Sprout is Four Months Old!

Today Sprout is four months old!

Look at this sunshine baby!

-Sprout continues to be an overall happy and easy going baby.  I think we're getting pretty good at reading her tired cues, and we try to be respectful of them, putting her down when she asks.  Really, we're all happier this way.

-She will still fall asleep in the Ergo when we're out and about if the hood is up, but she is getting to the point where she doesn't want to miss anything.  This is also starting to cause some difficulty nursing when we're out.  She gets very distracted wanting to look around rather than eat until her tummy is nice and full.

-Her schedule hasn't changed much over the past month.  She usually wakes up around 6:30/7:00am and naps for about 45 minutes every 1.5-2 hours.  We put her to be around 7:30/8:00pm, but she wakes up every 2 or 3 hours overnight and nurses.  It's tiring and I totally get jealous when people talk about their similarly-aged-children sleeping 4 or 5 hours or even through the night (inconceivable!) but at least I know what to expect.

-We've tried to give her a pacifier (two different kinds) to see if that would help her cycle for longer sleep times, but she won't take them.  She ends up chewing on them or just pushing them out of her mouth with her tongue.


-She also won't take a bottle, but we're trying to give one to her more often (well, Jen is) in the hopes that she'll get the hang of it.  I've started pumping some evenings to build up a stored milk supply.

-She is very obviously thriving.  She weighed in at 16.3lbs and is 25.4in.  Top percentiles again.

-She is now in 3-6m tops and 6m pants (cloth diaper bum!).  There are some exceptions since baby clothing sizing is terribly inconsistent  but overall these sizes seem to be working.  Disposable diapers are size 3.

-Her looks haven't changed much.  Her hair is growing in more, so the hawk is not always as noticeable.  Her hair colour is a dark auburny-brown.  Her eyes are still light and look bluish but may go green.  It's hard to tell.  Her skin is pale, but she has nice rosy cheeks.

-And oh those cheeks!  They are so lovely and round.  Especially when she smiles.  And she is full of smiles for people talking to her and being silly with her.  She loves it when we "run" her legs, give her kisses on her neck, sing to her (The Grand Old Duke of York is a new favourite), or hold her up and shake her.

-Her dislikes are pretty limited, but loud noises and her brother falling on top of her seem to top the list.

-We've been going to a city run music class on Monday afternoons which she seems to be enjoying.  I think she likes the songs and she seems pretty intrigued by the other babies.  There's no class in May though, so we're going to start a different program and see how it goes.

-Most days that the weather has been nice I've been taking her for a walk in the morning.  I usually strap her into the Ergo and off we go for a half hour or an hour.  Sometimes we see if my sister and her son want to come along.  Sometimes we pop by my aunt's and visit with her and my Nana.  But a most of the time the two of us just walk around the neighbourhood chatting about the things we see.

-I try to get us out at least one other day a week.  Often we just run errands, but it's nice when we see friends.  I know it's really more for me that Sprout at this point, but that's okay.  I need some stimulation too.

-She likes to look at herself in the mirror on her playmat and grabs for the toys that hang from it.  She also holds the O-ball and tries to get it into her mouth.  She's not terribly interested in many toys.

- She still can't quite roll over, but gets onto her side pretty consistently.  She is increasingly tolerant of tummy time, perhaps even enjoying it on occasion.  Her head control is getting better and better.

-We're okay to start trying her on food at any point now, but are holding off because she doesn't seem to have the tongue control down yet.

In other words she's doing all the usual four month old stuff.  Even though we've been through it before, it is still such a joy and a wonder to see her grow, interact, and learn new things everyday!

Quick Health Update

Just a quick update on my midwife appointment from Monday and The Bean's doctor's appointment from yesterday.
All is good on the new baby front.  This was a pretty brief appointment.  My urine test came back fine, and my weight gain (16lbs!) was also not a concern.  They were able to find the baby's heartbeat easily.  144bpm, which has me thinking "boy" though I'm not sure how accurate that is.  We should be finding out for sure next week. 

The Bean had to go in for his 15 month immunizations yesterday.  We must have overlooked them in the schedule, so we're a bit behind.  We're going to do his 18 month ones next month as there's a slight chance of ferbile seizures in doing these two together.  He was a champ for the shot.  Not a single tear.  They also weighed and measured him.  Here are his stats:
weight: 21lbs (2.3%)
height: 33in (60%)
weight for height: 0.4%
head circumference: 19in (49.7%)
We were excited that he is on the charts now!  Looks like he's just going to be a slender kid. 

