TWO MONTH PEDS VISIT

On September 12th, we visited Dr. Sloan at Mali and Mali Pediatrics for Devin's 2 month visit.  Other than at the hospital when he was born, this was the first time that Devin would be getting any shots, and needless to say, I was SUPER worried about him being in pain and not being able to do anything to help him.  I knew it would be tough, so I'm glad that Vikas was able to be there with me just in case I had to leave the room when they gave him his shots.  When we got there, we went through our typical routine.  They took his stats, Dr. Sloan examined him, and then we went through some questions that we had.  Well, I'm happy to report that Devin grew another half of an inch (22.5 inches now) and gained almost 2 pounds (up to 10lbs, 6oz. from 8 lbs, 11 oz.)! 


We did get a little not so good news too. Devin has torticollis, a condition in which the muscles on the left side of his neck are tighter than the right side, which cause him to tilt his head to the left.  Because he tilts his head that way, he's developed a flat spot on the back of his head.  We're not positive what caused the torticollis, but it's likely that it was, in part, his position in my uterus.  Plus his head is a little bit big in comparison to his body, which means he has to work twice as hard to hold it up :-( Poor little guy.  Dr. Sloan wrote us a prescription for physical therapy and gave us the number for Dr. Rozelle, a plastic surgeon at Children's Hospital downtown who specializes in helmets to correct flat spots on infants' heads.  A few of my girlfriends have had children who needed helmets, and they saw Dr. Rozelle as well.  While she doesn't necessarily sound like the warm and fuzzy type, she's fantastic at what she does and I'm glad Devin will get a chance to see her and get her opinion on his head.


So, by the time that we discussed the torticollis and our questions about his fussiness, I had forgotten (just for a second) about the vaccines.  Well, then the nurse came in with the vaccines, and my anxiety about not being able to soothe him came back.  But, he did SO great and barely cried.  What a champ! So, while I shed a few tears, I did better than I thought I would too.  The few days after his shots, however, were really ROUGH!  Talk about unhappy.  Let's just hope that part of that was his general fussiness (which we were told should be gone by 3 months or so) and that he's not that miserable for days after he gets shots since he's scheduled to have them at just about every doctors' visit for the foreseeable future :-(

LET THE FUSSING BEGIN!

Just as we were beginning to really get the hang of this whole parent thing, our little guy decided to switch it up on us.  As he hit the 6 week mark, Devin began seriously fussing (understatement of the year) in the evenings.  Even though he was clean, fed, cuddled, rocked, sung to, bounced on the medicine ball, Devin just was not happy and cried from about 6 to 9 p.m. every single evening.  It wasn't as though he never stopped, but it was a constant game of trying to figure out what would calm him down.  So, while one thing might work for 10 minutes, he would begin screaming a short while later and we'd have to find something new to do to calm him down.  It was almost as though he just found his lungs and decided to use them right as we were trying to eat dinner and catch up on our favorite shows :-(  Definitely kept us on our toes, right?!   Poor guy . . . we felt so bad that he was so unhappy and there was very little that we could do about it.  Eventually around 9, he'd finally fall asleep.


Unfortunately for us, right as this new-found fussiness began, I was going to be on my own with Devin overnight for the very first time.  The weekend before our 3 year anniversary (I know . . . 3 years already!), Vikas went up north to Gaylord for his friend, George's, bachelor party.  Unlike most of the bachelor parties that Vikas has gone on, this one seemed pretty relaxed and outdoorsy.  The guys had planned a weekend full of golfing at Treetops, fishing, boating, and grilling for George, and Vikas was definitely looking forward to some good times with his buddies.  Even though I was nervous to be on my own without any help in the evenings, I was glad that Vikas was able to get a little break.  I actually stayed at my parents' house the first night, so that was a big help.  The next night was rough, but we got through it.


Two weekends later, we attended George's wedding.  This is was our first Serbian wedding, and from the bride and groom to the church and traditions, the wedding was beautiful.  It was definitely nice to get dressed up and out for some adult time, but it was also our first time leaving the little guy in the evening.  I was excited to get out and have some fun, but given Devin's new fussiness in the evening, I was pretty nervous to leave him. I knew my parents had been there before and could handle it, but I felt bad to put them through the stress of possibly hours of crying before Devin fell asleep.  So, of course, I called them a few times throughout the reception just to check in.  Even though I'm sure he screamed (I could hear him the first time that I called), my parents were sweet enough to spare me the details :-)  All in all, it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared.  We're glad we were there to share in George and Kristen's big day! 

And, I'm happy to report that now that it's been a few weeks and Devin is nearing the 3 month mark, the peak of the fussing seems to be behind us.  I hope I didn't just jinx myself :-)

DEVIN'S FIRST TEMPLE VISITS

When Devin was about 5.5 weeks old, he did something very important.  He made his first visit to a Hindu temple.  Around the last week of August, we took him to the Bharatiya Temple in Troy for the very first time so that he could be blessed by the priest there and would be certain to have God's protection throughout his life.  Here are some pictures from that day.  About a week later, Devin made his first visit to the Jain Temple for the week of Paryushan.  We pray daily that Devin will be blessed with a long, happy, healthy, fulfilling, and meaningful life, and that we will be there to witness it every step of the way.

It's so crazy to look back at these pictures . . . our little man has changed SO much these past five weeks!

NEWBORN AND FAMILY PICS . . . FINALLY!

So, once again, it's taken me forever to get back to the blog, but here I am :-)  Being a busy mommy is tough work, and now that our little Devin is staying awake longer and longer, I simply can't justify not playing with him as much as I can.  And once he's sleeping, I'm either trying get things done around the house or trying to catch up with Vikas since quality time with just the two of us is pretty limited.  Well, that all means that I get behind on blogging. 

Let's go back to where we left off.  As you saw in my last entry, when Devin was 3 weeks old, we had his newborn pictures taken by Kelly Rama of MAK Photography (makpics.com).   Here are a few of my faves!  Click HERE to see all of our little peanut's newborn pics.

All he needs is a briefcase, and he's ready for a day at the office . . .lol!

Clearly loving the love!

Fortunately, my sister and her entire family were visiting from Wilmington, NC at the same time that we had Devin's newborn pcitures taken, so we were able to have some great family pictures taken with them and my parents the same weekend.  Lucky for us, she and the kids were able to visit for 2 weeks before, so they got to spend some time with Devin almost immediately after we got home from the hospital.  My brother in law, Royal, wasn't able to make such a long trip, but he did come in for a few days, which was so nice! Devin loved spending time with his Masi, Masa and big cousins!  Even though it took a while to get all of these pictures back (and then took me nearly 3 more weeks to put them up), I think they turned out fantastic (other than not being back in shape quite yet . . . in due time) :-)  HERE's a link to all of the pics.

I adore this pic . . . could there be anything sweeter than this?!



Poor Devin was over it by this point :-(  Still, such an awesome pic of my Dad and his boys!



Our beautiful family . . . love this!



Nana and Nani and all of their grandkids so far :-)

Devin's shoes didn't make it through the whole shoot . . . lol!