7 months and milestones reached!

When other heart moms told me life was so much better post Glenn, I didn't really know what they meant, but I do now. Alexander has been changing everyday and catching up quickly with some of his milestones. On September 11th, our little man turned 7 months and since then he has learned to stick his feet in his mouth, stick his tongue out at you, has begun laugh more and has learned to roll over!











In addition to our big boy with his skills emerging, he is also sleeping in his own bed now and beginning to sooth himself to sleep. When he doesn't want to sleep, he wants to play, play, play!






Now that there is no longer a sternum precaution, physical therapy has really started with him. His therapist comes twice a week, making him sit and lay in positions to strengthen his upper body. He does not like theses exercises and gets so mad he turns blue. Not to worry though, I'm there observing and checking to make sure Alexander's pulse oximeter gives a good reading during the session. Luckily, he doesn't stay the lovely shade of blue long and with every session he is getting stronger. By 8 months, I'm thinking he will be sitting independently and hopefully rolling from stomach to back because right now he gets stuck when he rolls from back to stomach.

Alexander's many appointments have finally slowed down so we can finally spend more time at home instead of go go go. We are now down to therapy coming to the house 3 times a week (early interventionist comes once and PT comes twice) and  weekly visits visits to Cranial Technology to see how Alexander's Doc Band is fitting. We've been told that Alexander's head is growing fast and he should only need to wear it for 3 more weeks! :)

On to the slightly disappointing news. After his cardioalogy appointment two weeks ago, Alexander is still on his two medications: Sildenfil and Lasik, as his chest X-ray showed some haze. We also had his swallow study this week and he unfortunately did not pass because he aspirated twice. :( This makes me very heart broken as I am no longer nursing him. He will still be receiving breast milk but it will be thickened with rice cereal for another 3 months and then he will be reassessed. I'm not sure if I mentioned before but the thickening of the breast milk is a pain in the butt!! He gets 1.5 teaspoons for grinded rice cereal for every 60 cc's, in which he has to finish in 10 minutes because the enzyme in the breastmilk breaks down the cereal. On top of making sure Alexander finishes the bottle in time, we also have to be cautious and look for any signs of aspiration-which is much more difficult than you would think. We have 3 more months of that-blah! However, we have started solids this week! :)

A few weeks ago, Alexander's grandma Cindy had a blood drive in honor of Alexander and all the rest of the children at CHLA. It was a such a good turn out!

Lastly, Alexander's teething seems to be effecting his his eating, which he is slowing down his weight a bit. He currently weighs 13 pounds 6 oz. and we are hoping feeding him solids will help with his weight gain. He has an appointment with his GI specialist in the next couple weeks and I'm hoping he doesn't want to have the discussion of putting in a G-tube because of his weight. That is not a conversation I want to have or something I want to do. I feel like I've worked so hard to get him to feed "normally" and he's made such good progress with the changes, that I don't want to back track.  People tell me-"Don't worry" or "You worry to much", but I feel that as a mother, your job is to worry and being a mother to a cardiac baby, where anything could go wrong, and having to stay on top of so many things (i.e. heart rate, breathing, color change, dehydration, weight gain, etc), that it is hard not too! I keep trying to stay positive with all of the milestones he has begun to meet and not let the things that he isn't meeting bring me down or worry me.

Thank you for following us on our superman journey! Prayers and positive thoughts are always needed for Alexander to continue to gain weight, get stronger every day, and continue to to meet all of his milestones!