9 Months.
That's 39 weeks.
Or 273 days.
And 97 of those days were spent in the hospital.
It's so hard for me to believe that he has now been home for twice as long as he was in the hospital. In the midst of it, time moved in slow motion. But now? It already seems like such a long time ago. Especially since he is doing so well, and is such a happy, healthy baby now.
But there are still plenty of reminders of his early and difficult start in life. He is still slightly behind developmentally. He can roll all over the place, sit up, and he "talks" and coos all the time. But his fine motor skills are behind, and he is not crawling or pulling himself up yet.
And he still has oral motor difficulties, so he is not eating solid foods yet. But an occupational therapist comes to see him, and we do various exercises to help build up his mouth muscles and to help him learn what to do with his tongue so that he knows how to swallow the food. He is already doing much better. He used to clamp his mouth shut, and anything that did get in his mouth would gag him. But now he will at least take some, he just has trouble swallowing it. Slowly but surely we're getting there!
And of course, we are reminded daily of his prematurity when we have to give him his medicine. He is still on three different blood pressure medications. But he seems to be growing into his blood pressure (as he gets bigger, his numbers are more proportionate to his size), so we are hopeful to begin to wean him off the medicine very soon. :)
But we are also reminded daily of how very amazingly well he is doing, and how INCREDIBLY blessed we are because of that. I try to never forget what could have been during those long three months, or the fact that God could have taken him from us, but did not. And for that, I will be eternally thankful.
I don't know if this is helpful, but I took a picture of him the other day next to a measuring tape which measured 15 inches (his size at birth). Unfortunately, he was not completely stretched out, so you can't tell exactly how much he's grown, but you get an idea.
He's getting so big and so strong! Happy nine months, sweet boy!
He's so sweet. I remember those early days of his life. I followed your blog and waited for updates so that I can pray. God has brought Him through and He will continue to do so. He is a true blessing and such a testimony of the amazing God that we serve.
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