Happy Birthday, Henry!!!

Today was Henry's birthday. Our little boy turned 1 year old. It has been quite a year. Most babies triple their weights from birth to 1 year. Henry is about 14.6 times the size that he was when he was born. He has amazed us in so many ways. And we simply can't imagine our lives without him.

Unfortunately, Henry spent much of today sleeping as it appears that he has come down with a cold. He spent from 4AM to 5:45AM tossing and turning. He was incredibly snuffly when he woke up. And spent all day with a drippy nose. I gave him his bottle at 5:45AM. He fell asleep on me after eating. He didn't sleep long though. Veronica came at 7:30AM as usual. After I left, Henry apparently spent the morning sleeping and sneezing. This afternoon when I got home, we had cake. Veronica had made a vegan cake for Henry, because she knew he can't have dairy. She researched it on the Internet; her girls (Chiara, 6, and Brianne, 2) and husband (Chris) helped decorate it. They also gave Henry a gift...an Elmo toy cell phone. Perfect gift. Henry gets upset when Grammy won't let him play with her cell phone. This morning, Henry had a lot of fun pushing buttons on our wireless telephone while talking to Aunt Erin, who had called to wish him a happy birthday.









Jeff had the good sense to suggest that Henry open his present before tackling the cake. That was a good call. I remember awhile back that Cuyler (Henry's first OT) had said that she knew kids would be good eaters if they had messy first birthday pictures. Well, judge for yourself with these...



After Veronica left, Jeff gave Henry a bottle. He fell asleep during it. Then, Jeff's cell phone went off (problems at work as usual). So Henry woke up. He finished his bottle for me and wanted a little more. Then, he fell asleep on my chest for well over two hours. He hasn't done that in such a long time.

In the evening, we headed to my parents' house and went to Sauce for dinner. They have a nice patio area outside. They had a nice high chair for Henry that allowed him to put his hands (and feet) on the table. Henry's a strong believer in casual dining!









We went back to my parents' house for dairy-free, soy-free cupcakes. Henry was pretty full from eating squash at dinner. He got to open a present. We are waiting until Sunday for his other gifts. On Sunday, we are having a family dinner to celebrate his birthday. We decided not to have a full out birthday party for him, because we want to wait until his "due date" day to have a 1 year adjusted celebration. We'll probably have a BBQ or something like that and invite our family and friends. We think that's better for him for two reasons. First, it will be August by then and RSV won't be an issue. Second, developmentally, he'll be 1 year old and therefore more able to enjoy a celebration at that time.










On Monday, two things happened. First, much to our disappointment, Veronica gave us notice that she'll be moving to Texas at the end of May. Given the rather tough employment situation in town, her husband Chris is rejoining the Navy. We are incredibly disappointed that she'll no longer be Henry's nanny. Henry is quite fond of her. She is a gentle person and is incredibly good at getting Henry to relax and take naps (which he rarely does for me). In addition to missing her, neither Jeff nor I are excited about having to conduct interviews again. When we interviewed people the first time around, we realized that not every nanny out there is sane. Plus, the recent rounds of bad nanny videos posted on cnn.com has hit home that the world is not a safe place.

Second, we had a visit from Dorsett. Henry clearly knows how to get up the stairs, so Dorsett was trying to show Henry how to safely get down the stairs. Dorsett is very fond of Henry. She thinks that he is rapidly catching up to his chronological age (much faster than preemies usually do). That said, Jeff and I are still of the opinion that there's really no reason why preemies should catch up to their birth ages and maintain that adjusted age is where he should be evaluated. If Henry always tests appropriately at his adjusted age, we will be ecstatic. If, for example, when he is 5 years old (birth) but acts like a 4 year, 8.5 month old, that's OK with us. And when he is 45 years old (birth) but acts like a 45, 8.5 month old, that's going to be OK with us too. Although Dorsett is a PT and has been working on his motor skills, she is most impressed by his verbal patterns. And, she was excited that he got excited when she asked him if he wanted to sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider song (his new favorite).

I do think that he actually comprehends quite a bit. But unfortunately, he doesn't have the ability to speak or sign yet. I've been asking him where certain animals in the house are and have noticed that his eyes do seem to lock on the appropriate pet. The two that he knows best are Bitsy Cat and Roger. If you say "Where's Bitsy Cat?", he'll look for her and then stare at her. I think that he also knows Princess and Marley, but not quite as well as Bitsy and Roger. He sort of knows Jackson. But Jackson is our sensitive cat who is rather reclusive (he lives in our closet), so Henry simply isn't as familiar with him. Interestingly, I think that Jackson is one of the best with Henry because when he's in the mood, he will go up to Henry's head and nuzzle him. Henry doesn't point yet and that will be a better test of his word-object comprehension.

Tuesday was the day of many outfits. It iseems like we went through several. After talking with Cuyler on the telephone, we decided to give Henry a teething biscuit. Cuyler recommended the Gerber ones because they are really thick and thus less likely to break off in the baby's mouth. We are trying to get Henry used to the feeling of solids in the mouth. One problem is that most of the teething biscuits have milk or soy in them. We decided to go ahead and use the Gerber ones that we bought, because we didn't think that he'd really be consuming them to the point where he'd inject enough for it to affect his digestive system. I gave one to Jeff to model for Henry. Then, I gave one to Henry. Incidentally, Henry did manage to break off a piece. Don't know how he did it. He must have jaws of steel, because those things are rock solid.










