Well, my maternity leave is now over and I am back at work full time. I have to say, the 3 months of not going into my office really spoiled me and this traffic is now even more annoying then it was before but I have to say that I don't really mind being back. I truly believe that it takes a special woman to be a stay at home mom and I know that I am not cut out for it. I believe that for me, it is quality time with Parker not quantity.
Well this is my second full week back and things seem to be running smoothly. Both my mother and Erik's mom have agreed to help us out for the next 12 weeks with child care by alternating weeks and coming to stay with us to take care of Parker during the day. We are on the second week of this routine and it is working perfectly. We are just so happy to be able to have Parker stay with family for a little longer before we have a stranger take care of him.
Parker has turned out to be an amazingly great baby. He is already going to bed around 10pm and sleeping until around 8am so that has been wonderful. He is a great eater, happy, laughs and smiles all the time and as we watch him, we just know that he will be rolling over on us sometime really soon. His personality is already so developed that it is scary. You can definitely tell when he is giving you the "Don't bother me look" and the "What do you think your doing" look. He also says "I love you", "Your funny" and "Please Don't" with just his facial expressions. He loves bath time TV time, story time and of course MUSIC.
We are having the best time getting to know him more and more each day. We can't wait for everyone to get to meet him and of course, based on my previous pictures, he will definitely be a Mountaineer fan.
God Bless.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
We know it has been a long time so we thought we would make a quick post. Here are some photos from the past few months. Everything is going really well. Parker is now six months old and doing awesome. He is over 10 lbs and 23 inches long. Growing rapidly. I am back at work and Erik's business is off to a great start this year. Hope all is well with everyone of you. Take Care. God Bless.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Homecoming!
Well, I know that is has been forever since we have updated but here it is. Parker came home on December 21st just in time for Christmas. It was wonderful. Erik's parents were able to come over from West Virginia and spend the holiday with us. After Christmas, Uncle Tim and Aunt Kate stopped by to meet Parker as well before they left to go back to Turkey. We really enjoyed having all of them come.
We have been to see Parker's pediatrician and ophthalmologist a few times so far. The eye surgery for his ROP that took place right before he left the hospital went really well. His eyes are healing great and now we will continue to just follow his eyes with the ophthalmologist. The pediatrician is perfect. He seems to know preemies really well and is working out great for us. Erik and I really like all of the doctors that Parker has had so far. The major thing we have to get used to is adjusting Parker's age. With premature babies, they take Parker's actual age and calculate what they call an adjusted age to use as a guide for his development. For Parker, he is actually almost 5 months old, however, for medical and developmental purposes, his adjusted age is 1 month old. To calculate Parker's adjusted age, they take his actual age and subtract the number of weeks he was born early, which would be 15 weeks and 2 days.
For a couple of weeks Erik and I were just able to be alone and spend some time with Parker which was wonderful. We then took him on his first trip to the ski house which went really well. He tolerated the car ride very well and seemed to transition just fine.
On Martin Luther King weekend my parents were able to come up and see their grand baby too. We had a wonderful time. We went out a couple of times, took Parker and Erik to Fort Belvoir and just hung around. It was a wonderful weekend.
Since Parker came home Erik and I have been adjusting to his changing sleeping patterns. Some nights he does wonderfully, others, like last night, not so much. We have been told that in a couple of months, when he is roughly 3 months old, we can start trying to set up a sleep pattern but at this point he is still too young to not pick him up when he needs it.
Our next visitors are Uncle Ben and Aunt Vikki coming this weekend. We can not wait to have them. Then President's day weekend Uncle Scott and Aunt Danielle will come to visit also. Then we are hoping to have Uncle Trent and Aunt Jennifer come sometime in March.
Having Parker home has been a big adjustment but has been amazing. I will post some photos soon. I will try to get back into a regular schedule of updates. Hope everyone is doing well.
We have been to see Parker's pediatrician and ophthalmologist a few times so far. The eye surgery for his ROP that took place right before he left the hospital went really well. His eyes are healing great and now we will continue to just follow his eyes with the ophthalmologist. The pediatrician is perfect. He seems to know preemies really well and is working out great for us. Erik and I really like all of the doctors that Parker has had so far. The major thing we have to get used to is adjusting Parker's age. With premature babies, they take Parker's actual age and calculate what they call an adjusted age to use as a guide for his development. For Parker, he is actually almost 5 months old, however, for medical and developmental purposes, his adjusted age is 1 month old. To calculate Parker's adjusted age, they take his actual age and subtract the number of weeks he was born early, which would be 15 weeks and 2 days.
For a couple of weeks Erik and I were just able to be alone and spend some time with Parker which was wonderful. We then took him on his first trip to the ski house which went really well. He tolerated the car ride very well and seemed to transition just fine.
On Martin Luther King weekend my parents were able to come up and see their grand baby too. We had a wonderful time. We went out a couple of times, took Parker and Erik to Fort Belvoir and just hung around. It was a wonderful weekend.
Since Parker came home Erik and I have been adjusting to his changing sleeping patterns. Some nights he does wonderfully, others, like last night, not so much. We have been told that in a couple of months, when he is roughly 3 months old, we can start trying to set up a sleep pattern but at this point he is still too young to not pick him up when he needs it.
