Update - May 21, 2009

Amazing how time flies. In one week, Erin will be 11 months old. Sheila and I find it hard to think about a time when we didn't have her. The last year has been filled with so many ups and downs, with some of the highest highs and lowest lows either of us has ever experienced (not all related to Erin), but the one constant throughout all of that has been the incredible joy that Erin brings to our lives every single day.

As I write this, we are in Scottsdale where we have been for last week. We continue to have a scorpion problem, although thankfully nobody has been stung (yet!) on this trip. We continue to work with the experts in trying to eradicate our home of these pests. It is definitely an experience, checking every floor and corner continuously while Erin is in the room to make sure there are no lurking scorpions.

The last week has been a bit stressful with Erin, as she has returned to her fussy eating habits. We think this is because she is teething, this time on the top. Over a 5 day period, feedings were nothing short of battles that would take up to 15 attempts before Erin would take the bottle. Her normal intake went from mid-30 ounces per day to as low as 20, and it was a big struggle to just get to 20. We were both very stressed over it, but she seems to be back to normal now. Interestingly, other than being overly fussy when trying to eat, she was her normal very happy playful self the entire time.

From a sleeping standpoint, Erin has really come a long way. She understands now that we are not going to come running back the minute she cries, and as a result she rarely cries when going to bed for naps or at night, and if she does, it is literally for a minute or two. We have a camera set up in her room that shows an infrared picture of her for observation purposes. After putting her to bed, she will usually play quietly by herself in her crib until she falls asleep in some of the most uncomfortable looking positions.

Mother's Day was a real highlight. We drove to Champaign to see Sheila's parents. I know it was a thrill for Sheila to spend the day with her mother, and with new new daughter in the home where she grew up. She pulled out her old Barbie dolls to show Erin, who of course promptly gave them the taste test. All in all, it was a perfect day.

Update - April 14, 2009

Lucy...you got some 'splaining to do!

Mad scientist

Here we are, the day before income tax day. I have always wanted a dependent for tax purposes.

Yesterday, Erin had her 9 month NICU follow up. I was unable to go (I actually do work once in awhile) so Sheila took her. Included in this follow up appointment was a psychologist who came in to do extensive testing on Erin's development, both physical as well as intelligence. Erin rated above average in every category but a few, where she rated superior! It was really thrilling to get the blow by blow from Sheila after the appointment. It tells us that the physical therapy that Erin has been doing is working. While she continues to occasionally demonstrate that there is an impact from the stroke, on a day to day basis a casual observer would never notice it. BTW, she weighed in at a hair under 18 pounds! She stands 28 inches.

Her crawling has progressed to the point where she is a little speed demon. She has certain things that she likes to explore, like the open door leading to the stairs that access the garage. If she notices that the door has been left open for a moment, she likes to head over that way and pretend to be interested in something else, only to suddenly make a beeline for the door. I am not sure where she learned the art of deception, but she is pretty good at seeming to be uninterested in the real object of her affection, only to make her move when she thinks she can get away with it. She is occasionally standing without support, and should be walking relatively soon. As a result, the house is being child-proofed today. This involves installing gates at all of the stairways, and includes drilling lots of holes in our woodwork and banisters to support all of the baby-proofing that we need. It is a small price to pay for her safety, though. We will both feel a lot better about knowing she can't get into too much trouble if we take our eyes off of her for a few seconds.

She continues to try and communicate, and is learning new things daily. Her latest trick involves the little cooing sound she makes on occasion. If you repeat it back to her, she immediately repeats it back to you as often as you are willing to play the game. She has an enormously cute wave that Sheila and her parents taught Erin while they were in Scottsdale. It looks like a prom queen wave, and is hysterical. On more than one occasion I have burst into laughter after trudging sleepily to her room to try and put her back to sleep only to find her standing in her crib, waiving at me while showing off a full megawatt smile. She is looking for a playmate at those times. As soon as you put her back down to sleep, she immediately flips over the pops right back up with the same smile on her face.

