Both boys sucked their thumbs in-utero but stopped after they were born. I'm assuming because of the intubation and feeding tubes - not a lot of room for anything else! The boys have been chewing on everything and putting their entire hands in their mouths - to the point where they've choked themselves. They sucked their thumbs for a short while after we left the NICU but we don't think the thumb was big enough to soothe them. Well, the other night when John was rocking Tyler to sleep, he began sucking away. So of course we had to disturb him and get a shot! I guess it's big enough to be a contender in the mouth! Too stinkin' cute!
I thought I had a picture of Parker's new obsession - his feet! Every time we lay him down, he immediately grabs his feet. It started a couple of weeks ago and he's now obsessed with them! So now I pretend to eat them and he cracks up! It's so cute!
What fun to experience these growth-related milestones. I wish we could say that their reflux has improved and they go all day without having choking episodes or throw ups, but we can't. The good news is that our last GI appointment was favorable - they both gained a good amount of weight. Tyler is now 15 lbs. 3 oz. and Parker is 14 lbs. 3 0z. - yep, an entire pound difference! Parker is still maintaining and gaining via bottle feeding - what a relief! Tyler is taking three bottles daily, but can't quite finish them so we are forced to gavage the difference. Then he is gavaged overnight to get the rest of the food. His reflux is just too extreme for the little guy to eat more. I am also continuing their once daily attempts to feed them purees. Neither of them is crazy about the baby food and eat very little. Tonight was organic apples and they tolerated it. I just bought prunes, peaches, peas and squash - we'll see if any of these will be a turning-point for the boys. I'm waiting....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Tomorrow is the beginning of weekly therapy. It'll be interesting to find out how the boys are doing physically and mentally. I'm not sure of the skills in which the boys will be graded, nor the sort of exercises the therapist will do, but I'm open to learning! I look forward to getting the boys on regular program that I can implement throughout the week. We already do some "exercises", but I'd like to be shown a program that will incorporate more diversity. My rounds of "ride a bike", "pull yourself up", "punch it out", and "kick your legs" aren't quite cutting it! Ha ha...but at least I'm trying!
Below are just a couple of quick shots of Tyler sucking his thumb! You can see in the first photo that Tyler's face has red marks above the tape. That's from taping the same spot over and over again. This time we decided to tape under his ear so we could give his poor little face a rest! Unfortunately Tyler's other nostril doesn't allow the NG tube to go through. We think he may have a deviated septum - not sure. So now we're forced to use the same nostril over and over again for feeding. Grrrr....
Not good pics below, but enjoy anyway! ;o)
"Num num...I think my thumb grew because it tastes so much better now!"
"Hey, I'm sucking in peace! Can you leave me alone?"
No comments:
Post a Comment