Gearing up for Christmas

Hello.

Lochlan's been making some great progress lately. He's been liking his cereal. We are now up to about 2tbsp. He's tried rice cereal and oatmeal. Seems to like oatmeal a lot better. Can't say I blame him! I'm aiming to try barley over the next few days. Mmmm...sounds yummy doesn't it?!


He's like, "give me my cereal, and nobody gets hurt!" So funny.

His pediatrician Dr. Moore said that we can start him on purees anytime. However, she said that it won't have as many calories as the cereal. It would be just to introduce him to food and textures. I think I'm going to hold off just yet on introducing veggies. I'm going to aim for 4tbsp of cereal a day at least before trying out sweet potatoes which is probably what I'll start with. (Abby started with the same)

On Monday Dec 20th, he weighed 8lbs, 12 3/4 ounces. I was excited to see that he'd gained 5 oz since his last appointment. Actually in 12 days. The previous weight (8lbs, 7 3/4 oz) he was the same one week apart. Which was very frustrating. But I altered a few things that I was doing and it seems to be working. In fact, he gained 1 1/2 ounces in two days. (since Monday as he had an appointment today) He now weighs 8 pounds, 14 1/4 ounces. Hooray!! So proud of my little man. Have I mentioned that I think he is amazing? He's just shy of being 9 lbs!!!! I think I'll celebrate big time when he gets over the 10 lb mark. Dr. Moore said Loch's going at his own pace in the weight gain department and that we'll concentrate on getting it up in the New Year. But I'm so happy he gained what he did in two days. So awesome. Keep it up!

He had his second dose of the flu shot on Monday and his third RSV shot today. (Wed) So thankful for those shots. They are definitely keeping him healthy. Must give a "shout out" to Dr. Onyette. She is amazing. She is so good at what she does and is so kind and caring. She even makes her own appointment reminder calls. What an incredible lady. (and doctor of course!)

Lochlan has also been developing fabulously these days. He had his special infant clinic two weeks ago and they are very happy with where he's at. We are continuing to work on getting his tummy time in so that his head and neck control get even stronger. His head is still so big in comparison to the rest of his body and so it's pretty heavy to lift up when he's on his tummy. They said that his chest area because of this needs a little more support as is the usual for preemies.

These pics were actually taken a few weeks ago.

Lo and behold, our little miracle baby is rolling over from his back to his tummy. He did this a few times a couple of weeks ago but tonight, it was constant. He has a harder time rolling from his tummy to his back once he's there though so you really need to watch him and help him out. Which is strange because he can roll back to his back when I put him on his tummy for tummy-time. So go figure. I guess it's just where his hands end up and whatnot. He'll get it. But every time I turned him back over tonight, he'd heave-ho and put himself back on his tummy. Funny boy. You could really see the concentration and determination. LOVE him.

And he continues to smile these big smiles. He's got quite the little personality already. Already so social. He's been chatting a bit more the past few days as well. Not cooing nearing as much as Abby when she was his corrected age but I shall not compare. I'm soooo very proud of him.

He had his eye test last week with Dr. Arthur to test his vision. (rather than to check for activity with the blood vessels) He did very well. It's tough to really know since he's still so young. Dr. Arthur and his colleague seem to think that his left eye is a bit slower than his right. No real big surprise there as that's been the one with the most difficulty. So time will tell. We're sure he'll need glasses at some point but who knows if he'll have baby or kid glasses, or just need them as an adult. He goes back in March to test again.





As we near Christmas, I want to wish everyone a VERY merry Christmas and a joyful and blessed New Year. Thank you over and over and over again for your continued prayers and support. We feel very loved and fortunate to have so many friends, family, and strangers cheering Lochlan and the rest of our family on.

This Christmas will be extra special and we can't wait to wake up on Christmas morning with stars in our eyes and love in our hearts with our amazing family of four.

Miracles exist.

God Bless.
Jenn, Rob, Abby and Lochlan
xoxo

7 months old!

Yesterday, Lochlan turned 7 months old. 7 months. What?

Yes, 7 months old. And doing so great. He had his appointment with Dr. Moore (his pediatrician) last Monday. He weighed 8 pounds and 7 1/2 ounces, was still just shy of 22 inches (55cm), and his head grew an inch and is now 40cm around.

