Monday, October 26, 2009

Developmental Follow-Up


Today Harris had his first appointment at the Developmental follow-up clinic. This clinic follows high risk newborns (i.e. those who were born very early, as is the case with Harris, or full term babies who had significant respiratory distress or a history of apnea). So today was Harris's 3-month appointment. No that's not a typo -- though Harris turned 5 months this passed Saturday the clinic records time by "corrected age." So though our little man has been here with us for 5 months the doctors and therapists at the clinic all consider him 3 months.

We arrived on time, even a bit early. Interestingly, while I have some personal experience doing these evaluations, being on the other side was 100x more nerve racking then I would have ever imagined. So maybe it was the nerves, or the fact that the appointment was at 2:00 just a precious 1 and a 1/2 (2 if we pushed it)) hours away from nap time, but the 30 minute wait seemed to be forever As the time ticked by and Harris charmed the other families in the waiting room with smiles and coos I knew the inevitable. He would do NONE of this in the room -- I briefly contemplated asking one of the mom's in the waiting room to come with us, you know to vouch for our little man's skills.

We entered the examine room with a wonderful physical therapist. She watched how Harris could (or should we say would) move his tiny little body. No surprises here... his head control - "age appropriate" (for a 3 month old), his ability to push his head up from his stomach - good; supportive sitting - impressive; supported standing - even more impressive; refusal to reach or grab with his arms - ummmm, well there is always room for improvement. All in all the effort we put in, the exercises and the encouragement has been paying off and before the PT left she gave us our next set of exercises so that we can work on his arms.

Next up the Speech Pathologists. Bottom line here is that Harris did actually smile for them (good thing one was a blond and he seems to have a thing for blonds) -- but despite this the speech team declared a slight delay in expressive language. (Remember in their eyes a delay is below 3 months). Why you ask? Because he doesn't laugh - well not out loud. I thought long and hard about how ridiculous this is and then realized maybe he is just a silent laugher. We all know those people the ones whose mouths open and bodies move but no sound comes out -- and this is exactly what our little man does!

Finally the medical team came in Growth - AGE APPROPRIATE (not corrected actual)
Weight - 15lbs (with a diaper and onsie - still I can NOT BELIEVE THIS)
Length - just over 25inches
General health good. You know with the exception of all the eating nonsense we already know about.

All in all a pretty good appointment. OH and by the way our little man is teething! So it seems that when it comes to how and when Harris is going to develop - your guess is a good as mine!

"I just can't...

...keep my fingers out of my mouth"




Could this be teething?

Saturday, October 17, 2009

We must be crazy....

...because we decided, against all rationale ideas, to take our little man to Grandee and Grampa's condo in Florida. A consult from the doctor gave his approval as long as we went BEFORE flu season. And so we got on a plane and landed in sunny Florida. Harris loved the airport - all the people, the amazing lights, the noise. He loved the plane - flirted with some woman and cooed when we hit turbulence. He LOVED the hot weather (so did Mommy). For all our little man has grown and changed one thing has remained the same - he still HATESbeing cold, and so the 90 degree hot and humid weather suited him just fine. We had a great long weekend, swimming in the pool, napping in the shade, visiting Great Grandma Jeannie (Daddy's grandma) and generally enjoying our first family vacation.



Mommy and Daddy got to see Harris turn from his stomach to his back and loved having all the time together.



While we were away Harris started to take a full feeding of oatmeal... unfortunately it didn't work out too well and he began to have gastro problems again. So we are no on a break from solids for a week and then we will try something else. In the mean time Mommy is keeping her fingers crossed that we are not encountering a grain allergy. The good news is that a few days off the oatmeal and Harris is a much happier boy (even though we are back home and it is COLD here!)

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Football and Feeding

When we went to the doctor last week, he suggested that we try and start Harris on oatmeal. With all of Harris's challenges eating he was thinking he might benefit from having more then just formula, and as he puts it we generally start babies at 4months so we should give him a chance. Though, he also said he probably wasn't ready, and so if we give it to him and he can't swallow we should just try again each week until one day he will do it just right.

So today was a big day for our little man... First he started off by sleeping through the night, then Daddy got him dressed in his brand new JETS outfit. I must admit I find the entire football outfit on such a little person to be hysterical (in a good way).


Around 9:30 Harris, dressed for a big football filled Sunday, had his first attempt at eating. Daddy was the one who got to give him his first spoonful.



He took it made a very funny face, swallowed (no choking!) and then let out a loud coo.



After two spoonfuls Daddy let Mommy take over. Harris did GREAT! I have to admit I was surprised he could do it, and he tuckered out after about 10 little spoons but he definitely liked it. Each little bit of oatmeal resulted in the same funny face, then a swallow and then happy sound.



I have to wonder if eating is going to be the same slow progression as bottle feeding was... he can do it but then it is a SLOW go to get him to the point where he takes enough in. Even if eating goes that way I am OK with it - I know that in the end, our little man will be eating hotdogs at a JETS tailgate some day and this will all be a distant memory.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Is he using his arms? YES

Yesterday despite having an horrific day (i.e. wouldn't eat, cried a lot, generally inconsolable - most likely because he was starving, but still unwilling to eat) Harris started to push up using his arms!