Jeff lowered Henry's mattress in the crib, so that Henry can't fall over the rail now that he's standing up. This meant that the cat prevention tent no longer works. The cats enjoyed playing in the test once it was off the crib. To the left is a picture of our girls (Marley, Bitsy, and Princess).


We took a picture of Henry with Frosty the Bull (Henry's first toy). There was a time when Henry wasn't much bigger than Frosty.

Henry is bigger than Frosty, but he has a ways to go before catching up with our dog Roger. Roger unfortunately seems to be unaware of his posterior and nearly sat on Henry several times throughout the day.

Henry wasn't in much of an eating mood last night. He rejected mashed avocado and mashed pears. Cuyler told me that babies often reject new foods, especially when offered the second time around (the novelty has worn off, but the good isn't accepted yet). So we continue to work on offering textures. I did give him a few pieces of spagetti (no sauce) to play with. He didn't put them in his mouth; he just dangled them.










Last night, I kept thinking about how a year ago on April 29, we had no clue about what was to come. I was feeling very tired at the time. Delivering Henry the next day wasn't even on our radar as a possibility. Frankly, we were unaware that it was possible for such young ones to survive. It has been an amazing but also very difficult year. Henry is amazing. But being a micropreemie means that we have to stay on the look out for problems that often arise as the children get older.

The other day, a friend called me to tell me that she is pregnant. During the course of our conversation, she said to me. "Henry was 25 weeks, right? So I just have to make it until then." I actually didn't know what to say at the time as I was a bit stunned by the comment. If, through this blog, we have given the impression that this is an easy route or that things are peachy-keen, then we have perhaps done a disservice to micropreemie awareness. This was certainly a route not taken by choice. Babies need to stay in the womb for 37 weeks (or close to 40 weeks) with good reason.

NIH has a website on extremely preterm birth outcomes: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/about/org/cdbpm/pp/prog_epbo/epbo_case.cfm

Based on Henry's birth characteristics:
Gestational Age (Best Obstetric Estimate in Completed Weeks): 25 weeks
Birth Weight: 570 grams
Sex: Male
Singleton Birth: Yes
Antenatal Corticosteroids: Yes (although they were only present for about 1/2 hour before his birth, so this one is debatable)

Outcomes	Outcomes for All Infants	Outcomes for Mechanically Ventilated Infants
Survival	57%	60%
Survival Without Profound Neurodevelopmental Impairment	39%	41%
Survival Without Moderate to Severe Neurodevelopmental Impairment	22%	23%

Henry is doing incredibly well from where he started. That said, if I had a billion dollars and were given the opportunity to rewrite history, I would trade that billion dollars in a heartbeat if I could give Henry the birth that he should have had. I pray everyday that he will continue to be the exception and not the rule when it comes to micropreemie development.

This time last year, Henry was in the NICU. I was in intensive care too. Jeff spent that first night with me (on a rather uncomfortable fold out chair in my room). At this point, we actually hadn't named him yet (we thought that we were going to have another couple months to make a decision). I'll ask Jeff to tell that story in a day or two.

Cheers to Henry Joseph, our 1 year old, sweet, feisty, inquisitive, stubborn, affectionate, chatty, happy, strong, loving, "big" boy. We are very proud to be his parents. And are very lucky and blessed to have him in our lives.

Henry Visits Babies R Us

On Friday, Shirley had suggested that we get Henry some shoes to help straighten and relax his toes when he is standing. So, this morning (Sunday) we took Henry to Babies R Us. This was his second visit to a store. The first being a visit to a Bed Bath and Beyond for about 2 minutes earlier in April. Henry had a very good time watching things at Babies R Us. Henry tried his shoes on this afternoon. He isn't a fan of the foot restraints. But doesn't he look cute?



Henry hasn't been to many stores because we have diligently kept him away from crowds (and that means stores). RSV season is coming to a close in our region, and he needed shoes, so we ventured out. It wasn't particularly crowded. If it had been, we wouldn't have taken him inside. We are slowly introducing him to more people. But come November, we'll have to go back into seclusion (hopefully for the last time).

Henry napped quite a bit this afternoon. One nap was 1.5 hours long. Jeff took it with him. For Henry's sake of course. ;)

Actually, we both think that Henry sleeps a lot longer when he is in our bed. We've only been letting him sleep with us for 3-4 week now. It started on accident. When he sleeps in his own crib, he'll sleep for 7-8 hours straight. When he sleeps with us, it extends his nighttime sleep by at least an hour. This afternoon, Jeff had put Henry in his crib to nap. Jeff then went over to our bed to take a nap, and the incredibly small squeak from the mattress woke Henry up. I believe that the American Academy of Pediatrics is opposed to co-sleeping because (a) parents sometimes roll onto the babies, (b) the mattresses aren't as firm those in cribs (too soft isn't good for baby), and (c) the research shows that babies wake up more often on average when they are in their parents' beds than when they are in their cribs. But there are some doctors who believe that co-sleeping is good for babies (e.g. Dr. Sears).

