29 July

Since I last posted, Max had his first physio appointment and I went back to uni. The first went really well, the latter was much harder than I thought it would be.

The physio check is basically to see how he is progressing in his physical development - is he on track etc... Wendy went through various observational excercises with him - putting him on the floor on his back, holding toys in front of him (to see if he follows them with his eyes, reaches out for them etc). This he did quite well, and reached out for the toy. He then was rolled onto his tummy - which he normally doesn't like at all, and (thank goodness) he pushed himself up a bit on his arms (which is about the most he does at home). I have read on other premmie websites of babies who go to their medical check and then don't do all the things they do at home, so they are marked as lower in their development than they should be! Max, luckily, actually did all the things he does at home - no more, no less.


Then, we tried sitting up. Max loves pulling himself (while holding my hands) up into a sitting position. He tends to still drop his chin to his chest, but does look up a good deal of the time as well. After a couple of other positions, he was pronounced 'reasonably average' and we went home.


Overall, I was happy. He doesn't really look like he's interested in rolling yet, nor is he very good on his tummy, but over the past three weeks he is slowly improving. He's still quite loose in the torso, which makes sitting up a bit tricky for him as he slumps a bit - especially if he's tired. We simply hope he'll catch up, as every little negative is still a bit scary. However, in general, we're happy with what he can do.


Feeding still isn't brilliant, but the last few days he's started the odd 120ml bottle - maybe one or two a day. He even took one that was 160ml the other day - we were stunned. However, the feat hasn't been repeated; we live in hope.


He is going through a bit of a 'I hate daytime sleeping' phase and won't go to bed during the day. He whinges and grizzles right through to screams when we try to put him down for naps. This can be frustrating, but the worst bit is that he is so obviously tired! He gets very very bad at about 4pm, especially if he woke up at 6am! He won't lie down, wriggles in your arms, all the normal grumpy tired baby stuff. Last night was spectacular - got so upset he vomited, and Mark literally had to stand up and do laps of the house for about an hour before he fell asleep.


Poor little guy - he then slept (from 5.30pm) until 1am, had a whole bottle, then slept again until 7am. Hopefully today we'll try a nap about 10.30 and see how it goes.


He now weighs about 5.7kg and is solidly a size 000 in clothes. I am noticing how widely kids' clothes differ in sizes - the Bonds Wondersuits are far smaller (in fact he's in oo in those) than others - some of the ooo clothes we've been given are huge! He's also getting a bit more hair - mostly on top only and it is a red-brown colour.


I have decided/We have decided that I won't be going back to uni this semester. I did do a one-week Art Intensive topic, which was a lot of fun but a lot of intense work (obviously). I still haven't finished the last assignment, and have found it just so difficult to sit at the computer and write - Max isn't keen on being left for long, and hates silence! Mark does what he can, but he's at work a lot, so we realised I'd really struggle to do another topic or two properly while he's at this stage. If we could put him into childcare it might be different, but we can't do that right now.


So, maybe next year.

(Photos: top to bottom - Just a lovely shot I wanted to share, Mr Grumpyface, falling asleep sitting leaning against me in bed, bathtime)

5 July

Ok! OK! I get the hint!


I have had at least four people in the last two days ask when I'm going to update the blog - so here goes.

Max has been inundated with visitors lately, most especially Grandma from New Zealand for a week and then Baba & Dido from Melbourne for a few days. He has been very well behaved, and has become much easier to get a smile out of. However, it's not always consistent, and we haven't really had laughs (although the other night we got a few 'heh!' sounds accompanied by grins).


He sleeps well - but I may have misled people in my last post with my 'sleeping through the night' comment. He will often go for 5 hours without waking us up, but I still wake every hour or two - to either check he's still breathing (!) or to see if he's hungry. I'm still quite paranoid about the whole food situation. He's not a great eater - only taking 450 - 550ml of fortified food each day. I suppose there's no problem with that if he continues to grow appropriately and isn't dehydrated, but as we get him weighed weekly, and he's on (actually below) the lowest percentile for his corrected age, I'm always afraid he isn't growing well. But, he seems healthy enough, and is quite a placid wee soul, so I suppose all is well.

I bumped into a friend in a shop today, who had her son (term) while Max was in hospital, and I asked her what her son's weight was. She laughed and said 'I have no idea' - she just looks to see if he's growing. I suppose that's the difference between a term baby and a prem. We're always looking at every movement and statistic to check how he is developing, to anticipate any problems and to ensure we head off any issues as soon as possible.

We had a medical checkup earlier this week - Max now weighs 5320g and is relatively on track for a 3-4 month-old baby (which is his 'corrected age'). We need to keep encouraging smiling/laughing, his torso is a bit low in tone (- a bit 'loose', he doesn't hold it strongly when you pick him up), and he's a bit behind in lifting his head when sitting up and when he's on his tummy. We also have a physio appointment next week, and I'm sure we'll come out of that with a list of issues! We know he favours lying his head to his right (thus his head is quite flat on that side and his face is a bit out of alignment), and we are constantly turning his head, putting the 'interesting things' on his left etc etc. Very difficult. We were also warned that there are some very nasty viruses around at the moment, and to try to keep Max away from potential sources of infection - mostly crowded places and places with children. Oops.


He has a lot to say when he's in the mood - babbling to us or to his toys. He has also started a whingy type of cry - he's never been much of a screamer (but he can when he wants to) - which usually means he's bored, but can be the only sign we have that he is ready for food. He's a hard guy to read!

The photos - (red stripy outfit) Max became absolutely fascinated with his hands not long after he came home. he's now at the point of putting them in his mouth all the time, and can almost get the while fist in! His Tato calls that outfit his 'Where's Wally' gear - but I love it! (close up) - taken in an attempt to capture him smiling - he tends to go 'blank' whenever he spots any kind of camera. (yellow outfit lying down) - finally we get a pic of a smile - when he is lying on the change table looking at his favourite toy. One day I'll take a photo of the toy and explain why we call it 'Warney'. (surrounded by toys) - this is his gym, which he'll play under for hours. I actually took the centre item off the gym after this photo - it has a mirror on it, and Max kept going cross-eyed as he tried to focus!