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.

Updates :) May 31, 2011

Well it's been a while since I've updated the blog nothing huge has been going on other than a lot of growing and a bottomless pit stomach :).

He's been working with a speech therapist now for 4 months or so and it's made a HUGE difference. He's constantly asking about new objects for the words, trying new words and able to say the items on many of his flash cards. He loves playing the memory game on the ipad. Course he also thinks the ipad is his mini computer... lol. Future MIT student in the works (we can hope). He's very mechanically inclined and if there is something that moves or does some action he must study it and see how it works.

Saturday, May 5-28-2011 Zach asked his dad if he could go in the bathroom and use the potty. He actually used it.. #1 .. but it's a start. Sadly, he didn't ask the rest of the weekend but I'll take it. I tried to get him to use it several times after but nada. Now if we could just get him doing it consistently that'd be wonderful. I'll take little by little, step by step.. it's better than nothing. He's 2 1/2 and that's not bad at all especially born as early as he was.

The terrible two's are hitting full force lately. We're hearing a lot of "Noooah" .. "NOOOOOO!" ... etc.. Time outs are a daily occurrence.
Overall he's a loving, sweet boy but definitely has his moments. He just moved up to the 2-3s room the next step before pre-school woot. Once he's potty trained fully they'll probably move him up from there, that may take a while.

Zach loves the pool and water.. no matter how much he shivers he refuses to get out. Generally, I just have to tell him he needs to get out and get warm. Bathtime is his next favorite activity.. or just running around naked LOL.

So that's what's new :) ... hope you all out there in cyber land are doing well!

S

Zachary Updates woo :)

Well it's been pretty quiet as he eats 6-7 meals a day and is growing like a weed .. upwards :) but tonight he was doing some pretty amazing things!

Well tonight he started counting to .. 2 first time ever. Then he stacked blocks 6 high (tried to go higher but they tumbled) I think he was trying to impress me so I wouldn’t put him back in bed. He’s in his new room now and his crib has been converted to the day bed (middle transition it has) … which we’re having a problem keeping him in it. Some times he’s fine other nights like tonight he just wants to get up and play. So he started climbing HIGH on his furniture.. no fear I swear.. so he could change the CD in the CD player.. no joke. Apparently, he got sick of listening to the Daycare music cds.. He started doing the “yes” head movement tonight as well and then motioning that he was hungry and just using more hand signals and words than he ever has. Guess he had a brain explosion today or something. He’s never been so communicative where we could actually understand him. He’s also found that taking apart appliances, toys with screw drivers is fun… unscrewing lenses off things taking the 5 pieces apart, trying to put them back together.. We did get him a construction kit /bench etc for Christmas but he’d much prefer the real thing o.O. Anyone know of an Engineering based pre-school? :P hehe

He fights sleep so badly now that he can just get out of his bed. He's also started where he wants us in his room or to be in our room to fall asleep o.O. We always read him a book at night but now he's asking for more books etc.

He's getting sneakier, more cunning and really coming into his own ohh and saying NOaaaaa.. NOaaaaa... just like his older sister.. but with a more whiny pitiful voice lol. Love some of the new things.. could do without some of the others.

Live keeps on movin' :)

Sarah

Zachary's First Day at Daycare 5-7-2010

Well Zach did surprisingly well. We'd taken him by Thursday so we all could check out the place. This is the same Daycare that Alexis used to go to back when it was Children's World. Thankfully, it's been completely remodeled. Brand new playground and equipment/toys. The Toddler room is 2x as large and huge. The prices are reasonable and the staff is great some of them I knew from before.

When I dropped him off he was good, no tears, no crying he just wanted to play :P When I came to pick him up they said he had a great day and needed minimal help no more than the other children which it's a room for 18mo - almost 3 yr olds. Mind you he just is 18 months this May 4th so he's one of the smallest in there but he's keeping right up with them. There's another little girl in there that just moved over from the infant room so he's not the only one.

Zach was sitting feeding himself some applesauce (spoon on the floor lol) and he smiled when he saw us then... as soon as he realized we'd come to pick him up he started balling! He did not want to go home LOL. He wanted to stay and play with all the new toys and friends he'd made. So I think we can say pretty surely he likes Daycare and would much rather be there than home.. (can't blame him).

Today they made Mother's Day Posters it was really cute :) Not sure how much he had to do with it other than pasting lol and that's pushing it.. but it was really cute and I loved it even if he had minimal participation. I'd forgotten how much I missed those cute signs and little crafts they make from the heart :)

I did really miss his fussy little head though. He's so much fun to snuggle, love on throughout the day and really keeps me cheered up and always makes me laugh no matter how stupid things are during the day or work getting me down. So it's hard not having him around but at least I'm 100% x more productive and that's important.