The verdict is out on whether it is good for us parents. On the one hand, Jeff and I have been getting a lot more sleep since Henry has gotten more sleep. On the other hand, as Jeff has said, "Henry is a bed hog." And the sleep that we get is lighter than when he's in the crib with the Angelcare monitor on.

After Henry and Jeff got up, we played with a new toy. A Fisher Price "gum" ball machine. Henry has learned that you have to push the lever for the toy balls to come out of it. Then, we went for a walk. Came back and played with the Baby Einstein Caterpillar. Had dinner. Henry was hungry. Gave him a bath. And now he and Jeff are sound asleep.






















That's about it for new stuff. I've uploaded a picture from Thursday (when Henry had egg yolk for the first time). You can see Henry's bottom two teeth quite well in the picture.












Henry has had a good week. Just a recap:
*He has improved his sitting skills (moving from stand to sit smoothly)
*He learned how to pull himself up in his crib
*He started making the sign for "ceiling fan" (his favorite object in the house)
*He ate egg yolk (and didn't throw up!)
*He discovered dirt in plant pots
*He is waving bye-bye to people more and more. He even waved bye bye to the cashier today at Babies R Us.
*He started "petting the dogs nicely" instead of pulling out their fur. We've been telling him for a long time that he has to "pet nicely." He started mimicing what I was doing, which has improved the situation for the dogs. I can't say that he never pulls their fur, but I'm sure that they'd agree that things are getting much better.

Good Mood Henry

Nothing too exciting has happened in the last few days, thankfully. On Thursday Henry had a visit from the new occupational therapist Selah. She is still getting to know Henry and since he doesn't have any glaring issues she works on little things which kind of seems like she gets to play with him for an hour. She is still mentioning tummy time. I thought we would be over the tummy time thing by now since he is crawling which is what I thought tummy time was supposed to help him with. However, they still want him to get his dreaded tummy time.

On Friday Henry was in a great mood all day. It was like the happy Henry we knew before teething started. Tara visited along with Shirley, the new physical therapist. Henry had a great time playing with Shirley. With her we are working on getting his feet under him when he stands. Currently he straightens his legs out while standing on his knees so that he is sort of on the tops of his feet or his toes before he pulls a foot forward and puts his foot flat on the ground. The goal is to pull his knee up toward his stomach and get his foot flat on the ground and push off on that. Again, not major stuff, she is getting to know Henry and so it seems like a lot of play. He worked so hard he fell asleep in Kate's arms before Shirley and Tara left.

Today we took him to have breakfast at the Garland restaurant again. This time he was awake the whole time. He sat quietly and watched us eat which was very considerate of him. When we returned home Kate tried to give him a massage. Unfortunately she tried it on our bed, specifically my side of the bed. Henry decided to make a fountain and then crawl around naked, rather than sit back and enjoy the massage. In the afternoon he went over to visit his grandparents for the day. He ate several jars of solid food and put the grandparents through their paces.

He continues to get goats milk and we are increasing it regularly now. Today he had more than any other day so we'll be watching him closely for any reactions. We bought some Probiotics for him. These are the good bacteria that are supposed to help digestion. They are commonly found in yogurt but because he can't have dairy we can't give him yogurt. Because the Prevacid messes with his natural balance of acid/bacteria in the stomach many children on it also take Probiotics to encourage the good bacteria. Unfortunately it contains both soy and milk which he is not supposed to have. So we may decide not to give him any.

Next week will be a busy week. We have a pediatrician visit, his usual physical therapy, occupational therapy, and development coordinator visits. Plus his birthday is Wedesday which we will celebrate with extended family on Sunday. Friday Kate and I are having some friends over to see Henry for the first time and play some games.

Henry the Explorer

Henry is into everything. That pretty much sums up the last couple of days.

On Sunday, Henry spent the day with his grandparents. He was happy and active. His achievement for the day was rolling a ball back and forth with Grandpa.

On Monday, he apparently made the sign for milk while my mom was with him in the afternoon. So she got him milk. I haven't seen it yet.

On Tuesday, his activity level prompted us to get a move on the baby-proofing of the living room. There are tiled steps leading into the living room, which require foam bumpers on the edges. Our living room isn't quite as attractive as it was before Henry learned to crawl, but Jeff did find a color that actually goes fairly well with the colors in the room. Henry was incredibly talkative yesterday. And, he has been making a lot of Da sounds (and a few g sounds too). Grandpa visited last night to play with Henry. I fed Henry some rice cereal with chicken stock for dinner. He had 1 1/2 bowls of it plus a 1/2 bowl of sweet potatoes and rice cereal. Because the chicken didn't go over so well when we tried it with him, we were hoping that we could transition him into it but getting him used to the flavor (hence the broth). Henry stayed up until about 9PM. He was obviously very tired but fought sleep for a long time. I finally took him to the back, turned off the lights. He eventually settled down.



That leaves us with today. In the early morning, Jeff put him in the crib after he had his first bottle of the morning. We found him sitting up in the crib, having grabbed the dangling animals on the mobile, preventing them from moving round and round. I said to Jeff, "When you think that he is going to grab onto the sides and pull himself up?" Jeff figured it would be about week. I then went to our bathroom to take a shower. I had turned the water on, when I hear Jeff calling my name. Guess what. Henry can pull himself up in his crib, meaning that we need to lower the mattress soon.



