Hungry Henry Wrestles Spunky the Dog

Henry was worrying me over the weekend with his lack of appetite. Basically, things were going in the inbox but not coming out the outbox, which lead to a significant decrease in his food consumption. Plus, the flu shot had a much greater impact on him than we had anticipated. For me and Jeff, the side effects were minimal, so we didn't really think much about getting the shot for Henry (other than the thimerosal issue). Anyone who is taking care of Henry has to have received the flu shot (standard doctors' recommendation for preemie families) in order to be around him. The side effects started wearing off on Monday. Henry ate over 27 ounces of milk on Monday. He was on a slow pace overnight, but he picked it up substantially today during the day and early evening.

On Monday morning, we went for a walk. Grandpa Kenski visited Henry in the morning. Judith from the Blake Foundation visited around 11AM with Henry's new coordinator Tara. Tara works for the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD). We worked out the goals for Henry's progress. It looks like she'll be his developmental therapist in addition to being his coordinator. Plus, his occupational therapist (OT) will visit twice a month (it will most likely be Cuyler, whom we liked very much). Tara is also going to have a physical therapist (PT) come once or twice a month to work on his gross motor skills. We'll also be having visits from a nutritionist and a massage therapist. Our house will be a very busy place. The good news is that they come to us, which is a huge relief. We already travel around to a lot of doctors appointments. I couldn't imagine adding 6 more appointments into the mix if we had to go to them. We do it, of course, but I'm very glad that they come to our home instead.

On a side note, my friend Brenda who lives in NJ was telling me that some of the mothers that she knows in her area have lied to the state's early intervention program (EIP) to get the free services for their kids. EIPs were designed to help kids "at-risk" and yet there are people who lie about their kids development (claiming their kids are way behind on certain skills) to get the extra boost from therapists. Apparently, several of the therapist oblige because they'd rather spend their time in the nice neighborhoods of NJ rather than working in Camden, which has a lot of at-risk children. I have to say that as a mother of a child with special needs, the conversation made me sick. It took a really long time to get the ball rolling for my child who does have special needs. The problem is that the EIPs are overloaded with cases. To think that there are such selfish people out there clogging up the system makes me mad. It makes me wonder how some people can live with themselves. Sigh.

We got a call from Walgreen's in the morning. They said that they had just mailed the vials of Synagis to the pulmonology office. I called the pulmonology office to inquire about when the mail arrived because Henry had an appointment scheduled for Tuesday at 8:30AM. It seemed unlikely to me that it would arrive on time, and I was certain that the office wouldn't call us ahead of time to make an obvious reschedule. At my request, we are now rescheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8:30AM. The vials should have arrived today.

We had some good playtime on the floor on Monday morning. Henry played a lot with Spunky the Dog. Henry and Spunky had a wrestling match.








Believe it or not, we completely forgot to weigh Henry on Sunday. I think that we have been weighing him at home each day ever since we got the scale. He weighed 12 lbs 11 ozs on Monday and 12 lbs 10.5 ozs today. His weekly gain was the smallest we've seen in ages. But considering that he wasn't eating as much, it wasn't terribly surprising.

Grammy came on Monday afternoon. Henry was very talkative. Then, he crashed. I left for school in the late afternoon. My mom turned Henry over to Jeff. Henry slept through the evening walk. He spent "Boys Night" eating and sleeping, while Jeff watched basketball.

It was brisk this morning (around 50 degrees) on our walk. Henry was awake through the entire trip. Henry and I played on the floor a lot this morning. I gave him a massage. He was incredibly talkative and delightful as usual. He spent some time in his swing. We sat out on the porch for awhile. He was in a great mood all day. Grammy came in the afternoon. She and Henry had some long conversations.







We went for our evening walk. When we got back, I fed Henry a bottle, while Jeff went to the grocery store. Henry was staring at me intensely while he ate. He smiled every time that I told him I loved him or told him how handsome he was. Grandpa came in the evening. He spent time with Henry on the couch watching the Suns game. Henry passed out during the last part of the game.