I may have to find him some new shoes though the ones I bought were the lightest I could find and they're still pretty heavy and clunky. So that may be a weekend task :)

So overall a positive experience all around being that I've had him home or with friends for the past 18 months I'd say we did well this far along :) I tried to hold out longer but he was just getting to be too much with work intensifying. The kind of work I do doesn't do well with broken concentration :P He also needed a lot more attention than I could give him and even when my friends watched him he really wanted to be with kids his own age and lots of them. We've known for a while he loves other kids at restaurants he'd rather look at, communicate with, play with other kids than eat :P Sucks for trying to save money though which we are doing but at least this place won't break the bank :P Also, if it gets to cost prohibitive I can switch him to half days only problem is since I'll be going in the office more I could only do that on certain days.

So new things with Zach:

- He's 29inches tall and 20.5 lbs 18 months actual (15 months adjusted).
- one side of his molars are in the other side are still cutting and he's still teething time to time. He's not putting as much stuff in his mouth but still does more often than we'd like.
- first thing he learned at Daycare was ... how to pick his nose and eat it o.O. On the bright side this will help with his congestion problem.. on the other hand EWWWWW lol.
- He did also learn to wash his hands and now anytime there's soap or lotion he promptly rubs his hands together.. too cute and he's so proud when he does it :)
- He was running barefoot from shelf to shelf when we took him the first day and we'd never seen him do that before.
- He's been starting to use more two work (baby speak) sentences he said something today I still have no idea what it was but he clearly was speaking words. So he's picking stuff up from the other kids (just hope no swear words LOL).
- He can walk inside/outside and from room to room. He can do circles standing and crouch to pick up items and carry items long distances. When the PT came 2 days ago she said he'd progressed about 4 months in 2 weeks time and she said we may not need her much longer.. that's always a good sign. Same thing the OT said that he was progressing so fast that soon he'd be all caught up and not need her anymore. That would just leave the Dev Specialist and then maybe the speech therapist in 6 months if he's still not talking normal words yet.

We got him a toddler soccer set and are trying to teach him how to kick. We work with him on balancing on one leg and he seems to be getting the concept down of how to kick. He prefers to pick it up and throw it in the goal though lol it's cute.

He still has very little hair about 1 cm in length if that.. and it's very light so he still looks bald.

That's about all I've got for now I'm sleepy :P Hope you all have a great Mother's Day weekend!

Zachary's Big Day!

Well after coming home from a long day at work Zachary smiled and greeted me then decided to walk 4 steps from me toward the other side of the kitchen. All of us stood watching in amazement this boy who can barely walk with you holding his hand he's just starting that. Nope he decided he was going to trek out on his own!

If that wasn't enough in one day to try he started clapping .. well half clapping his left hand against his steady right hand. He definitely has some right side issues.. That may be because the left side of his brain still hasn't caught up we knew from the MRIs large sections of his brain hadn't grown yet when we took him home. The Right side of his brain (left body) is much more developed and the differences you can see are huge now!

So 4 Steps woot! and Clapping..

Later after dinner I was singing just randomly (yeah I do that a lot) Baby You Got What I Neeeeeeeed. He sang back.. Oh Baby you ... LOL was really cute.

So we're wondering what other amazing things he'll do in one day! His OT, PT, Dev Spec /Speech therapist will be very happily surprised!

Now to keep nurturing the steps to becoming walking he's still scared of falling. Then pray we can keep up with him!

Molar updates.. Left side top /bottom are about half way in. The right side are poking through but not fully in yet.

So that's my update for today :)

Sarah

Zachary update 3-4-2010

Hi all here's an update on how Zachary's doing now 13 months (gest) 16 months actual.
He's finally cut a molar (it's just peaking through) but the sleepless nights from it are over for the moment. Only a bunch to go o.O.

We're working with the OT, PT, Developmental Specialist and bringing in a Speech therapist. His OT needs are lessening as his fine motor hand skills come along. He's still not walking so the PT gave hims some inserts and shoes to wear an hour a day to get him used to standing properly without being on his tippy toes. Just in two days of wearing them he looks much better when he's standing. He's been standing really well up to 30+ seconds w/out holding onto anything he just can't seem to get the steps down. His left leg he'll try but his right leg he's not shifting his weight off of it to actually move.

He's been more verbal lately but we've no idea what he's saying :P He'll often say Mom, Momma when he wants something but that's about the only thing he regularly says. That and "no" shaking of the head lol he loves to do that. Zach is exerting his will more and getting some "terrible twos" behavior. No full-blown tantrums yet but definitely some fits of anger, screams, crys, scratching, biting you name it :P

He's still sticking everything in his mouth to our dismay. He's chewed the furniture, books, pens and everything else he can possibly get his hands on. Sometimes I wonder if a puppy would be not as bad o.O.

