Therapy and CI Evaluation

Our early interventionist came out yesterday to see Nicholas. She worked on tracking with him and he did really well. He followed her from one side to the other. She also called a speech therapist to tell her about Nick's hearing and see when we should start speech therapy. The therapist she found is a cochlear implant specialist and wants to start right away. Speech therapy will help with communication. They have to get a prescription for the therapy from his pediatrician then will call us for an evaluation. The physical therapy is ready to go but the therapist is on vacation right now. When she gets back we should have our evaluation and get that going too.

I heard from the cochlear implant center at MUSC today and they have him scheduled for his four evaluations on Aug. 27. He has to see an audiologist, a speech therapist, have a CT of his head and meet with the surgeon. They were able to schedule all four in one day instead of two since we are coming from out of town. That was nice but it means for a long day. I'm glad things have finally started moving and Nick's schedule might be getting a little busier soon.

4 Months Adjusted

Nicholas was 4 months adjusted on Thursday. He is growing up so fast! He seems to be starting to enjoy the fruit baby food. He wasn't making the "what are you doing to me" face yesterday and he has started to actually open wide when he sees the spoon coming toward his mouth.

Eyes Look Good

Nicholas had an appointment with the retina doctor yesterday. He said his eyes look good (ROP). He is released from that doctor and we have an appointment with a regular eye doctor next month. Just because the ROP looks good doesn't mean his eyesight is good. Preemies have a lot of vision problems so he may still have eye issues. Not much has been going on. We are still waiting on physical therapy to start. We are doing a little bit of stage 1 foods. He is ok with fruits but still doesn't enjoy the beginning of the feeding. Once he realizes it tastes good he is ok. His thumb is his favorite thing. He gets mad if he takes it out of his mouth and then when he finds it and puts it back in he is good. Silly boy.

Pictures

Happy Father's Day

Nicholas and I wish Daddy a Happy Father's Day today. He is a wonderful father and we hope he enjoys his first Father's Day.

Aunt Heather has been visiting for the past week and Nicholas has been having so much fun. We also got a visit from my aunt and cousin who were vacationing in Myrtle Beach. Not much else has been going on. We have an eye doctor appointment next week to check on his ROP and that's it.

No More Oxygen

Nicholas had an appointment with the pulmonologist today. The doctor took him off oxygen! He said he should be ready to come off the apnea monitor in another month. It will be so much easier to carry him around the house now. He even took a nap in his crib today. He had never even been in his room before because the oxygen tube wasn't long enough. Plus, we get to see his cute little face without anything on it. Mark also took him for a quick NICU visit and saw some of our favorite nurses. Thanks again to all the NICU nurses, doctors, and RT's that kept him alive and got him healthy enough to come home. He is doing great!

New Video

We are still trying out food with Nicholas. He screams for the cereal so I decided to try fruit. He thinks pears are ok. He doesn't like when the spoon initially goes in his mouth but then he seems to enjoy the taste.

Cereal

Nicholas isn't enjoying the rice cereal yet. We tasted it and it is pretty bad. I wouldn't enjoy it either.

Well Visit

Nicholas had a well visit with the pediatrician today. She is extremely pleased with how well he is doing. He is right on track with his adjusted age. His weight is 13 pounds 8 ounces, height 22 1/4 inches, and his head is 40.5cm. He is on the growth chart for weight and head circumference and almost on it for length. We also get to start rice cereal and then fruits and veggies. Only a teaspoon per feeding for now but I'm excited. He also got 3 shots and had to get blood drawn to check his hemoglobin. He did good for it all and whimpered instead of screamed.

The early interventionist called this morning and she is referring us to the School for the Deaf and Blind. They can teach us how to communicate with him and make sure he is getting all the services he needs in regards to his hearing. She said that the physical therapist mailed out a packet yesterday so once we get that filled out and returned PT should start.

