august through december 2004

August

Within hours of being born, Edward was transported to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he was monitored 24/7 to see if he went into SVT . We visited him every day (I even left the hospital a day early to see him), as did Mike and Marnie, my parents, and Cate. Finally, they found the combination of meds that controlled his SVT, and, after taking an infant CPR class, we brought him home on August 25.

September

September was a blur. We got into a bit of a routine, where David took the late shift and I got up early. We watched a lot of television. Ann and John (David's parents) came to visit. We gave Edward his medication 4 times a day, noon, midnight, 6 a.m., and 6 p.m. We didn't sleep very much, although somehow Eddie did.

October

We spent a week "Ferberizing" Edward, meaning we progressively let him cry a little longer when we put him to bed. After about 10 days, he was able to get himself to sleep. Previously, he would wake up when we put him down, so we either just let him sleep on our laps or chests (while trying to rest as best we could ourselves while perched on the couch) or sneak him into bed when he was in deep sleep. I went back to work, and David took on full-time Daddy duty. Eddie wore a very cute Dragon costume (that was way too big for him, but it sort of heightened the cute effect) for Halloween. We also took him out to Boo at the Zoo at Brookfield Zoo with a bunch of friends. It was the first time we really took him out anywhere for any extended period of time. He got way overstimulated, but it was still fun, and good to get out.

November

Eddie's personality was starting to show by now. He smiled and laughed a lot, except of course when we put him on his tummy. Still hated tummy time. He was getting better at lifting his head, though. I brought him to Windycon for one day, and he had a great time. He took a nap in his crib when we went down to the Art Show. It was nice and quiet. He also grew out of 0-3 month clothes this month, which was a little early, but I guess he's an overachiever. He liked Thanksgiving, although he wouldn't nap upstairs like he would usually do. Too much excitement. His eczema showed up this month, and was really bad.

December

Edward very much reached the stage where he puts everything in his mouth. He started getting good at grabbing things. He loves watching Figure Skating and Football. He makes great noises: little "aaaoh"s and "aaayy"s. His crying sounds more and more like he's saying "hey! hey!" instead of actually crying. He also likes to make gargling noises, particularly when he's taking his meds. Speaking of meds, they were modified to only 3 times a day. Not having to give meds at midnight was a lot easier.

He can hold up his head rather well, and does Tummy Time pretty well, too. He's not sitting up yet, but he's close. He smiles hugely when he sees us. He enjoyed Christmas a lot, although he wasn't aware of just how much of that haul was his. He also got a cold for Christmas, but it wasn't too bad.

He slept through most of our New Year's Eve party just fine.