15 Month Checkup
Greetings and hello to everyone!
Today, Xavier met with Dr. Abbey to look at his 15 months of progress. It began as a happy time, but ended on a less happy note.
Overall, Xavier is doing very well. He put on more than half a pound since his weight check a month ago. He should be putting on a third to half a pound a month. In the three months we have been focused on getting Xavier's weight up, he has put on about 28 ounces, so he has been meeting that goal.
Dr. Abbey had favorable words about all he saw with Xavier, noting how alert he is and how inquisitive. He watched Xavier study a part to his bottle, then commented how well Xavier was working things out in his head. We discussed eye sight, hearing, motor skills. Even temper tantrums, which, apparently, Xavier is right on schedule for at 15 months (and we've been noting more of the them of late).
Xavier need no longer be on the Neo-Sure formula, but can go to a formula that supplies a more general nutrition, rather than the targeted nutrition of Neo-Sure. Thank You, Jesus! Neo-Sure is $18 a can and lasts two days. The mix we are moving to is $11 a can and has three times the amount of formula as a Neo-Sure can. We are still mixing at 28 calories per ounce, but now we get more ounces per dollar!
Xavier can also start having honey, something Rebecca has being chomping at the bit (so to speak) to introduce him to. She wants him to acclimate to regional pollen.
His heart murmur is still audible, but nothing to worry about.
We also were able to pin down calories per day for him—even a formula to calculate this as he grows. We've been asking for that for months from the "feeding clinic" team. He needs to be getting 630-840 calories per day, which, when not teething, he consumes with margins to spare.
Where it turned more serious, from Xavier's point of view, came at the end of the exam: inoculations and a blood draw. Ouch! (as it turned out, Super Ouch! Super Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Super, Super Ouch!)
It started with a blood draw. I told the nurses it would take more people to hold him down. They thought they had enough. I held Xavier's legs and right arm. A nurse held his left arm and a nurse tried to tap a vein in his left arm. She had a difficult time getting a vein because it kept rolling. Just as she got a tap to go in, Xavier pulled and rolled his arm, and the butterfly needle came right back out.
We flipped him around to go for the right arm. After some work, the vein was tapped, but only one and a half vials were filled. The labs needed four vials. Did I mention the screaming and tearing (and kicking and flailing when he could) going on during all of this?
Well, the choice became try his left arm again, or schedule him at Children's to draw the blood. I decided to go for the left arm again.
A nurse gave his inoculations (one being a flu shot), two in one thigh, one in the other. She left to let me comfort Xavier and feed him a bottle. He thought things were finished. After all, he had his bottle.
The Super, Super Ouch. The nurses came back about :15 minutes later. This time, they brought in a third nurse. One nurse straddled Xavier to keep his legs down while she held his right arm. Another held his left arm in place so he couldn't move it like he did the first time. Tapping the vein took five minutes at least, and only yielded one vial of blood. There was not enough blood for all the labs, but enough for the most important ones. We were done. The nurses admitted he was much stronger than they expected and they should have had the third nurse in from the beginning.
All in all, an excellent exam and confirmation about Xavier's overall health. Here are his stats:
- Height: 28 inches
- Weight: 14 pounds 13.6 ounces
- Head circumference: 45.25 cm
Always, thank you all for your prayers. Today's results, when in context to the previous nearly two years, confirm how awesome is our God!
Xavier Goes to the Beach
Greetings to everyone.
Today, Rebecca dressed Xavier in his swimwear, loaded him into the car and headed for the beach. There is a large park 10 minutes away that has a lake with a nice beach. The sand is not so fine as an ocean beach, but still comfortable on the bare feet. The water is cloudy, partly due to the minerals in the water (it is called Soda Lake after all), and partly because of the lake's popularity: it was filled with kids and people swimming, paddle boating, surfing, etc.
Near the end of the beach with some trees, Rebecca and Xavier set out their blankets, made friends with the Xavier-aged boy on the next blanket over, then headed for the water.
In the water, Xavier practiced his swimming lessons quite unexpectedly. He was sitting in the lake, water to his waist. Mom was a few feet away, deeper into the lake. For some reason, Xavier took concern his mother was too far away and started crawling toward her. The lake bed quickly fell away from his hands and knees, and he was frantically crawl-paddling for mom. Though he was swallowing some lake water, he was not freaked out being so deep in the water and bobbing along not able to touch ground. His swimming lessons paid off in keeping him calm.
