Dorsett's Last Visit

I dropped off Henry at his grandparents' house this morning. He looked happy.

My mom could tell that I was stressed. She suggested that maybe I should stop the pumping, considering that he is taking the goat's milk with no problem. Basically, I would like to do that, but there is no question that (a) breast milk goes down easier on the stomach than anything else, (b) the vitamins and minerals in breast milk get absorbed at much higher rates than anything else, (c) breast milk transfers the mother's antibodies to the child, and (d) breast milk contributes to myelination, whereas substitutes aren't able to contribute nearly as much (hence breast milk babies have 8-9 point higher IQs on average compared to formula babies).

My mom thinks that the last point isn't much of an issue for Henry. She said that his IQ was probably around 140. My tongue-in-cheek response was that I was shooting for 155, which I pointed out probably would have been my mother's IQ had she been breast fed as a child, which she was not; her actual IQ is 147, when it was tested awhile ago. That evoked an eye roll from her.

In all seriousness, I know that Henry will probably be just fine. But I figure that we only get one shot at making sure that he makes it out of his most crucial time of development as strong as he can possibly be. I don't want to look back on these years second guessing myself, having made a choice that placed my convenience over Henry's well being. Pumping breast milk is far from fun, relaxing, or convenient. I'm not going to be setting any publication records this year in part because it takes so much time out of my schedule. But what can I say? Career comes second when you have a child. I'm stilling doing OK at work. This year has not been stellar, but I have satisfied (and in some areas exceeded) what is required to do my job.

We were supposed to have a Selah appointment today, but we canceled it because I was at school taking care of business and it just wasn't going to work out on time.

That ended up being OK because Dorsett called to see if she could see Henry today for her last visit. Unfortunately, the insurance company didn't extend her visits with Henry because he is getting PT from Shirley now through DDD (which the insurance company likes, because DDD picks up the bill). It's probably for the best in terms of our schedule, because we already have a minimum of two therapy appointments a week. However, Henry really likes his PT visits, and there is no denying that Dorsett has challenged him in ways that have facilitated his PT development. She has a great way of handling him, and he enjoys working with her.

Dorsett bought Henry a 1 year old birthday gift a couple weeks ago, and she gave us a copy of her son's old Raffi cassette tape to play for Henry (because she knows that he likes music a lot). We've been playing it for him.

Dorsett was willing to have the PT appointment at my parents' house, which was good for us. I believe Dorsett lives in the center of town, so my parents' house is probably a couple minutes closer than our house is (if not closer, at least their roads are less rustic than ours meaning that they are paved). When Dorsett told Jeff that it would be her last visit, Jeff decided to hop on over to my parents' house so that he could take a picture of her and Henry and thank her for help. Jeff said that she was sitting with Henry on the couch reading books when he arrived. Henry had already been all over the house displaying his gross motor skills.

When Jeff got back home with Henry, he was sleepy, so Henry and I snuggled and took a nap together. During our nap, Jeff went shopping for a new car seat. Henry has outgrown his current car seat. He's getting too long for it, so Jeff got a new one, which is exciting. Henry and I got up for our walk around dusk and ran into Hal and Swani (and Annie and Luke the dogs). Beautiful night. The breeze was whipping around Henry's fuzz. He is very slowly getting hair. It will be a long while before a hair cut is necessary.

We had dinner. Henry tried some a level 3 soup of sweet potato bisque and cinnamon. I have Henry a taste of my asparagus spear (let him suck a couple tiny pieces off the tip). It was a little spicy, so I don't know how much he actually liked it. He was very sleepy still. So we gave him a bath, and then right to bed.

I took a short nap with him, while Jeff cleaned up the kitchen. Jeff got me up at midnight, so here I am, preparing for tomorrow's class and taking a break by writing this entry.

That about wraps it up. I am disappointed that we won't see Dorsett regularly, but she asked Jeff if it would be alright to call just to see how he's doing. We of course want to keep in touch with her and truly appreciate how she was brought out new things in Henry.