Welcome to Holland

I had wanted to post this a long time ago but couldn't find it! It helped me a lot in dealing with all of the new unexpected things when Emerson was born.

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It is all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills... .and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss. But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

6 Months Old!

Emerson turned 6 months old last Wednesday! It’s hard to believe it’s been that long already, the time sure has gone by fast. He’s come a long way in those six months; grew from 3lbs 2oz to 11lbs 4 ½ oz! He’s growing very fast in length, up to 24 ½ inches so he’s grown almost 10 inches since birth! He is still in mostly newborn clothes but is starting to fit into some 0-3 especially in length and he is now in size 1 diapers. Since the last update he’s gotten his second round of immunizations, he did pretty well. We are still behind about two months on shots but that’s okay. He goes back to the Dr. next month and then we are hoping to start the monthly Synagis shots to protect him from RSV. (Just hoping insurance will cover them as they are costly!) He should have another developmental screening coming up soon here then he goes to Sioux Falls in November for NICU follow-up clinic and in December to SF for his appointment with the ophthalmologist. Overall he is doing quite well! He is doing everything he should be for his adjusted age (4 months) and most of the things he should be for his actual age. He rolls over consistently and has become very vocal! We are working on sitting up right now and it sure is hard work. We finally got the okay to stop fortifying his milk with Neosure and it seems to have helped his reflux quite a bit. He has been a bit grouchy as of late, I think he is working on getting some teeth. Although we’re still staying away from crowds, we have been taking him for walks almost everyday and he really enjoys those, we will both be sad when it gets too cold to go out! (I get a bit crazy from time to time being stuck in the house!) We are gearing up for the cold/flu/RSV season, which we are absolutely dreading. We stocked up on Purell and Lysol and will have some more restrictions for visiting until spring rolls around. We’d like to avoid or lessen the chances of him getting sick these first two years especially as his immune system/lungs are still behind.