Catching Up...

Whew! The last few weeks have been a whirlwind! Joel's baptism was on the 17th. The day went really well and he was well-behaved during church, so that was a good thing! We had 43 people join us at the church and at lunch afterwards, including Rob's brother from Mississippi and his aunt from New Jersey. We were so happy that everyone wanted to come and spend the day with us and our little boy. We lucked out and his original baptism outfit did fit after all. He was adorable, but I guess that is stating the obvious, right? :0) Today we took him to the doctor because he was scheduled to get his first round of baby shots. He weighs 10 pounds, 11 ounces (!) and is 21 1/4 inches long. He is in the 75th percentile for preemies and the 25th percentile for full term infants. (I'm not sure, but I think that means that he is bigger than 75% of preemies his age and bigger than 25% of full term infants his age? Someone help me if I am wrong on that....) We saw the nurse practitioner rather than the doctor, and she said that Joel looks really good and is doing very well. I was concerned that he was gaining weight too fast, but she said that preemies tend to gain weight a lot faster than full term infants until they catch up. His growth should start to slow down a little bit in the next month or so. We don't have to go back until July 31, when he will get his next round of shots and probably be switched off of the high-calorie infant formula. He was NOT happy about the shots, but he did settle down once it was all over. He has been pretty much passed out since then and is still sleeping. I'm sure his night time sleep will be thrown off, but hopefully he will feel better and not spike a fever or anything. All is well with the Fosters....hope everyone is fine and enjoying the warmer weather. More later... Oops...I forgot to mention that we have had our first trip to the ER! :0( We took Joel to the hospital on the 15th at around 12:30 in the morning because his stomach was hard, he was screaming and gasping for air, and I was worried about feeding him all night loong in case he had a blockage or something. He screamed his head off at home, but of course once we were at the hospital he had fallen asleep! I'm sure they thought we were nuts, but better safe than sorry I say. Of course, they said he was just a little constipated and there was nothing to worry about unless he continued not to go to the bathroom. The problem was solved the next day with a power poop, so I guess they were right! :0) I'm trying not to be the crazed first-time mother, but I can't stand it if he is in pain. Hopefully we don't see the inside of the ER again for a VERY long time...