Henry apparently didn't nap much this morning. He didn't nap for my mom in the afternoon. Again, fighting the urge to sleep despite rubbing his eyes quite a bit. We went for a nice walk in the early evening and gave him a bath before bed. He had mashed bananas in his hair from his late afternoon meal. We finally got him to bed by 8:45PM or so.

We have continued to give Henry goat's milk. Jeff increased the amount to 3 ozs today. We haven't noticed any improvements or problems with it so far. I was hoping that he'd be super excited over it, because anything has got to taste better than Neocate. However, I haven't noticed any unbridled enthusiasm over the goat's milk on Henry's part.

I was observing to Jeff yesterday that Henry does an excellent job of transitioning from the standing position to the sitting position. He really uses his legs to lower himself slowly to the ground. Jeff has been impressed with Henry's sitting as well.

Henry has discovered the dirt in the plant pots. He's excited about that. I'm not so excited about that discovery. Henry has started chasing the animals around. Poor Roger doesn't quite know what to do when Henry comes marching over to grab his paws. Bitsy tried to bite Henry today when Henry grabbed a fist full of her fur. I intervened and was bitten instead. She doesn't break the skin, but we still don't want her thinking that it is OK to bite Henry. I wish that she'd just run when she sees him like Marley seems to do when she sees Henry coming. Jackson usually leaves too, except the other day when he nuzzled Henry's head before leaving (very cute).

Signing off from the Wild Kingdom.

Tooth Number 2 Arrives

Jeff discovered tooth number 2 this morning. Henry had been drooling like crazy the last couple days, but it didn't seemed like tooth number 2 caused nearly as much pain as number 1 did.

We went for a walk and then took Henry to The Garland. The Garland is a restaurant that specializes in vegetarian cuisine. It is rarely crowded, in part because the location isn't ideal (but it isn't terribly far from us). We sat out on their small patio. Henry was asleep until the food arrived. Then, he watched us eat. We let him bang on the bench after our meal. He enjoyed feeling the new texture of the table (wood). Afterward, we watched cars drive by on the road, while Jeff paid the check. Henry liked that.

We came home and gave Henry some solid breakfast of his own. Then, a bath. As usual, he loved his bath time.



He spent a good deal of the day fighting off sleep. He looked tired but didn't want to nap. He crawled around the bed. Crawled around the floor. Climbed the steps. Practiced pulling himself up to a stand. Stared out the big windows in the living room. Practiced signs with me. Listened to Mamma Mia. Read books.

Jeff and I are teaching Henry some signs. We are working on water, milk, eat, sleep, mother, father, and diaper. And Henry has created some of his own. In fact, we had a break through today on signs, involving his diaper.

At one point in the afternoon, I took Henry to bed with a bottle (and hoped it would lead to a nap). Henry gets a bit frenetic when he is sleepy. I gave him his bottle, which he then decided was a toy and shook it getting milk all over the bed. I sternly told him that it was not a toy, and I wasn't happy with him. Henry then dropped his bottle and grabbed my face to give me a big sloppy kiss, accompanied by a winning smile. This kid is sooooo cute! He definitely has me wrapped around his finger.

We went for a walk in the early evening after Jeff finished up with his work (he had to work this afternoon). Henry looked super cute in his hat.

I fed Henry some dinner, while Jeff went to pick up ours (Indian food tonight). Then, Henry worked off the calories with some aerobics. He went to bed around 7:30PM approximately. Again, fighting it all of the way. But he is sound asleep now.

Henry Reaches New Heights

On Thursday, Henry learned how to make a fishy face. In the morning, I observed him sucking in his cheeks. In the afternoon, he did it again and also responded to us making fishy faces back at him. Selah, his new occupational therapist, came in the afternoon. Henry has done well pulling things out of containers, so we are now working on putting things in containers. He was more interested, however, in closing the container than putting objects in it. The appointment with Selah went well, but as usual, he was fairly reserved for a little while, observing her, as he often does with people whom he does not know well. At first, she was concerned because he was so quiet and asked if he knew how to make noises. We assured her that he has no problems making noises. What else? My mom came over in the afternoon, and my dad came over in the evening. I think that was about it.

On Friday, Veronica said that Henry had figured out how to cruise the furniture. He pulled himself up on the museum bench and figured out how to turn around the corner of it. Later, I was sitting on the steps leading into our living room talking with Veronica. Henry crawled from where he was sitting with Veronica to me. As I talked with her, he played at the steps. And, he figured out how to get up the first one by himself. Veronica was stunned. She said that she figured that it would be a month before he figured it out. She thinks that he's a baby genius because of his problem solving abilities. She said that even when he wasn't crawling, he'd figure out ways to get from A to B. Or, if he wanted an object, he quickly learned that if the object was on a blanket, he could just pull the blanket toward him. Before Veronica left, Henry repeated his step climbing abilities, this time making it up both steps by himself.

