Spring, Is That You?

I don't know whether my excuse for not blogging should be "...well, life has been REALLY busy around here and it's hard to find time to post!" or if it should be "...my lack of posts is a good sign that life is finally calming down for us.  Fewer emergencies.  Fewer crises.  Fewer events."  In reality, it's probably a combination of both.

Let's see.  Where to begin....

Feeding has been a frequent topic of this blog as of late, so I'll start there.  We've had a few breakthroughs!  Samuel now eats 3 or 4 bottles of chocolate Pediasure a day, along with 3 meals of baby food+lil' crunchies.  He also drinks several ounces of water out of his sippy cup.

The last time we were at ACH, Samuel had a swallow study.  They told us we could start weening him off the thickener - but every attempt at that hasn't gone well.  I've been thickening and warming his Pediasure and he LOVES it.  I mean, honest to goodness, I've-dreamed-about-this-kind-of-eating-my-whole-life-kind-of-love.  I think there is still hope of him holding his own bottle in the coming months.

He's eating stage 2 and stage 3 baby foods - except for the stage 3s that have chunks in them.  He doesn't care for that too much.

I have never been so relaxed at meal time...and I don't think he has either!  He's stuck at 17lbs 12oz even though his eating has improved.  We see the gastroenterologist on Wednesday so maybe he'll have some answers about Samuel's chronic constipation, reflux, and lack of weight gain.

Teething is the PITS.  REALLY awful.  He's been so miserable the last two weeks - fussing and crying unless I'm holding him.  I took him to the doctor just to be sure he didn't have an ear infection.  He now has three teeth on bottom and two front teeth coming through on top.

I have been talking for months about how I wanted Samuel to be crawling and off of the oxygen by March.  As I readily admitted from the beginning, those goals were a bit lofty (no harm in dreaming big!)  A week before his birthday, Samuel began 'army crawling.'  In the picture, he scooted himself backward and got stuck!  The last few days, he's been pushing up to his knees (but they immediately slide out from under him.)  I think it won't be long now before he's crawling.

We had some success with the oxygen too.  He went eight GLORIOUS nights without it.  However, his independence was short lived and is back on it now.  The pulmonologist's answer is 'give him more time.'  Ahhhh patience....I'm pretty sure I'll never be good at that.

Samuel has finally qualified for speech and occupational therapies.  I have hopes that he will also qualify for physical therapy as well.  I'm pretty excited to have some help getting him caught up to his chronological age developmentally.  I'm going to enjoy being less therapist and more mommy. 

We'll end up having at least an hour of developmental, physical, and speech therapies a week PLUS two hours of occupational therapy a week.  Not to mention nurses visits, doctors appointments, and other things.  Thank goodness I'm not teaching this year!  There's no way I'd be able to keep all of this straight!

The most exciting thing in our lives is something as simple as the weather.  Spring brings the end of cold/flu/rsv season and the beginning of our freedom!  I'm so ready to get out and about with him.  I can't wait to introduce Samuel to the world....to places as mundane as the grocery store or as grand as the zoo.  Only a few more weeks left and we are outta here!