The only thing we are concentrating on is getting his weight up. Because he is not taking a bottle anymore (he's rejecting it) she said we could try him on solids. Yes, that's right - it's cereal time! CRAZY! It seems so strange to give him cereal when he is so small. I asked about his digestive tract and she said that he should be fine. He has been eating and digesting for 7 months now.

So that night I went to Wally World and they were having a sale on cereal so I stocked up! Rice cereal, Oatmeal, Barley, and one mixed cereal for later. I felt very very odd. I had Lochlan with me and I sort of felt like people were looking at me like, isn't he a little young for that? Meanwhile, I'm sure no one even thought of it. It was all in my head. But I still felt funny.

So Tuesday morning I decided, well why the heck not? Lochlan really liked it. It was more fortified bmilk than cereal, but it was a start and he was taking it in. And giving a smile in between "bites."

He's now worked his way to 2 tablespoons and I even introduced oatmeal cereal today which he really enjoyed. He was almost yelling at me to give him more. So funny. He was doing this little scream and looking at me like, um...mom, I want more. So I had to heat up another tablespoon. So no worries about him handling solids.

Wednesday he received his 2nd RSV shot. Took it like a champ again. And he had gained a 1/4 of a ounce in 2 days. So he's up to 8 pounds, 7 3/4 ounces. (keep in mind he'd only had cereal twice which was like 1-2 teaspoons)

Thursday he had his hearing test. I laughed and said, "okay we'll try" after the phone call to remind me of the appointment that said to come with a sleepy baby. ....right! Cause that's easy to plan.

Anyway, he did so awesome. I was so proud of him! He slept for about 45 mins after being awake when we first got there and I was able to get him to sleep. He slept long enough to have his left ear tested. He still has congestion in his ear drums/sinuses. This is due to his prematurity. The tubes are flat whereas as you get older, the tubes are more like a V but not quite that high! (the tubes leading from your nose to your ears) So they put a test monitor that vibrated behind his ear to check for hearing. I can't remember exactly the terms but either way, he passed. And he has normal hearing in his left ear. His right ear, well, he didn't sleep long enough to get tested. I ended up nursing him when he woke up and the audiologist asked if I thought he's settle again. And I said, settle as in go back to sleep? And she said yes. I was like, um no. After his nap, he's usually up for about an hour and a half to two hours. She said, "oh that was a nap?" Well what was she expecting - a two hour nap? Ain't gonna happen honey! I wish! So we have to go back another day. Which reminds me I have to call the back to set up the appointment. Whoops!

Friday, Medigas came for their final visit! Woo-hoo!!!! So exciting! He was sat'ing 97-98% even getting to 99% at one point. He's amazing! We bid farewell to Melissa and she said, "oh I'll miss you Lochlan." And I replied: "Well not offense, but we won't miss you!" Hope that didn't sound too rude! So now we are just waiting for them to pick up the equipment. Lochlan sees Dr. Flavin (the breathing doctor) and hopefully he'll be starting to wean him from his puffers. I've had to move the times we give him his puffers to try to coincide with his sleep patterns overnight. He's been sleeping longer and I would hate to have to wake him to give him his meds. I've been really fortunate that he usually goes down around 7 and will wake up once overnight and then be up again around 7am. Some nights are different but overall that has been his pattern. As much as I'd love for him to sleep through more for of the night, he's doing awesome considering he's still so tiny. And because he needs his puffers, I'm okay with him waking up to feed otherwise I'd have to wake up to do it anyway. Plus, he needs all the calories he can get. I know that Dr. Moore said to not wake him in the night to eat because he needs to sleep to grow and develop.

We go from 4 appointment last week to 1 this week. Wednesday is his special infant clinic. We'll see how he's doing developmentally. I feel like he's doing fantastic. Such a miracle.

Oh wow. Time has flown by. It's almost 11pm and I should be in bed. Abby has been waking up super early these days. Anytime after 5am in free reign for her. Good times. And their nap times haven't been coinciding either. Today Lochlan was sleeping when Abby went for her nap. Within 10mins he was up. Then when he finally went back to sleep, I went to get my own nap in and I had my eyes closed for 2mins when Abby woke up! D'oh! Oh well. One day it will happen.

Thank you for continuing to follow along on our journey.

So on that note....good night!