We also got his pelviectasis ultrasound results from back in May.  It looks like there's been improvement.  I don't remember the exact wording, but our peditrician said they used the mildest wording possible without saying that the issue has resolved itself.  We will do another ultrasound as soon as we can book one, and hopefully it will show that it's not a concern anymore.  Not that we've been too concerned about it, but still. 

Other than that he seems to be meeting all his developmental milestones, most of which I think I mentioned in his 18 month update. 

In other words, everything is looking good for both/all of us. 

Twelve Month Stats

The Bean had is 12 month check-up yesterday.  Poor little guy --three shots!  He toughed it out though.  He seemed a little warm through the night, but didn't get feverish.  One of the vaccines (measles?) contains a live virus, so he could show symptoms from that next week, we'll just have to keep an eye on him. 

Of course, my favourite part of the visit was getting all his updated stats.  Not much has changed.  He's continuing along his growth curve, but is still on the low end of things. 

He weighs 17 lbs. 4 oz., which means he was below the 1st percentile for his age.  That's lower than last time, but the doctor didn't seem concerned.
He is 29.1 inches long, which is around the 27% percentile for his age.  This is an increase in percentile.
His weight for height is below the 1st percentile.
His head circumference is 16.7 in.  Which is about the 37th percentile for his age.  That means he's smart, right?  

We also got a requisition for another ultrasound to check on his pelviectasis and blood work to check on his iron levels.  No appointments have been scheduled for those yet, though it shouldn't take long for them to get us in.  I'll update with any news. 

Nine (and a half) Month Stats

We got The Bean to the doctor yesterday for his nine month well-check. No shots at this appointment, so it went pretty quickly. He now weighs 16.1lbs, which is still under the third percentile, but he's continuing on an upward trajectory, so the doctor said it was fine. His height is 27.2 inches which is around the 10th percentile, so he's catching up there. His weight for length is about 6th percentile, so again, catching up. Finally his head circumference is 17.5 inches which is around the 23rd percentile. Big noggin'! We got an update on the pelviectasis. The ultrasound results from August showed that he still has mild (0.6cm) dilation in his left kidney. We plan on keeping an eye on it, likely following up with another ultrasound when he's around a year old, but we aren't overly concerned since he doesn't seem to be displaying any signs of discomfort. We have a healthy baby, so we're happy moms.

Six Month Stats

The Bean had his six month well-check yesterday so we got all his newest stats.

He weighs 13 lbs. 8 oz., which means he's still below the 3rd percentile for his age, but his growth rate increased, so the doctor was pleased. 
He is 25.6 inches long, which is around the 16% percentile for his age.
His weight for height is also still below the 3rd percentile.
His head circumference is 16.7 in.  Which is about the 14th percentile for his age.

He is hitting all of his developmental milestones and seemed healthy in all respects so it was a good visit overall.  He didn't even cry when he got his immunizations!

We asked about sleep (because we're not getting a whole lot of it) and the doctor kind of wavered on his recommendations.  On a good night he'll nurse just a little before going down and then wake about every four hours to eat.  On a bad night he can be up every hour and a half.  I think at this age they're supposed to be able to go about 8 hours without eating, but because of his size we're reluctant to not feed him when he gets up and seems hungry.  First the doctor said we could let him cry it out, but then when we said he was actually eating and not just sucking and dozing back to sleep he said maybe he does need the calories.  I think if we could get him to give up one of his nighttime feeds so that we were only doing one middle of the night session and then going through until the morning we'd be okay.  Jen's only been offering one breast overnight and that seems to be going well.  Keeping daytime naps regular seems to help with the overnights too, but sometimes, like if we want to go out and do anything, that can be difficult.  I'm sure it'll all work out but right now we're pretty tired a lot of the time.  Any advice on this front is welcome!  :)


We just got back from an afternoon at the splash pad and The Bean is napping.  I am one tired mama so I think I may take a little snooze on the couch before he decides it's time to get up.

Five Months Old!

Today The Bean is five months old!


-The Bean has found his feet! and I tell you, they must be delicious... those piggies are in his mouth at almost every opportunity he gets. He seems to favour his left foot. Maybe he's more flexible on his left side?

-He is now a mobile little guy. He's been able to roll from his tummy to back and back to tummy for a while, but now seems to do so intentionally. We have an adorable video of him showing off this skill, but he's buck naked in it, so it's not going up on the net. He seems to get bored of sitting sometimes and once we put him on the ground he'll roll and roll and roll. He also seems to be in the beginning stages of figuring out how to crawl. He'll get on his tummy with his arms under his chest and push his bum way up into the air. Sometimes he manages to scooch forward a bit.

