Breaking the Weight Barrier

Yay! We had a well visit and he weighed over TWENTY POUNDS!!! (20.8), BMI 15.5, and managed to stay on his curve within the bottom 1% for his age.

Since he’s looking good, and growing well we get to try coming off high calorie infant formula and just add some other types of high calorie liquids to his diet along with his food. I am so excited. We said goodbye to bottles about two months ago, and now we get to say goodbye to formula.

I know that it probably seems like a weird milestone to be so excited over. His high calorie formula and weight gain have been at the center of all my worries and fears since he was born. I feel like a very large scary elephant has finally started to lumber out of his corner of the room.

Sterilizing gallons of water and zillions bottle parts. Giving myself second degree burns leaning over a steam bottle sterilizer at 2am. Feeling like we should buy stock in Neosure. Going to cardiology. Having metabolic tests run and then run again. Weight checks.

Done, Done, Done!

For anyone out there still struggling through failure to thrive, or failure to gain, or any other preemie-ness things, I am praying for you and thinking of you, Moms and Dads. I hope you get some unexpected milestones to celebrate, too.

We celebrated last night by taking a picnic dinner to the city skate park and watching the bigger boys do flips and turns. He was ready to push his little umbrella stroller out and join them on the course.

Christmas and The Dreaded Weight Follow Up

Looming over our Christmas celebration was the dreaded weight check on Wednesday. It was coupled with Grandma’s bout of bronchitis that she came down with two days after keeping Drake for us.

So far no signs of cold or respiratory issues from the little guy, thank God. However, it just really brought home how vulnerable he is even with limited contact. It feels like everyone in our world is sick right now.

Christmas consisted of Mommy and Daddy taking turns poking holes in packages and trying to get him interested. At 10 months, you are apparently only interested in eating the bows. He did perform pretty well for two sets of video conferencing of our families though. We skyped my parents and sister in from Louisiana and we facetimed my husband’s mom and grandmother in (see bronchitis above), so despite preemiehood and RSV lockdown all grandparents got to witness the first ignoring of the gifts for the bows!

Wednesday morning, we woke to the pitter patter of freezing rain and sleet hitting the roof. Luckily, road crews had pre-treated all the main roads so it wasn’t too bad getting him to his pediatrician’s office.

After a short wait in the well child waiting area, we were called back. Side note, as part of my preemie mom issues I always try to get the 8am appointment before other germ infested people have been touching all over the waiting area.  We went through the feeding questions and then came time for the SCALE. I really did hear JAWS music, I swear.

15.5lbs

After a month of extra feedings and new foods, that’s all we get. 12 oz  in 4 weeks. So then we waited for the doctor to bring his growth chart in. 15.5 was definitely not enough to get him back on his 1% track.

His pediatrician decided we should lay off some of the newer foods and resume 26 calorie/ounce formula feedings. My heart sank, and I was flashed back to the NICU and our metabolic scares. I knew he hadn’t gained enough just by looking at him, so it really shouldn’t have been a great shock.

Then came the time for the rest of his physical. His doctor took a much longer time with the stethoscope than normal, so I started thinking oh no respiratory infection.

“Have we ever checked out a murmur?” he asked me.

“Nope, everyone from his Neonatologist to the resident during June Refluxisode to you has heard it, but then not found it again.” I answered.

“Oh, but he has been seen by cardiology?” WTF?

No, he has not. And so with failure to thrive and now a very distinct murmur we have a cardiology referral.

So to keep our fun day after holiday streak going, we have an EKG and Cardiology appointment at Children’s on the 2nd.

Then, I realized I scheduled his 12 month wellness on his birthday. Here son, we can’t have a big party for you because of RSV lockdown oh and HERE ARE THESE AWESOME SHOTS! Best mom ever, right?

C’mon 2013, you can do better than 2012!