Our little buddy is a superstar! He’s been working hard at getting bigger and stronger, so he’s celebrating by graduating from THREE different doctor’s this week! I’m so excited by this news, I can’t really find the words to describe it. It’s like a big weight has been lifted from my shoulders! What a great way to celebrate his (almost) birthday week!
Drum roll please…
No More CranioCap!
His head is looking stellar. Nice and round and all grown-up looking…check out that comb-over. He’s a hipster from the start.
No more Occupational Therapy!
For the past 3 months, Jax has been in weekly therapy to help him learn to eat textured foods. This week, Jax had a breakthrough!
When we started, we could not put solid food to his lips without him gagging. He also wouldn’t touch food. This type of aversion is suspected to be from being on the ventilator for 36 days. I get it. I wouldn’t want anything that reminded me of that plastic tube down my throat, either!
Now that we’ve gotten over the hump with crunchy textures, we’re starting on soft foods. It’s going to be the same progression, I can tell, but I don’t think it will take him as long to master it since he has practice now.
Since he is making such good progress, he’s officially graduated from his weekly occupational therapy appointments! He still has a ways to go, but he’s a quick learner, so I have a feeling he’ll be eating “what’s for dinner” very soon!
No more Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) follow-up!
Jax’s eyes have been a big concern. Many preemies, especially ones with the need for oxygen support, suffer from ROP. We were lucky that the Avastin injections and the laser surgery helped stop the disease from spreading and causing his retina to detach (which would have caused blindness). Yesterday, we saw our ROP specialist for the VERY LAST TIME! She said his eyes looked “great!”
Jax will be seen in about 6 months by his pediatric ophthalmologist to assess the need for glasses. Because of the ROP, the injections, and the surgery, the chance that Jax will need glasses is pretty high. But. We’ll cross that bridge when we need to. For now, we will celebrate! (This picture was from last month, so that’s why he still has the helmet on!)
So today is an awesome day! It’s a great way to kick off our vacation week. I’ll be taking the next week off from blogging so I can finish packing, wrap my head around the fact that Jax is almost ONE year old, and give myself some pep-talks so I don’t cry all week. I hope you all don’t forget about us while we’re gone! We’ll be back next Friday with a special post for Jax’s birthday. Aren’t you excited to see the year in pictures?! See you next week, then. 🙂
An Early Start 