Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Weight: 21 lbs 9 oz

Length: 30 inches

Chronological Age: 19 months

Adjusted Age: 16 months

It's been a while since I've given a comprehensive update on Samuel's health and development...so here goes.

Medication:  Samuel continues to take a vitamin supplement, Flovent (steroid inhaler), and Miralax.  We have tried weening him down on his Miralax dosage, but after several days of throwing up after meals, it became apparent that he isn't quite ready for that.

Feeding:  We are thickening Samuel's bottles of Pediasure...but we've cut back on how thick we make it by half.  Hopefully, we will be able to have him off the thickener completely by the spring.  He takes 3 bottles of Pediasure a day.  Yes, he still takes a bottle.  It seems like I have two options 1) Continue to give it to him in a bottle because he won't drink it out of any other container or 2) Give up on the Pediasure and hope that I can give him enough calories through his baby food.  With as small as he still is, I think I'll stick with #1 for a while.  He does not seem to have trouble drinking water, juice, and tea without thickener...but he only drinks those with significant prompting from me.  Purees are still his friend, but he has continued to make steps forward with table food.  Not big steps, but steps. (Just recently he has seemed interested enough in our food to attempt bites.)

 

Dentist:  First off....can I just say UGH?  Samuel had his first appointment with the pediatric dentist this week and there were so many things wrong with the visit that I don't know where to start.  Just to give you an idea, the worst part of the appointment was when the dentist shared his opinion about why preemies tend to have bad teeth.  "Parents of special needs children (preemies) tend to be very irresponsible with their children. They spoil them by continuing to give bottles past the recommended age, they feed them the wrong things, they don't want to 'rock the boat' by changing things up. I just don't understand why they refuse to follow the recommended guidelines. I let my kid cry whenever we were weening him off the bottle and pacifier."  There were many not-nice things that went through my head at that point.  We won't be returning.  I want Samuel to be seen by someone who knows something about micro preemies/special needs kids.  Did I mention that when I told them about Samuel being orally defensive/a possible oral aversion, they said, "All babies do at this age!" (then began inserting tools and fingers in his mouth for no reason!!)  I haven't been able to get Samuel to eat well ever since the appointment....GRR.
The good news is that Samuel does not have any cavities and his teeth are looking good.
PS - I had a knowledgeable micro preemie mom give me the address to a site that explains why micro preemies have bad teeth.  Click here if you want to read it.

Synagis:  I have been battling insurance companies, doctors offices, pharmacy companies and so on to be able to get Samuel the Synagis shots again this year.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Synagis shot, click here.  I'm happy to report that all of my hard work has paid off.  He qualifies this year because he had to have 'therapy' for his chronic lung disease within the last 6 months (therapy=oxygen.)  He has already received his first shot, and will continue to get them once a month until March.

Therapies:  Samuel is making great progress with Speech.  OT is a little slower going and PT is the slowest.  It's so funny how it was the complete opposite when he began therapy in March.  It looks as if Samuel may not qualify for Speech come re-eval time, but OT and PT show no signs of coming to an end any time soon.  Honestly, I'd rather he stay in ALL three therapies until he begins school (it wouldn't hurt for him to have a head start on his school peers.)  But there I go again...thinking WAAAAYY too far into the future...

Hydroceles:  We've been keeping a close eye on Samuel's hydroceles since he came home from the NICU.  Apparently they were supposed to drain on their own within a year, but his didn't.  We thought he would need surgery to have them drained.  However, we learned a few weeks ago that his hydroceles have disappeared - no surgery! 

So that's about everything.  Can you believe it?  That's it.  After being born 16 weeks early, we are dealing with a few medicines, feeding issues, yellow teeth, and therapy.  I can't tell you how blessed and lucky I have been feeling recently.  Michael and I were talking yesterday about how frustrated I was in the NICU....how it seemed like EVERYONE'S baby was progressing so much quicker than Samuel.  They were gaining weight faster, they were coming off the vent earlier, they were going home sooner.  I guess Samuel knew that age-old saying, "Slow and steady wins the race."

Or at least, he DID.  There's nothing slow about this kid now!