-He recently started playing in his Jumperoo. He seems to enjoy the spinny toy on it and the lights and sounds. I call it his over-stimulation centre. He seems to be into toys that squeak or make other sounds these days. I think he'll really like the Jumperoo when he can bounce on his own.

-He now enjoys facing forward in the Baby Bjorn when out and about. I still prefer the Ergo for my own comfort. Over the summer I think we'll end up switching back and forth depending on how long we're going out for.

-He is babbling all.of.the.time. He also makes really sweet soft noises when he's falling asleep or waking up.

-Pretty much since we decided we'd try to put him on a schedule he stopped sleeping through the night. We're thinking that he's going through both physical and mental growth, and that has something to do with it. But boy, do I miss sleeping more than two hours at a time.

-He's still doing good naps in the morning. He'll wake up (early) and play for about an hour or so, then go down for about an hour then repeat the same thing. Afternoon naps go well if he's at home, but are less consistent when he's out and about.

-He's also figured out how to roll when swaddled. This freaks Mommy out. We've tried unswaddling him for sleeping, but he just doesn't sleep then.

-He has become much fussier and more demanding. He's still a very well-behaved baby, but we sure know when he's not happy about something. Like being in the car. The next road trip (at the end of the month) may be interesting.

-He's also started "fake" crying when he's not happy about something. It's kinda' funny, but if we don't listen he really starts wailing.

-Finally, in the past few days we've started him on solids. The main reason is that his blood test results showed that he has low iron and we want to try a two-pronged approach to treating that --food in combination with a supplement. We're also hoping that it helps with his sleep overnight.

-His weighed in at 11 lbs. 9 oz. at his doctor's appointment earlier this week.

-He is now out of almost all of his 0-3 month clothing and into his 3-6 month stuff.

It continues to amaze me how much he's changing. A co-worker brought in her one month old to work earlier this week and she seemed so tiny and new. Who would've thought five month olds wouldn't seem tiny or new?

Four Month Stats

Blogger ate our four month update, so we'll have to go back and salvage what we can from the last drafted version. For now, here is the update from his pediatrician appointment on Friday. I didn't take the time off work to go, but I sort of wish I had. There were a few things that came up and I wish I had been there to hear what the doctor said first-hand and ask questions. Oh well. I'll make sure I make it to the next one.

The Bean is still measuring in on the low end. His weight was 11 lbs. 2.5 oz. and his length was 23.5 inches. Just under the 5th percentile for weight vs. length.

The pediatrician was a concerned about his iron levels and is going to send us to do some blood work and a sweat test. There were a number of smaller issues that I think brought him to that decision:
1) The Bean's pale.
2) He is is on the low end percentile-wise, although he has doubled his birth weight, which is what they're supposed to do by four months. The fact that Jen also asked about giving him Gripe Water may have also contributed to concern about his weight.
3) He still is showing signs of pelviectasis which I don't think I ever posted about, but will. (This is the reason we can't give him Gripe Water.)
and 4) That his eyelashes are so long, which is apparently a sign of low iron although I can't seem to find any information about it on the internet.

Developmentally he seems to be hitting all the milestones. So no concerns there.

I won't be that surprised if test results came back showing The Bean has low iron. Jen's had low iron levels on blood work in the past, so it stands to reason that The Bean's levels might be low too. It seems to be something that can be remedied fairly easily, so I'm not going to spend too much time worrying about it, although Googling things doesn't help!

First Pediatrician Appointment

The Bean had his first appointment with the pediatrician yesterday. Overall it went really well. A nurse weighed and measured him. He was 9lbs. 2oz and 21.5in. ...still below the 5th percentile, but following a nice growth curve, so nothing to worry about.

We spent a good deal of time talking to the resident doctor. He was quite thorough and addressed all of our questions. When it came time to do vaccinations the pediatrician came in. We had some questions about the vaccines, and he answered them well. I really liked it when he said that if we had any reservations, he rather we go home and think about it then have us make a hasty decision and regret it later. We decided to go ahead and do both of the scheduled shots. The Bean's poor little thighs looked so sad with the band-aids on him afterward. He had been crying before they injected him, and continued to cry afterward. We had woken him up for some of the earlier testing, so my guess is that he was tired, and that's why he had started to cry, then the needles just made things worse. Jen nursed him and he calmed down and fell back asleep.