Her sleeping issues are continuing unfortunately. There have only been a couple of nights in the last month that didn't involve multiple trips to her room. Monday, I gave up after 2:30 and stayed up all night. That was actually an improvement over the preceeding week, where I was up from midnight on. Unfortunately, that was the same day I had a breakfast meeting and then an all-day meeting with my new bosses and then co-workers from Prudential. Luckily, our CFO sat next to me and literally nudged me every time I nodded off in the afternoon to keep me at least looking interested in the program. I don't think my boss was very impressed. Weird using the word "boss." I much preferred being the boss.

The doctor from the NICU follow up thinks that either Erin is again teething, or is possibly having night terrors. Night terrors can affect babies Erin's age, and involve heavy inconsolable crying that can last for an hour. During that time, all you can do is hold them and try to reassure them. Those aren't the most fun nights, but in the morning Erin seems to remember nothing, and always wakes with a huge smile and is very affectionate.

Our daily routine is pretty well set. I hit the gym at 6 and get home around 7:30 which is right when Erin usually wakes. We spend time looking out her window to check on the world, and then wrestle (my term for changing her diaper) before heading upstairs to join Sheila. We spend about a half hour every morning just the three of us hanging out in our bedroom, and they are usually the best moments of the day.

Most amazing is the fact that seemingly overnight Erin has turned into a little girl. Her personality is growing daily, and it is amazing to watch the development from a little blob to a little girl that has opinions, likes and dislikes, and is clearly headstrong.

Erin greatly enjoyed Scottsdale, and we are headed back in May for 10 days. Our goal is to spend quite a bit more time out there, enjoying the new house. Sheila has done a great job in getting the house in order and fully decorated. Our biggest fear there are scorpions, which can be deadly for a baby. We paid to have the house sealed to keep any scorpions out, but there are still scorpions inside from the construction process. Over a few months, the exterminators should be successful in eradicating the little bastards, but for now we have to be very careful. Sheila was stung on the hand, and I was stung on the foot. It is an incredibly painful experience that I don't wish on anyone. The sting feels like a series of needles shoved all the way into your body. The needles feel like they are on fire. Worse, it lasts for a couple of days. Needless to say, I will be very happy when the exterminators have finished their job.

Erin continues to be very social. We had numerous friends over while in Scottsdale, and while I was out of town Sheila would go out for dinner with friends and take Erin. In every instance, Erin was perfectly behaved and enjoyed by everyone.

Update - March 27, 2009

Erin and Grandpa in Scottsdale.

Happiness is a biscotti at lunch.

Erin loves her bath.

Future model in training.

Erin loves back rubs.

It's hard to believe, but Erin turns 9 months tomorrow. On one hand, it seems like just yesterday that she was born. On the other, it is hard to remember what life was life before she was born. It almost seems as if we led a purposeless life up until her birth. That isn't true, but when you consider how important she is, everything else pales.

Erin continues to make remarkable progress. She remains happy virtually 24/7. She is off the Lasix (sp?) medicine, and none of her other medicines have had their dosage increased, in spite of her tripling her weight. Her oxygen sats remain in the mid to upper 80's, sometimes reaching the low 90's. Best of all, she continues to show very few signs of the stroke. The only noticeable sign is that she tends to keep her right hand clenched, although she has no problem using it. She tends to favor her left hand, but will often initiate a movement with her right, and is completely at ease switching to it when we restrain her left hand.

We were concerned that once Erin was able to start crawling and walking, the stroke would make its presence known via weakness in Erin's right leg. She started crawling two weeks ago, as well as pulling herself into a standing position and cruising around while holding onto something, and there is no evidence that she favors her left side. We are very optimistic that walking will not show any right side weakness at all.

The week that Erin started crawling she also got her first two teeth (bottom front). I can attest to the fact that they are sharp little choppers. As for her crawling, it is hysterical to watch her crawl around. It is also challenging, as the minute you put her down she flips over and takes off. It used to be (in the old days, when she was little :-)...) that you could put her down on the bed and let her play with something while you went about doing whatever needed doing. Now, the minute she lands on the bed, she flips over and takes off. In Scottsdale, she is fascinated with the bedposts at the end of the bed, and makes a beeline for those as quickly as she can.