He's still a great eater and starting to learn how to feed himself with a spoon. He's not doing too badly with the spoon other than the occasional miss and getting food all over his forehead.

It's been a month now since I've been going back into the office 1-2 days a week. So far he's enjoying the time with Amanda and Cohen so that's a great relief while I'm at the office for long hours. I miss him but he's having a great time and she does a great job with him. Zach definitely is interested in other babies he is constantly trying to have contact with them in restaurants etc. The only thing keeping him out of daycare is the walking issue. Sadly the day cares will put him with the infants instead of toddlers if he's not walking yet it's just one of their policies. He meets every other requirement except the walking. The PT thinks probably in about 2 months he'll be walking which that's not too bad :) As long as he's walking by the time Amanda has to go back to work we're good which should be August.

If you haven't checked out the flickr photos in a while check them out. We got photos taken early February and they turned out really cute. Family is good we're just really busy! Until next time,

Sarah

1-30-2010 Zachary Update

Well Zachary is fast approaching his "gestational" 1 year. I'm calling it his re-birthday lol. He was originally due the week of my birthday :P So for my birthday we'll prob have a small re-celebration for him. We still need to adjust probably only for another year or two then he'll be caught up more or less.

He's currently cruising around furniture with really good command. His specialists and myself really believe he could walk on his own (without hanging onto things) but it seems to be a confidence issue atm. It's funny you hand him something that takes his mind off of holding onto furniture (like handing him a cup) and he'll stand there without leaning/holding onto anything for support. When he realizes he's standing by himself he immediately sits. It's kinda funny.

He also loves to climb. Anything and everything is a climbing opportunity. He'll climb up on chairs, on boxes, the stairs and even to the point where he'll reach up, grab on things.. be hanging off (feet not touching the floor) LOL. He's so capable of walking he's just got some fear of it.

He's got several words he can say in addition to vehemently shaking his head "no" when he doesn't like something. So far I've heard him say "Mom, Momma, Dad, dada, my and i want (only said it once). He's said a few other things not sure if it's random but not consistent or clear enough for me to tell what it is.

He's definitely sleeping better through the night now. Goes to be anywhere from 9pm -10:30 and wakes up 8-9amish. If he's going to Amanda's he will generally get up at 6:30am without much trouble.

He's also pretty much done breastfeeding. He had started to only do it early in the morning or late at night when he wanted to go to sleep. He's no longer wanting that anymore either. He used to cry and be upset if he wasn't able to nurse before sleep but he's stopped that all together now. When he hits his soft blanket in his crib he closes his eyes and looks for his stuffed bear and that's all he wants. He also likes to cocoon himself in his blanket (just like his dad I might add). Freaks me out he likes to roll up in it like a taco LOL. His dad has ALWAYS been that way.. so weird.. well the weird part is they like the blanket OVER their head. That's what really scares me. I always pull it off/down but seriously I swear they are clones sometimes :P.

Zachary is definitely into just about anything he can reach or climb to. Thankfully, the house is pretty safe from little guys. He loves opening the cabinets and playing with the pots, pans, bowls and then drumming on them. He loves playing on the full sized keyboard we have. I put it on Andy's desk, put him in his boppy and he just has a blast. Pretty much anything that's musical he loves. Ohh and he's started dancing it's really cute. He has this stand up activity table that plays music etc with all the things you can press. Depending on the song its playing he'll stand there and dance to it, it's super cute to watch.

Electronics ohh my! This boy loves anything with buttons, lcd screens etc. He's going to want a laptop of his own at age 2 LOL. We got him the spongebob laptop and he likes that well enough. The funny thing is that's for a 7 yr old LOL. He's constantly taking our phones, mice, well anything that can make something happen on the computer. He loves keyboards still. He's smart and knows what buttons will give some kind of window/etc on the screen. He's also adept at taking Alexis's keyboard keys off lol!

So needless to say he's a handful atm. He's been going to Amanda's for a few weeks now and seems to be doing well. So I'm not so "sad" or worried about him going to a sitter for the day while I'm at work. He needs the emotional connections with other people too and it's good for him to be able to see another baby "Cohen" I'm sure they'll have many good years of playing together :).

