ECHO and EKG

Weight: 13lbs 2oz

Did you like the pictures (see the previous post)? Thanks to those who replied with the picture they liked the best. Samuel seemed to enjoy being out and about. He was really talkative when we were taking the pictures. He kept saying "ohwhoah" over and over again (which is why his mouth makes a perfect O in a lot of the pictures.) I've really got to make Christmas cards soon. Procrastination comes easy these days...

At the beginning of last week, we attempted rice cereal for the first time. Very unsuccessfully. I was told to mix the cereal with fruit to give it a better flavor...so once I had it flavored and thinned down, I put the spoon to Samuel's mouth and he gagged. Ok. I gave him a few minutes to recover and tried again. This time he threw up everything in his stomach. ::SIGH:: Forgive me for thinking food might be fun. I'll wait another month and give it another go. I'm tempted to skip rice cereal all together and move on to something else. I know a lot of micropreemies have oral aversions because of being on the ventilator for so long. I worried about that for a few days then I realized that Samuel puts everything in his mouth. His pacifier, his hands, his toys, his oxygen cannula.... I don't think it's an oral aversion. The most frustrating part was that for the following 4 or 5 days, Samuel fought me over taking his bottle. He's finally back to normal now...but it was certainly stressful.

Tomorrow Samuel will have his EKG and ECHO at the ACH clinic in Lowell. I find myself dragging my feet about going. It's probably because those kind of big tests make me nervous. Or maybe it's because I'm going to have to hold Samuel down for an hour for his ECHO and a half hour for his EKG. Gee, that's going to be fun. The lady who called to set up the appointment said I could give him his bottle during the test to calm him down. That's not going to work since he can't eat lying down....reflux issues. She also suggested that he could sleep but this kid is too active for that. Prayers for good test results and for Samuel to handle the testing well would be appreciated.

Samuel was finally evaluated by occupational therapy. Surprise surprise, he didn't qualify. I guess I wouldn't be happy either way. If he qualified, I would be extremely worried about his development. Not qualifying makes me nervous because that means he has to wait at least six months to be reevaluated - six months is a long time and I would hate for him to get behind. I'm doing as much as I can with him, but it would be nice if he could be worked with by a professional.

I've been talking for months about Samuel's damaged vocal cord. Here is what it sounds like when he cries. Sad huh? Thankfully when he 'talks' he sounds perfect.

Some happy things of this last week:

Flowers from an anonymous sender.

The first time Michael and I have been out in public TOGETHER since bringing Samuel home from ACH. My mom drove up and watched Samuel for us. We went out to eat. So great.