Friday, March 14, 2014

Development Update

Nurse Jackie came to the house yesterday to check-in on Max's development and it was all good news. Here is the rundown on how it went.

·       He is 8.5 months old, but 6 months and 4 days old developmentally so he is measured according to the 6 months age.

·       He weighed 17lbs and 10oz. That is a 1 pound weight gain in three weeks. He is 27 ¼ inches long. That is a 1 ¼ inch longer since early January. She says there must be a lot of fat in my breast milk for the rate he is growing. I agree because he keeps sucking all the fat right out of my body as I haven’t been this thin in a very long time and I am not even working out…I am not complaining!

·        For most of the skills test he sat at a 7 month old. All of the other skills test he is right at a 6 month old (where he should be).

·        Nurse Jackie was very impressed with him. She is amazed that he does not even look or behave like a premie. She said nobody would even know he was a premie. She is so surprised for a baby that was born at 30 weeks along to be doing so well. See, it does pay to take good care of yourself. Exercise and eat well!! Heck, I was on a spin bike the day before I gave birth! J



·       She introduced Cheerio's to him. Nurse Jackie gave him a cheerio from a bowl and put that bowl to her side away from his view. He was very curious about it. It took a bit, but he munched on it and ate it. Afterward he lunged for that bowl that was out of sight but he remembered where she put it, so I think he is very smart. She told us to start giving him mashed food instead of processed and give him Cheerios and other puff treats so he learns to grab for food and put it in his mouth.

·       The only homework we have is to get him to crawl. She gave us exercises we have to do with him to get him to crawl instead of rolling everywhere to get what he wants. She said the rolling everywhere will stunt his development and a premie does not need that. So, we have to work on that.

·       Max has been refusing the bottle for the past couple weeks so I let Nurse Jackie know this to see if she could provide some advice on this. She agreed with us that it’s either because his gums hurt from teething or he is just over the bottle. She said some babies are just over the bottle and don’t want to have anything to do with the bottle. So, now we really have to work with him on the sippy cup. We have been lately but more for fun. She said usually once a baby is done with the bottle they will not go back to the bottle, unless it’s due to teething.

·        I told Nurse Jackie that we noticed a white spot on his lower gum so we are assuming a tooth could come in any day now. She took a look and said that was not a tooth. He is heavily teething, but there is no tooth in sight so it could be longer than we thought. He will just continue to drool all over everything and munch on everything in sight until it does come in.  

·       He put himself down for a nap towards the end of the appointment and nurse Jackie couldn’t believe it. I told her that is what he does when he is ready for his nap or bed time. She was just shocked and said I am very lucky to have such a good baby. She also commented on how happy and chill he is and has been during her visits. That's my boy...a very happy laid back baby.

I know my post sounds like a mom who is going on and on about her baby boy and how great he is, but I will admit that is exactly what I just did. This mom is very proud of her baby boy for doing so well since he was born so early. He is doing so well that we decided to see Nurse Jackie one last time just to be on the safe side. She will come back to the house in September unless we can't get him to crawl via the exercises that were given to us. He will also see his developmental doc one last time in May, so only two more developmental appointments to make sure the big man continues on this path.

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