Month One Development

I took a class on infancy for my minor and I learned how to use a fun little development test called the Denver II.  I filed it away because I knew I’d want to refer to it when I had my own kids, and sure enough, a couple weeks ago I remembered it.  It took a little searching, but I found it.

The Denver II measures development in four different areas:  Personal/Social, Fine Motor/Adaptive, Language, and Gross Motor.  Under each area are abilities appearing on a line graph that ranges in age from birth to 6 years old.  Each ability has its own rectangle strategically placed on the age spectrum and looks a little like this:

The left side of the rectangle appears on the line graph at the age where 25% of babies can “pass” on the ability.  The notch is the age where 50% of babies pass, the left side of the black part is 75% of babies, and the right side of the rectangle is 90% of babies.

I like that it recognizes that normal development isn’t one-size-fits-all.  Some kids can do things earlier, some later, but it can still be normal.  If a kid still doesn’t have a particular ability after the 90% age it may indicate developmental delays, but even then it isn’t necessarily a concern unless he/she is late on other abilities too. 

Anyway, I’ve decided to do a monthly outline of what abilities are to be expected at each month and note whether Baby Ching is on track.  The one month mark happened about three weeks ago, but I’ll do it anyway and try to remember. 

One Month Old

Personal/Social
-Regard face: looks at faces from 12” away. 90% pass.  Ching passes.
-Smile responsively: smiles when talked to or smiled at (without touch). 60% pass.  Ching passes.
-Smile spontaneously: smiles without being spoken to or touched. 60% pass.  Ching passes.
-Regard own hand: stares at own hand for at least several seconds. 27% pass.  Not yet for Ching.
Fine motor/Adaptive
-Follow to midline: watches dangling yarn from the side of their head to the halfway point. 80% pass.  I’m not sure if he was doing this at 1 month.
-Follow past midline: watches dangling yarn from the side of their head past the halfway point. 50% pass.  I don’t think so.
Language
-Respond to bell: responds (with movement, eye movement, change in expression, change in breathing, etc.) to an unseen sound. 90% pass at 2 weeks.  Ching passes.
-Vocalizes: makes small sounds (uh, eh, etc.). 90% pass at 3 weeks.  Ching passes.
-Ooo, aaaah: makes vowel sounds. 40% pass.  Ching passes.
Gross Motor
-Equal movements: moves both arms and both legs equally. 90% pass at 2 weeks.  Ching passes.
-Lift head: at least momentarily lifts head while on tummy so chin is off surface (without the head being turned to the side). 90% pass at 2 weeks.  Ching passes.
-head up 45 degrees: head makes a 45 degree angle from the surface for a few seconds while on tummy (without head being turned to the side). 55% pass.  Ching passes.

Things to practice for next check (which is next week):

• Regard hand:  I’ll put things in his hands (he’s got a good grip) to try to encourage him to look at and be more aware of his hands.  I’m not sure if this will work, but it won’t hurt.
• Follow to midline/past midline:  I’ll start by trying to get him to follow my face in an arc over his head, then move to larger toys, then to yarn or string.  In theory he’ll be more motivated to follow my face as opposed to string and he can get used to it.  Once again, it may not work, but it’s worth a try.

And then there was a baby boy

Oh, hey!  I’m back!  It’s been a while.  I actually wrote most of this about a month ago, but it’s taken me a while to get around to finishing it.  That’s partially because I like to shower in my free time and partially because my computer is having some issues lately.

I try to avoid being “journaly” on here—because that’s what my journal is for.  However, I’ll give a somewhat brief rundown on the birth of my baby boy.  Because that’s what you do.

I went into labor on Labor Day.  Cool, huh.  I started to realize I was having regular contractions as we were watching American Ninja Warrior (which may explain Ching’s intense ninja-like desire to control his own head from day one), and by 1 a.m. I decided we needed to head to the hospital.  I was a little reluctant because I really wasn’t in pain, but things were regular and frequent enough that I figured it had to be the real deal.

The contractions were slightly more intense by the time we got to the hospital, but I was still doing good.  I think the nurses that checked me in figured they were going to send me home since I was pretty calm and able to talk/walk through contractions.  However, after being monitored and checked (I was at a 6), I was officially admitted.

