMMY! The meal deserves its own blog post.
Of course, the truly important part of Thanksgiving was to get together with the ones we love and we are extremely fortunate that we were able to do that. (For those who couldn’t make it, we love y’all, too.) We had a total of 12 people in our home. That may be a new record for us. It was snug and was very special for me because it reminded me of holidays at Grandma Lennon’s house in Edgewater Park where we seemed to fit people everywhere. (Whenever Dave wonders if we’ll have enough space for something, I just think of 49c Edgewater Park.)
The day after Thanksgiving, we joined every other Triangle family with young children at the NC Museum of Life and Science. (I must admit that I was disappointed the lemurs were not out.) We had a nice picnic and birthday celebration for Peter, Catalina, Renee, Gary and Cousin Michelle before going in. The cake sure was crowded.

Here are some pix from our Thanksgiving celebrations

Christmas was in Florida this year. (Central Florida, north of Orlando.) We debated for a while whether or not to fly or drive. The drive would have been about 3-4 days of travel – cuz we would have wanted to stop in Savannah, Charleston, and/or Saint Augustine. Then Southwest offered non-stop flights for less than $90 each way. SOLD! So Sophia had her first ever flight. We (and all of our co-passengers) are very happy to report that it went very well. Sophia slept on the original take off and other than that she was unfazed. Thankfully, RDU to Orlando is a relatively short flight.
When we got to Florida we opted to upgrade at a big discount from 3 door Hyundai Accent to a Toyota Avalon. Money well spent. We stayed in one of Michele’s father’s homes. (Making him sound like a McCain. ) Thankfully felt comfortable there and was able to sleep comfortably. What made the experience even more fantastic was the kindness of Shane and Jamie. (Mommy Michele’s brother.) They have a beautiful baby girl, Kielynn, who is just a few months older than Sophia. Shane and Jaime let us borrow a pack-and-play and several toys for Sophia. Made life (and packing) much easier.
In Florida, Sophia got to meet a lot of her Hane family. She had met her maternal grandmother, Mimi, a few months ago. But on this trip she met her cousins, aunts and uncles, grandfather, and many others. For the most part, Sophia did pretty well with being handed to a bunch of “strangers”. Sophia has started to develop a bit of stranger anxiety, but she did pretty well. She seemed really intrigued by her grandpa Marv and cousin Jacob. Who knew?
Daddy Dave thought it was really cool that Sophia got to meet her great-great-aunt Lois and great-great-uncle Francis. (Lois is Michele’s paternal grandfather’s big sister.) That just seems so cool.
We shared a Christmas Eve dinner with Mimi, Shane, Jaime, and Aunt Helen. It was quite delish, and it made quite a dish. (That’s for you, Straffin. For anyone who is curious, here is the source.) We finished the night with some board games with Shannon (Michele’s sister), Ben, Chloe, and Jacob. Everyone had a great time. We also had several big family gatherings that made seeing more people while we were down much easier.
Christmas day finished very nicely because our friends Maryjo and Scots were kind enough to come over and cook Christmas dinner for us. They knew we were flying back that morning and had no food. We are very grateful to them for their kindness. They even brought presents for Sophia.

Sophia opened her first present while we were in Florida. Michele’s cousin, Cindy, sent Sophia a wonderful book. See the video below. Many others were very generous and helped stock up on age-appropriate toys and books for Sophia. We are very grateful for all of the generosity of friends and family.

Here are some pix from our Christmas celebrations & time in Florida
And a few videos
1 of 5 – This is Sophia officially unwrapping her first wrapped Christmas present. (Thank you, Cousin Cindy). Of course, she didn’t do much of the unwrapping, but she loves the taste of the present.

2 of 5 – Sophia met a lot of new people in Florida. For example, she got to meet her great-great uncle Francis and great-great Aunt Lois. How cool is that. (Lois is Sophia’s maternal great grandfather’s sister.) This video also has some more of the extended Hane clan who were in Florida for Christmas.

3 of 5 -Went to Florida and Sophia just would not stay calm for 3 seconds with her Aunt Shannon. Shannon made the most of it by having fun with Sophia.

4 of 5 – Sophia had a great time in Florida meeting her maternal extended family. She really enjoyed playing with her cousins. Just take a look.

5 of 5 – A holiday family tradition is to play some board games and have a blast. Christmas Eve we played Jacob’s Christmas present, Cranium. Jacob is supposed to hum or whistle the tune and Ben and Dave are to try to guess. If you can’t figure out, don’t worry, we didn’t either. (My favorite part may be Jacob’s excuse caught at the very end of the video.)

UP NEXT TIME …
Daddy Dave goes back to work January 12th and little Sophia starts daycare at Primrose Schools. The daycare is just a mile from the house and a mile from Mommy Michele’s work, so Mommy Michele plans to see her during lunch at least once a week. We are very confident that things will go well. We’ve heard only great things and we have friends who have sent their kids there for years. We got on the waiting list January of 2008 and were confirmed for a spot in November.

Best Wishes in the New Year!
Love,
The Lennons!