Happy "excuse to wear green" Day!

 

And then there were two.

Something new seems to happen every day when you have a baby. It must be amazing to be learning so many things all at once. It really is true what everyone tells you, "Don't blink, or you'll miss something!" It really feels like we've been making up for lost time these last three months. Max was essentially a 3 month old when we brought him home and it really felt like, in a lot of ways, that we had missed that newborn stage with him. Sure we spent time with him, but it's hard to fathom how difficult it is to feel like a parent when your child has never left the hospital unless you've tried to do it. Now that we're home we appreciate every moment a little bit more.

Had Max been born on his original due date he would be 6 months old today. It's hard to believe. It seemed to us that Max was fairly on-track developmentally for his corrected age. We had an appointment with occupational therapy last week that confirmed our suspicions, and it was nice to have the professional nod of approval. There's a fairly wide range of "normal" when it comes to developmental milestones for babies, but Max is well within that range. It's amazing considering where he started. Max is tolerating, and even sometimes enjoying tummy time; pushing up on his arms, rolling over, and trying really hard to get onto his knees. He's very close to sitting on his own and still loves standing - he's taking all his weight on his legs, and just needs help balancing. He's grabbing at toys, making lots of noise during play time, and recognizes his name. We're beginning to wish that a couple of teeth would make an appearance, as Max is a drooling, gnawing, ornery little boy lately - soon, perhaps!

On the eating front, Max has been doing very well. We've been offering him rice cereal once a day and he's doing really great. He seems to love the taste and gets very excited about the whole experience. He still doesn't seem to really understand the mechanics of eating, but ends up inadvertently swallowing some anyway. We're more concerned with building positive associations with his mouth and eating right now and the mechanics can follow. We even tried some pureed pears today, and while he wasn't too sure about the taste and texture he was eventually opening his mouth for more tastes. Certainly a bold effort - we're very proud.

In other health news, the dreaded cold has found our house. For a home with a preemie it might as well be the plague. On the plus side it is Rafael that is sick, and not Max, but we're pretty nervous about having him in such close quarters with cold germs. Rafael has been camping out in the living room and sleeping on the couch and Max and I have been sequestered to our bedrooms. We occasionally wave at each other if I'm in the kitchen, but that's been the extent of our contact. It's been a little rough not having an extra set of hands occasionally throughout the day, and Rafael misses Max terribly, but we're hoping to get through this unscathed. I'm hoping that Max being breastfed makes a difference and will protect him from any wayward germs as we all cross paths throughout our apartment.

We're becoming desperate for winter to be over. Hurry up spring!

The difference of 77 days.

"Is Max eating anything yet?"

We've heard this a lot over the last few months. It was the hot topic before we left the NICU and it's become of even more interest since we've been home. Really, no one wants Max to eat more than we do. The g-tube affords us the luxury of having Max home with us, but it is no walk in the park and comes with its own set of complications. We want him to eat as soon as he is able.

We knew he wasn't ready when we brought him home though - that's why he had the g-tube placed, after all. We've spent a lot of time working with him to overcome his oral aversion, mostly in the way of desensitizing his mouth and getting him used to the sensation of having non-painful things happen in and around his mouth. Our efforts, combined with his own (Max is currently incapable of holding anything in his hands without trying to shove it in his mouth) have been making great strides.

We were told it was likely that Max would skip the bottle stage altogether and move onto a spoon and cup when he was ready for oral feeds. Back in December when we first came home we were encouraged to try some rice cereal to see if a substance thicker than milk might make it easier for him to control, and thereby panic less. It didn't go so well, and it was pretty clear he wasn't developmentally ready for that step - after all he was only three months corrected at that time, which is three months earlier than they generally recommend introduction of solids. We decided to let it rest and concentrate on positive experiences until we felt he was ready again.

Recently Max has been showing signs that he might be capable of trying food again. On a whim I decided to offer Max 2 mLs of breast milk in a syringe. One drop at a time, he swallowed it down, waving his arms and grabbing for the syringe, sticking out his tongue. It took about 5 minutes to finish, but he swallowed it all, didn't panic, and didn't throw up. This might not seem like a big deal, but around here, it's a major win. We decided to throw caution to the wind and pick up another bag of whole grain rice cereal. We set out cautiously, but with high hopes. We were pretty thrilled with how Max took to it. He swallowed several spoons of cereal, without much fuss. No lies here, we were both holding back a few tears. A baby's first bite of solids is always a milestone to remember, but for us, it's a blinding ray of hope. We came home not knowing how long it might take to get Max to this point. Now, we're no fools - you don't make it through 6 months in the NICU without knowing a thing or two about how tiny the steps foward can be at times - but this is such a huge victory we can't help but celebrate.


Compare Max's first attempt at solids, with his second attempt, 77 days later!
Make sure you watch the first video until the end. It's a doozy.