First outing

First doctor's appointment - Lela was less than thrilled.

Today, Lela and I ventured out to the pediatrician's office and it turned out to be quite the adventure. The appointment was at 9:10 am (not 9:00, not 9:30, but...9:10), so we had to contend not only with the tail end of rush hour but ALSO it was raining. And if you remember from my earlier post here, preemies sometimes have difficulty maintaining their airways in a carseat because they slump over so much and Lela is still too small for her special rental car seat (the buckles don't go any tighter!) and she is really hunched over and all this combines to make me extremely uncomfortable driving her anywhere. I now totally understand why people paste those ridiculously ineffectual "Baby on Board" stickers on the rears of their minivans...I felt like I was the only person on the roads to have a baby in the back seat and that if I could only explain to my fellow drivers how small and delicate she is, they would pity me and STAY AT LEAST 500 YARDS BACK. Anyway, we eventually made it to the pediatrician on time, and I only stopped twice to climb into the back seat to make sure she was still alive. Yes, I actually did that. She was really quiet and I just had to check!

Poor Lela had to get her Hep B vaccine and some other test that involved pricking her heel and making her bleed onto 4 circles on a sheet of paper for some sort of test. (Babak usually has the honor of posting the medically-relevant blog posts. Clearly, I am much less detail-oriented when it comes to the medical stuff). It nearly broke my heart to hear hearing her wail when they stuck her with even more needles - my baby girl has had enough needle sticks to last a lifetime! Fortunately for both of us, her pain was short lived and she promptly fell asleep afterwards. Pediatrician says she looks good. She's still 4 pounds flat, but healthy. She's supposed to gain about .25 - .5 ounces PER DAY going forward.

After the stress of the morning (for both of us!), we came home and kangaroo'ed for about 2 hours while I caught up on the last 2 weeks of So You Think You Can Dance. Now, we're waiting for Uncle Leshaw to come over with dinner and bananas. (Have I mentioned my new-found obsession with bananas? That's the one weird pregnancy craving I got, and it has stayed with me). Big day tomorrow: I'm going to try to shower and put on real clothes and write thank you notes. We'll see if Miss Lela cooperates.

As promised, more pictures:

Getting dressed for the doctor.
This outfit is a "newborn" size - can you tell how big it is?

Whazzup my people?