Tara came in the afternoon, during which time we also met with Shirley, Henry's new physical therapist. Having read Henry's file, Shirley wasn't expecting to see Henry look as good as he does. Our assignment from Shirley is to work with Henry on balance shifting and reaching for objects on the floor from the standing position (balanced of course against something like the bench). Shirley seems very nice. Tara is looking for a speech pathologist to do an evaluation on Henry. We don't anticipate any problems in the speech department at this point in time. But, as always, we want evaluations done, as we believe strongly in prevention. After Shirley left, we went through some questions with Tara. On some skills, Henry is pushing toward the 12 months bubble, which is great. Jeff and I are thrilled that he is meeting (or surpassing) the milestones for his adjusted age.

We went for a walk in the late afternoon/early evening. We met a new neighbor, Kim, who has a big puppy. Roger had fun with the puppy. Marley reprized her role as the most crotchety three-year old on the planet. She isn't a fan of other dogs, especially vivacious puppies. We also ran into some other neighbors, whom we don't see very often. Henry gave them a thorough looking over.






We came back and sat on our patio. By 7:30PM, Henry was becoming very fussy. So I got him a bottle, and Jeff took him to bed, while I fixed dinner. His evening fussiness is usually a sign that he's tired. Now that he is so incredibly active during the day, he truly needs his beauty rest, which means that he's no longer staying up until 10PM. By 7PM, we can see the signs that it is time to hit the hay. His pattern now seems to involve some type of early morning feeding (somewhere between 2-4AM), but he does go back to bed afterward. I've been trying to make his bedtime bottle mainly breast milk, because his reflux is minimized with it. That does, however, mean that it empties more quickly from the stomach, which results in him being more likely to get hungry in the middle of the night.

Other news. We are continuing to give Henry goat's milk in small quantities. We gave him another ounce today (day 3). So far, so good. He seems to like it (or at least not dislike it). We haven't detected any signs yet of allergies. If we can make it a couple more days, we'll start increasing his intake little by little. There seems to be a fine line between having an allergy and having a food intolerance. If we see evidence of either, we'll stop giving the goat's milk. It does have casein in it; we are just hoping that the form of casein is different enough from cow's milk that it won't have the same problematic outcomes for Henry as the cow's milk has. And, I have stopped eating soy products (sigh) and haven't had much dairy either (trace amounts of cheese). If we can make it to Wednesday without any problems, we'll probably start giving Henry some probiotics and see if that helps his digestive system.

Last GI Appointment? U of A Visit.

First thing this morning Henry had a visit to his GI doctor, Dr. Hassan. Henry weighed in at 18lbs 4oz, was 27.75 inches long and had a head circumference of 44.5cm. The weight was probably a bit overstated because he had just ate. However, we were very impressed by his growth. He has been sleeping a lot recently, and it seems to be paying off, if not in weight, then in height.

The doctor said he looked good, which he always says. Our biggest remaining concern is Henry's constipation problem (sorry to put this out there Henry, but your fans need to know what is going on with you). The doctor said he believes it is either the dairy or soy that Kate is eating. That was a little frustrating because Kate had gone off dairy and soy for a while and only started eating them again after we got what we thought was the green light from Dr. Hassan. Now he is telling us she needs to go off them again. I think that Kate is going to cut out soy for now and limit the amount of milk she drinks, but still continue to eat cheeses and other dairy items. When Henry was first diagnosed with possible milk/soy allergies he was on a formula that had cows milk and soy in it. He was switched to a soy formula which made things worse. So my belief is that soy is the greater problem.

He advised us to put Henry back on Prevacid. He said some children are on it for years and are ok. Henry has shown some signs of reflux since we took him off it, and it hasn't relieved the constipation problem at all so we will probably put him back on it tomorrow.

We did ask about probiotics to help counteract the effects of the Prevacid. The doctor said that they wouldn't hurt so they were worth a try. However, we are going to wait a while so we aren't making a bunch of changes at once and then can't figure out what is working and what is not. It is hard to hold off on making changes we think will help him but we have to maintain a certain methodology about things to make sure we don't do more harm than good.

We also asked about goat's milk as a supplement to breast milk, with the hopes we could use that instead of Neocate formula, which is about the most foul stuff on the planet. Dr. Hassan said that it is also worth a try because the goat's milk proteins will be different than cow's milk proteins. He talked about how many children have bad reactions to some formulas and not others, even if they are all cow's milk. This is due to a variance in the construction of the proteins. So hopefully Henry will be able to stomach the goat's milk proteins even if he can't handle cow's milk ones. He also mentioned that children have a great supply of B12, so the fact that goat's milk is low in that is not a problem. We will just continue to give him a multivitamin. We gave Henry his first taste tonight, just one ounce which he took cautiously. We will need to keep a close watch on him as we slowly introduce the goat's milk. I really hope he can handle it. Kate, Grandma and I all tasted it ,and it isn't bad. Kate thought it had a bad aftertaste but I liked it.

The doctor got a cell phone call during our visit, and we wrapped things up rather abruptly. Then as we were about to pull out of the parking lot, he walked up to the car to make sure he had answered all our questions. It was very nice of him to make that extra effort.

On our way back Kate had to go to school to teach class in the morning. We decided to take Henry in for a quick visit. We were happy to find Dana in her office. Henry immediately took a liking to her, and she was very excited to get Henry's approval so quickly. He tends to be very reserved with newcomers, choosing to study them for a while. But with Dana he smiled his acceptance right away.

