Good to the last drop

Cayden was ten months old as of this past Monday.  We had a meeting with all of his care providers and our Developmental Pathways coordinator on September 12th where we updated the goals for the next three months on his individualized family service plan.  Nurse Alison weighed him and he was 16 lbs. 7 oz.  Everyone is happy and amazed at his progress.  Hopefully by the time we all meet again at the end of the year to revise his goals, he'll be crawling!

As of today, we are out of breast milk.  I used up the last of it in his first bottle this morning.  I can't believe how fast we burned through that frozen supply.  All that work I did, pumping for hours and hours each day for months on end, gone.  He seems to have transitioned to formula without much of a problem and I hope he continues to do well through this coming winter.

We're all getting over colds here at the Inzer household.  I think I was the first to get it, then Cayden, and finally Jamison and then Jason.  While Cayden was sick, he had a couple nights where his nose was so stuffy, I was scared he wouldn't be able to breathe.  He was miserable, crying, and couldn't sleep, despite all the saline and suctioning I was doing.  I considered taking him to the ER at 2 a.m., but with Jason out of town and Jamison sleeping soundly, I just couldn't do it by myself.  Finally, I tried putting him back on the oxygen, just to reassure myself that he would be getting SOME air.  He still didn't sleep.  In fact, the only way he would rest was if I held him cradled in the crook of my arm, snuggled up beside me in my warm bed.  I think we both were able to get a couple hours of sleep that way, but it was a rough week.  Thankfully, he is much better now, and we made it through without having to go to the doctor.

Cayden has been enjoying more solid foods:  over the past couple weeks, he's tried apples, carrots, prunes, and green beans, although I wouldn't say he enjoyed the green beans.  In fact, I would say he hated them.  I wish I had a camera handy to capture the look on his face when I gave him his first bite!  He scrunched up his nose and gagged and tried to spit them out.  I thought he was being overly dramatic, so I gave him another bite.  And then he threw up -- not just the beans, but all of the milk and medicine that was in his stomach from earlier.  Guess he REALLY doesn't care for green beans!  But being the stubborn - or stupid - person I am, I waited a week and tried again.  Surprisingly, he wasn't as opposed to them as he was the first time.  He actually ate a couple bites, but I still don't think he likes them very much!

He has been rolling and rolling, kind of using it to locomote.  He's close to being able to sit up on his own and loves sitting on my lap while Jamison is eating.  He is just fascinated by his big brother!

Yesterday, we had a six-month follow-up visit with an orthoptist.  I had never heard of an orthoptist, but I learned that they specialize in vision alignment, so to speak.  They look for things like cross-eyes and lazy eyes, to name just a couple common conditions.  Anyway, the orthoptist said Cayden's eyes look great right now and there is no evidence of any problems at this time, so our next visit will be with the opthamologist in six months

Over Labor Day weekend, Cayden got to meet his Poppa Dan for the first time.  Jason's parents came out for a visit and both boys (and Jason and I) loved seeing them. 

It makes me sad that we live so far away from all of our family, but hopefully soon, we'll be able to start traveling and then we'll make the rounds, from Arizona to Arkansas to Pennsylvania!.