Actual Age: 11.4
Corrected Age: 7.9
Weight (as of Dec 10th): 18 pounds 3 ounces
Length (as of Dec 10th): 31 inches

Ty had a wonderful 1st Christmas and amazed and awed everyone with his good nature. He has never met a stranger and was happy burning the midnight oil (literally) with all 5 of our christmas gatherings:). He managed to open FIVE of our presents before time requiring rewrapping on my part. Conveniently, none of the presents he opened were his. Unfortunate odds for him. He is well inundated with baby toys and developmental toys and I had to pay an additional 100 bucks for more storage boxes for the playroom closet. (Partially, that was reaorganizing but they did get A LOT for Christmas).

Communication

Ty says: ba ba, da da, ma ma, pa pa (are they directed yet? still…mostly no).

He also loves clicking his tongue, making kissing sounds, blowing at you, and trying to sing. We determined that Ty is a Jeremy Camp fan (Go Ty!). We watched the Gospel Awards the other night and Ty was singing and dancing when Jeremy Camp came on.

Swaddling

The swaddling officially ended this week! BIG step! He kept getting himself out of it anyhow so we decided it was time to wean. Unfortunately though, he is now sleeping on his tummy FACE DOWN!!! I move his head to the side so many times during the night. The only thing I am thankful for is that Ty is still on an apnea monitor and sat monitor at night and he sats fine while doing this (which I find amazing…I have no idea how he can breathe with his nose pressed against the mattress). What can I do about this? I keep moving him but he goes right back? Quite stressful to say the least. As for the monitors, I am getting ready to wean myself from them. I will let them go in January and I am trying to gear myself up for it!!!! At some point the monitors alone are a risk because Ty wraps himself in the chords.

Feeding

We had our first speech therapy home visit this week. Folks, for the life of me I can’t diagnose Ty’s issue. Once again I will try to explain this to you in case anyone has any insight here. Bottom line is, Ty will only take a bottle…period.

Here are things I have considered as possible causes and also reasons that I reject them:

(1) Oral Aversion

Oral aversions are very typical for micro preemie’s, especially those who were vented awhile. Ty, however, puts EVERYTHING in his mouth which seems to rule this out.

(2) Taste Aversion

Hmmmm….maybe. Doesn’t seem to like the taste of anything or show interest. If it was taste though, why would he take his medicine so well (which is AWFUL) and why would he reject thickened formula and rice cereal when the flavor is the exact same as his thinned bottle? Also, he will suck on anything that either I hold or he holds, he just won’t let any particles get loose in his mouth or he is quickly trying to get them out with his hand or he starts gagging.

(3) Texture Aversion

This would help me understand why he will take a bottle of formula mixed with rice cereal but not thickened cereal but it doesn’t explain why he will put any texture of object in his mouth…he just doesn’t want them loose.

(4) DSI

Again, if he had sensory issues, it would seem they would show themselves in other ways too…ie. not liking the feel of things or having a true texture aversion.

(5) Pain Aversion/Reflux

Several people have mentioned that Ty may associate eating with pain because of his reflux issues. Makes sense but I don’t agree. I have never seen him in pain directly after eating to make this kind of association.

(6) Severe gag reflux

Is it possible, he has a severe gag reflux and loose food just panics him because he doesn’t have the maturity of coordination to chew and swallow? It looks like his natural instinct is to get food out, not get it down.

I did find ONE thing that he seemed to have interest in for the very first time though. I held a piece of cantalope for him and he loved sucking on it and kept reaching for more. If a tiny piece would break loose in his mouth though he spit it out quickly. I may try this in the fruit mesh bag again but so far I have not been able to get him to like the darn thing.

The speech therapist isn’t quite sure either. After Ty had tried a bit of cereal, a cracker, and a cheerio (none of which was very succesful)…he had a terrible choking incident. I was glad (at least) that now 2 speech therapists have seen him do this.. This is the same thing that happened at the speech evaluation a couple of months ago. It wasn’t while he was trying to eat, it was a few minutes later when nothing was in his mouth. These incidents can be severe and I have to hold him upside down smacking him to get him past the choking. The speech therapist was concerned that he was aspirating and wants another swallow study done. He passed his swallow study with flying colors in July but he was too little to try any food that was as thick as cereal so we may try again with thicker foods and see what happens. The speech therapist will be coming weekly and we’ll just keep working at it I guess. I just have no idea what to think. I know of other micro preemie mom’s that just couldn’t get their babies to eat solids until 14 months or more…who knows why….

Sitting

Ty was sitting on his own for as much as 40 seconds this week! Yeah!!! This just started happening in the last two days. He still is very unstable and falls easily but a major accomplishment none the less. His therapist will be so proud of him when she sees this!!!

Using Arms and Legs

I noticed this week that he is trying to use his arms and legs to push against the floor a little bit. Another huge step. Go baby go!

(I am sleepy now..I’ll post pictures tomorrow).