Well back to painting the older kid's room etc :)

Sarah

12-2-2009 Zachary Update

Hi all,
I figure it's time for another woot woot update on Zach's progress. Well lessee he's up to 7 teeth atm. 4 on the bottom 3 on the top. He's able to crawl all the way up the stairs (of course someone behind him to make sure he's ok) the OT has us doing that to work on his core strength. He's pulling up to a stand better and keeping his balance better while standing. We go thim working on drinking through kid cups with straws it's the take and toss brand, they work pretty well for teaching them. He likes them better than the sippy cups.

We had his 1 year eye checkup (well more like 13 months) but who's counting. Anyhew Dr. Hittner said he has no reoccurence of ROP, no scar tissue, nothing his eyes are as good as they can be. No glasses needed, no more special eye exams just regular exams for the rest of his life. So that was wonderful news as there is always a concern that ROP can come back with preemies especially ones born as early as Zach was.

He's saying mommy and possibly I want.. so his speaking abilities are becomming a bit more refined even if it is only 1-3 words. I'll take any word combinations we can get. He does seem to be able to pattern/color match. He has a book with animils in it that sings to him nursery rhymes. The Dev Specialist and I were singing it to him and he started pointing at the yellow lions on each of the pages. We didn't ask him to do it but he kept repeating it. On any other pages there were similar objects (color etc) he'd point at them with his fingers. Mind you the lions were 2 different sizes one was large and one was small. I found that pretty amazing that at (that time 9 months adjusted 1 yr not) he was able to pattern match. So his cognitive is still pretty far ahead of his motor skills by far.

His motor skills although still lag behind a bit. He did seem to jump ahead 2 months worth of skills in about 2 weeks time according to his specialists he sees weekly. That was a nice change for sure. So he's now in this state where he pretty much feels comfortable with what he's doing motor wise and is back to working on speaking and cognition as he is talking a lot more than he was.

We're also gearing up and getting ready for him to start being watched by our dear friend Amanda for some of the week so I can go back into the office. Not sure how long this transition is going to take but I asked for 2 more months. I'd already been working on this but it's getting to the point of necessity.

So we hope you all are having a wonderful Holiday season and check out his new photos I just uploaded a bunch today!

Sarah

Zachary Turns 1

Hi all thought I'd send an update now that Zachary is 1 yr old.

We had his birthday on November 1st at 12pm. Grandma Nancy and Cheryl were there, Amanda, Chris and Cohen and Jaime, Melanie with their son Oliver were also there. We decided to go with pizza for ease of food etc. We made some sherbert punch and had an HEB chocolate cake yuuuum. Zach didn't really seem to know why everyone was fussing over him but he seemed to enjoy the gifts and cake. Did I say cake.. yes he ate an entire piece of cake and enjoyed slamming his hand into it and shoving the food in his mouth lol. I have some photos to upload but need to install the updated versions of photoshop etc since I have Windows 7 now have to reinstall everything.

Zach really loves all his new toys and I've taken to rotating them out since there's so many now this will keep him from getting too bored. We had our 1 yr checkup with the doctor and the doctor was clearly impressed with Zach. So much so we don't need to go back for another checkup until February woot! He did get labs taken and 4 shots when he was at the doctors Friday. Thankfully, he really didn't seem to have any issues with the MMR I was really worried as I remember Alexis having problems with it. They did confirm for me that the MMR (from their office at least) does not contain Thermerisol woot. I tell you that stuff is bad any shot anyone in my family has gotten with Thermerisol in it has made them violently ill. Zach did fine on Friday after the 4 shots + lab blood taken. Usually, he'd be pretty ill like after his first flu shot last month. Thankfully, he was fine I was surprised. I declined to get the chicken pox vaccine and the 2nd round of flu shot. The flu shot was because 1 he was so sick from the first dose and 2 they didn't have any of the thermerisol free version left. The chicken pox vaccine I staunchly don't believe in. I believe in kids getting the disease and getting the anti-viral to clear it up fast. At least you know the immunity lasts longer when they have the disease and don't have to get the backup vaccine several times throughout their life with a possiblity of contracting chicken pox as an adult which is deadly. ... Forget that imo.

We got to go to Zach's friend's birthday party today and he really enjoyed all the food and attention :). There was no lack of either at Oliver's party. He passed out near the end and we had to go since he wasn't waking back up lol.

As of this week he started getting up into a sitting position from crawling, started to climb up on things to try to maybe stand (looks that way), he finally takes steps when you hold his hands and tried to walk across the room and clearly trying to use his hands more to communicate. We've been working with him on baby sign language and I think he's finally starting to get the idea of it. He's also starting to do hi/bye with his hands although crude atm I'll take it. So in the span of a week he's really started to do a lot of amazing things that just 1-2 weeks ago we never saw him even try or attempt to do.

This week he'll start work with the developmental specialist and PT. We've been working with an OT for about 7 months so the other 2 specialist should help him even more. We may not need PT forever but I figure due to some of his stiffness we should have the PT look at him just in case. It's included in the Early Childhood Intervention costs (most of which insurance pays) so I figure why not.. get my money's worth :). If anything the PT may have more ideas besides just massage etc to help loosen him up on especially his right side.

Anyhew we're really happy with Zach's progress the doctor said he's up to 17 lbs 3 ounces. He's been eating up a storm sometimes devouring more food than his 12 almost 13 yr old sister. Hard to believe but he out eats her no joke. He's thinned up a lot so he must have one hell of a metabolism and be growing like mad. I'd kill for that kind of metabolism :P His height is finally well into the full-term growth chart, his head and weight are touching but still right at 1% ish or so. I'm just glad he's on the chart many preemies especially those at his early birth don't even start touching the full-term chart till they're 2+ yrs. I thought for sure his head would be farther up there becuase his head is getting huge hehe. Nice thing is though you look at his growth curve and he's got a perfectly stable curve no spikes/dips etc it's a perfect curve. So even if he stays down at the bottom they say it's not really good to have large spikes off his growth curve as that can be a sign of issues. So I'll take slow and steady :).

Hope you all have a great November and I'll try to get some more updates as the month goes on or any interesting developments come about.

Sarah

October 15, 2009 Zachary Update

Hi all it's been a while since an update mostly due to the fact we haven't had any doctor visits but we'll have one coming up next month.

Last week he got his regular flu shot (don't worry not touching that H1N1 flu vaccine with a 10 foot pole). The flu shot I got him was the themerisol free one (preservative free) that's also the same one we get for everyone in the family. He did spike a low grade fever and slept most the next day but after that he was fine. We're supposed to get a second dose but I don't think I will. Everyone in the house will be regular flu vaccinated and he doesn't go out in public all that much enough to warrant it imo. We get enough toxins every day w/out adding more to our kids through questionable vaccines that can't be proven to be effective or not.

So.... He's up to 4 teeth now he just cut another one on the top. This one is one of his main front teeth it's huge lol. That explains his recent fussiness and chewing everything in sight.

No idea what he weighs but I'm guessing 18-19 lbs easy or more. He's currently wearing size 12 months clothes and up to size 18 mo pants. He wears size 3 baby shoes.

We still work with an OT weekly and will have a consult with a developmental specialist and a PT just to see if we're on track since he'll be 1 on 11/04. He's finally getting up on his knees and rocking back and forth like he wants to crawl but just can't quite get it down yet. Alexis did that for months and never did crawl. I imagine he will since he's a very feisty, mobile baby. Zachary is into everything at all times you have to watch him like a hawk. He's very curious and wants to put everything in his mouth or stick his fingers in it .. like light sockets. I have covers on them all but you take one on off to plug something in and he goes for it like bees to honey lol.

He's definitely more needy these days and constantly cries. "Mama ma ma ma Mama" until I come back into view no matter how close I may be lol. He gets frustrated a lot when he can't do something. His brain is far ahead of his motor skills and you can tell that really frustrates him. I imagine he's got the problem like people who've had some kind of accident and the brain is willing but the body is not. He knows what he wants to do but just can't quite get his body to do it.

He still tries to play on a computer no matter where you are or what you're doing and he'll fight you for it so he can whack on the keys lol. I did fine a few nice infant games on the pc but he still hits the windows key a lot and it does all kinds of crazy things. He's really a lot of fun even if a bit wild hehe. Kinda like my personality but looks like Andy. However, there are times he has patience like Andy so .. there's aspects of both personalities in there.

He loves to walk around in his walker.. and I don't mean sit he actually stands up and walks with it. You'd think he could do that w/out the walker but he can hold onto furniture but not go anywhere. Put him in the walker and he's all over the place. Technically, he's a bit too big for the walker now but he loves it so I keep it for him.

So overall, he's been doing really well and other than that one low grade fever he had after the flu shot he's not been sick. He definitely has dust mite allergies and we found that he's allergic to peas (but only skin topically) so it's not even that bad. He can eat them we just need to try to not get them on his skin (easier said than done). I'll be uploading more photos on flickr shortly. I'll make sure to take some photos of him in his monkey costume for Halloween (same one I made for Alexis all those years ago).

Sarah

9-06-2009 Zachary Update

Zach is doing very well and although he's still not crawling he's finding creative ways to deal with it. He will often roll many feet to get to something he wants to "stick in his mouth" or otherwise explore. He's finally started going forward in his walker so he's zooming all over the place these days. He's able to sit up with some help he's just now starting to be able to correct more to sit w/out as much support. He still loves to whack on the keyboard and play WoW and gets very upset if you don't let him hit the keys when you're on hehe. He's still enjoying his jumper and jumping very high in it and gets really excited when you bounce with him hehe.

