5 Months Old (Adjusted Age)

Henry reached the 5 month mark on his adjusted age today. His adjusted age refers to when he should have been born and consequently where we consider him developmentally. And, he's looking fine!

Yesterday, we had a busy day. Grammy came in the morning, so that I could get some work done and participate in the weekly NAES conference call. Henry weighed 15 lbs 1.5 ozs.

In the afternoon, we met with our first nanny candidate. The meeting went OK, but we are still looking. The person said she had some preschool teaching experience, but then went to school and worked for 11 years being a nanny for her sister's children. The meeting was going well until I mentioned that we had planned to pay Social Security and Medicare. Then, her rate jumped up by 20%, and she said that it was to be her take home pay, meaning that she would expect us to compensate for the taxes, SS, and Medicare coverage, and some other things. The exchange left me with a queasy feeling. I know that a lot of people do things under the table. But Jeff and I plan to follow the law, especially considering that this isn't just a one day or one week gig. If someone is consistently coming to one's house to do a service, then they are serving as a domestic employee. I'm not quite sure why her rate jumped up 20% as her take home pay either. I felt like she looked around and decided to give us the shake down. The long and the short of it is that it didn't feel like a good fit. So, Jeff and I are still on the nanny hunt. Jeff contacted a few other people on craigslist, who will hopefully write back.

Henry didn't sleep much during the day. He was incredibly loud during the nanny candidate visit. He really loves to squeal. Jeff and I were going to go on our evening walk. I had put my coat on. By this time, Henry had passed out. I figured that he should stay home, because he does need some rest. I took the dogs out, while Jeff stayed with Henry. I ran into several of our neighbors (Yvonne, Hal, and Krista), who wanted to know where Mr. Henry was. He's very popular. Krista, our resident LPGA golfer, and I chatted, but she stayed about 10 feet away from me, because she was getting sick. We have very thoughtful neighbors.

This morning, I took care of Henry. He weighed 15 lbs 3 ozs. He slept from about 10:30AM to 12:30PM. I fed him a bottle before Miriam came for our last session on infant massage. Jeff did the massage. Miriam was very impressed with Henry. She said that she was surprised with his patience and focus. She mentioned this last time too. Henry really was great. He got a little agitated toward the end of the session, because he wanted food. Tara was present for the massage session too. She said that when she did case work in Florida, they would have never let something like infant massage be apart of the therapy. Tara recently moved to Tucson. She said that she's pleased that Arizona is more open to various therapeutic approaches. Given the experimental research shows that babies who are massaged gain more weight and bone density than their non-massaged babies, it is surprising that it isn't taken more seriously. Henry, Jeff, and I graduated from the massage class. Miriam said that Henry's body looked like a 5 month old, but his focus was much older. I haven't been around 5 month olds in a really long time, so it is hard for me to say. But I do know that his focus is excellent.

Bitsy the Kitten had been put in our bedroom during the massage session. She's a bit of an attention hog. After Miriam left, Jeff went to the back and found Bitsy sitting in the diaper changing station. The cat thinks she owns everything.

Tara hung out with Henry until Cuyler, the occupational therapist, came for her second visit. Cuyler is the OT who is worth her weight in gold. She had evaluated Henry when he was 2.5 months old (adjusted) and helped us get him to eat and sleep. The big thing that we did today was get Henry to eat rice cereal. Jeff and I had tried it twice before over the holidays, but we stopped when it seemed like Henry just wasn't quite ready (or we weren't doing it right). He has some of the appropriate signs of being ready, like sitting up (with some assistance), lunging forward, and reaching for our food. Having a baby with chronic lung disease means that you have to be very careful when introducing food. Food has a tendency to get coughed, choked, and sputtered into the lungs. The Amazing Cuyler started off by having us put Henry in his bouncy seat. She then stuck her finger in the rice cereal and introduced it to Henry by letting him play with her finger. Considering that he loves chewing fingers these days, it worked out wonderfully. Then, she put some of the cereal on a toy, and he mouthed the cereal off the toy. He was doing those things so well, that she then tried it with the spoon. He was hesitant at first. But she introduced him to the spoon and let him play with it. After a few minutes, she had him eating off the spoon well. The woman is really amazing. She has an incredibly eye for baby body language too. She has recommended that we continue trying the rice cereal once a day...not for its nutritional value, but for getting Henry used to the idea of solid foods and for the pleasure of it. One of the things that she doesn't want us to do is use the spoon to scrap food off the chin and put back into the mouth. She said that this can actually cause food aversion in some kids. So, for now, the act of eating should be messy and fun for Henry. Henry had a good time and then passed out in his chair.

Henry did get up a little later so that we could go on our walk in the evening. It was a nice night. Our dogs tried chasing a coyote, but Jeff got them to stop. Apparently, they did that yesterday morning too. It is best if they just leave the coyotes alone.

The grandparents brought dinner in the evening. Henry was very social as usual. He looked sleepy at times, but he kept getting a second wind, third wind, etc. He didn't go to bed until 11:15PM. That's all for now. The Henry Chronicles continue tomorrow....