Newborn Screening and More Consulting

Sawyer had to go for his two week Newborn Screening today. He had one at birth which tests for five metabolic diseases. This test is required by the state of Texas. I called Baylor Medical Center in downtown Dallas and had them send the paperwork for the Advanced Newborn Screening which tests for thirty more diseases. This is an optional test and costs $55, but we decided it was worth it to have a more thorough round of testing. This test was also administered in the hospital. We had to go back to Presbyterian for this test since that's where he was born. The man who checked us in at registration said "Sawyer Blake Martin Smith, so many names for such a small little man." He had a Jamaican accent so it just sounded cool when he said it. I guess you had to be there. :)

While we were there we stopped by A Mother's Gift which is the gift shop on the Labor & Delivery floor. They also have lactation consultants and will give free measuring for nursing and maternity bras which is a great service. They have a scale and will weigh your baby for free too. His weight was 6 lbs 2 ounces so he had gained two ounces. We were excited, but it is a different scale from the one in our pediatrician's office. She also wanted to watch me nurse to see how he latches on and I said sure, why not, pretty much all of Collin county has seen my boobs so why stop now. She showed us yet ANOTHER way to position Sawyer. Who knew that there were so many ways? Take it from me, there are! She had me nurse him and then weighed him to see how much milk he was actually getting. It looked like he was getting about an ounce so she suggested that I pump after each feeding and have Lorne feed him an ounce in the bottle since he should be getting two ounces per feeding now.

We weren't sure what to do from this point since the consultant at the pediatrician's office said that all we needed to do was replace one feeding at the breast with a bottle. We talked about it with the consultant at Presby and she said that the main thing now is to get him back to his birth weight. We agreed so that's why we're doing both, at least for now. She said that he's caught in a vicious cycle right now because since he's small it takes all of his energy to latch on so he isn't getting the best feedings, since he isn't getting good feedings he has little energy, etc., etc.

After we left Presby we stopped by Laura's house and dropped off some of my maternity clothes. I was glad to loan them to her and get them out of the closet. It was kind of funny because she'd loaned me some of her clothes but then had to get them back when she found out she was pregnant again. She told her that she hopes we don't do the same thing to her. I assured her that we wouldn't. :)

We stopped at the Credit Union so that I could open Sawyer's CD. I opened a $2,000 CD at 4.3% for 60 months. I got what they call a Step-Up CD which means that I can change the interest rate twice during the life of the CD with no penalty. They have their rates online so I figure I can check periodically and see if it's increasing. I had to open a savings account for him to make him a member so that the CD could be in his name. I'm so excited and proud of us for already having that set up for him.

We had an estimate for solar screens done today. It was at 11:00 and I actually totally forgot about it until the last minute when we were getting ready to go to the hospital. He probably could have done it without us there, but it worked out better that we were home. They gave us an estimate for the cost of doing just the back of the house or the entire house. We also have a choice of getting 80% or 90% coverage for the same price. They can also install them with or without gridwork. They have five or so different colors, but we like the black. I think we're going to go with screens on the entire house with gridwork. We'll do 80% in the front and 90% everywhere else. Lorne didn't want it to be too dark in the living room since we spend so much time there. We're thinking that they will pay for themselves over time because the light bill will go down.

I almost forgot to mention that Sawyer's umbilical cord stump fell off today. He has now officially cut the cord with me. It's like he's on his own now even though it will be a while before he makes it official I guess!

Sorry that there aren't any pictures today. I think Lorne and I were too busy watching the clock to take any!