Confessions of a Premature Drama Queen

I’m a PSA

Beardo — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:53:43 +0000

We’re the feature family for a chairty called Newborn Hope in the Springs. They made a PSA about prematurity and we’re the stars You can view it here.

Things just got interesting…

Beardo — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:35:20 +0000

Yeah, so there goes any chance of relaxing on the couch for dear old dad (not that she hasn’t been go go go for about 4 months):

Sorry about the loud noises, not sure where they came from…

Today, I am one year old.

Beardo — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:14:13 +0000

It’s quite the change from one year to another:

The picture on the left is from when she was 11 days old. Anything before that and I don’t have a really good picture of her. Looking back on everything, it just doesn’t seem real anymore. This time last year, we were going to the hospital three or four times a day, and now you can’t tell by looking at her that she was born so early. Other than being a tiny little one year old, she’s perfectly normal. I can’t believe how lucky we are that everything turned out okay.

Where does the time go?

Beardo — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:03:38 +0000

Haley turned 11 months old last Friday, it’s unbelievable that she’ll be a whole year old next month. She’s doing just super. On Saturday morning we discovered that she had a little tooth poking out her gums. I noticed this when she put my finger in her mouth and proceded to bite down very hard. Haley doesn’t seem to have any of the normal teething fussiness with this tooth. She’s been acting pretty normal the entire week.

She’s still crawling over the place like mad. Sometimes she even thinks she can walk. She’ll pull herself up, let go, and turn around. Since she actually can’t walk, she falls down. It reminds me of the old Looney Tunes cartoons where the Wylie E. Coyote doesn’t fall until he actually realizes he’s off the cliff. Everybody thinks she’ll be walking by her birthday, so we’ll see.

We are raising money for the March of Dimes, you can support us by going here:

We set a very reasonable goal of $200, so please chip in, even if it’s only 5 bucks.

More new pictures

Beardo — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:39:04 +0000

I’ve uploaded a few more new pictures for January, and a new album for February. Haley is doing great. She’s pretty much mastered crawling, and stair climbing and is looking for new challenges. She’ll independently stand sometimes, but she doesn’t realise she’s doing it. After she pulls her self up on something, she’ll just let go and stand for a little bit, then she either falls over or holds on to something.

She had her Synagis shot yesterday, and when they weighed her she’s up to 14 lbs 12 ozs. Which is about 8 times her birth weight. We couldn’t happier with her progress.

I can crawl now!

Beardo — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:34:26 +0000

Yes, over the weekend Haley learned how to crawl. She’s about 6 months developmentally, which is really early to be crawling. She gets around pretty quick though, and she still falls down a lot, but pops right back up. Yesterday she was even getting bored of crawling and tried to pull her self up on me. Nichole and I have started to realize that our home is not and baby-proof as it needs to be.

Oh, and we have pictures! They are on picasa web albums because it’s so much easier for me to get them up, it’s virtually painless to get them from camera to website. I’m going to try and move the existing gallery over, but we’ll see how that goes.

Yesterday’s my birthday

Beardo — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:01:33 +0000

Dun-nuh-nuh-nuh nuh-nuh. Haley was 9 months old yesterday. Neither me, nor my wife can believe how fast the time has flown. Haley is doing great. She’s still scooting around, no crawling yet. She just hasn’t figured out how to keep her arms in front of her, so she ends up using her face for support.

Pictures soon, I promise.

We’re back!

Beardo — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:56:09 +0000

Sorry for the delay, I started a new job, and my wife went back to work, and then there’s the whole raising an upstanding member of society thing. I think I have time to start updating again, so we’ll shoot for once a week updates.

Things have been going well. Haley’s a giant baby now with all the features of a 6 month old (head control, grabby hands, and tilt steering). If I were to guess I’d say she’s about 13 pounds. I’ll get some pictures up as soon as I can.

Hi, my name is Beardo and I am a stay at home dad

Beardo — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:38:31 +0000

Well, not really but for a couple of days this week while I’m between jobs I am. It’s a lot harder than you imagine. Haley doesn’t sleep too much during the day so you have to keep her entertained or she lets you know she’s bored. It’s pretty tough to keep her focused so we spend most of the day walking around looking at stuff.

Nichole’s mom is coming a couple of days though so I can get some things done like get my car fixed and try the FREX to see if that works out for the commute to Denver.

Haley is doing well and is probably about 9 lbs or so. It’s hard to believe she’s almost five months old.

I sent this from my iPhone on a bus going 75 MPH. I love technology.

Isovaleric, Gluteric, and Beardic Acidemias

Beardo — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:44:53 +0000

One of the acidemias listed is not real, but Haley doesn’t have any of them. This post was actually started back on April 28th, but I didn’t want to post anything about it till we knew for sure. When a baby is born they check for certain treatable diseases. Things like sickle cell anemia and PKU. When Haley had her first one done, it showed that she may have Isovaleric Acidemia, but was later revised to possible Gluteric Acidemia. They are both genetic disorders that cause people to lack certain enzymes which in turn prohibit them from fully processing certain proteins and amino acids. Her follow-up check was normal, but they needed to be sure. We wouldn’t know for sure until they sequenced her genes and checked. In order to sequence her genes, they wanted to take 2 ml of blood. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, but on April 28th, it was somewhere between 5% and 10% of her total blood volume. So they waited to take the blood until a couple of days before she went home. So 2 months later we get the results back and she for sure does not have any variety of acidemia. So yay!

As far as other updates are concerned, Haley is doing just super. She’s about 8 lbs, and is bright eyed and bushy tailed for couple hours a day. She loves to look at ceiling fans and is a regular poop machine. Nichole started back to work a week ago and she really misses Haley during the day. We’re both tired, but at least the Olympics are on at 3:00 in the morning so we have something to watch when Haley is eating.

By the way, beardic acidemia is not a genetic problem, but a social intolerance of bearded people.