Milestones

It's been a very busy around here lately.

The biggest news of the week is that we're semi-paroled!

Our pediatrician says we can start venturing out. She warned that we still need to be very germ-phobic- no large crowds, lots of hand-washing and antibacterial wipes, keeping his car seat covered as much as possible while out and absolutely to avoid anyone with any kind of cough. But we can go out!

Robbie and I celebrated with a trip to the bookstore. He was a perfect angel. I think he was trying to figure out how to eat all the books in the place. He LOVES paper.

The trip went well. Only one stranger tried to rub his head and I was able to duck and twist to keep her hands off of him. To everyone who reads this blog, please- I beg of you- Don't touch babies that don't belong to you! I know they're cute and sweet and smell good, but even the big ones don't have the defenses that adults do. And you never know when one is more fragile than they appear.

In other good news, Robbie semi-sorta-partially-kind-of rolled over from back to belly last night. I had a toy up at the right side of his head and he rolled over to reach for it with his left hand. He sort of thunked down so he was laying completely on his right arm, grabbed the toy and rolled back. I'm not sure that "counts" but in my book it shows he CAN do it, he just doesn't want to.

In the last week he's also started doing something that I am loving. He reaches for me (or David) to pick him up when he wants up. That might seem like a minor thing, but man it's just so sweet when he's hollering and you go over to ask what the problem is and he reaches for you and looks happy. Totally melts my heart.

He's also getting better at holding two toys at once. He could *sort of* do it before, but it was pretty rare and short lived. He's still not banging them together or anything, but given two toys that he loves (his favorite "toys" being the tube of Aquaphor and a tube of Butt Paste) he'll choose to hold both for a few seconds.

He should be starting PT any time. Depending on the paperwork, he might have his first session this week but definitely by next week.

At our IFSP meeting last week, we were discussing his 6 month goals. Mine were: sitting, crawling, walking. The PTs included all of those AND stair climbing, running and a few other things.

It blows my mind to think he could be climbing stairs in 6 months. I think it's one of those things I'll believe when I'll see. But he really is making a lot of progress the last month or so, so who knows.

In eating news, it's a mixed bag. He's completely given up on the bottle. For a while he'd at least drink a little at night but now he wants nothing to do with a bottle at all. It all goes in the tube.

However, he's made some improvements with solids. He's not eating enough to rely on, but he's actually been opening his mouth and smiling during feedings. That's HUGE. It's so amazing to not having crying, writhing & fighting when he sees food. Hopefully it means good things in the future even if overall they kind of suck right now.

Weight wise, he finally broke 12 pounds over the weekend. His weigh in tonight was 12 lb 3 oz. There was a point I wasn't sure he'd hit this weight by his birthday. At this rate, I think we'll actually hit 13+ pounds by the time he's 1. Still tiny, but headed in the right direction.

The sitting up continues to improve. Today we got a new toy that was recommended by a couple of friends whose children had similar gross motor troubles. He LOVES the thing. He sat up mostly unassisted for probably 7 or 8 minutes at one point. The only support was his hand on the toy itself.





It's definitely been a banner few weeks for him. If only he could take his milk without crying in pain for an hour afterward, it would be heaven.

--Trish