Six month check-up

It’s been a long week – Jason has been gone since Monday, so I haven’t had even a moment to update things, and now, to make it even more difficult, we’re having issues with our wireless router, so I can’t access the internet on my laptop!

We had lots of good news at Cayden’s 6-month well-child checkup on Monday.  He put on a few more ounces and weighed in at 10 lbs. 5 oz. which puts him right at the 25^th percentile, quite an increase from the 10^th percentile he’s been stuck at.  Dr. Stanford was so pleased with his weight gain that she gave the go-ahead to drop him down from 26 to 24 kcal supplementation.  Plain breast milk (straight from the tap, so to speak), is about 20 kcal, so the next step down will be to 22 kcal and then the next time we drop, it will be to plain breast milk.  He still needs the Simply Thick to help with his reflux, so I’ll still have to pump, thicken, mix, and then feed him from a bottle, but at least we won’t have to buy formula anymore.

In response to his steady weight gain, the other huge, exciting step that we are now allowed to take is letting Cayden feed at-will during the night.  Instead of making sure to wake him up every four hours, we can let him sleep as long as we wants.  The idea is that he should be able to take in enough calories during the day to be able to sustain himself for a longer period overnight.  We just have to make sure we stay on top of feeding him every three hours or so during the day so he does get enough.  That first night, Monday, he went almost six hours between feedings.  Tuesday night, he went almost eight hours, then Wednesday and Thursday, he went over NINE hours!  I was kind of freaked out that it was too long, but when I did the math and added up the total amount he took in over the 24 hour period, it came out to right in the ballpark of what he was taking in before.  And I am in HEAVEN getting to sleep four or five hours in a row!  (I still have to pump once in between there somewhere, but I’m trying to do it right before going to be at midnight or so and then sleeping ‘til he wakes up at 5 or 6.)

The doc was also happy to see how well he’s doing overall, developmentally.  He is right on track for his adjusted age of about two months.  She is going to ask the docs at Children’s Hospital to do a room air challenge while he’s there for his hernia repair surgery this Monday.  If he passes, he should be able to come home without oxygen!  That will be a huge milestone!  At the very least, we’re hoping that maybe he can cut back to only having to be hooked up at night while he sleeps.  Let me tell you, we are ALL looking forward to not tripping over/dragging around/yanking when it gets stuck/tangling up in that stupid 50 foot cord anymore!

Cayden had another session of occupational therapy with Amy on Wednesday.  Unfortunately, the timing worked out that he was due to eat right during his appointment hour, so he was hungry and not very happy about having to “exercise”.  The good news is that because she is an occupational therapist, part of her job is to assess his feeding skills.  She did some exercises with him then fed him a bottle and was quite impressed with his suck/swallow ability.

On Friday, we had our first meeting with the physical therapist, Liz.  I really liked her as well and she did a great job working with Cayden.  A lot of what’s done for physical therapy at this stage of development overlaps with occupational therapy exercises, so it was a lot of the same:  tracking with his eyes and head, lifting/turning his head during tummy time, holding his hands in midline.  As everyone seems to be, Liz was also impressed with his abilities and progress since we met with her supervisor just a couple of weeks ago.

Now the big focus is on Cayden’s hernia repair surgery on Monday morning.  I can’t believe it’s almost here.  It seemed so far off when I scheduled the appointment two months ago.  It’s starting to sink in what’s about to happen and I feel flutters of anxiety and panic if I let myself think about what he’s about to face.  Hopefully it will all go smoothly and he won’t suffer too much.  I will try to give an update from the hospital when possible.