All is well

We visited the developmental clinic at the Children's Hospital of DC today, and got good news regarding Charlie's growth and development. There are still plenty of unknowns of course, since much of Charlie's development is still to come, but for his adjusted age of 2 1/2 months, Dr. Glass thought he was doing really well. She's a great doctor - seems very knowledgeable, positive, and is clearly gifted with babies; she had Charlie smiling within minutes. She was pleased at his size (everyone notices right away that he's an eater!), thought his muscle tone was perfect, and he didn't seem to favor one side over the other as they might have expected from his brain bleed (in fact, she said he looked much better in person than he does on paper). She was also pleased to hear that he's sleeping for longer periods at night; the fact that he's transitioned from a three hour sleeping/eating cycle into more normal day vs night indicates healthy brain development. Another reason to celebrate those nights when he sleeps for 7 hours straight! Overall, she saw no reason for us to worry at this point, which was a great relief to us. We think Charlie is amazing, of course, but it is always nice to get confirmation from the experts. She didn't weigh him during this appointment, though, so we'll have to wait until his next pediatrician appointment to know if Charlie's finally overtaken Elwood in size.

On another note, Charlie and I had the pleasure of meeting Marie McGarry this weekend. My friend Kristy and I headed to Silver Spring for a visit with not-quite-1-week-old Marie. She's as sweet as can be - thanks, Carrie and Tom, for letting us meet her! Here's a photo of Charlie and Marie meeting for the first time; clearly Charlie was a little tired of holding his head up at this point!
We're eagerly awaiting the arrival of another new baby - Charlie's only younger cousin, baby Rosengren, could arrive any day now! We can't wait to get the big news that she's on the way, and know Katie and Brent are going to make wonderful parents.

Tomorrow we'll have overnight guests - Charlie's cousins Andrew and Nick and a friend have just embarked on a cross-country trip to help people in need, and will be spending a night with us along the way. We're glad they're able to fit a visit with us into their trip!

Charlie's babysitter, Casey, watched him for the first time today, and Charlie seemed to like her instantly. He hardly fussed at all, and enjoyed playing with her and going on not one but two walks during daylight! And I had some good uninterrupted work time. It's going to be great to have Casey helping us out.