On Aug 31st, 2009 he said Mama several times. Now I don't quite think he has the understanding that Mama is me yet but at least he's saying it. He's started doing da da di daaa a lot to but not quite dada yet. He's laughing a lot more for random funny things people do not just when tickled etc. For the most part he's a pretty happy, fun loving kid. He's been cutting another tooth next to his bottom two and that's been causing some late night crying, wake ups and down right miserable evenings. It's to be expected I just wish he would like cold stuff in his mouth to help. I guess the Orajel and Tylenol will have to do for now.

Zach can eat all sorts of things now and he usually eats Stage 2-3 baby food plus anything we're eating we can squish up well for him. He loves to chew on things with the 2 teeth he has but we still have to be careful. Zach's getting very efficient at feeding himself cookies, cheese doodles etc. He loves his Dad's brisket purred with sweet potatoes and gets upset when it's all gone. He's definitely a good eater! He's getting to be a big boy and really filling out his size 9 mo clothing.

Actual age right now is 10 months adjusted is 7 months. His cognitive is closer to his actual age and motor skills around 6-7 months. I'm not too concerned with him not crawling 1. because preemies love extension and not flexing and you see that in everything he does which makes crawling difficult. 2. Alexis never crawled not a day in her life.. she would get up on her knees and rock back and forth and just stay in one spot. One day she just picked herself up and started walking. Alexis is perfectly fine and I didn't notice anything odd with that, one nice thing was she wasn't too hard to watch because she was fairly stationary. Zach though he finds ways to move around the whole room.

Another thing he's been doing lately is "escape aristing". Meaning ... he has this rocker/chair fairly large and it will accommodate up to a toddler, it has straps to keep them in etc. So one day he was being pretty quiet and mind you he sits not 1 foot from me so I didn't think much of it.. just thought he was playing with the hanging down toys and maybe falling asleep. Well 2 mins later I hear him playing on the floor with his other toys and I had to take a double take. How he got down from the chair which is 8 or so inches off the floor down to about 4 feet away to where his toys were. He was just staring up at me smiling and having a great time.

So. next time I made sure to strap him in better and he just screamed and carried on. He eventually quieted down then I watched him this time when he wasn't looking. He would turn his entire body sideways. Hold onto the bar that goes over top that has the toys dangling down.. Shimmy down a bit slowly, turn more, shimmy down.. readjust hands .. keep doing this for 1-2 mins till he gently sets himself down usually facing the chair (he learned how to not hit his head)... then he'd gently set himself down and then roll to his toys. I was pretty amazed when I saw him do that because that's a pretty complex action that he had to come up with on his own. So we call him an escape artist now because that was pretty impressive. He does it nearly every time he's in the chair now.

It's funny if you put him on the floor he doesn't want to be there on his mat with his toys.. So you put him in the chair.. after 3 mins he gets bored and shimmies down to play on the floor then he's happy. :P I guess he's just going to be one of those kids.. if he didn't come up with it forget it :)

Zachary Update 8-19-2009

Zach had another appointment with the Pedi on Friday. He's up to 15.8 lbs almost 16 lbs !! That boy is a good eater. He's barely touching the full-term growth chart and about 6-7 months adjusted in age. His Pedi is so happy with his progress we don't have to go back and see him until Zach is 1 yr old. We haven't gotten labs back but it should no longer show some slight anemia we've been giving him high iron foods and putting vitamin in with iron for a while now.

He's playing with his toes/feet a lot more and loves to feed himself finger foods. He's now grabbing at the spoon a lot trying to feed himself (I guess we go too slow).
I'm still breastfeeding him and I'll continue it at least until he's gestationally 1 yr old or as long as I can. He's got a 2 toothy grin now it's really cute when he laughs. I've been trying to get a photo of it but every time I get the camera ready for a shot he makes a weird face at the camera lol.

He's spent a pretty good summer with Alexis and I and it's going to be hard when she goes back to school. She's been a real help with him while I work during the day!
He's also 26 inches now and wearing 9mo - 12mo clothing so he's getting big fast!

He's not yet crawling but he's getting close. The OT got him to sit tripod today on his own so that was a great achievement. Hopefully, he'll be able to do more than just prop up on his arms soon but that's better than he's been. He's a little behind motor skill wise but cognitive he's advanced even for actual age. The OT believes his love of eating is helping that along.

So all in all he's doing quite well and he's starting to get bored with a lot of his toys etc we're going to have to get some upgrades soon to keep him occupied :).

