Dean's 4 month appointment was today.

He is now 23.5" long and 12 lbs. 6 oz.

Those measurements are ~4th % according to the doctors charts and ~30% for weight vs height. According to the WHO charts he is 1.5% for weight and 0.9% for length, 26.9% for weight vs. height.

The pediatrician is very mildly concerned about his head circumference. It is 42 cm, or ~50%. Average for his age, but fairly big for his size. He said we would just monitor it and not worry about it for now.

His testicle is still undecended (which I knew). Not a problem, just continue to monitor. We will see the surgeon again in two months if it has still not dropped.

His doctor is very pleased with his milestones. He very consistently rolls from his stomach to his back. he does roll from his back ot his stomach, but only on occasion. He loves to stand and hold our hands. He is very alert and interested in everything going on around him and smiles at everyone all the time.

He got most of his vaccinations, but they were out of the oral rotavirus one so we have to go back next week for it. I am happy that it is the oral one so he doesn't have to get shots two weeks in a row.

He is a champ when getting shots. He fussed after the first one. Started crying after the second, continued crying for the third. Daddy picked him up and he very quickly (seconds later) was laughing at the nurse who gave him the shots.

The doctor said to start him on solids soon. I am a bit torn on that. I am definitely waiting until his cold goes away, but i just don't think he's ready yet. He shows no interest what so ever in food and he has a pretty strong tongue thrust still.

Dean is two weeks old now. He had a check-up this week and is up to 6lbs 10oz, is 19.5in long, and is a little skinny, but healthy in all respects. The pediatrician wants us to talk to a nurse practitioner about making feeding more efficient so he'll gain weight a bit quicker. Clearly, the skinny genes are coming from some other part of our backgrounds. Nicole also had a check up and she's doing great, the scar looks good and she's in great shape for having had a large hole in her abdomen 2 weeks ago. We had visits from Chris, Katie, Tommy, Chris, Steph, Greg and uncle Geoff this week. I started back to work this week as well. So we're getting back into the routine of day-to-day life.

Here is a picture of Dean at 1 week old. We'll try to get regular pictures with the monkey blanket so you can see how he grows.

It's been an amazing week so far. We've learned so much about the little guy already. So far he's maintained his calm demeanour, and when he's awake he is so alert with his dark eyes looking everywhere. He takes long naps and likes to cluster feed. It's so exciting.

Also, the cats have been remarkably good with him.

Dean Paul Evans was born yesterday at 2:36pm at Evanston Northwestern Hospital. He weighed 6lbs 12oz and was 19 3/4" long. Delivery was by planned C-Section, and the surgery went normally through out. Dean started crying as soon as his head was clear of the incision, which is fantastic in any case, but even better considering the biggest concern was lung development. So far all tests have come back as normal and he got feeding and output figured out.

He's been a quiet baby for the most part and easily calmed when he does get cranky. We're hoping that continues for... oh, about 18 years. So far he's had visits from Grandma Paula and Grandpa Jesse, and from Cris and Steph Olson. We're very excited to have him here at last.

Dean was the name of Nicole's maternal grandfather, and Paul was the name of mine.

We talked to the Doctor's office this morning, and we've got a new timeline. We'll be having our usual Tuesday morning Non-Stress test, and a quick BP/urine test. Then we'll repeat the amnio Thursday afternoon. Assuming that the new test shows lung maturity, the c-section will be Friday at about noon. The countdown is back on!

Wednesday is the big day. We'll be heading to the hospital very early in
the morning for the amnio. Once those results come in, we should be
doing the C-Section about 1:30 pm. I'll send out a text message as soon
as I'm able. (If you want to get that, make sure I've got your number!).
If you want to follow what's going on in more detail, I suggest you
follow my twitter stream. You can either got to twitter.com and sign up
there for an account. At the top you can search for "morydd" and then
select "follow" below my avatar. You'll then have to set it up to update
to your phone (or you can just view them on the website). Or you can
text "follow morydd" to 40404. You'll then get a confirmation request to
respond with your name. You can use whatever you'd like to be your
twitter account name.

I'll send an email with full details at some point that evening, and
pictures will follow. We won't have web access in the room (I think) so
updates will probably only happen once or twice a day at most, and cell
phones aren't supposed to be used in the hospital. We'll have to use a
phone card to make calls out, so we'll send the room's phone number once
we have that too. Feel free to pass this information on to others who
may want to keep up to date.

2 more days!

We had an appointment with the OB this morning. Everything is still normal. Nicole has been having some issues with sinus pressure and headaches, which resulted in a just-in-case visit to L&D. The medical people are all watching this like a hawk on meth, so while everything that happens gets us tense, we're lucky that we know that everything possible is being done to insure that this baby arrives healthy.

This afternoon we got a call from the OB saying that appointments have been set up for Wed. May 28th. We'll have the amnio at 7:30a and then (assuming that the lungs are ready) the c-section will be at 1:30p. In 3 weeks, the peanut will be here!