6 Months!

Yes, that is right, our little man is 6 months old today!  We celebrated by having Grandma and Grandpa come and visit.  Along with our monthly tie photo.  We added Elvis in too!  Look how small he is getting, he used to be bigger than his head.  And that tie the first month was longer than his body.  I think his diaper ended right about at the top of the number.  This guy is a little miracle!  

Here is the one month picture for comparison.  Keep growing little man! 

Brian and I had quite the week.  We had two visits to the hospital.  Life with a preemie is never boring I decided.  He keeps me busy all the time.  The first appointment was Tuesday with our lung doctor.  We got a lot of good information from him.  We now have a game plan, which is nice.  Brian will be on oxygen for at least another 2-3 months, until he is 5-6 months old "corrected" age.  They want his lungs to heal and grow, and the only way to do that is with time and good nutrition.  He insisted on us getting a swallow study and chest x-ray done as well.  He wanted a base line picture of his lungs to see how they are healing and to have something to compare to just in case our little man were to get sick in the future.  Second part of that day was a heart ECHO to look at the function of his heart.  It took about 20 minutes and our little man was awesome through the whole thing.  He just sat on my lap, sucked his paci and stared at all the new lights.  

We went back on Thursday for our chest x-ray and swallow study.  The picture is Brian all set up and ready to go in the radiology department.  They put him in that fancy chair and have him eat all sorts of different combinations/thickness of formula (think in terms of honey, pudding, or nectar thick) mixed with barium so that you can see him swallowing the food in real time.  Good news: Brian eats the normal thickness formula well!  He does have something called a delayed swallow, but that should get better with time.  Carl and I need to encourage the paci to build up some muscle strength and be sure to make feeding an "enjoyable experience" to avoid the possibility of a food aversion later on.  We just laugh at that, this baby is from the Moberg/DeGroot line.  There is no food aversion here!  And look at his rolls...

I made these little footed leggings.  You know, in my spare time.  There are so many cute girl things I had to get creative for my boy!  I love sewing, it's a nice break when Carl is home to help with the babe. 

All the boys had some quality time together this weekend.  Carl is holding the syringe that helps us feed Baby Brian.  First, we feed him from the bottle like any normal baby.  Then the rest of his food goes into the syringe and down his tube into his stomach.  We can't really let him just be done when he is tired because nutrition is so vital for him.  He needs the proper nutrition to keep growing and to get his sick little lungs to heal.  Our primary doctor called me Thursday night and we chatted for half an hour.  We talked meds, therapies and every thing else Brian related.  She said we have another 6-8 weeks for him to really catch on to eating before we seriously talk g-tube.  Let's pray that is not needed. 

Grandpa is so comfy. 

We sure love our Grandma and Grandpa! 

Brian doing some tummy time.  He loved it at first!  

But, man, is it exhausting :) 

He slept like this for probably 20 minutes.  And I let him because he seemed comfy.  This week will hopefully be less busy.  We have no appointments planned, but now I just need to figure out all his therapy schedules and new meds.  We have also added cardiolgy and feeding therapy appointments onto our long list of specialists that we see.  Keeping them all straight is seriously a full time job.  Good thing I have a Google calendar. Love that thing.   Carl is currently reading "Going on a Bear Hunt" to Brian right now.  It's adorable, and I need to go watch.