They asked me if I wanted an epidural, and I told them I wasn’t sure yet.  I’d seen a video of an epidural being done and it kind of freaked me out.  That needle was big.  At the time I was doing ok, but I didn’t want to rule it out.  Then they told me the anesthesiologist was in a C-section for the next hour (until about 3:45 a.m.) so I wouldn’t be able to get one until then anyway.  After that things got a lot more intense and painful very quickly.  By about 3:15 I’d decided an epidural was probably happening.  Then at around 3:30 they told me the anesthesiologist was headed to something else (I think another C-section) after he was done with his current C-section, so it was now or never if I wanted that epidural.  I was all for it.  Bring that gigantic needle on.

Getting the epidural actually wasn’t that bad.  As they were getting things ready, I took one look at my husband and knew he was going to struggle.  He doesn’t do so well with blood and the like.  So I sent him away while they did the epidural.  I was in good hands, though.  Two nurses were taking care of me (one had just transferred from another hospital, so she was in training), and they were both great.  I also heard the new one say to the trainer after the epidural was done, “That anesthesiologist is really good!”  When I first got the epidural it made me shake really bad off and on, but after a few hours it was much better.  I had the same problem when I got my wisdom teeth out, so it must just be how I react to numbing meds.

After the epidural was going (and my husband came back in the room) they checked me again; I was at an 8 so they told me to get some sleep.  Around 7 a.m. (when the shift ended and I got a different nurse) I was still at an 8, but they guessed breaking my water would make things progress really quickly.  However, my doctor was just headed into a hysterectomy, so my nurse was told to just let me hang in there and not check me again (in case it broke my water) until he was done with the surgery at about 10 a.m.  I was fairly comfortable with the epidural, and this meant I could sleep a little more, so I wasn’t too bothered by this.   

10 a.m. came and went.  Then 11.  Then it was noon and we still hadn’t heard anything from my doctor.  My nurse went to go find out where my doctor was, and around that time my doctor called and asked if I was still at an 8.  There had been some sort of miscommunication and my doctor thought they were going to go ahead and have someone else deliver me since he was stuck doing surgeries over at another hospital.

Thus, they broke my water around 12:30 p.m. and I started pushing around 12:40 and had a baby boy by 1:13 p.m.  He was 8 lbs. 2 oz. and 20.5 inches long.  He’s so adorable.  He’s got dark hair, brown eyes, and hairy little ears and shoulders.  He’s got all of his fingers and a majority of his toes.  Because my husband only has 8 toes (he’s missing the middle toe on both feet), we knew it was a real possibility that Ching would inherit this quirky trait.  Ching does have all of his toes, but his middle toes are definitely stubbier than the rest.  It’s hard to tell at this point if the stubby ones are going to have a nail, but he’s got more middle toe than his father, so we’re counting it as a victory.  He and I both were doing great, so we were released from the hospital right on schedule.

Overall, labor and delivery wasn’t all that bad.  It’s not something I want to repeat for a few years, but I’m not scarred for life.  Honestly, I feel like it was pretty comparable to getting my wisdom teeth out.  Granted, I think my wisdom teeth experience was more traumatic than most.  My nurse that helped me through the delivery was fantastic, so that probably helped.  All my nurses were great, actually.

Recovery hasn’t been too bad.  Even right afterwards I was never really in pain.  I was mostly just sore.  Granted, it was like I’d just biked 50 miles on a seat made of steel, but I wouldn’t consider it pain.  Every time the nurses came in to give me another dose of Motrin they asked how much pain I was in on a scale of 1 to 10 and I felt stupid saying 1.5, but it was true.  No need for a heavy-duty pain killer here.

Because I was feeling so good, when I first came home I completely forgot about my prescription for 800 mg ibuprofen.  However, nighttime rolled around and I realized I was feeling crappy.  So I sent my husband out to get my prescription.  He went to three pharmacies and they were either out of 800 mg ibuprofen (there happened to be a shortage—bizarre!) or closed for the night.  So I ended up just taking four regular 200 mg ibuprofens.  I think I went through that bottle in about 3 days.  About a week later, my pharmacy called to let me know my prescription was ready, but by then I’d already scaled back to taking a normal dosage of ibuprofen only as needed.  I thought this was funny.  Good thing I wasn’t in a lot of pain!

Anyway, that’s basically it.  It was a pretty uneventful birth, and I’m totally ok with that.  My baby is almost two months old now, so I really should talk more about how the transition into parenthood is going, but I’ll save that for another post.  This one is definitely long enough already.  So, you’ll hear from me again in another couple of months!  Ha, just kidding.  I’m going to try to get back into a blogging groove now that I’m starting to get a handle on managing my new life.