Z

Zachary Update 7-28.2009

Hi all,
Just a heads up I uploaded the Corpus Christi/S. Padre photos for Zach.
Zach Slideshow

Also, he cut his second tooth on 7/18/2009 I thought for sure he was cutting another this weekend but I didn't see any evidence of another. His 2 are coming in pretty well they're a good amount past the gum line now and he's enjoying chewing everything :).

He's about 15.5 lbs atm and he'll go for his next checkup mid August. He's been doing very well with the OT every week and she's started him on some simple table foods since he was showing the interest of feeding himself. He isn't crawling yet but still tries very hard. He can sit up with support not quite on his own yet. He's definitely becoming more independent.

He still really likes his boob time and I don't see that ending any time soon but at least he's starting to eat more solids. He's really smart and communicates well and the only time he gets cranky is when he's teething badly.

S

Zachary Update 7-11-2009

Officially Zachary has cut his first tooth July 11th 2009. No amount of oragel, tylenol or hugs would appease him. We eventually just went to breakfast and he fell asleep on the ride there. He's doing great and I'm pretty sure he's cutting a few more.

I tried to get some photos but the lighting wouldn't cooperate.

Just wanted to let you all know about his first tooth! Hope you're all having a fantastic July!

Sarah

Zachary Update 6-29-2009

Hi all thought I'd do another update since he had a doctor's appointment last week.

He's offically 14 lbs and officially hitting the full-term growth chart.. He's about 10% in for head circumference, 5% for length and 1% for weight. This boy is a great eater and doesn't have the nickname "beefcake" for nothing. He's gestationally 5 months actually 8 months.

I had to swap out his clothes to the 6-9 months size today and he's fitting perfectly the 6 mo. He grows any more and he'll be onto the next set already o.O. That drives me nuts I think I can wait a little longer and make his clothes last .. and BAM .. already almost getting tight lol. He's a growing weed.

He's doing better with his trying to crawl but still can't quite do it. He's kinda scoots around (pivots) but he's definately improving. He really enjoys scooting backwards in his walker and is sometimes (by accident) going forward. He's getting better at chewing on toys but still prefers fingers :). Today was the first time I've ever seen him take any signifcant amount from a bottle, a whole 3 ounces! That for him is a miracle. Ever since I introduced the sippy cup (one for 3 mo + where they kinda have to suck to get it out) he's been doing really well. He likes the sippy cup and does well with it. So I switched to fast nipples with the bottle and bam he's doing a lot better with it now. I can't say he'd always do well with it but we can hope :). Only problem is he will still only take a significant amount from the bottle from me and still gulps lots of air.

I'd like to say his Dtap shot last week went well but all I can say is it went "better" than last time. I don't think if I was sitting in the back with him if he'd of done so well. I had to stimulate him the whole way home to keep him breathing. Once I got him home and held him he was good. After 12 hours he was nearly back to normal just sleeping a lot. So not as scary as last time but still my poor kids just don't do well.

Zach has started doing something new which is just so cute and funny he started crying like he wanted something yesterday so Andy was holding him on his lap. As soon as Zach got to face the keyboard /monitor he started playing on the keyboard making the charc run around/jump etc. Just getting all excited and stopped crying immediately. Well Andy went to put him in his bouncer chair and he started wailing again .. Andy picks him back up and sure enough he starts using his fingers quite accurately on the jump/space bar then movement keys and starts laughing and happy noises. I just had to get video of it. If I find a decent place to upload it I'll post it for you all it's just too funny. He started playing on my keyboard about 1-2 weeks ago, at first I thought he was just liking the clickyness of the keys. But then I noticed he kept looking up at the monitor to see if it had any effect on my character in WoW lol. So now that's all he wants to do when he's in the office with us. I don't know too many 5 months old that want to play so badly in WoW .. it's kinda .. funny/weird etc. I was concerned too becuase I don't want him to have too much exposure to computers lol but well he wants what he wants. I guess the colors and key movements could be good for his reactions lol. He really does seek out certain keys on the keyboard this kid is sharp as a tack!

I'm going to upload a bunch of photos.. I've been lagging behind on the uploads :P
So overall other than some slight anemia he's doing well. Most of his labs have cleared up so well we won't need to get any more labs for those things. We just need to keep an eye on the iron now.

So hope you all are going to have a wonderful Fourth of July!

Sarah

Zachary Update 06-08-2009

Zach and I will fill this entry out together :)

(space bar smash with his foot)

Now that we got that out of the way hehe.

He's about 13 1/2 lbs and 4 1/2 mo old (gest) - 7 1/2 mo (actual).

