Archive for April, 2007

We got back last night from our trip to the Big Apple.  It was truly gorgeous weather, and of course, we packed wrong.  I, for one, could have used some shorts.

I always picture New York full of those people with that accent.  You know that accent, “Prime Rib, that’s like da king of da meats.”  Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised that they all didn’t talk that way.  Last trip, I didn’t really engage in much conversation, but with this one I was carrying around my own little conversation starter, it would seem.

Sophia handled the travelling very well.  In fact, giving her a bottle during the ascent of the aircraft proved to work perfectly, as she hardly cared.  This is a great relief when thinking of the flight in May to Europe.

She loved all of the action of the big city, as evidenced by her constantly moving her head and looking around.  She didn’t cry but once, on Saturday when we were in Central Park, and it was because she needed a nap.  So I turned her over so she was laying on my arm and she went to sleep instantly.  Most everyone we passed noticed her and said, “Awwww!” or “Oh, how cute,” or something to that effect.  She had that city in the palm of her little hand.  We would duck into a souvenir shop or something, and I would hear someone making sounds trying to get her attention and/or make her laugh, which she was quick to oblige.

I was only disappointed once, with the Guggenheim Museum.  The exterior was indistinguishable, as it was undergoing a facelift.  The interior was all I expected, but it really didn’t have all that much art.  Of the six or so stories, only three of them had anything to show.  One of the floors had that My-God-is-that-art stuff.  You know, the little projector looping some black and white movie that reminds me of The Ring. And a black and white picture of some dead tree.  Shizzle like that.

But all in all, it was a great trip.  I wanted to let Antonella do whatever she wanted to do, as it was her first time to NYC.  I think she enjoyed it.

Sophia has been somewhat chatty these days.  Check that…she has been really chatty lately.  In fact, she has many interesting habits, at least in my opinion.

The first of these is she is eating solid food (you know, baby food, which is considered solid but is really pretty much liquid.)  This in itself is unremarkable; however, she always grabs the spoon and feeds herself.  She has done this from the first time we tried to feed her.  It is a pain, as she sometimes grabs the working end of the spoon and makes a mess, but that goes with the territory.  Her current preference is anything with blueberries, bananas, apples, or turkey.  She can also feed herself Cheerios, which she couldn’t do two weeks ago (very well). 

Next, she loves to drink water by herself.  If you are holding her and have a glass of water anywhere near, she will fixate on it.  Oh, and the icier, the better.  She has been doing this for about two months.  We give it to her in an espresso cup with a cube of ice.

She still can’t crawl, but she is pretty good at creeping.  She lifts her head up, then drops it on the blanket and starts basically trying to run while pushing her head.  She doesn’t move very fast, but it is cute watching her pick her head up every foot or so to recheck her course.

She also has increased her feedings from 3 – 4 ounces a feeding to a tub of baby food and 5 – 6 ounces of formula with a milk chaser.  As a result, she sleeps much better at night, as do we.

I stopped trying to analyze her progress versus what is written in the books we have.  With some things, it seems she is ahead of her time, but with others she is behind.  When I say behind, I mean with a 9 month-old, though she really is only (supposed to be) 7 months.  She is somewhere in between actually, and catching up quickly.  When she does something new, I will look it up to see what the book says, but I don’t go down the checklist.  That is not important, nor has it been.  I was more worried about it before, as some have suggested that some preemies tend to have mild learning disabilities.  She doesn’t seem to have any of that, nor has the case workers assigned to her from the Maryland Infants & Toddlers Program.

My wife and I have had a particular warm spot for a particular sawbones here in Leonardtown.  I would not recommend him to my worst enemy.  First, the jackass was so condescending, with his Johns Hopkins diplomas on his wall and his beady little eyes.  He looked like an evil doctor from Bugs Bunny: short, with a whiny nasal voice.  He was recommended to us by a co-worker and she sang his praises.

For some reason, we seemed to get off on the wrong foot.  My wife and I had to go in and listen to the “You are over 35, your baby could be missing a chromosome or two” speech.  I listened to the numbers and we decided that testing gave no real benefit (we were already outside of the first trimester) and didn’t like the odds of possibly harming the baby.  We figured that whatever the baby’s problem, we could deal with it.

Coupled with my wife’s foreign accent, I suppose that meant we were total idiots.  I can’t see where that connection could be made, but he just changed.  If my wife had a concern, he would just laugh it off.  My wife would ask me to go to her appointments, because he treated her much better.  But, there were some times I couldn’t make it and I would be told what he said after-the-fact.

Fast forward to two months prior to the baby’s supposed due date.  My wife, bless her, had only gained 12 pounds total in the months prior.  She kept doing some no-impact exercises and we walked when she felt like it.  Then, within a week, she gained another 25 pounds.  Her legs swelled up.  She had been to an appointment and the doctor said it was “about time she gained some weight.” 

So, Antonella went to her work at the hospital and one of the nurses told her that was a sign of high blood pressure and admitted her immediately.  They did an ultrasound and checked her blood pressure.  What they found was diagnosed as severe preeclampsia.  Her blood pressure was like 180/110 or something to that effect.  They sent her home from work and called her “doctor” with the results.  He had us come in within the next couple of days, and they did another ultrasound.  He came in during the ultrasound and told her that “It wasn’t as bad as the hospital said,” and told us to fill up a gallon jug with her urine.

Two days later, we were enjoying dinner and my wife complained of abdominal pain and light-headedness.  I told her to take it easy, and that her doctor said it wasn’t bad.  I put her feet up and she didn’t feel any better, so we rushed to the hospital and they flew her to Johns Hopkins where the baby was delivered.

The main reason I have a problem with all of this is it most likely could have been avoided.  When she arrived at the emergency room, her systolic blood pressure was over 210.  They put her on intravenous magnesium sulfate, which is basically Epsom salt.  Couldn’t this have been part of her treatment before, yathink? 

In fact, my wife has had headaches in the past, which is also symptomatic of low-magnesium (which could be from low potassium, too).  I would like to see her results from her blood test to see if that was a factor.  We take some vitamin supplements, usually a multivitamin.  Antonella was taking her Neonatal vitamins (the prescribed kind, no less).  I don’t like all of that holistic medicine, as it seems to have a lot of snake oil on the market that doesn’t really do anything.  It is usually cheap, but I think a lot of it leverages the placebo effect.  And most of the stuff I have never heard of, so I don’t usually take it.

Not to say that certain vitamins and minerals aren’t necessary and would be good to supplement on a daily basis.  In fact, one can find something about the effects and causes of magnesium deficiency at, say…The National Institutes of Health.  You think they might have a little bit of credibility, right?  If I can get this information over the web and I know squat about medicine, then you would think a doctor would know.

Now, when Antonella has a headache, she takes a warm bath in epsom salt and her headache mysteriously vanishes.

If you live in this area, the doctor’s name is Tilley.  In my opinion, he is a quack.  I don’t know if he was upset that we didn’t elect for (and pay for) unnecessary tests or something, but one of the symptoms of severe preeclampsia is stroke.  My wife and daughter could have been needlessly put in harm’s way.