Then we took him down to the office where he was able to meet Nancy, Ellen and Isabel. It was great fun to show him off. He was in a good mood and smiled for everyone. I think he gets very bored at home, and so it is great to take him to new places and watch him absorb his surroundings. It's a great way to get distracted from things like teething pain. I thought it was a bit funny that we took him to the U of A on a day when he was wearing his Washington State t-shirt from his aunt Carolyn. No one made any comment though.

At home he continued his crawling. He seems to be progressing exponentially with it, like he did with sitting. I expect by this weekend he will be zooming from one end of the house to the other, with us wearily trailing behind.

We thought he had a physical therapist visit in the afternoon, but we weren't sure and they never showed up. It is a new therapist that will be taking over from Dorsett. Hopefully we just had our days confused.

We took Henry for a walk tonight. After the walk we sat out on the back patio because it was a very nice night. Roger and Marley decided to chase two deer that were nearby, which had two coyotes trailing behind them. The deer move so fast through the desert that I can't imagine our dogs ever getting close to them. I don't know why the coyotes would be trailing behind the deer, but it is the second time I've seen that. The only thing I can figure is that the coyotes might go for a newborn deer if given the opportunity.

Below is a picture of Henry and I near a blooming cactus and a picture of Kate feeding Henry his first goats milk. The video is of Henry on the back patio auditioning for Stomp!.

It's Official: Henry can Crawl!

Today was a HUGE day for Henry. The number of accomplishments was staggering. The biggest one of all was CRAWLING! But let me back up to yesterday.

On Monday morning, I was playing with Henry before Veronica arrived. There was something different about Henry's movements. There was more confidence and stability in them. Now, my mom had said that Henry moved two knees forward on Thursday night and moved three knees forward on Sunday. And, Jeff and I had witnessed him lunge forward for objects and kind of do a one-two fall forward series of movements. But we hadn't characterized that as crawling.

It just felt like "this is the week." I had to teach in the morning, but I rushed back home for Henry's appointment with Dorsett (the physical therapist) in the afternoon. Henry always seems to do new things for her. Henry was very fussy during the appointment. Grandma arrived, and he became more interested in playing with her shoe than working with Dorsett, so much wasn't accomplished. He wanted to stand. That was about it. Henry did do a one-handed hand slap to Dorsett's hand on her way out. She said that learning to do tasks one-handed was yet a further sign of development and coordination.

At one point yesterday (I think it was), Henry did do a little hop while standing up, holding onto Jeff' s hands. That was new.

Henry wouldn't eat his dinner last night. I made him a bowl of avocado puree, which he put his fist in and then wiggled his fingers around. He had fun making the biggest mess ever of his food. It was all over the tray, his outfit, his face, his eye lashes, and his hair. Marley was happy that he threw his almost empty bowl of bananas, peaches, and raspberry puree on the floor. We gave him a bath, which he loved, and then he fell asleep on our bed. We slept until about midnight when I had to get up to pump and to pay some bills, and Jeff got up to finish our taxes. Henry was then transferred to the crib. It is hard getting chores done when Henry's awake, so we have to take these opportunities when they present themselves (even if it is midnight).

This morning, Henry woke up at 6AM. Had his bottle, but didn't want to go back to sleep. Had his breakfast, and was very alert. So, we went to the living room to play. I placed him on his hands and knees, and moved his right hand forward, then the left hand, then the one knee, then the other knee for him. He balanced himself well, while I did this. We moved several paces toward an object. I was surprised that he let me move his arms and legs. His usual reaction when I (or anyone else for that matter) try to control his actions is to do the opposite. For example, if you try to move his hand to touch an object, he'll pull his hand back. He doesn't like to be told what to do. Veronica arrived and continued to play with Henry.

Mid-morning, I decided to have a break. So I went out to the living room to play with him. And I could just tell it was going to happen, so I yelled for Jeff. Everything suddenly clicked for Henry, and he crawled about five paces forward. And then he did it again. No questions about it. Henry is officially crawling.

In the early afternoon, I heard Jeff say to Veronica, "Did you put Henry here?" Henry was at the steps of the living room. There are two steps that lead from our front hall down into the living room. Veronica said no. Apparently, she had placed him in the middle of the living room. Had turned to put something in the play pen. By the time she turned back, Henry was at the steps. That was probably six feet from where she put him down. Not only was Henry near the steps, but he was trying to crawl up them. Apparently, he doesn't believe in taking new skills slowly. Not only can Henry move forward with his crawling, but he can also change directions, which surprised me because it takes some coordination and weight shifting to change course.

What else did Henry do today? Henry picked up on the idea of waving to people. I unfortunately was stuck in the back pumping during this new skill, but Jeff had Henry waving to Veronica.

Grandma visited Henry in the afternoon. Jeff and I took Henry for a walk with the dogs before sunset. It was a nice day out. Grandpa came in the evening. Henry really showed his crawling skills off for him. Jeff got a little bit of the crawling on video. Due to some technical difficulties with our camera equipment, we only got a short segment. But here it is nonetheless...

Around 9PM, it seemed like a good time to take Henry to bed after his very active day. He waved to Grandpa as Grandpa left. Jeff took him to our bedroom. They are sound asleep snuggled together right now.

