Almost two months old - a look to the future.

Hello,


Noah is just over two months old now, so time for a big update.
I'll start with what is going on now.

He now weighs a massive 4550 gm (10 pounds), and has outgrown his first clothes at 57 cm. We have plenty more clothes, so the only problem is picking something and actually finding something in the baby room. We hope the furniture gets delivered soon, so we have some storage space for all his stuff.


He is growing very well, which is good. The doctor actually asked the nurse to weigh him again because he is growing so quickly, he couldn't believe it. He is also starting to get a little bit more active (sleeping only 20 -22 hours a day) and now easily recognizes his mummy and papa. He is now able to smile somewhat, and get he is getting more coordinated. He now has 7 bottle's a day (every three hours, skipping the 3 in the morning bottle), of around 95 ml. each. Louise is still expressing milk to give him the best food possible.
Because he has grown a lot, they have given him a bigger bed, but that could also be because of the mountain of toys and stuffed animals in the bed.....

-- insert picture of overview of bed --

Louise got her first real smile Thursday, her heart melted and she is still not recovered. She's thinking of quitting her job and just focusing on making him smile again. Not very practical I know, but she claims it would be worth it :). Noah has discovered his hands and is getting more coordinated in using them. Friday Louise watched him accidentally make something move when he waved his hands about, he did it a few times and then you could see him realise that it was his hand doing it. That also got a smile!

Aside from visiting Noah, we have been very busy. Last week I went to Nieke and Joost's wedding while Louise stayed at home to look after Noak and Lilo. Last Saturday was Bas's stag party, and Anneke kept her company. They went to visit Noah together, and Anneke got to give Noah a bottle as well.

Friday I went to the gemeente and tried to register Noah. He is most likely an illegal immigrant (alien?) right now, but hopefully this will be sorted soon. It was obviously to much to deal with on a late friday afternoon, so they promised to call me today.

This weekend Marloes and Bas's wedding. We had a great time, as did everyone. The bride and groom looked wonderful, so we didn't do any lasting damage to Bas during his stag night.

Off course there is the usual work, house, shopping etc to keep us busy as well, but I won't bore you with those. We do have to entertain Lilo everyday, so I just post these two pictures of her.

That says it all!

A quick look to the future:

For us: We will take some time this weekend to organize Noah's stuff and catch up on house work after two very busy weekends. We'll be off to Germany (Trier most likely) for a weekend away, in the beginning of October. Anneke and my parents have kindly offered to look after Noah and Lilo, so that should be a nice break for us.

Louise will have to go back to work at the end of October, she will most likely start working 3 days a week, spread out over 4 days (4 days of 6 hours). She is getting fit quite quickly, so that should not be a big problem.

For Noah: The doctor is keeping us up to date once a week, and he told us last week that they think they can operate to remove the blockage in his throat when he weighs about 7 kg and can breath for himself. They expect him to grow at around 120 -150 grams week, so in about four months he should be big enough. Because his condition is so rare, they cannot predict when his lungs will be strong enough to do the operation, but we hope that will be around the same or even before that time. They are quite confident that they can save his vocal cords, so he will start to produce some sounds in time to learn to talk (we may regret this...). This also means that he will come home without his canule which will save us a lot of worry and stress looking after it (the canule).

It may take a few weeks for him to recover from the surgery and learn how to breathe through his mouth and nose again, but that is a step he will have to take anyway.

So: looking to the future, Noah will come home earliest around Christmas (this year, unlike the house which will also be finished before Christmas!!), and that is offcourse what we are hoping for.

Trying to keep you updated more often is also on our list :-)

Thijs