Dean's 4 month appointment was today.

He is now 23.5" long and 12 lbs. 6 oz.

Those measurements are ~4th % according to the doctors charts and ~30% for weight vs height. According to the WHO charts he is 1.5% for weight and 0.9% for length, 26.9% for weight vs. height.

The pediatrician is very mildly concerned about his head circumference. It is 42 cm, or ~50%. Average for his age, but fairly big for his size. He said we would just monitor it and not worry about it for now.

His testicle is still undecended (which I knew). Not a problem, just continue to monitor. We will see the surgeon again in two months if it has still not dropped.

His doctor is very pleased with his milestones. He very consistently rolls from his stomach to his back. he does roll from his back ot his stomach, but only on occasion. He loves to stand and hold our hands. He is very alert and interested in everything going on around him and smiles at everyone all the time.

He got most of his vaccinations, but they were out of the oral rotavirus one so we have to go back next week for it. I am happy that it is the oral one so he doesn't have to get shots two weeks in a row.

He is a champ when getting shots. He fussed after the first one. Started crying after the second, continued crying for the third. Daddy picked him up and he very quickly (seconds later) was laughing at the nurse who gave him the shots.

The doctor said to start him on solids soon. I am a bit torn on that. I am definitely waiting until his cold goes away, but i just don't think he's ready yet. He shows no interest what so ever in food and he has a pretty strong tongue thrust still.

Dean is two weeks old now. He had a check-up this week and is up to 6lbs 10oz, is 19.5in long, and is a little skinny, but healthy in all respects. The pediatrician wants us to talk to a nurse practitioner about making feeding more efficient so he'll gain weight a bit quicker. Clearly, the skinny genes are coming from some other part of our backgrounds. Nicole also had a check up and she's doing great, the scar looks good and she's in great shape for having had a large hole in her abdomen 2 weeks ago. We had visits from Chris, Katie, Tommy, Chris, Steph, Greg and uncle Geoff this week. I started back to work this week as well. So we're getting back into the routine of day-to-day life.

We had an appointment with the OB this morning. Everything is still normal. Nicole has been having some issues with sinus pressure and headaches, which resulted in a just-in-case visit to L&D. The medical people are all watching this like a hawk on meth, so while everything that happens gets us tense, we're lucky that we know that everything possible is being done to insure that this baby arrives healthy.

This afternoon we got a call from the OB saying that appointments have been set up for Wed. May 28th. We'll have the amnio at 7:30a and then (assuming that the lungs are ready) the c-section will be at 1:30p. In 3 weeks, the peanut will be here!

We had our first non-stress test yesterday. It's a test to check fetal response and, thereby, placental function. Basically, they hook up a heartbeat monitor and a contraction monitor, and give the mother a button (like on Jeopardy!). When the mother feels the baby move, she's supposed to push the button. What they're looking for is for the baby's heart rate to accellerate with the activity and then settle back down to the resting rate. This is to make sure the baby is active and responsive.

The nurse told us that what they look for is a resting heart rate between 120 and 160, and the rate to go up 15-20 bpm upon activity. When she turned the monitor on, the peanut showed a lovely 140. It was actually a bit early in the day for him, as he seems to generally have his first dance party around 9:30 and our appointment was at 8:30. We did get a couple of good readings. He would shift around, the heart rate would climb to 160ish and then settle back down. The nurse told us that the data was a textbook example of a positive reading. She also showed us a tool they use to stimulate the baby if he's sluggish early in the morning. It was an electronic voicebox, such as is used for people with damaged larynxes. It basically makes a somewhat loud buzzing noise. She said they'll put it on the belly and that usually will wake a sleeping baby. However when she pushed the button and made it buzz, she was a good 3-4 feet away rom Nicole and the Peanut apparently did not like it. He squirmed quite a bit and the heartrate went up to 170! (which, incidentally, is the exact tempo that I associate with the clicking of train wheels on the track). So, that was entertaining.

All good so far!

Last week was our 29 week check up. We had another ultrasound to check growth, and everything checked out right on course. All of the measurements were right on par with the due date of June 15 we've been given. Nicole is still doing well. The arthritis has had a few flares, but for the most part she's doing well. So, as they say, no news is good news. We're going to a 2 week interval for apointments, and starting Non Stress Tests and some classes in the next couple of weeks.

The registries got some updates, and we had a fairly successful shopping trip to pick up some clothes. Now it's time to start figuring out the nursery... and probably a name at some point.

We had a check up this morning, and other than a wierdly high blood pressure reading (it was fine (118/64)after a do-over) everything is normal and on-track. Nicole's glucose test came back normal, her hemoglobin is still low (11.0), but higher than it was at the start of the pregnancy and her thyroid levels are stable (1.8). So far so good. We've got another sonogram and checkup in 4 weeks.