January 6th, 2012 - Zachary is now 4 years old.

As anyone with a premie can tell you we worry about the future. When will our son/daughter catch up to their peers? Physically, emotionally, mentally... Well I can happily say that Zachary is now taller than some of his almost 5 year old friends. He's a bit too smart for his own good and doing very well overall. We don't have any sight problems, hearing issues or any other premie related issues at this time. He has a fairly decent attention span for a kid his age and in some cases better than I would expect.

Zachary loves Legos, robotics, trucks, trains and playdoh. He always wants to get up on a chair when we're in the kitchen so he can help us cook. He loves to clean (dunno why but he thinks it's fun lol). He reminds me a lot of my dad and you can tell he's very mechanically inclined. Sometimes we have to pry the electronics from his hands but I figure that's an issue most parents go through in this day and age. Trying to get kids focused on playing outside or with their other non electronic ton of toys is always a struggle.

As far as academics he's doing great. He can count to 30, write his numbers up to 12. He knows all the uppercase letters and most lowercase. He can write all the letters. We've been trying to work on phonics with him as of late but he's not getting the sound similarities as well. He could just need more time. It's not good to push kids into reading as they will have a harder time due to frustration and often won't read until past Kindergarten. So we go slow with that and I often will switch between reading and math. We're just starting adding and he's doing better with that each time we work on it. Bribery works well with Zach lol, I guess with anything the trick is to find what motivates them (kid or adult).

These days he wants to stay up all night and each evening it's often a fight to get him to go to sleep. I swear he thinks he's going to miss something if he stays up. All par for the course with a high energy kid who is so full of life. v We've had a few friends lately who'd had premie babies and I hope Zach can be an inspiration to them on their journey. I also hope this blog has helped other premie parents who may be looking for a little hope along the way where there often is little except statistics in medical reports.

Hope everyone has a great 2013 and as I have anything interesting to report with Zach I'll happily share.

2-6-2009 Zachary Update

It's been a pretty crazy and busy week. This is Zach's 40 week's gestational week. He was due on or between Feb 1st - 6th. He's 7 lbs .6 ounces. So far this week we've had a possible Vitamin D deficiency worry (one of his labs were elevated for bone break down - not high just elevated). They tested him again and found his calcium/potassium levels fine so he ended up not having a vitamin D deficiency. So that was one thing less to worry about.

Then, we had his MRI done Tuesday, results in Wednesday and what the Neonatologist was saying (just reading from the report) did not sound that great. Further research online didn't make it sound any better. They had found DEHSI (Diffuse excessive high signal intensities) on his MRI - Generally relates to White matter damage in the brain. Now in about 80% of VLBWP (Very Low Birth Weight Preemies) you'll see DEHSI. The thing is these scans they're using to find this are very new (within the last 5 years) so they don't really have a lot of data to show what DEHSI means long term. The do know that if they find a lot of DEHSI on a scan that generally the children at 5 yrs will have mild to severe learning or motor skills impariment.

So with that being said when the doctor told me they found it on his scan I was immediately alarmed and wanted to know more. The MRI report was vague at best. It also said that his Myelination is normal for age. He's had no hemmorage or masses. He's got some areas where his brain has not grown yet (very normal in preemies) that the radiologist said was atrophy. However, I'd asked for a Neruologist to consult due to the vague report he stated "You can't lose what you never had". He explained that the radiologist should not have used that term. Basically, the preemie's brains take a little longer to finish growing than a full-term normal baby. He's perfectly fine in that regard and may take up to 2 years for his brain to catch up with other full-term babies. So his cranium is full size but his brain doesn't completely fill it up in all areas which is normal for a preemie.

So the Neurologist was great he explained that although they found DEHSI on his scan it was so minimal that they almost didn't note it but they were erring on the side of caution. That's good because the less of that he has the less overall damage to his white matter he has. Meaning, long term his fine motor and mental abilities will be minimally impacted. The Neurolist said that we just need to watch him for the next 2 years and as long as he's reaching his milestones with adjusted age (give or take a few months) then we don't even need another Neuro follow-up. If he's not then we should get another MRI at age 2. So, that's one less thing to worry about.

While reading some of the reports about preemies and MRI scans I was reading about extreme low or high muscle tone in preemies and that both can be a sign of neuron damage. Zach has always had high muscle tone and could pick up his head/body, push off with his legs and attempt to crawl for the longest time. He was able to do this nearly since he was 1 month out of womb which is exceptional. Most newborns can't pick up their heads, crawl etc. So when I read that can be a bad thing I asked for a PT consult just to see what they think. Too much muscle tone can cause the tendons to stiffen etc and cause problems for walking etc later. The PT did her workup today but I've not spoken to her the OT she called in said that she didn't find anything of concern so that's good I'll know more of what she thinks on Monday.

So the OT is for some feeding issues. I'd been reluctant to have them use the blue nipple on bottling him becuase it's a faster flow. Some of the nurses want to use it because it's easier for him to suck and get milk ie less work /time for him. The less time he feeds the more energy he has to grow. However, faster flow nipples is the main reason babies get nipple confusion and won't take to breast anymore. Problem is when they use the green slower nipple with him he works so hard to get the milk by the time he's down to 10-15 cc's left he's too tired to finish or thinks he's full and gives up. Well the OT being called in means they're using that as a last effort so he can go home. We can't take him home until he's on all feeds no tube, and takes all from the bottle/breast and doesn't need supplementation.