Henry's Accomplishments for Monday & Tuesday:
* One-handed hand slap
* Hopping while standing
* Crawling
* Changing directions while crawling
* Climbing up stairs
* Waving

Kate and Jeff's Accomplishment for Monday & Tuesday:
* Watching Henry

Henry Takes a Stand

Last night, I went to bed around midnight. As I got into bed, Jeff mentioned that Henry was a "bed hog." He'd managed to push Jeff to a small sliver of bed space on the edge. Henry woke up at 2:15AM this morning. Had a bottle but was fussy. So we ended up giving him prunes and oatmeal. That satisfied him. He went back to bed with us. In doing so, he turned himself perpendicular to us so that both Jeff and I were on the edges of the bed while he was spread out across the middle.

Henry woke up around 6:40AM. He went on a walk with his Dad and the pups this morning. Jeff reported that Henry pulled himself up to a stand on our museum bench. One of his legs was in an awkward position, but he did get himself up. He tried a second time, but it didn't work out as he planned.

We took Henry over to my parents' house in the morning. Henry had a lunch of summer squash. Took a long 2 hour nap. Crawled three paces. Jeff and I still have yet to see the crawling on all fours. And generally had a good day with Grandma and Grandpa.

Jeff and I went over to my parents' house for dinner around 7PM. Henry was fine until he saw us and then got very fussy. I think that it was getting a little late for him. By 8:15PM, we put him in his carrier and got him home. I suspect that he's going through a growth spurt. He's certainly sleeping more than he usually does.

Despite being off the Prevacid, his milk intake today was fine. We hope that it stays that way. We have Henry's GI appointment on Wednesday. At that appointment, we plan to ask about the long term effects of acid blockers and the potential use of probiotics to off set those side effects. We are hoping we'll get the OK to try yogurt. And, we also plan to ask about goat's milk. Goat's milk is used is many countries as an alternative to formula. The upside of goat's milk is that it is more like human milk in composition (when compared to cow's milk). The downside is that it is low in B12 and folic acid, which means that you have to use supplements for those things. Also, goat's milk contains casein, like cow's milk does. Human milk is very low in casein; the primary protein in human milk is whey. That's important because casein is believed to be one of the causes of colic. However, some people claim that the casein in goat's milk, for whatever reason, doesn't have the same negative effects on kids that cow's milk often does. Some mothers on the preemie messsage board that I frequent have said that when their children were put on goat's milk, their reflux symptoms were minimized and they got off the medications.

Basically, we know that Neocate is gross tasting, although Henry does drink it. Just how gross is Neocate? Well, one of my parents spilled Neocate on the floor today. Their dogs, who stalk anyone who enters the kitchen, hoping that something will fall to the floor, smelled the Neocate and wouldn't touch it. That puts things in perspective.

Henry Meets His Great Aunts and Uncles, Does the Commando Crawl, Masters "Wheels on the Bus," and Turns 8 Months Adjusted!

On Monday afternoon, we went down to Green Valley to visit Jeff's family. We went to Uncle Bob and Aunt Joyce's house, where Jeff's Dad was staying for the rest of his visit. Henry fell asleep on the way down there. He stayed sound asleep as we sat down in the back patio. After awhile, he woke up and surveyed the area. He spent about 45-60 minutes, sizing everyone and the new location up. After that, he sat in Uncle Bob's lap for awhile and let Uncle Bob (Great Uncle Bob to Henry) take him around the patio to look and touch the flowers. Uncle Jim then came. Henry was fascinated by Uncle Jim's voice. Henry showed off his "Wheels on the Bush" skills and had everyone singing it to him. We went inside for dinner and to watch the NCAA Finals. Aunt Joyce (Jim's wife; there are two Aunt Joyces in the family) arrived. She spent a lot of time watching and talking about Henry (which is of course Jeff's and my favorite subject). All in all, it was an excellent visit. We were so proud of how Henry's handling new experiences (having spent a rather sheltered existence between his first 3.5 months in the NICU and 4.5 months at home or at the grand parents' or at doctors' offices).

On Tuesday, Jeff and I went to the movies in the afternoon. Henry spent the afternoon with Grammy and Grandpa Henry.

On Wednesday, Dorsett had a session with Henry. I unfortunately wasn't there and missed her visit by a few minutes. Dorsett has been intrigued by Henry's vocal range, so she brought a scale to measure his speech abilities. By her estimates, Henry's vocal skills are around the 10 month old level. He mimics some syllables and gives vocal responses when talked to.

On Thursday, Jeff went down to Green Valley to pick up his Dad and take him to the airport. We were sorry to see him leave. While Veronica was watching Henry in the morning, he did the marine crawl (also called the commando crawl) where he used his arms to pull himself forward. I unfortunately didn't get to see it. At some point, Jeff and I both noticed that Henry has really developed his fine motor skills. Normally when he does "Wheels on the Bus," he slaps his hands together. But he has been studying our movements and now can make his hands rotate in a circle around each other without hitting each other. I have to stay, I was absolutely floored when he did this. It takes a significant amount of precision to do the wheels action, and he's doing it. Tara visited in the afternoon. I'm not sure what happened as I had to leave for a gender lecture at school. In the evening, Grammy and Grandpa Henry came over to watch Henry, while Jeff and I went out with our friends Dana, Jamie, Steve, and Nikki to Eat Downtown! which is a charity cocktail event where downtown restaurants provide wines and mini-dishes to try (fund raising for the Museum of Contemporary Art). It was a fun event. When we got back home, my mom said that Henry had moved two steps forward on his knees.

