Still just under 21lbs :)
The boys turn 1 tomorrow! I can't believe it! I thought about reflecting back on the events from one year ago tomorrow that have led us to today...and decided not to go there :) (It's all in this blog anyway) Here's where they are today:
William
- Crawls on all fours
- Pulls to standing
- Cruises on furniture a few steps
- Claps
- Waves bye bye (sometimes)
- Says "Da Da"
- Eats baby foods and cut up soft foods like a champ, and prefers to feed himself
Aaron
- Crawls on all fours
- Pulls to standing with frequency and ease
- Cruises on furniture a few steps
- Attempts to climb stairs
- Says "Ma Ma"
- Can go from floor to sitting position by himself
- Eats baby foods and cut up soft foods like a champ, will also willingly eat FROM the spoon (unlike his brother, who tries to attack/eat the spoon)
- Cutting his first tooth!
Appointments from this month:
- Audiologist: Hearing tests passed! It was also incredibly cool to see conditioning at work - with the hearing test used on Aaron, a toy animal clapped cymbals whenever the audiologist spoke. This trains the child to look at the toy whenever he hears a noise - there is a different toy in each direction, but with children so young they become conditioned to only look at the first toy. William tolerated the ear buds, so his test was different. Stephen sat with him on that one, so I'm not exactly sure how it worked.
- Neurologist: Everything looks good! (okay, Aaron still has a Babinski sign on his left, but whatever...it doesn't matter even if it doesn't go away, he's perfect and mobile, and sometimes they can be present until age 2. At the last appointment, we were told to expect another MRI for Aaron, but we decided that it's not needed or desired at this point.)
- Pulmonologist: Lungs look good, except they were getting over colds during their visit and therefore left with a round of antibiotics, pulmicort, and albuterol to be safe. We also want to make sure that we have as much documentation available as possible to support the Synagis shot (RSV vaccine) this fall, which can be hard to clear with insurance and incredibly expensive without it.
- Urologist: All clear for the little snip, which they were unable to get when they were younger (this is not up for debate)...and actually, by all clear I mean the rather ambiguous and indifferent doctor said that he "guesses" he would be comfortable doing it now, but William does have some fat pockets. We could wait until he slims down some or move forward. We plan on moving forward because he may not slim down until he's 5...or 12...and for his sake we're not waiting that long! We also need to make sure the pediatrician clears them for the anesthesia, given the ASD/VSD/IVH history.
I'm so proud of my little men. They are happy, loving, funny, fun, sweet little boys with really great temperaments...we really couldn't ask for a better outcome from their traumatic start. We're still watching their language development and are aware of longer term issues that can be seen in preemies, but I've learned not to dwell on any of those potential risks. We'll cross those bridges when/if we get there...for now, we're just enjoying them and everything new they're doing every day.
Pictures
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| Aaron |
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| William |
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| Aaron |
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| William |
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| The crawlers! |