Zach has been doing very well lately, he's starting to roll to the side from his back, roll from his tummy to his side then his back etc. He just started doing this in the past week and is mastering the skill quite well. He pulls up his legs and wiggles back and forth with his hips until he gets to the side he wants to roll onto. (thump another hit on the keyboard with his foot). I'm guessing he's approving of what I'm typing.

When he's on his tummy he's able to push up with his arms a good ways only for a few seconds but it's a start. He'll be crawling in no time if he keeps up this progress.

He's been teething a lot lately and grabbing whatever he can to his mouth. He loves chewing on fabric mostly his baby blankets. I got him a lot of teether rings and teether blankie that crinkles. He loves taking our fingers and shoving them in his mouth that's his favorite chew toy at the moment.

Zachary also loves his walker and propells himself backwards by leaning forward then jerking back against the back part of the seat and that makes him move fast. He's been coordinating his feet to push off at the same time and he can go pretty far on the floor that way.

I've not been feeling very well this past week due to a nasty head cold and ear infections but Zach has been doing great hasn't gotten sick just some allergy issues.

Overall, Zachary is doing pretty well he's a bit behind on his motor skills but when you adjust for his gestational age he's nearly right on target. We've been able to work out a lot of his stiffness through massage and exercises.

I'll be posting some photos on flickr shortly for all to enjoy.

Special Thanks to Laural for making Zachary the sweet book for his first 4 months of life. It's a wonderfully hard bound book that matches up his photos with blog entries of his progress. It's a special keepsake that I'm sure we'll enjoy for years to come.

Sarah

Zachary Update 5-19-2009

Zachary is doing well and growing big! He's 13 lbs now and getting long. Think last visit he was over 24 inches. His eyes are very brown now and more the color of his father's eyes. He wears 3-6 mo clothing and is starting to fit into the 6th months clothes. He grows like a weed! He's still bald as can be with some peach fuzz on the head.

He's babbling/talking more, we think he says I luv oooo which is cute! He does a lot of gaaa gooo as well we're not very sure what gaaaa gooo is but it's used for several situations with him. Sometimes he'll just randomly yell now Woaaaaah or Oweiiiii lol. Startles you if it's really quiet then he does that.

He's still mostly breastfeeding with a bit of solids mixed in. I'm going very slow with the table food because he can still greatly benefit from the breastmilk till he's gestationally 6 mo. He's gest about 3 3/4 months now.

All his doc visits have been good. The docs been impressed with his growth, he's almost on the full-term growth chart. The doc believes by the time he's 9 mo gest he'll have caught up. Preemies tend not tocatch up to their full-trem counterparts till they're 2 - 5 yrs old, so it's remarkable he's caught up so fast.

The other day I was dropping off some paperwork and the lady who was taking the papers was watching a girl that was born 3 days before Zach and full-term. Well she was 12 lbs and maybe 1-2 inches longer than Zach. Zach was nearly 2x her size width wize and they looked about the same age. Even though Zach is actually 6 mo old he's gestationally 3 mo at that time. However, put him with a full-term 6 mo old and they don't look too different in size and he was actually bigger 1lb bigger lol. The major thing you notice though is he's more appropriate activity level of a 3 mo old he's not crawling, or rolling and he's just now starting to batt at, grab for etc toys. Only in the last 2 weeks he's mastered thumb sucking for the first time ever. He still can't pull things to his mouth other than my hair lol but he's starting to try.

Ohhh and he's teething hardcore! Sometimes he gets low-grade fevers 99 or so and he's miserable but man he's trying to chew his fingers and yours off if you'll let him lol. I'm going to start calling him chompers lol.

He loves watching other babies he seems facinated by them. He's very curious and seems really smart. Cognitively he's at a 4-5 mo level, motor wise he's at a 3 mo level. He's slowly improving on the motor side. Communication is his strong suit and it continues to be where he excells.

He's pretty much like any other typical baby at this age and he's getting better about sleeping at night.

Sarah

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.

3-24-2009 Zach Update

We had to go and get the remaining shots today thankfully these aren't the nasty ones that make him sick. He's got a slight fever but other than that he's fine. Gave him some Tylenol and he'll be good to go in a few hours. Not like the last set of shots. The nurse said it was probably the pertussis (whopping cough) that caused his severe reaction to it last time.

Synergis is more of a medicine than a vaccine but it keeps them from getting RSV so I'm all for it :). He never has a bad reaction to that shot.

He weighed in at 9lbs 12 ounces today so he's nearly 10 lbs! He's definately a growing boy :).

I just uploaded some new photos of him on flickr. Hope everyone is doing well and we're just trying to rest and grow bigger ;).