(1) paying more attention to his hands than before,
(2) moving around the crib,
(3) rolling from side to back to side to back,
(4) sucking his thumb,
(5) staring at his feet,
(6) holding his head at 90 degrees when he's on his tummy; he doesn't seem to hate tummy time anymore, and
(7) staring at himself in the mirror with more focus than before.
Henry still isn't eating quite as much as he did pre-flu shot. We don't know if his lack of appetite is related to the flu shot, his digestive issues, or is just a phase he's going through. We continue to take walks in the morning and evening. Yesterday, Grandpa came over in the afternoon. We weighed Henry at 12 lbs 12 ozs. I went to school to see if the information on my laptop had been backed up appropriately. When I came back home, Jeff reported that after a series of events, Henry was reweighed at 12 lbs 9.5 ozs. Hopefully, he feels better.
Henry was really fussy last night. Normally, we know what the problem is. He's bored and wants a change of scenery. He's hungry. He's wet. There was nothing that we could do to please him for about half an hour. After trying to play with him on the floor, however, I realized that he wanted to watch television. I tried to block the path to the television with my body. He was annoyed that I was preventing him from watching the end of T3. I was glad that the television distracted him, but I'm not exactly thrilled to use the television as a soothing device. So, we are going to keep the television off more often. We actually don't oppose him watching some television. Our concern is the type of programming, specifically the editing. We don't want him watching programs that have a lot of fast cuts, as we think this is cognitively confusing...at least for the developing mind. I don't actually oppose him watching football (although I personally find it an uninteresting sport). There are scene changes, but for the most part, they are relatively slow. I have told Jeff that Henry can watch sports, provided that he talk to Henry throughout the games to tell him what's going on.
After much fussiness, Henry passed out on me. We put him to bed by 9PM, where he slept until after midnight.
Henry was a rather "active" sleeper in his crib. His head pretty much stayed in the same place on the mattress, but he's body worked itself all of the way around (360 degrees). Very excited that he's moving more. He's turning himself on his side. But I'm a little bit concerned about him getting tangled in his oxygen cords. In fact, there was one time during the week when Jeff found the oxygen cord around his neck (loosely). We know it wasn't there long, because Henry had just been put in his bassinet, but that's obviously a problem (especially as Henry starts moving more). Just another reason why we really, really hope that he'll be far enough along with his lung development to get rid of the oxygen at the end of the month!
Jeff put up a box on the side of the crib that has buttons that trigger lights and music. Henry had a good time kicking the buttons and turning on the show. He's getting to be such a big boy.
After a beautiful but brisk walk this morning, we headed off to the grandparents, which is where we are now. Aunt Carolyn came back in town yesterday. She was here when we arrived. She hadn't seen him since the beginning of August. She got to hold him for a while, which was nice. Then, Aunt Erin came by and got to see him while he was on his Jungle Mat. Jeff and I went to breakfast. Came back. Jeff's asleep now. Our game plan is to use Sunday's as sleep catch up days. I unfortunately have a lot of work to do. So I'm currently taking a break by writing this blog entry. Henry is on Carolyn's lap enthralled with his feet. She fed him a bottle and changed him. Go Aunt Carolyn!
Game plan for the week. Well, we meet with Henry's new development coordinator through the Developmental Disabilities Division on Monday. Then, on Tuesday, we have the Synagis shot scheduled (hopefully, the third scheduled appointment is the charm...they've cancel the prior two at the last minute).
Children's Pulmonary Specialists had canceled his appointment for last Friday (11/16) because they hadn't ordered the shot because they claimed that the insurance company had only faxed approval on Thursday (11/15). According to Rhoda at Schaeller Anderson, approval had been granted on 11/9; in fact, she called us that day to say that it had been approved. Did Schaeller Anderson wait 6 days to fax the doctor's office? I don't know. Somebody's full of fill-in-the-blank. My opinion is sufficiently low enough of both Schaeller Anderson and the staff at Children's Pulmonary Specialists to not know whom to believe. The brain trust at Schaeller Anderson was the one to deny the overnight study of the pulse-ox (which was ordered by the pulmonologist to determine whether or not Henry could be taken off oxygen safely). As I pointed out to Rhoda, Schaeller Anderson will have to continue paying for oxygen if the appropriate tests aren't done because there's no way in hell I'm letting him off oxygen until I know its safe. She said, "Well, that's the doctor's call." I didn't bother pointing that it had been the doctor's call to order the denied overnight study (thanks again to the good folks at Dependable Health Services for lending us the equipment and eating the cost themselves). I also don't trust the brain trust in the front office of Children's Pulmonary Specialists. They were going to call me back "right away" Thursday afternoon, which meant Friday mid-morning. They were also the ones who didn't have the foresight to cancel our first scheduled Synagis appointment on 11/2 until Jeff and my dad had arrived with Henry and waited 10 minutes in the waiting room; they should have known that the insurance approval had not gone through, the shots hadn't been ordered, and informed us the day before the appointment. In talking with them and trying to track down when they supposedly sent things to Schaeller Anderson, I have found some of their claimed "time line of events" questionable.
OK. I'm off my soap box (for now). Back to work.
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