Couple More

Miles - 17 days old

A big thank you to Sarah for taking pics of Miles yesterday - here is one example she sent, with many more cute ones to come!

Cycles

Claire loves motorcycles, thanks to my dad and his Harley-riding visits. So, this may be a little cheesy, but here is Claire on her very own cycle.

Shoes and Hats...

... are the cutest, and really only, accessories for little boys so of course I am already loving starting Miles out in style. These crocheted booties look like Converse All Stars, and Matt and Claire both have a pair as well. So we had to do a photo shoot. I guess I better get a pair too...

The P-O-O-L

At tbe beginning of summer, Claire seemed to just tolerate going to the pool - once you got her in the water, she did ok but was clinging to us for dear life. Now, we have to spell out the words "pool" or "swim" because if she hears even a whisper of a chance that she can go swimming, she doesn't let it go until we take her.

She is a little daredevil, jumping off the edge, asking to be thrown in the air, and just generally enjoying the pool. I actually left the house the other day (outside of the doctor's office, I've been staying home) to go down and watch her play. My mom got some great shots of her and Matt, and a few of Miles too - we sat at the pool and got hot, but it was still fun. These are from two different trips to the pool this week.

More Miles

Time is flying by - Miles is already 9 days old, and I am one and a half weeks into my maternity leave. I tend to think of time in terms of an 8-week countdown for when I have to go back to work. Hopefully I don't seem anti-social or hard to reach (any more than a typical mother of a newborn), but I just want to soak up this time at home with everyone and I kind of get into my own little world. My mom has been here since Friday - my dad came too for a few days and then had to go back home. My mom leaves on Thursday. We are also lucky to have Matt's family here to help us, so we have been well taken care of.



Claire is a good big sister - she loves Miles and wakes up practically saying "good morning Miles" before she has even gotten up. It is really the cutest thing and I need to get it recorded. I have been almost more concerned with protecting Miles from Claire's "loving" then anything else. She kisses him ALL day long. Miles is a good eater and has not been very fussy at all - the doctor said that he might be more sleepy and mellow for awhile since he was born 3 weeks early, but he was still considered full-term at 37 weeks. At his first well-check he is in the 10th percentile for weight and the size of his head, 50th percentile for height.

Here are some new pics - while I have been staying home with my mom, Matt has been keeping Claire busy with gymnastics, story time, the pool and generally trying to keep her schedule going the same. I am so grateful that he is here to help and that he is willing to be a swim coach, gymnastics teacher, taxi driver, cook, and generally a very active dad to match the energy that Claire puts into every day. I am exhausted just watching them play! :)

Miles - 7 days old


Gymnastics class


First bath


Ready for story time


Matt and Miles Matthew

He's Here!

Miles Matthew Hiller was born on Monday, August 10th at 2:19 pm weighing in at a whopping 6 lbs 11 oz, and is 19 inches long. So, I guess the ultrasound weight was pretty accurate, between 6 or 7 pounds. He just didn't have the extra three weeks to pack on another pound or two.

We are home and doing great - just adjusting, and trying to keep Claire from loving him to death. She wants to hold him a lot, and also give him her blankets, share pacifiers and generally is being really good. A few small meltdowns but all in all, a good big sister so far.

More later - just wanted to post some pics and say we are doing well. Thank you for all of your calls and texts - we have great family and friends!

Baby Hiller Update

I went in for my weekly doctor visit yesterday and everything seems to be going ok, in spite of my doctor's increased concern over the size of the baby. My last doctor was predicting that Claire would be almost 10 pounds, and she was born 8 lbs 1 oz, so I didn't really believe that this baby was going to be too large either.

But, since I have a new doctor this time around, I guess she wanted to be sure since she was predicting that the baby was already 8 pounds. I am 37 weeks on Sunday, which is considered full term - babies typically gain something like 1/2 a pound each week in the last few weeks, so I guess she was thinking a ten-pounder was on his way if I waited to deliver on my due date. She had that "induce her now!" look in her eyes.

