Watching tv...
So I guess I was expecting Samuel's weight gain this week to be astronomical since he has been eating so often and so much! He made a jump from eating 85 mls every two and a half hours to 100mls every 2 hours. Very hungry. However, despite the increase in food, we actually didn't have a FANTASTIC weight gain. As of Tuesday he is 9 lbs 9 oz (so he gained 6 oz in a week.) Don't get me wrong, it's still really good weight gain, but it's not as big as I had imagined. I'm happy that he's eating so well at least. Feeding him before now was like fighting a world war.
Samuel has a new facination with his hands.
I figured out what exactly was causing Samuel's constipation issue. I learned that the formula I'm giving him has a lot of extra iron in it (apparently preemies are anemic) AND I'm having to give him a multi-vitamin with iron. Poor guy. The juice regimen has helped some but it looks like we are going to have to have additional help. The nurse practitioner at ACH prescribed Miralax. Thank goodness we won't have to fight this battle any longer.
Sleep still evades me - even after 2 months. Samuel is waking up every 3 to 4 hours wanting to be fed. Between that time though, he fusses and stretches and whines........and when he stretches he holds his breath, which in turn, sets off his alarm, and therefore wakes us up. When he fusses and kicks his feet, it also sets off the alarm. So I get up, check on him, and get back in bed only for it to happen again a few minutes later. Sometimes he rubs his face with his hands and pulls down his oxygen cannula into his mouth - then his monitor goes off. (Wednesday night I pulled it out of his mouth 7 times during the night.) We have to hold him up for an hour after we feed him and that leaves us with only about an hour and a half after each bottle. Michael has been great. I promised myself that I would be the one getting up with Samuel since I'm not working but it's proved to be more challenging than expected for the above reasons. Michael gets up for at least two of the bottles every night - no complaints - no grumpiness. In fact, the other night I woke up to the sound of Michael's laughter. He was laughing at Samuel's smacking sounds that were coming through loud and clear over the monitor. It made my heart happy.....I am so thankful for Michael. I've asked the nutritionist at ACH if we can try to make Samuel sleep longer than three and a half hours at a time......she said we won't be able to do that for another month or two. ::sigh::
With the oxygen cannula in his mouth, he looks like a vampire.
It looks like Samuel won't qualify for physical therapy or speech services right now - which is good and bad. It means that right now he is on very nearly track for his adjusted age (2 and half months.) It's bad because I'd like someone working with him to make sure that he doesn't fall behind. Thankfully, A developmental therapist will be working with him once a week to try to get him caught up to his actual age by this time next year. I'm not sure why they bother....to me his real age is 2 and a half months.....why would you expect his abilities to be other than that? Of course, I say that, and he is doing a lot of things that are expected of a child that is his actual age.
Speaking of age, Samuel is officially 6 months old as of Sept. 19th. I can't believe that it's been half of a year! It's been the longest, most eventful, most miraculous 6 months of my life.
We visited my parents this weekend, and my mom suggested that we take some family pictures with Samuel. I hope to get to take some more here in a month or two for Christmas cards. (I will post those pictures soon.)
Samuel has inherited a Bumbo seat from my niece. Sure, it's lilac. Sure, it's ugly. But they are supposed to be great right? Samuel doesn't agree. Maybe he will grow to like it.
He is still not a fan of tummy time. Although, I must say that he is getting better at holding up his head. I've been so impressed with him the last couple of weeks but now he's decided to take a vacation from all of the hard work. The last couple of days, every time I put him on his belly, he cries hysterically. Not sure what the bad mood is about.
The oxygen weening hasn't been an easy transition. Samuel needs the oxygen any time he happens to fall asleep for a few minutes (you know.....his 5 minute naps. By the time I put the oxygen back on him, he is awake again.) He also doesn't tolerate the oxygen being off for more than a few hours at a time (on a good day.) It might take more growing before he is ready.
We've recently been blessed with an abundance of gifts. Our vehicles were on their last leg, and my parents bought us a Prius - yes, a used Prius, but a good one. I know it was well taken care of because it was my brother's family car. It's so much better to tote Samuel around in......a 4 door car is much better than my 2 door.
As some of you know from Facebook, I have gone through my entire dvd collection (and several other people's too) since we've been home from Childrens. Yesterday, my younger brother set up and paid for a Netflix account for us so that I could have something to watch during my days with Samuel. Very sweet of him.
A friend of mine from college, Charisse, sent me a BEAUTIFUL handmade scrapbook of Samuel's 6 months - with all of my blog posts, Facebook status updates, and pictures. It is so great that I can't find a better place for it other than the living room where everyone can see it.
And the final gift came from some friends of ours.....who gave us our own pack-n-play and travel system. What we had before now was on loan. I took Samuel out in his new stroller yesterday. Despite the fact he began to cry after about a block, it was nice to get out of the house.
No comments:
Post a Comment