7 Months

Nicholas is 7 months old today! He is doing well. We will get a weight and length update tomorrow at the pediatrician but I would guess he is about 12.5 pounds and 22 inches. He is grabbing for toys more now and tries to roll over. He can get onto his side but then gets stuck. He gets his legs and arms going then gets mad when he can't do what he is trying to. The early interventionist called me last week and said she found a physical therapist and forwarded his file to her. Now we have to wait for the therapist to call us. I hope they hurry up and call because I don't want him to get behind for his adjusted age. I think he might be behind on holding his head up and he needs to be able to do that before we can start cereal with him. Also, we need to work on his neck because he still always has it turned to the right. He can turn it to the left but hardly ever does it.

We got the referral letter and ABR results from the hearing center today. Now we can send that down to MUSC and schedule his evaluations for the cochlear implant. I've been doing a lot of research on the CI to make sure we are doing the right thing and we both feel like we are. The deaf community doesn't really agree with the implant and I don't want to take away the deaf culture for him. But culture is learned and he will be part of our culture and we are part of the hearing community so we think this is the best thing to do. Either choice is going to be a lot of work on both our part and Nicholas'. I found a good website for parents of children with CI's and it answered a lot of our questions.

The Dog the world has come to know

Hello! I am Bella. Pleased to meet you.
This is my new best friend, Nick!

My Daddy and my new Brother

Doing my routine checks on my new best friend

Yeah, I am cute!

Greetings Everyone!!

I am Bella. I am a pure bred Chocolate Lab. I originally belonged to one of Daddy's employees. She didn't want me after just getting me, and was going to let me go to the pound. That was not cool!! Luckily, Daddy came along and would not let that happen. He took me in and now I am the happiest dog ever!!

Just recently, I was introduced to my new best friend, Nicholas. I call him "Nick" because that is what Daddy calls him. Mama calls him Nicholas. Daddy told me he was a special little man, and I needed to take very good care of him. He told me that I would play a big part in his devolpment. I was so happy to help my Daddy, I almost peed on the carpet. Luckily I didn't.

I have standing orders when Daddy is not home but Mama and Nick are. My orders from Daddy are to protect Mama and Nick at all times. I do that very well. Nothing happens without me knowing about it. I hear something I bark. Nick starts crying, I run to him, and alert Mama. Nick gets a poopy diaper, I let Mama know, then I try to eat it. Mama scolds me for that, so I just need to be really sneaky.

I am now "World Famous" because people all over the world look at my brothers blog, and I happen to be in a couple of photos. So anyone that wants to be my modeling agent, I require a lot of car rides, tons of Milk Bones, Rawhide bones, and hours of playing football, baseball, and soccer, just like daddy does with me. Thank you all for reading my Brother's Blog, and keep up the support, and if I ever meet you, I will give you a big Kiss. Unless you try to hurt my brother, then I will be your worst nightmare.

Rainy Day- Indoor Fun

Nick and his best friend Bella playing together

He loves Jungle time

Contemplating grabbing the dangling things, and soon enough he does.

Not much has been going on with Nicholas this week. I'm back at work full time so Mark is playing Mr. Mom during the day and working at night. So far it is working out well we just never see each other. Nicholas is being a little stinker with his cannula. Mark said when he got home from work last night he found Nicholas sleeping with is completely off his face and in his hand. I hope the pulmonologist says we can take him off of it when we go see him on the 15th. I decided it was time to stop pumping. I cut back on my pumps when Nicholas was in the children's hospital and was down to twice a day. Well I ran out of my expensive medication for milk production and don't want to buy any more. My milk really went down without the pills so I did my last pump the other night. I'm a little sad because it was my milk that helped him so much in the NICU but he got it at the most important time. I pumped for a few days shy of 7 months which is a long time and I've been ready to quit for a while.

Slow week

Nicholas doesn't have any appointments this week. I called MUSC to get the process started for the cochlear implant evaluation. They can't schedule it until they receive the ABR test results from the hearing center. I called them and they are waiting on the doctor to sign it. Once they get the results there are 5 didn't people that need to see him and evaluate him. They said they try to do it all in 2 days. Then they will determine if he is a candidate for the implant. We are still waiting to get signed up with a physical therapist. I called the early interventionist and she is waiting for the therapist to call her back. It sure is a long time to wait to get anything accomplished. It is kind of frustrating because he has been home for over 6 weeks and we are still waiting to get physical therapy started. He has a pediatrician appointment next week for his shots. That's about it.