Nellie Rose – 9 Months

Date: 2010.01.25 | Category: Nellie Rose | Tags:

We hit the 9 month mark officially on January 15, 2010 and are happy to report that all is well and that Nellie is healthy and happy. She is 22 pounds and 29 inches long – in the 90th percentile for both height and weight…our little baby is not so little anymore….the time certainly is flying by.

A couple of big items since the Christmas holiday – 1) Nellie started going to daycare (hereafter known as “school”); 2) she was sick for the first time – as a result of exposure at school and 3) she is all done with wearing her “hat” (a.k.a. helmet). I will take these items in order and give you the scoop…

1) Off to school – Nellie started at Childtime Learning Center in Gaithersburg (about 5 minutes from our house) on January 4th, 2010. She is in a group with other infants and most of the kids are around her same age. She was skeptical at first and has had her moments of kicking up a fuss about the whole thing, but overall, she is doing great and has really adapted very well. It seemed like she cried each morning the first week when she was dropped off, but now she is waving at the teachers upon arrival and loves seeing her friends and immediately engages with them on the play mat. From a logistical perspective, we have had to adjust our schedules a bit since Erin is now back at work full time. Erin leaves for the office SUPER early in the mornings and David does the drop off at school, while Erin does the afternoon pick up. We totally have the good cop/bad cop thing going on here – Daddy leaves Nellie but Mommy gets to rescue her in the afternoon

2) School and sickness – ok, so we were perfectly ready for the fact that Nellie was going to get sick after being around other kids at school. Afterall, each child there is a little germ factory and when you put them all together in a petri dish, you are bound to see the result – a sick kid. However, we were not expecting that we would see a note on the door on the 3rd day of school in the afternoon that 3 kids had gone home sick during the day with a stomach flu. Sure enough…at about 6pm on the third day, Nellie got sick. We will spare you the gory details, but let’s just say that it was not a pretty scene – fluids from both ends…sigh. We had a brief moment of asking ourselves – why are we doing this again? I mean, when you think about it, we are paying some pretty solid money to complete strangers to watch after our most precious asset and she comes home crazy sick ….not an easy thing to deal with as parents knowing that your kid is sick because you put her in the middle of the petri dish. Parental rationalization moment – this is a good way for her to build her immune system. So she was sick for about a day and a half and then bounced back like a champ – well, a champ with a snotty nose and a little cough….yep, she got a cold as well at school. Again…sigh.

So we are rolling into the weekend and Erin calls me on Friday morning of the same week to let me know that she is not feeling well and that I should come on home to take care of Nellie. Turns out that Erin contracted the same stomach flu – not good. It was at some point early Saturday morning that I, with a kicking sinus infection myself, realized that I would need to be three persons in one through the weekend  – husband, father and nursemaid. The balance between caring for a little one who is under the weather and your wife who is sick and 4 months pregnant….let me tell you men out there who have not had the pleasure and are wondering – yes, it is stressful. That being said, I am happy to report that all is well now in La Casa de Fung and everyone is on the mend….

3) No more “hat” – the helmet gets the boot: Nellie has been going to get checkups every two weeks to check her progress with the hat and so that the medical staff can make the necessary adjustments to the device. She has been wearing the hat since late October 2009 and the progress has been remarkable. You can see a photo study that shows her in October compared to now – you will notice that she has seemingly thinned out a lot and will definitely be able to see the improvement in her profile.

The photo study is online at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlchung/sets/72157623151740949/

There was a recommendation that she get a second hat, but given the progress through the treatment and seeing how good she looks now compared to before, considering the cost of getting another hat (not covered by insurance) and knowing that her hair is going to grow out, we decided not to continue. There were definitely moments of feeling like we were short changing her, but in the end, no one is really going to be able to tell the difference….not to mention that there is no guarantee that a second helmet would do much more, if anything. Her head shape has definitely improved and we are happy to have made the decision to go through the process.

Whew – I think that is about enough for this entry. More to come later, including updated 9 month photos.

We hope you all are well and look forward to hearing from you.

Our best,

Family D.E.N. +1