Saturday, January 16, 2010

Why we haven't sent any thank-you cards

We received so many thoughtful and generous gifts when Magnus was born, and then again at Christmas, and our intention was to take a nice photo of him and use it to make some birth announcement/thank-you cards. So, step one: take the nice photo. At first, we didn't do this because we were so busy. We had 11 family members visiting at Christmas. And then he got some baby acne, and then worse acne, and then he started to get cradle cap on his eyebrows. And then one day last week suddenly the cradle cap was all over his face. We still think he's plenty cute with the crusty face, but it wasn't exactly the look we had in mind for his birth announcement photo.

He had his first appointment with his regular pediatrician last week, and she told us that since the cradle cap is just a cosmetic problem, she didn't think it made sense to give him medication. I was happy to hear this, since I also prefer to give him as few medications as possible, especially since he already takes 4 medications and an iron supplement every day! So, in the meantime, we are rubbing his face with olive oil 3 times a day (which he hates, of course) and I think it's getting a little better. But it still might be a while before you get a thank-you card from us, and that's why!

We count ourselves very lucky that the biggest issue we had to discuss at the pediatrician's last week was his skin problem! The pediatrician was a little worried about his weight, too, and it's definitely true that he's tiny, but he's still gaining at the same rate, and we've gone back to twice-weekly weighing instead of every day. Magnus is definitely happy about this, as being stripped naked and placed on the cold, hard scale is not among his favorite activities. Magnus also got all of his 2-month vaccinations this week. He did extremely well and only cried for a minute or so.

In other news, Magnus has been scheduled for a heart catheterization on February 9th. It's a relatively safe procedure, but it does involve general anesthesia and most likely an overnight stay in the hospital for observation afterwards. It's going to be very strange being back in the hospital again, but just one night won't be too bad, I don't think.

6 comments:

  1. He is so beautiful! Congratulations - and happy to hear is doing so well with his HLHS. What a blessing...Annamarie, Facebook/1in100

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  2. He's a cutie with or without cradle cap and/or baby acne! I love the smiling picture!

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  3. Wait, people send out thank-you cards?? oops.

    Riley had some wicked cradle cap/shake-n-bake-cornflake-coating all over his head/face, and while we were hesitant to use it (petroleum product that it is) mineral oil worked a lot better for us than olive oil. ymmv.

    (smiling raised fist picture is freakin' awesome, btw.)

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  4. whoa, cath already? I know ours is just around the corner, no date set though...Julianne hates the scale too! I still weigh her about every three days just because I'm curious! Are you bottle feeding? When do you go back to work? I love that you're using olive oil!
    -Clare

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  5. Clare, I was surprised about the cath so soon, too, but I guess here they like to do it at 2-3 months of age to follow up on the Norwood. I'm not sure if he'll have another cath before the Glenn, then.

    Unfortunately, we are pretty much exclusively bottle feeding. Magnus is getting breastmilk fortified with 1 tsp of formula powder per 100 ccs to up his calories. We do some "recreational" breastfeeding, but mostly bottle. His weight gain is going well now, but he just has so much ground to catch up at this point, I hesitate to stop the fortification.

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  6. Hi, Jen and Iggy: Holding Magnus was an amazing experience, and we owe you guys the thank you note! Please, don't worry about that. We wish you strength during the upcoming procedure. It will go well.

    Patrick and Carol

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