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!