ONE YEAR OLD!!!!!

Well, we have been sooooo busy with Carter, I haven't posted in a LONG time to this blog.  Felt it was time, now that he is ONE YEAR OLD!  September 3, was the actual day, but we celebrated his birthday on the 6th, so friends & family could come.  We are all amazed at how far he has come in one short year, and marvel daily at all the new things he is learning.  He has 6 teeth, and eats "Big People" food now.  He is about to turn loose and walk, and often stands alone until it occurs to him that he is standing alone.  He gets around so fast with this weird crab-crawl thing and it's hard to catch him when he has his mind set on going somewhere.
We celebrated his birthday with a "monster" theme.  The cake & cupcakes were made by local baker, Mindi Jennings, who did a marvelous job! Attaching some pictures below.

Five Months and Trucking Right Along!

Wow!  Didn't realize how long it had been since I had posted!  Time flies when you're having fun - or having babies! 
Carter was 5 months old on Feb. 3.  He is nearly 14 pounds now. The doctors said to judge his development by his "adjusted' age, not his real age, which as of Feb. 3 would only be 3 months old.  I think in some areas, he is equal to 5 months, others still 3 months.  He is just now starting to grasp things on purpose and look at what he wants and reach for it.  He has been sleeping through the night for some time now.  I told his mother, she was very lucky - a good night's sleep is worth a lot!
He is just so cute!  He smiles and laughs at everything.  He is already a TV junkie - seems to be mezmerized by it!  He has rolled over a few times, but we're not sure if it was on purpose or an accident.  He wants to sit up, but can't totally do it yet, so he gets frustrated with that.  And he is already becoming a little bit "bossy"!  When he is mad, everyone knows it!
We have decided that from the nose down, he looks like Courtney, but from the eyes up, it's Cole.  I think his eyes are going to be blue.  But the little expressions he has on his face are totally Courtney!  And we all know, when that bottom lip begins to curl out, you'd better be scrambling for something, because the mad wail is coming!  He loves to read books and now wants to feel of everything. 
The doctor upped his medicine he takes for the hemangioma and he is tolerating it well, so he no longer has to go every week for a blood pressure check.  His next appointment will be his six month well baby check.  He has to go to a follow-up NICU appointment in a couple of weeks, and will see the speech therapist and occupational therapist that visited him in the NICU and they will see how he is progressing.  I am excited for them to see what a big boy he is now!
More to come...

4 Months Old!!

Well, Carter has survived his first Christmas, and attended his first New Year's Eve party!  He is now 23" long, and up to 12 lbs.  His coo's are becoming much more often, and sometimes really loud!  We did a lot of reading about preemies, and most things say that for their development, you need to judge them according to their age if they would have gone to term.  In other words, even though he is 4 months old, he should be behaving like a 2 month old.  This is kind of weird, because some things he does are that of a 2 month old, and others a 4 month old.  So it's really hard to determine if he is even, ahead or behind!  He is real champ at holding his head without bobbling now.  He looks and really studies everything around him.  He has some weird fascination with ceiling fans - it there's one in the room you're in, he cranes his head to watch it.  His reflux has improved vastly, as has his choking episodes.  For a while, he would choke nearly every time he was fed, and now it's only every few days or so.  The reflux seems to be better, with him only having a few episodes a week.  And it seems to be worse if he is jostled around after eating.  The doctor says he can begin to explore some cereal, so we will start that soon. And we no longer have to use distilled water to mix his formula.  His last visit, he got 3 shots and made it known that he did NOT like it! 
They make you fill out a "4-month questionnaire", which asks the most ridiculous questions - do you do drugs in the presence of your baby? Do you drink hot liquids while holding your baby?  Do you ever shake your baby?  Really?  Are there people who answer yes?
His blood pressure remains good with the beta blockers he is taking.  The hemangioma has shrank, both in diameter and depth.  The doctor is really impressed with how well it is doing.  We still ask a thousand questions at each visit and get in the car to leave and remember at least one thing we forgot to ask!  The nurse said they are finally getting their own blood pressure machine, so we don't have to walk to the icu to borrow theirs. 
For Christmas, I got him a huge plastic bucket with the rope handles, and Courtney asked why.  After Christmas, she knows. We all went crazy with toys and such, so now he has a place to keep them! 
He joined us for our annual New Year's Eve Party, and had a major reflux while I was holding him - went on my shirt, my pants, the floor, everywhere.  So I smelled like baby spit up from head to toe!  Oh, well, such are the woes of babies! 
All in all, we are amazed at how well he is doing. 

Beta Blockers Working!!

