4-22-2009 Zachary Update

Sorry for not updating sooner but it's been very busy!

Zachary is doing well we had his circumscion over the past few weeks and we've been dealing with that. All done now but there's some unpleasant maintenance we need to do for now on out... he's not a fan. He's now about 11 1/2 lbs and growing bigger each day! He'll be 3 months gestationally next month and get his 6th month checkup. So far I've been able to keep him from getting sick. He has general allergy/stuffiness now and then but nothing major other than a stuffy nose. Some saline and suction and he's good to go.

We work with an OT every week and as far as communication skills he's far advanced of course he had some extra time to learn that :). His motor skills are a bit off and some of his vision seems odd. The OT and pediatrician wanted me to take him to his eye exam early so I did. Dr. Hitner didn't find anything out of the ordinary with his eyes and couldn't get his right eye to do the weird (non-alignment) we notice from time to time. She also said he doesn't need baby glasses and his ROP has not returned. Thank GOD!

Although Dr. Hitner wasn't concerned about the occasional eye misalignment the OT is still. Dr. Hitner is a world famous pediatric eye surgeon/doctor she said it's probably more likely neurological and normal for his stage of development 10-11 weeks gestation. She also saw him since he was born in the hospital. I wasn't concerned with it but when the OT and Pedi were concerned then I got a little worried. The problem is if the eye isn't aligning right ie causing double vision etc the brain will "turn off" one eye to compensate. I really don't want that to happen, she said that would not happen if it's only intermittent. We go back in November for his 1yr check-up so hopefully it will have cleared up by then.

We had some photos taken professionally around Easter so hopefully they'll come back soon and I can scan them in and get them uploaded for everyone to see. I've got a lot to upload to flickr as well from the past few weeks.

Just in the past couple of weeks Zach has now started to look at objects w/in a foot of his face. Tonight for the first time I saw him grab/pick-up a ring that was lying next to him. He loves kicking a toy his grandma bought him, it's meant to be hammered on but the OT suggested letting him use his feet.

I took an infant massage class suggested by the OT becuase Zachary has a lot of tightness in his right side. This can really impeed his reaching, looking etc abilities. So I've been working on him daily and the improvement is amazing. I never realized a small baby could be so bound up with tight knots in their muscles but man he had a few in his neck, back and near his elbow. Most are worked out now and his range of motion has increased a lot.

So hope everyone is enjoying Spring and I'll try to write more often :) or at least when there are major developments.