Thursday, July 30, 2015

Babies bring such peace into the home (cough, cough).

The reading produced by this harmless-looking device determines the level of sanity that will prevail in this house on a given day.


New baby Camille Catherine arrived home yesterday at 11:05 a.m. Between Camille and her eight-and-one-half-month-old Irish twin brother, I'm reasonably sure there hasn't been one solitary second of quiet in this house.  As a rule, the medical establishment has concerns about the health of the lungs of premature babies. These two were both significantly (six weeks and eight weeks repectively) premature, but if the ability to make noise any way other than by wheezing  is any indication of lung capacity, I'd  say both of them are doing just fine in that department.

Camille cries almost anytime she's not eating or sleeping. She doesn't eat or sleep all that much, which leaves an abundance of time for crying.  She eats every hour on the hour, or at least someone tries to get food down her on that schedule.  

They (her grandmothers,  her father, both grandfathers, all the aunts and uncles, and the grand-Godparents) all worry about the amount of milk (mostly the real thing; she's being breastfed, and the supplementary feedings are from stored breast milk) she's consuming, but she must be getting something down, as she's up to 4 lbs. 8 oz., from a birth weight of 3 lbs, 13 oz., and from an all-time low of 3 lbs., 3 oz.  Both grandmothers are also concerned about the quality of nutrients in the breast milk, but what they're failing to ackowledge is that she lost the ten ounces on high-octane preemie formula. It wasn't until she  started getting some of her mother's milk that she began to regain her lost weight.

The nanny (who holds a master's in nursing science), the mother,  and the pediatrician think the baby is doing just great and are only worried [the nanny and the pediatrician; the mother thinks she can do this forever if necesary] about the mother's ability to hold up and to produce milk at the rate of the grand-prize Holstein they're treating her as though she is. The mother has cystic fibrosis and does well to consume enough calories to keep herself from looking like an anemic  Eithopian refugee.  Beyond that, throughout the pregnancy and for as long as she breastfeeds, she's not taking the very best medications to control her own condition. She's compensating by having increased percussive repiratory therapy and alternate medications. She'll continue as long as the baby has to have breast milk, but the original plan was for the baby to be breastfed only for six weeks. 

This morning was the first morning in  several days that baby Camille hasn't put on  at least one ounce.  One would think from the collective response around here that North Korea* had actually produced a weapon of mass destruction that would travel further than its own backyeard and had
already launched it directly at the address of the home we're all currently inhabiting. The pediatrician's trying to put a bit of perspective on it by saying that if everyone gained an ounce every day of his or her life, we're be morbidly obese before we were old enough for preschool.

My job is mostly to keep eight-and-one-half-month-old Andrew happy. It's a relatively easy task. While he's not a quiet child, he is, by nature, happy. 

I actually think his sister is happy, too, strangely enough. I think she cries because she has to do something when she's awake and not eating,  and there's not much else she can do at this point. As soon as she is unwrapped enough  that she can discover her toes or learn to kick the noise-making toys hanging across the lower end of her cradle, she'll do that instead of crying all the time. Her cries for the most part do not sound like cries of distress to me. The nanny agrees with me. I mostly keep my opinions to myself, though, as were I to do otherwise, I would only be told how little I know, and I already know that.

8 comments:

  1. Either your writing is getting better or I am liking your writing more. I am not nearly at good at English as you are so I may be wrong but I love your metaphors like "produce milk at the rate of the grand-prize Holstein" and "North Korea* had actually produced a weapon of mass destruction." The latter one may not be a metaphor but I like it. I also like your simile " like an anemic Eithiopean refugee."

    Of course breast milk is the best food for the child but I believe that every medication that the mother takes ends up in the breast milk so they have stopped testing them so they can say that maybe or maybe not it is in the breast milk.

    Do you call Andrew the "Irish twin brother" since he was born less than 9 months from his sister?

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    1. "Irish twin" is a folkn tern for two babies born to the same mother in a span of less than a year. camille and Andrew are like Super-Irish Twins, with being not quite 8 1/2 months apart.

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  2. Sounds like everything is coming along smoothly enough.

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    1. i think everything's fine. Back in the olden days, babies pretty much had to sink or swim. Some mothers may have been a little more skilled or had a little better milk than others, but it was largely either sink or swi, and i think Camille's is one who would have swum.

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  3. Does she like oatmeal cookies? I crave oatmeal in any form so badly when I'm nursing and it's supposed to be good for milk production. Actual lactation cookies have other weirder ingredients in them but I think oatmeal is really helpful just from my own unscientific personal experience! Also if mom thinks the baby is doing fine she is probably fine. Moms spend so much time with the baby and get to know the baby when pregnant that they pick up on little things.

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    1. I think she does like them. There are enough people around who are good bakers that someone ought to have a decent recipe for them. Thanks.

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  4. Alexis, Here is advice for you from Justine Musk, Elon Musk's ex-wife. She appreciates what her ex-husband has. He is a billionaire genius with a photographic memory, while you are a genius. Also it mentions the idea of the fine line between genius and insanity. She says:

    "They don't think the way other people think. They see things from angles that unlock new ideas and insights. Other people consider them to be somewhat insane."

    You said in a previous post that you are obsessed with certain crimes. Here is more advice for you from Justine: "Be obsessed.

    "If you're not obsessed, then stop what you're doing and find whatever does obsess you," she says.

    Be in service to something bigger. [Elon Musk is trying to save the planet by only using sustainable fuel]" She has more good advice on this article for you--
    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musks-ex-wife-explains-153923571.html

    You can skate by in life just being ordinary but you are an extraordinary person with incredible potential.

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