We were able to stop for a tea/coffee and a cookie on the way home while The Bean slept in his stroller. It was a nice mini-date!

The shots seemed to really take it out of our little guy and he slept through the rest of the afternoon, woke in the evening, nursed, and then went back to sleep for another long stretch.

We have some reading to do on vaccines before our next appointment, but I am very happy with the staff and doctors we had and the way they interacted with us. Hurray!

Six Week Check Up

The Bean had is six week check up (last appointment with the midwives -sob!) on Friday. They were really happy with how well he's doing. They checked his heart rate, breathing, colour, size, etc. They were in agreement with us that he is perfect!

He weighed in at a whopping 8lbs. 8oz. That's 3lbs. over his birth weight and puts him in about the 6th percentile.

He measured almost 22in., which is about the 23rd percentile.

(3rd percentile for weight vs. length.)

His head circumference was about 15in., which is around the 22nd percentile.

So, he's still a smaller (and skinnier) than average baby, but doing very well!

Things to Consider When Choosing a Sperm Donor

We're in-between appointments right now.

My wife is going to start cycle monitoring sometime this week and we have our psychologist appointment next week.

I wanted to take some time about some of the things we thought about when starting this whole process and also as we try to choose a donor.

First we had to decide who was going to try to conceive. We agreed that we would eventually like to try to have two children. I've known for a long time that I would like to have the experience of being pregnant and giving birth, my wife was not as sure. ("It's like having an alien inside of you!" she says.) So, it was either that I would try to conceive twice, or that we would each try once. Eventually she decided that she wanted to give it a try. Since she is nearly five years older than me, but still under 35, we decided that she would would go first. In a couple of years when we're ready to try for our second, it will be my turn to carry.

The second thing we had to decide on was whether to use a known or anonymous donor. There was only one guy we were considering as a known donor. He's a friend that I met in university. He's gay and is the single parent of a beautiful little boy that he had with a surrogate mother. He says it's the best thing he's ever done in his life and that he would be honoured to help us try to have children. We VERY seriously considered taking him up on his offer. He's kind, smart, healthy, gorgeous, and any children that we had would know who their biological father was. Logistically it was very difficult to work out though. We basically had two options. #1. Fly him out every month and use the turkey baster method. #2. Have him apply as a Designated (Known) Donor at a sperm bank... but this presented a slew of other challenges. Since he's gay we would have to fill out a special consent form and have it approved. Same because of his age (over 40). Also, his sperm would have to be quarantined for a year before we could start inseminations. Finally, using a Designated Donor is much more costly than going the anonymous route. Neither my wife or I were very comfortable with Option #1. We tend to be somewhat cautious and I think both liked the reassurance that comes with going through a clinic for cycle monitoring and insemination. Also, he's able to make that commitment to us now, but what if in a few years, when we want to have a second child, the circumstances have changed? (Not that we didn't trust that he would still be willing, more that he might not be able.) Since we are both planning on carrying a child, we would like to use the same donor, so that the children share a biological link. So we eliminated Option #1. For the reasons mentioned above, Option #2 was out as well. So that meant looking at sperm banks for an anonymous donor.

Here are some of the things we are considering now that we are trying to decide on an anonymous donor:
-personal and family heath history (a history of cancer or heart disease are concerns for us)
-appearance (height, weight, skin tone, hair and eye colour -looking for someone not too big and with similar colouring to either of us)
-interests (balanced, and if possible, somewhat in line with or complementary to our own)

Based on the research that we did we also decided that we should try to choose a donor who was CMV negative, had a reported pregnancy, and had IUI samples available.

We currently have the list narrowed down to 6 potential donors, and are hoping to decide on our top two before the end of the month. We plan on purchasing a number of samples and storing them so that they are available when we need them and there isn't question about the availability of additional samples from the same donor. (Of course, if it takes a lot of attempts, we may have to hope that there are additional samples available because we don't want to over buy either... this stuff is expensive!)

An additional FYI: According to the ReproMed website 42% of women using donor sperm conceive within 3 cycles and 67% conceive within 6 cycles (86% for women under 36 years old). The CanAm Cryoservices site lists pregnancy rates in the range of 9-20% per cycle. I'm the type of person who likes knowing the stats, even though I'm well aware that they're only stats and things can vary greatly from one person to the next.

Anyway, I know we had a ton of questions about choosing a donor, so I hope that this information helps anyone who is thinking about try to conceive using donor sperm. Maybe at some point in the future I will do a big post about the processes with the fertility clinic because I know that was another area that we really didn't know a lot about either.

Catch ya' later.