May 2nd marks 5 months since "baby Aw-ver" (as Owen calls him) joined our family.
At 5 months, he:
- weighs16 lbs and is 27 in tall (according to my measurements)
- wears size 2 diapers and 6-9 month clothes for the most part
- is still exclusively breastfed and has started eating cereal every night for dinner
- generally only wakes up once a night to eat and occasionally goes all night
- is a roly poly. You have to be careful where you put him down on the floor now because he will end up half way across the room.
- has started playing in the exersaucer. Owen loves to show him how to push all the buttons.
- loves to make noise and is really loud.
- rolls all around his bed. I find him in a new position every morning. I did have to remove his crib bumper as he kept rolling face first into it and it made me nervous.
- fights sleep like it's his job. He has also started rolling over in his sleep and tends to sleep better on his belly. He is taking 3 to 4 naps a day though they are short (45 mins). Just this week we have started to let him cry it out so he can learn to self-soothe. Surprisingly it only takes him about 20 mins, which is WAY faster than it ever took his brother. Why didn't I do it sooner?
- may be teething...he is chewing on everything and slobbering like a faucet
- doesn't hate stoplights as much anymore. :)
- We think his eyes are going to be bluish/green like Jeremy's. His hair is starting to thicken and fill in and seems to be as dark as mine and Jeremy's. Everyone says he looks so much like Jeremy, which is becoming more and more apparent to me. I do think, however, he has more of my personality and volume. :) I think I'm his favorite and I'm ok with that.
At his last well checkup, his pediatrician wanted a physical therapist to look at his right arm (the one with the tumor) to make sure it had the same range of motion as the left. We were sent over to the Children's Development Agency for evaluation; these are the same people who did Owen's evaluations and coordinate his therapy. Tuesday, 2 evaluators came and put him through a variety of exercises and tasks to see what he could do. Their results were kind of surprising; the tumor is not having any effect on the use of his arm, but he is behind in one area of development. They said he was in the normal range for all fine motor and speech, but he was behind in some gross motor skills. He is in the normal range in regards to rolling over, but they said his trunk and neck strength were below average. He does plenty of tummy time and can support himself on his arms, but for some reason it doesn't help him when trying to sit up right. Anytime we try to sit up, even assisted, he folds in half. I never really thought anything of it, thinking he just wasn't old enough yet. They said he is about 3 months behind on this milestone and therefore qualifies for physical therapy. While normally I probably wouldn't start services this early, we already have a physical therapist who comes to our house weekly for Owen. Now she can just stay a little longer and help Oliver. I really think that this area is something he can catch up super quick and won't need receive therapy for long. Honestly I think it's our service coordinator and therapist's fault that Oliver needs therapy; both were sad that Owen was getting ready to age out of the program and jokingly said maybe Oliver would need services so they could still see our family. I think they jinked us. :)
We went back to the oncologist on Thursday for our 3 month follow-up to check on the size of his tumor. The good news is that it hasn't grown, but sadly it hasn't shrunk either. Dr. Patt says he isn't worried at all and he has full confidence that it will or it will not be a problem for him. We follow up again in August to measure it again...hopefully this time we won't have to wait an hour to be seen for a measly 5 mins checkup. :P
Wow this post has taken all week to write up and post. Who knew Oliver was interesting?! ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment