Two Months Old (Age Adjusted)

Today, Henry is 2 months old (age adjusted). In the future, we plan on celebrating both his birth certificate birthday and his gestational age birthday. If Henry had gone to term, he would have been two months old today. Developmentally, that's how old he is.

Jeff got me up at 4:30AM, so that he could get some work done. That meant that I had slept a little over 4 hours last night. In our new world, that's a great deal of sleep. Jeff got to sleep three hours earlier in the evening. Yea!

We went for our early morning walk. It was a nice morning. It is getting a bit cool though, so we are making use of Henry's new sock supply (courtesy of Aunt Erin).








Henry was super smiley this morning. He broke the 9 lbs mark. He weighed 9 lbs 0.5 ozs!

Henry is getting more attentive to sounds these days. We've known that he can hear. He passed his hearing test in the NICU (which is by no means a definitive test of hearing). We noticed yesterday that he is turning his head in the direction of sounds. On one of the walks yesterday, I was beside Jeff, who was carrying Henry. When I spoke, Henry turned his head in my direction. I read one book that said babies were supposed to do this by 1 month. This of course concerned me because Henry wasn't doing this by 8-weeks let alone 1 month. Dr. Tsai said that she'd expect it at 4 months of age, when we talked to her Tuesday. We were pleased when Henry started doing this yesterday. As we were looking over Henry in his crib this morning (he managed to spend about 10 minutes in his crib), Henry, who had been looking at his daddy, turned his head toward me when I spoke.

We had an appointment with Henry's secondary pulmonologist, Dr. Morales. Henry's pediatrician doesn't give the much needed Synagis shot, and Henry's pulmonologist at the Wilmot Clinic doesn't give it either. So, we were referred to Dr. Morales. My mom went with me to the appointment. Out of all our doctors' appointments, this one seemed more perfunctory than the others, so we decided that Jeff should skip it, rather than having to take time from work. Basically, the goal of today's appointment was to get approval for the Synagis shots. As we've mentioned before, these shots are very expensive. The insurance companies require certain criteria be met. Henry met several of the criteria: (1) he is less than a year old and born before 35 weeks...way before 35 weeks, (2) he has BPD or chronic lung disease, and (3) he is on oxygen. Both my mom and I really liked Dr. Morales. She was very thorough, yet gentle, with Henry.

We also liked the office staff there as well. It is rare that I give rave reviews to medical office staff (although I really do like Shawn, Dr. Bianchi's assistant). The staff at Dr. Morales' office were kind and organized (a nice combination). They weighed him at 9 lbs 3 ozs and said he was 20.5" long. Weight can be a variable thing from scale to scale. We are pleased that in tracking his weight, the trend is going upward at a nice pace.

We have an appointment on November 2nd for Henry's first Synagis shot. Synagis is not a vaccine. It is a shot full of antibodies given once a month. Preemies miss out on the transference of antibodies from mother to baby during the last trimester. The Synagis shot gives these antibodies that specifically fight off RSV. It isn't a complete preventative solution, but it significantly reduces the RSV risk. In adults, RSV comes across like a cold (it is a seasonal virus). 125,000 babies are hospitalized with RSV each year. In preemies, RSV is particularly harmful because the airways inside of preemies are smaller and tighter than in full-term babies, even when you correct for their gestational age. The virus clogs up the airways, which can be fatal. According to the literature, around 10 times more infants die from RSV each year than from the flu.

The RSV virus lives up to six hours on surfaces (longer than cold viruses). It is easily spread by breathing, sneezing, coughing, kissing, and touching. This is why Henry can't have contact with a lot of people and that his doctors recommend only caretakers spend time with him. A lot of times, people don't realize that they are carrying the virus. And then it is too late. A lot of doctors say that preemies such as Henry shouldn't have much contact with others for 1-2 years. Hopefully, we'll be able to have our friends over to the house by May (with strict hand washing procedures in place, of course). RSV season will be over by then.

Henry had fun in his bassinet this afternoon. He likes looking at the mobile and trying to hit the feet of his moose. I showed him his toy dog Spunky today (a gift from Talia and Scott). Spunky barks when you squeeze him. Henry found this very amusing.

Spunky's barking scared the heck out of our LabraPitt Roger (at least we think that Roger is half Labrador/half Pitt Bull...he's a pound puppy, so who knows for sure). Roger is a rather sensitive dog (he had a rough life prior to living at Club Kenski-Anicker and was pulled from his prior home). I think that he'll get used to Spunky eventually.

We decided it was time for another picture of Henry with Frost the Bull (Henry's first toy). The first picture was taken May 29. The second was taken today.










Grandpa came over this evening to hold Henry while the Diamondbacks were on. Henry is getting a lot of exposure to baseball these days.

Henry is with his daddy right now, who is watching the Discovery Channel. I think that I'm headed to bed. Tomorrow, nurse Michael will be coming for the last time. Other than that, it should be a relatively peaceful day. My parents will be coming over so that I can get some work done.