Our Busy Week

Baby boy has been home for one month now. It just boggles my mind, Jacob is almost 5months old, but he's only been home for 1 month.

This was a week of doctor appointments. As I wrote on Monday we visited the respiratory doctor on Monday and was told Jacob no longer needs the apnea monitor. He then ordered a sleep study for Jacob to determine if he stilled needed to be on oxygen. We did the sleep study on Tuesday night. In order to do the sleep study I had to hook Jacob onto a monitor that monitors his oxygen saturation and heart rate. Similar to the apnea monitor this machine alarms if Jacob's saturation or heart rate go under or over a certain range. So at 8pm I turned off the oxygen and was told to leave him on the monitor until the next morning, they need at least 8 hours of information to analyze. Jacob did set off the monitor once at around 10:30. I'm not sure if it was a real alarm or if he was moving and the machine couldn't pick up his saturation, by the time I got to the machine Jacob had brought his saturation back up. Now we are just waiting to hear back from the doctor on whether or not Jacob passed his test.

On Tuesday, Jacob had his 4 month check up with his pediatrician. Full term babies have to see their pediatrician I think a week after discharge then at 2 months 4 months, 6 months and 1 year, basically for them to get their immunizations. Our pediatrician wants to see Jacob every month for at least the first year. She's impressed with his progress and said he's gaining weight and growing at a great rate. She did say she was concerned with the fact that he seems to favor his right side. Jacob turns his head to his right more often than his left, we think it's due to when he was at the hospital his "cares" were usually done on his right side so he was used to looking over that way. Since he turns his head to the right so much his head is a little mishapped. The right side of his head is a little flatter than the left. She suggested we go see a physical therapist to help us get him to turn to the left. Great one more doctor, one more appointment every month. But I can't let my baby have an uneven head.

Wednesday was a little tough, Jacob got his 4 month immunizations on Tuesday and he was pretty whiny most of the day. He would not let me put him down during his afternoon nap. I had to hold him for 3 hours, thank goodness grandma stopped by and I got some relief.

Today, I had a meeting with the school district to discuss his development plan through Early Intervention. Because he is at risk for development delays, school districts keep track of babies to make sure they are making the development milestones they are supposed to. So for the next year we will have an occupational therapist come by twice a month and a speech therapist come by every three months. Jacob was awake for the meeting so they were actually able to see what he can and can't do, which is great because I sometimes have to just tell them what he's doing, I think it's better for them to see it firsthand.

Now it's Thursday afternoon and we are done with our appointments for the week. All that's left is some family time, maybe a little walk around the neighborhood and a bath for baby boy.