Clinic visit - 7 months

We went to our monthly clinic visit at Children's.  Two of Joshua's primary nurses met up with us right outside the clinic lobby.  It was good to visit with our friends again and they always enjoy seeing how much he has grown!

This month Joshua was 11lb 11oz and 23.5 inches long.  He had a developmental assessment with the PT.  We schedule our clinic visits on Thursdays just so we can have Kim, Joshua's NICU PT.  She is great and loves Joshua.  The two of them got to play during Joshua's assessment and she got some big smiles from Joshua!  She gave us some things to work on specifically with his stomach muscles because he really fights the sitting position.  This is pretty typical with micro-preemies who never developed those abdominal muscles in the womb because they were born before they were scrunched into fetal position.  And she also gave us some other typical baby exercises like tummy time.   Overall he scored average developmentally for an almost 4 month old.  We are so thankful for all the progress he has made despite his brain injury.

The dietitian was not too pleased with his weight gain, so no oxygen wean this month.  (Weaning O2 generally makes a baby work harder and in consequently burn more calories.  And with Joshua's history from the last wean where he did not have oxygen reserve to eat they kept him on the same settings)  I really wasn't surprised about the tapering weight gain though.  Between the days he was off oxygen last month and the days he ate poorly from his stuffy nose, it wasn't surprising that he tapered off on the growth charts.  The only concerning thing was that he actually dropped below the preemie chart.  So we're still on 0.2L and have at least couple months on O2.

The PT working on sitting with you

Cute little monkey!

I actually asked if a baby can look at his hands
TOO much - you do it all the time.
Thankfully they said no.