So... after waiting an hour and a half to see my doc for a 3 minute visit, I was asked to wait again for an unscheduled ultrasound to measure the baby so they could determine his weight. The ultrasound measurements can be off +/- 1 pound. I was excited to see the baby and have the ultrasound, so even though it was now an hour past my lunchtime I agreed to wait.

It was pretty cool to see the baby, although they kept the ultrasound zoomed in pretty tight for measurements so I didn't get a full profile or body shot. We did see the baby doing what the doc called practice breathing - his ribs moving up and down while he "breathed" in fluids, which is a good sign.

So, with the measurements completed, the estimated weight was only 6 pounds. Told ya. I guess he could be 7 lbs with the margin of error, since my doctor said there was no way he was only 5 pounds. She said we will just wait then - meaning her alternative plan was to induce me soon if he was in fact 8 pounds. I could tell she was very suprised to be wrong. I have a large uterus, apparently. Who knew?

Being induced does appeal to me only so I can have a scheduled date to go in - my mom will know when to visit, I can finally tell my work when my last day before maternity leave will be (for now I said I will work up to my due date, or the day I just don't show up) but I like to have things on my calendar, lists crossed off, plans made and carried out. :) So, stay tuned I guess!

PS - no final name choices yet, sorry. But even if we do narrow down the list, we won't decide on a final name until the baby is born. I need to look into his little face first.

Claire's Eyes - Mystery Solved!

If you look at the photo of Claire in the picture at the top of our blog now, or the one below from Oct 2008, you may be able to see that her left eye is two different shades of brown, almost equally half and half - one side a lighter, almost grey brown if you see it in the right light. The other, the same dark brown that she has had since she was a baby. We actually only noticed the color change in May of this year, and then as any parent would started to research online the color change, and why it was happening in only one eye. We learned some scary things about childhood eye cancers where the eye changed color, tumors, and blindness. Gotta love self-diagnosis via the web.


So we made an appointment with her pediatrician, who said her eyes were just changing color and that her vision was fine, but then she recommended we still see a pediatric opthamologist just to be safe. I knew from my previous research into medical journals that brown eyes do not often change colors, and that by this point Claire's eye color should be what it will be as an adult.

After a month or two of procrastination, we took Claire to the specialist this week. We learned that when the iris is forming, it is first in two halves that come together in the womb, and that for some reason, one half of Claire's iris got dented, or bent, in development. Sometimes when that happens, the two halves of the iris never come together and the result is a "keyhole" where the pupil looks like it extends a bit into the colored iris. Claire's eye did come together, but the dent remained. The doctor described it like this - if you took a piece of paper and folded it, but then smoothed it out again, you would still see a dent or a place where the fold was. That never goes away.

I found this very scientific description online about when the iris is formed:
"The human iris begins to form during the third month of gestation. The structures creating its distinctive pattern are complete by the eighth month of gestation."

So, basically her eye is fine - vision is fine - but she has a "dent" in her iris that causes a color change. If she had blue or green eyes, the doctor said the color change would be quite dramatic, but with brown eyes it's almost a camouflage effect and harder to see. Which made me feel better, considering that she has had this since birth and we really just noticed it a few months ago. She is so active and never sits still, so sometimes it's hard to get her to look at you square in the face for more than a few seconds - that's my excuse anyway. But all is well - just wanted to report back on what we found out, and alleviate any stressful worries (my mom!).

Gymnastics Class

We enrolled Claire in a 4 week gymnastics class - basically a tumbling class for Toddlers - at a local community rec center. The parent's participate as well, and although at one time I could do a pretty mean round-off back handspring (I did gymanstics from 3 years old to about 11, then discovered basketball!), I am in no shape to crawl around with the kids. So, Matt and Claire have been tearing it up with the class - Friday was our second class.

At first we were worried she was too little, since the class is 18 months to 3 years - that's a pretty big developmental range. But Claire is already doing better at sitting still to hear the directions, and then taking turns. She jumps, runs, and climbs on everything at home, so this class is perfect :)

Claire's cousin Evie is also in the class (with MeMa) so they get to have a weekly play date.