It was a fun day for both. Rebecca wants to do a repeat as a family this weekend, bringing a picnic lunch this time.
Work on Fine Motor Skills
Greetings to everyone.
Today, Xavier took another meeting with his OT, Miss Katie. Rebecca and I have been asking why we need the OT, since she comes and writes down what she observes and what we tell her, but doesn't offer any direction different from Miss Robin, Xavier's speech therapist. Katie agreed, so now we have a new direction.
Xavier is significantly ahead in his gross motor skill development when compared to a term baby his age. However, his fine motor skill development is behind, even for his adjusted age. Katie is going to focus on developing his fine motor skills. He now has some six-month goals, which we will begin work on in his next session.
Miss Robin will push forward with Xavier's eating skills, which he is greatly improving on. Shortly, Robin thinks, she can begin working to catch Xavier up on his speech.
It does appear the light ahead is, in fact, the end of this eating-problem tunnel. Thank You, Jesus!
Stepping Up the Eating!
Greetings to everyone.
Over this past weekend, Xavier has upped his eating game as well as upping some other of his physical and motor skills. This happens from time to time, and Rebecca and I find it fascinating. It's like a switch is flipped, then poof! A new level is achieved.
Last week, Rebecca hunted YouTube for videos of babies feeding themselves. At first, she tried playing the video (on the iPad) while Xavier ate. This proved fruitless as far as him eating was concerned. He pushed off all food so he could watch the video (he really gets entranced with them). Robin, his speech therapist, told us letting him watch videos while at the table may create undesired behaviors and actually work against the progress made so far. So, she made a suggestion of having Xavier watch the videos while not at the table.
Rebecca came up with a compromise. Now, she sets Xavier in his highchair and plays a video, perhaps "Ian the Unstoppable" or "Andre Eating Cereal," while she prepares breakfast. This is genius. Xavier sits glued to the iPad and becomes unaware of the passage of time he sits in the highchair; his "clock" is off while the videos run. He is not eating during this time either as the food is still being prepped and plated.
When ready, Rebecca removes the iPad and videos and sets up for the tasks of working with Xavier on his eating of solid food skills. This has paid off nicely!
Xavier has started feeding himself with a spoon, and he is taking food from a spoon (or from his tray), chewing it and getting it back in his mouth far enough to swallow. This just began this past weekend. Also this past weekend, his intake from the bottle has shot up, going from 2.5 and 3 ounces per sitting to 4 and 5 per sitting! Glory to God!
At his therapy session this morning, Robin was amazed and excited with his progress, especially since he regressed significantly in last week's session. Though he still holds it upside down, Xavier shovels spoons of food into his mouth, placing the spoon far enough back to swallow the food. The upside-down quirk limits his success to sticky foods like his favored vanilla pudding; it's a little messy when he tries "age appropriate food textures."
Robin also thinks Xavier has low sensitivity around his mouth; quite the opposite we have been thinking and told these past months. If true, it definitely explains why he likes spicier, more solid foods: these remind him he has food in his mouth or clinging to his chin.
As a bonus, Robin weighed Xavier today. Their children's scale finally got repaired. He weighed in at 15.1 pounds! Woo-hoo! Yes, that is clothed, so a few ounces go to his clothing, but he is close to 15 pounds, up nearly three quarters of a pound in three weeks! That's a big change from the past few months.
We also learned from Robin that Dr. Abbey calls her to check on Xavier's progress every couple of weeks. She is quite impressed, telling us "Pediatricians never call or follow up like this." I think this tells us we chose well when selecting a pediatrician for Xavier.
Of course, with such great news and feeding statistics trending favorably, Xavier had to change the rules. He always does. Later in the day he began showing signs of his mouth bothering him. He is either cutting another tooth (he as six now, four up and two down) or his teeth are shifting a bit. Historically, this means his eating will be off for a while. Personally, though I am excited for the progress, I find these trend-stopping events annoying. It's like stop-n-go traffic!
Thank you all for your prayer over these past few months. They are certainly producing fruit.