She has learned how to pull herself into a standing position, so every object is a challenge to stand up to. She pulls herself up, and then lets out a squeal of delight over her accomplishment, then looks to see if Sheila or I are watching so that we can share her delight. She then takes whatever she can reach, drops it on the floor, and tries to bend over and pick it up without falling. This is repeated over and over and over. When being held, she delights in grabbing whatever she can and dropping it on the floor, looking expectantly at whomever is holding her if they don't immediately bend over and pick up the object. This is also repeated ad infinitum.

Diaper changing has become far more challenging, as she is far less prone to lay there and far more apt to flip over and try and take off. This has created a few incidents, including one recently where we both had to work to get her new diaper on her. I was the party fastening the diaper while Sheila held her, and apparently I did one very poor job. I took off for the gym only to receive a call later from Sheila that she went into Erin's room to find that she had had a massive poop that was now everywhere in her crib and all over her. I felt a combination of great sympathy for Sheila over what she had to go through, tremendous relief over not being there, and survivor guilt. I slunk back into the house upon my return and tried to be extra nice to Sheila that day. My wife is a saint. Me...not so much.

We were told by Erin's cardiology nurse that around 8 months babies begin to develop a sense of self, that they realize that they are a separate self. This can manifest itself as waking and fussing during the night, perhaps because they wake and are lonely. This has certainly been the case over the last week. Sunday night I was up 6 times with her, including an hour and one-half stint where she wanted to play. I left Scottsdale Monday for work, and Sheila has endured the same routine all week long. Hopefully it will pass quickly.

It has been a very hard week being away from Sheila and Erin. I will head back to Scottsdale today, and take off again on Monday. After spending the following weekend there, we will be returning to Chicago. Erin seems to really like the weather in Arizona (smart kid). It has been a fun three weeks, with the exception of the pains of moving into a new house. How do you accumulate that much junk in nine years, particularly for two childless people? BTW, anyone wanting to buy a wonderful house in Scottsdale, we have one for sale. It has been on the market since January 2008, and finally in February we received an offer - for half-price! The market is horrible. Looks like we will be keeping it for a few years until the market turns around. Anyone need a rental?

Red Carpet Club - Phoenix....a seasoned traveler already.

Note the boots...Mommy's influence is showing.

Taking over in Scottsdale.

Erin's first trip to the grocery store. She was so excited that she squealed her way around Safeway.

See the update below. These are just some additional photo's I wanted to add after the fact.

Update - February 22, 2009

It has been an eventful month since Erin's last update. She continues to change almost daily. Sitting is no longer a novelty, but something she does with ease. We can take her to dinner and she will sit in a highchair without fussing, entertaining herself with various toys or by just looking around. She is trying hard to crawl, getting up on all fours and rocking herself.

Erin's latest trick is to pull herself up to a standing position in her crib when she isn't ready to go to sleep. She thinks she is hilarious when she does this. We have already lowered the crib once, and it looks like another level down is in the very near future.

In terms of health, we met with the neurologist for her six month follow up in January between Scottsdale trips. While the report was generally good, they can definitely detect some stiffness in her right limbs, a consequence of Erin's stroke. It makes me very sad to think that her physical abilities will be compromised in some manner. At this point, we just don't know to what extent, if any, she will be limited. We continue to have Early Intervention come once a month to examine her and suggest various things we can work with her on to help her overcome any impact of the stroke.

The last week has been a challenge. Erin developed a cold in Scottsdale, and spent a week with a stuffy nose. It ultimately turned into diarrhea, which is now on day 6. The fear with diarrhea is that she could become dehydrated, which would be very serious with her condition. She has developed a very painful diaper rash. It breaks your heart to change her and see her cry because it hurts. Another one of Erin's new tricks is rolling over while you are trying to change her. Erin thinks this is great fun, trying to dodge one of us as we try and change her diaper and get her clothes back on. It makes for some interesting moments, trying to clean her up, medicate her rash, get her diaper back on, and get her dressed.

In spite of not feeling very well, Erin continues to exhibit a sunny disposition, smiling and laughing her way through the day. As always, she is absolutely a joy to be with.