Our next visitors are Uncle Ben and Aunt Vikki coming this weekend. We can not wait to have them. Then President's day weekend Uncle Scott and Aunt Danielle will come to visit also. Then we are hoping to have Uncle Trent and Aunt Jennifer come sometime in March.
Having Parker home has been a big adjustment but has been amazing. I will post some photos soon. I will try to get back into a regular schedule of updates. Hope everyone is doing well.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Short Update - Lot's of Changes
There are some great changes in the world of Parker, so here they are.
1) They took Parker off the CPAP machine and put him on the nasal canula. He is at a flow of 1 (which is great) and his oxygen is set to 21% (which is room air, what we all breathe) which is awesome.
2) They have moved his feeding tube from his small intestines to his stomach and he is handling that perfectly.
3) They have now started to compress his feeds. Currently, he is being feed through his tube for 2 hours and the he goes 1 hour with out food. This is to introduce the feeling of hunger and full so that he can tell Erik and I in the future when he is ready to eat. He is doing great with this also.
4) He now weighs 1710 grams which is a little over 3 lbs. 12 ounces.
5) Hopefully soon they will be able to introduce a bottle for feeding so that he can learn to actually eat on his own and soon they will start his vaccines that full term babies normally get.
6) He had another eye exam on Tuesday, which he hates but the nurses say he tolerates better the most babies do. He still has a level two ROP but at this point they are just going to watch him. They have said he may need Laser eye surgery but that the ROP could still resolve on it's own as well.
Even with everything that is going on he is doing great. We appreciate all the prayers and support. Please keep them coming. All of our nurses know of our great support group and of our Christianity since we talk of it. With that in mind, our nurse Megan informed us that another family (they are not allowed to give names), lost one of their twins on Monday. She asked if Erik and I and our group could prayer for them and I of told her absolutely.
Love to All.
1) They took Parker off the CPAP machine and put him on the nasal canula. He is at a flow of 1 (which is great) and his oxygen is set to 21% (which is room air, what we all breathe) which is awesome.
2) They have moved his feeding tube from his small intestines to his stomach and he is handling that perfectly.
3) They have now started to compress his feeds. Currently, he is being feed through his tube for 2 hours and the he goes 1 hour with out food. This is to introduce the feeling of hunger and full so that he can tell Erik and I in the future when he is ready to eat. He is doing great with this also.
4) He now weighs 1710 grams which is a little over 3 lbs. 12 ounces.
5) Hopefully soon they will be able to introduce a bottle for feeding so that he can learn to actually eat on his own and soon they will start his vaccines that full term babies normally get.
6) He had another eye exam on Tuesday, which he hates but the nurses say he tolerates better the most babies do. He still has a level two ROP but at this point they are just going to watch him. They have said he may need Laser eye surgery but that the ROP could still resolve on it's own as well.
Even with everything that is going on he is doing great. We appreciate all the prayers and support. Please keep them coming. All of our nurses know of our great support group and of our Christianity since we talk of it. With that in mind, our nurse Megan informed us that another family (they are not allowed to give names), lost one of their twins on Monday. She asked if Erik and I and our group could prayer for them and I of told her absolutely.
Love to All.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
BOO!!
Well, this was Parker's first Halloween and we were able to dress him up and take off his CPAP for a few minutes for a photo-op. He was splended and looked amazing. Enjoy!
A quick update: Parker is now 1590 grams or roughly 3lbs. 7 ounces. He has been taken off the CPAP and put on a low flow nasal canal and his feeding tube has been moved from his mouth to his nose. Hopefully in the next couple of days they will pull his feeding tube back into his stomach and as long as that goes well they will start timing his feeds instead of having him on a continous feed and they will start introducing a bottle. Cross your fingers.
Hope everyone is well.
Happy Fall!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Big Update
Well, our life has been a little hectic since Parker was born. Sorry for the delay in updates. So, two days before Parker was born Erik and I had a mini vacation in Baltimore. We went to the acquarium and an Orioles game. It was a great time.
Then our little guy arrived after church on Sunday. What a scary but amazing day. Parker Brooks Moden is doing very well. He is now gaining weight and is off the the ventilator. When he was still on the vent we really could not hold him a lot but we did get one opportunity to hold him. Now that he is off the vent we can hold him almost anytime unless he has had a bad day, which would mean that he was needing more oxygen support and was restless all day. So far he has not had many bad days and we were able to hold Parker again yesterday.
Below are photos of our mini vacation and some of Parker. Enjoy.
BALTIMORE:
PARKER BROOKS MODEN:
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Monday, September 7, 2009
Parker Brooks Moden
As most of you already know, Parker Brooks Moden is here!!
We are updating a blog provided by the hospital to us, specifically for him. If you have not received the email with the link and I would like to see updates on his status please just shoot me and email and we will get you the link.
Hope everyone is doing well.
God Bless!
We are updating a blog provided by the hospital to us, specifically for him. If you have not received the email with the link and I would like to see updates on his status please just shoot me and email and we will get you the link.
Hope everyone is doing well.
God Bless!
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