Saturday, July 30, 2011

bigger. better. stronger.

Since Sawyer has been sitting, he has been stronger in other areas as well. He reaches for toys, grabs them, picks them up, and will shake his rattle. He can scoot himself around by pushing himself on his back with his legs. Cute but annoying when I'm trying to change his diaper. He also hits himself repeatedly in the head with his right arm. I'm not sure why, because it has to hurt. I have been having talks with him about how he shouldn't hit himself because it makes mom sad.

But most of all, my favorite new achievement is his ability to hug me! Not like a huge bear hug, but he'll put his arms around my neck and rest his face next to mine. He is becoming less dead weight and more active, even while in my arms.

Oh, and jumping, the never ending jumping.




Did I say jumping? I meant sleeping.

Mark your calendars for August 31st, because that's when we're coming back to Primary's for a few appointments. I'll come bearing gifts, like muffins and Fresca on tap from the Rainbow Café. MMmm.


Monday, July 25, 2011

New Trick

Newborn no more.

Sawyer is a sitting baby.




(Sorry about the quality of the pics. One is a phone pic and the others are from a scratched-lens-camera. )

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

I'm the sucker who buys a purple Bumbo.

Here's the story of the purple Bumbo. Found one at Walmart. The Bumbo on the box was lime green. I originally wanted yellow. However, in a little purple box on the green bumbo it read "actual color." Very deceiving. When I read "actual color," on top of the green Bumbo, I assumed it was green. Came home and SURPRISE!! Its actual color is in fact purple. 

I'll start with his 6 month check up. Here are his stats:
Weight: 15 lbs 5 oz (13%)
Height/Length: 25 1/2 in (17%)
Head circumference: 42 1/2 cm (17%)

Shots went well, but poor Sawyer cried so hard he shook and turned blueish. He ran a low fever after and slept a lot for the next two days.

I introduced baby food last week and surprisingly, it went well. Sweet potatoes and carrots were a hit. I went back to a normal nipple on his bottle and he will put it in his mouth, but still no sucking.




His physical therapist (a friend from jr. high) came and evaluated his development. According to the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development III, here are his scores:
-Cognitive percentile rank: 50%
-Language: 58%
-Motor: 4%
-Social-Emotional: 63%
-General Adaptive:  68%

Overall pretty average. Our goals are to really work on tummy time and get him sitting.

Teaching him how to sit is hilarious.



















That's all! Gotta run to another appointment :)

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Tonight...

......Sawyer helped me make dinner.


Wednesday, July 13, 2011

old habits die hard





I've noticed Sawyer makes weird swallowing sounds right after he's fed, and sometimes spits up, so today I decided to raise his mattress and see if that helps any. Also decided a little nest á la NICU  might take him back to the good ol' days. So far he likes it.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Happy 6 months!!!

I got in the habit of writing Sawyer "letters" while he was in the hospital. Back when I had time to do sentimental stuff like that. I'm so glad I kept track of his growth and little milestones, as well as my feelings of helplessness and fear that he wouldn't know me or how much I loved him.

Dear Sawyer,

Today you are 6 months old. You are home from the hospital and are warming up to the fact that it's just me most of the time, instead of twenty pretty faces always peeking over your crib everyday. You miss back rubs from Brooke, lullabies from Lorraine, story time from Becky, and tummy time with Barb.

You sleep through the night but lucky mom gets to wake up every three hours to hook you up to your feeding pump. You are a good napper. You take 5 minute cat naps throughout the day, so mom has enough time to wash out your pump or check facebook or start an entry on blogger and forget about it until a week later and it's old news so she deletes it and starts over.

You laugh when I kiss your neck, grunt when you try to poop, cry when I sneeze too loudly, squeal when I lift you over my head, punch me in the face after you get a dose of Ativan, and love to sit in my lap all day with a binkie propped in your mouth while watching reruns of the Office.

I can lay you in your crib when I sense you're tired and you will easily drift off to sleep. I can put you in your swing, johnny jumper, or car seat and you don't have any melt downs.

