I ran across
this site with a bunch of quotes from famous (or halfway famous) folks and was
surprised by the depth of a few.
"Before
I had my child, I thought I knew all the boundaries of myself, that I
understood the limits of my heart. It's extraordinary to have all those limits
thrown out, to realize your love is inexhaustible." - Uma Thurman
How true.
And what a wonderful discovery!
As of April 3ish (21mos, 17.5 mos adjusted), Calder weighed 22.5 lbs. At first blush, this sounded pretty good to me – but when you go to the charts, which we inevitably always do, just to be SURE he hasn’t stopped growing altogether – you find that he’s still barely *on* the charts. Thankfully, I’m at a place where I really don’t mind. As long as he isn’t totally stagnant, or regressing, I’m feeling pretty content. He looks fine to me. Sometimes, and I admit I don’t have much of a barometer, he even looks big.
At this
stage, we have also fortunately wrapped up our last Synagis shot (for real this
time! And thank heavens.) and we are gearing up to take the man out into the
wild, wonderful world. As anxious as we are for him to experience all the world
has to offer – namely kids his age and normal kid entertainment around here,
like the park – we have been very cautious about popping his bubble. Calder has
now been cleared by his doctors for public introduction but not for playgrounds
and other spots swarming with children without any measures in place that
control for whether they’re sick or not.
As we await
full clearance, however, we’re going to do what we can. This past weekend we
headed to the DC zoo (yes, there was lots of keeping him from touching everything at kid-height and lots of handsan involved.) At one point, as we were leaving the lions, Calder became
interested in a relief about his height of various zoo animals. As he ran his
hands along it, another little boy, a bit older, walked up and put his hands on
it as well, getting right next to Calder – apparently too close for Calder’s
taste. He leaned over and gently pushed the kid on his arm! Me being a total
newbie to the play environment, I’m thinking, what do I do here? Of course tell
Calder he shouldn’t do that – do I also apologize to the parent? Make eye
contact and shrug, “kids?” We tried to explain to Calder the concept of playing
nice. Ha. Clearly, we have some socializing to do. Other parents have assured
me that no kids under 3 have manners or social skills, that Calder isn’t the
only one a little clueless about or at times uninterested in playing with other
toddlers.
Miss
Virginia has also started to take Calder to the library two days a week for
story time. At his first visit, while all the other little ones sat calmly in
their parents’ or nannies’ laps, Calder sped back and forth up to the reader,
craned his neck so that he could get underneath the guy (since he was reading,
looking down) and gave him a gigantic silly smile. Sounds like my son.
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| i see a cheetah! |
Things
haven’t been completely uneventful on the pregnancy front, unfortunately.
Though the phenomenon is tough to describe, I experienced an intense bout of
what I can only call itching beneath the skin underneath my shoulder blades and
rib cage. These days I relate every last sensation to my doctors, but thinking
it wasn’t urgent, sent a message rather than made a phone call. A few hours
later the triage nurse dialed me up and asked whether I could come in
immediately; there was concern the itching was related to a condition
(cholestasis of pregnancy)
that could seriously compromise the baby. Fortunately, the blood results came
back negative and the itching episodes ceased, eventually, so guess we’ll never
know.
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| cherry blossoms are not to be missed |
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| aww, mom! |
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| too cool for school in the center |
Not too long
afterward, one of my biweekly ultrasound visits showed a significant shrinking
of my cervix, plus funneling, which led to one doctor passing me to the next,
until I’d consulted with four, resulting in increased bed rest restrictions. This
precipitated a discussion about steroids and if and at what point I should
receive them. The steroids are most effective two to seven days after they are
administered and are typically prescribed to women between around 24 to 33
weeks pregnant who are expected to deliver within seven days. The question is,
how do you make that call? As one of the doctors said to me, it really requires
a crystal ball. If the woman does not then deliver within that time frame, but
another assessment determines the risk remains, she can get multiple doses. But
what are the risks involved? Do they outweigh the benefits? How many doses are too many? None of the four docs seemed to have very good answers to these
questions, although a couple of them essentially told me what I’d been reading
online, that multiple doses aren’t generally recommended, and that there isn’t
enough research on the subject (a common refrain.)
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| Dad flies a mean kite |
Though I shouldn’t be, I’m still regularly amazed in the difference in opinion of various doctors. I saw four doctors at the same practice each with a – sometimes drastically – different approach to a concern. That's when I turn to the net. For anyone reading this post
considering corticosteroids (betamethasone and dexamethasone) for possible
preterm delivery, I found one or two pretty good articles that provide basics and an overview, as well as a couple studies. A few reported documented negative effects, including a discussion of women getting the drugs needlessly, one stating outright that repeat doses are not recommended,
while another pointed out that the positive effects are still present via
multiple doses. Then
there was a site that sorta put it all together, a combined discussion of several studies. It was a lot to think about. Ultimately, we
decided to forego the drugs for now.
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| happy man |