Friday was Henry's 8 months adjusted birthday (or due date day). We started off the day with Henry's last Synagis appointment. He weighed 18 lbs 5 ozs with his diaper on (1 oz). That meant two large shots of Synagis. He was very upset by it. I'm glad that it was his last.

Cuyler came in the afternoon with an OT named Selah, who is going to take care of the development part of the OT duties. Cuyler will continue with Henry's feeding issues. Selah lives on the NW side of town, so it will be easier to make appointments with her than it is with Cuyler. Cuyler worked on Henry's eating. The good news is that she got Henry to eat pureed pears. The bad news is that Henry threw up all of the contents in his stomach about an 1.5 hour after the meal. Projectile vomiting on my mom. I went to help and then got doused twice. It wasn't pretty. Henry was shaking and upset. It came out of no where. He had been sound asleep on my mom and then BLAH. I don't know if it was the pureed fruit. He's had pears tons of times before, so that seems an unlikely cause. It could have been the Synagis shot (although he's never had a bad reaction to it before).

During Cuyler's visit, she had mentioned that most kids take probiotics if they take acid blockers for an extended period of time. I did some research on acid blockers and found out that they often cause constipation (a problem that Henry has) because they essentially destroy all of the good bacteria in the intestines, which are needed to breakdown the food. I'm a little frustrated that none of the doctors has mentioned this before. We've expressed concern about Henry's constant struggle to keep things moving (so to speak) and not one doctor has mentioned the acid blocker side effect. We have an appointment this coming week with Henry's GI specialist. I'm going to ask about probiotics at that time. In the meantime, Jeff and I are weaning Henry from the Prevacid to see if he can tolerate less of it.

I cleaned Henry up and gave him some water to clean out his mouth. Because his stomach was empty, he was hungry. I ended up giving him a bottle of milk in bed. He fell fast asleep. I woke up 3 hours later. I was feeling kind of dizzy myself (don't know if it was related to what Henry was feeling). Henry was still asleep. Henry didn't wake up until 4AM. He took a large bottle quickly. Went back to sleep around 5AM. Woke up again at 7AM.

This morning (Saturday), Jeff, Henry, and I took the dogs for a walk. We then headed into town to have breakfast at Ghini's Cafe. They have outdoor seating, and we got a great spot away from everyone else. Henry enjoyed the new surroundings. He flirted with a couple of women who were several feet away. He had peaches (no problems holding them down). We then went to visit my parents for an hour. Came back home. Jeff and Henry watched the Masters, while I worked. Around 5:45PM or so, Jeff took Henry to the back to get him to take a nap. I thought the Boys were going to wake up for the dog walk, but such was not the case. It's 10:35PM right now that the Boys are cuddled together. I'd take a picture of it, but all three of our camera discs are filled already. We've had some problems getting them off the cameras. Hopefully, I'll get them off the discs tomorrow and post pictures of Henry's adventures from this week.

Grandpa Joe's Visit

It has been an active couple of days. On Thursday afternoon, Grandpa Joe arrived! He and Henry have special faces that they make for each other. In the evening, we actually had a sit down meal at the kitchen table, where Henry had green beans for the first time; they were a success.








On Friday, we dropped off Henry at my parents' house, while Jeff, Joe, and I went to the movies to see Leatherheads (it's a miss). We then spent the evening at my parents' place.

On Saturday, we went to Tohono Chul park for breakfast, as we had done the weekend before. We got an excellent seat in the back area, away from the other tables. Henry enjoyed walking through the garden. It was nice. In the afternoon, Jeff and Joe watched NCAA basketball. I took Henry in the back for a nap. We fell asleep on the bed. After 2 and a half hours, I had to get up. It's hard not being able to move for a long period of time. Henry continued to sleep until the 3 hour mark. It was quite a nap. We took Henry out for a walk around dusk. We got to show off his new sunglasses to Yvonne and the girls. Later, we gave him a much needed bath. He had managed to get baby food all over his face and a little bit in his hair.

Today, we got up and gave Henry his breakfast. Around 9AM, Henry got fussy and then took a 45 minute nap with Jeff. The exciting news of the day was that we went to the zoo!!! Henry's first trip to the zoo!!! Well, he did go in utero, but that doesn't really count as his view was limited at the time. We didn't let people touch him of course. I think that he was just as fascinated watching the people (especially kids!) as he was watching the animals. He zonked out toward the end of the excursion.

























We went back to the house for a couple hours, where Henry posed for the camera. What can I say. They don't come any cuter than Henry!








In the late afternoon, we headed to my parents' house for my dad's birthday celebration with the family (who could make it). While over at my parents' house, Henry got a new bike. He's still a little small for it, but he'll grow. My mom had been talking about it for awhile, because I had had one. Henry was chatty as always. And, he pulled himself up to a stand! That was a surprise. We ended the evening with Henry taking a picture with his two Grandpas!