So Carter has begun taking the beta blocker medication for the hemangioma on his forehead.  We met with his pediatrician and asked a thousand questions about this medication in babies.  He said he had personally used it on two other babies who had them in locations that would have been inoperable and said it worked very well.  But it is basically kind of uncharted territory.  He didn't have a lot of answers to our questions, and of course we had googled everything we could find on it.  Carter had to go in for a base blood pressure reading, and the doctor felt of the hemangioma and measured it.  He goes once a week for a blood pressure check and the doctor takes measurements and feels of it each time.  Courtney is taking pictures to chart the progress.  He has been taking the medication for a week and a half and already it has greatly reduced in size and appearance.  When he started, the skin was very red and tight-looking where it was bulging out.  Now, it is much softer, smaller in diameter and has a different appearance.  The only side effects noticeable are that Carter is really tired for a short time after he takes the medication (he takes 3 doses a day).  So we are very hopeful that this will speed the reduction of this. 
His last weight check was 10 lbs. 2 oz.  He has like 2 or 3 chins now!  He is fascinated with ceiling fans!  If there is one in a room, he cranes his neck to stare at it no matter which way you turn him.  And he is starting to make little cooing noises, but usually acts surprised when it happens.  I told Courtney, in a short time, he will be doing that non-stop and probably at inopportune times!  He now holds his head steady for long periods of time and is getting stronger by the day.  And he wiggles and riggles all over.  Still hoping he can sit in a bumbo seat by Christmas - will make for really cute pictures!
More later...

Carter's First Thanksgiving

Well, Carter survived his first Thanksgiving!  He visited with the Gann family early in the day, and then came to see the Myers/Alexander's for the afternoon.  His last weight check was 9 lbs, 4 oz!!  He is just growing like a weed!  He has begun to smile on purpose, and is starting to coo some.  He is becoming more vocal when things aren't like he wants them - I wouldn't call it a cry - more of a yell!  He lets you know when he's mad!  He has had several nights that he has slept for 6 hours or more.  All good signs of growing and maturing.  He is quickly outgrowing his clothes.  He wore newborn for a good while, and the 0-3 months size are now starting to be too short!  He is holding his head up for longer periods.  Maybe by Christmas he will be able to sit in a bumbo seat.  We are all so excited for him to experience his first Christmas.  I said I wasn't even going to buy a bunch of toys because he doesn't know it's Christmas, but you know how that goes.  One trip down the baby toy aisle and I had several things tossed into my cart!  His daddy says he is already spoiled, but isn't that what we are supposed to do?!  He is not a big fan of the bounce seat or anything really, that involves not being held!  The doctor says by the time he is around 6 months, it will be OK to let him fuss a little and try to soothe himself, but for now, the spoiling continues!

Carter's Visit with the ENT specialist

Carter saw the Ear, Nose & Throat doctor yesterday.  This appointment was scheduled for him while he was still in the nicu.  And it is always tough trying to time feedings with an hour drive to Springfield.  So we get there and go to check in, only to be told that this is the day the doctor is in Lebanon seeing patients.  And we were the second people to arrive at the Springfield office instead of Lebanon.  Thank you "Beth", whoever you are for making us drive 100 miles with a crying baby when we didn't need to.  So after all that, we came back to Lebanon and saw him here.  He had some concerns because of the hemangioma on his head.  He said sometimes if they are prone to have those, they can get them in their throat and it will constrict their airway.  So he ran a scope down Carter's throat to have a look (this was less fun than driving with a crying baby).  He has what he calls a floppy airway.  This causes him to have a stridor, or make funny squeaking sounds when he eats, essentially trying to get all the muscles working correctly between his windpipe and throat.  It is expected he will outgrow this by about 7 months.  There were no signs of a hemangioma in the throat, which is great news.  He suggested prescribing beta blockers, given orally, to begin to reduce the hemangioma on his head.  He said earlier treatments involved steroids, but they had greater side effects.  I guess beta blockers are the newest treatment for this.  The down side - they slow the heart rate somewhat. We are going to discuss this with Carter's pediatrician and get his opinion.  I have also read they can lower blood sugar levels, so I feel like if we do this, he should be frequently checked for both blood pressure and glucose levels.  Hard decision to make.  The studies say the sooner you begin treatment for hemangiomas, the more successful their reduction is.  But he just got off his apnea monitor and not sure we want to do anything that might affect his health.  Praying God will show us what decision to make.

A Clean Bill of Health!!

Carter saw his pulmonologist today and they said he no longer needed his apnea monitor!!! Yay!  No more loud alarms in the night!  He had several alarms this past 2 weeks, but they were all false.  And they said he should be growing out of his "periodic breathing", which is common in preemies, where they have periodic pauses.  A pause of longer than 20 seconds is considered apnea.  He hasn't had any of those in a while.  His little face looks fatter every day!  He is now up to 8 lbs, 5 oz.  Growing like a weed.  At his last pediatrician check-up, he was in the 25th percentile for his weight.  He is now in the 50th percentile!  We are so thankful for his progress. 
When he was still in the NICU, he developed a small pink spot on his forehead. The nurses called it a "storkbite", or birthmark, and said it would likely go away.  Well, It didn't.  It is now referred to as a hemangioma.  It is a collection of blood vessels close to the skin.  The pediatrician said it was common in preemies, and most of them reduce in size or totally go away by the time the child is 18 mos-2 yrs old.  Carter's is about as big around as a nickel, and raised maybe 1/4".  We asked about just having it removed, but the doctor said if you do that now, he will have a permanent scar.  If we wait and it goes away on its own, there will be no scar.  So we will wait and see.  It doesn't seem to bother him, or hurt or anything. 
So, all in all, a great report today!!