Your hair is still dark and your eyes are navy blue. You weigh 15 lbs and measure 25" long. You get your 6 month immunizations this Friday. Your g-tube site is clean and your surgical scars are slowly fading into your skin. You're opposite from mom in that you don't devour food that's within reach. Instead, you are tricked into eating 5 drops of milk a couple times a day and that makes mom happy.

I love waking up to you every morning. I could gobble you up, but I resist. I don't begrudge waking up every few hours during the night. This is exactly what I want to be doing right now in my life. You are my heart and soul. You are my joy. We are so happy to have you in our family forever.

Love,

Mom



Humble attempts of mastering Goals 1 and 3

I wish videos were working because I got some pretty awesome footage of Sawyer taking a bottle. Willingly and calmly. It's a Christmas miracle!!

Of course, not a normal bottle. A "binkie bottle."

I've thought for a long time about switching out the nipple with one of his thousands of binkies that he is addicted to.

So, I got a normal binkie




Trimmed it down with scissors, and poked holes on top with a needle



wrapped saran wrap around it so milk wouldn't leak and voila
Sawyer's very own binkie bottle.

I think he swallows a whopping five drops every time, but he is kind of getting the idea more and more.

I tried a sippy cup for the first time today. As soon as he figures out how to get his mouth around the spout, he soon realizes the milk dashes into his mouth. Sometimes he likes it, sometimes he pushes it away. He gave it a good try and that's what counts.




Lastly, rice cereal.

He doesn't eat it enthusiastically, and I don't expect him to. But of the three options, it's the least stressful for him to experiment with. Some of it is consumed, and the rest, well, you know..



I have a feeling, despite my well-meaning ambitions, that the g-tube will become my best friend. And that's okay.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Lofty goals

Has it only been two and a half weeks?! It feels like we've been home longer than that. Maybe because in those 19 days I turned our house upside down in order to get it ready for Sawyer's blessing last Sunday. Towards the end of the week, I started panicking because we seemed to get behind and distracted by Mr. Sawyer and the house was still a wreck. I gave Taylor a list of everything that had to be done as well as a time-frame. He looked at the list, and looked at me and said, "Now, let's not set any lofty goals."



We had to burn the midnight oil Saturday night, but we got everything done. And the blessing was a success. Lofty goals my bum.



Admittedly, the house had most of my attention at first, while working on Sawyer's development took a backseat. Now that everything is in order, I am determined to have Sawyer accomplish these things by the end of summer:
1. establish a strong suck on the bottle
2. sit up alone with just a boppy (he's close)
3. take full spoon fulls of baby food without it oozing out the sides of his mouth
4. (loftiest goal) get rid of his g-tube




We went back to Primary's today for a follow-up appointment with Dr. Downey. After rushing around this morning to get there by 11:00 am, turns out the appointment was actually next Tuesday. He was kind to squeeze me in today (thank you!!!). Sawyer passed the "eyeball" test. He is progressing well overall, and Dr. Downey is anxious to get him going with sippy cups and baby food.



I think the car ride and not getting any sleep last night (our street is the place to be when lighting off loud fireworks) knocked Sawyer off his game. I got his food going and bounced him on my lap, but he was not having it. I contemplated stopping by the NICU anyways, but I was hot and sweaty from hoisting him from one position to the next, and he really needed the zzz's. So I reluctantly headed back to the car. He slept all the way to Tremonton, and woke up screaming. I pulled over to the Hospital right off the freeway, and we sat on the grass for 20 minutes watching cars go by. Got back in the car after he calmed down, and he screamed from Tremonton to Malad. Needless to say, he is currently conked out, and here I am finally blogging. That's the last time I travel alone with an infant.



I must say, it felt good to be in Salt Lake today, even if it was for only a few hours. Knowing Salt Lake and Primary's like the back of my hand makes coming back with a stroller, pump, and huge Mary Poppins diaper bag a lot more do-able. I drove down South Temple and admired the landscaped yards that are starting to come into fruition. After spending winter months there, seeing all the colors really made me appreciate the historic buildings and neighborhoods that I zoomed past a million times and never noticed. There will always be a place in my heart for the University campus, Capitol, and Temple Square, all of which I could usually see driving back and forth from the hospital to the complex that I called my temporary home.



I better stop reminiscing. I'm starting to get homesick.