3 months

One of Jared and Timothy's favorite games is to play bobcat...Jared is the bobcat, Timothy is the driver, and they run into stuff. :)

Happy boys. :)

The fringe benefits for using disposable diapers...the cat is always amused.

To celebrate his arrival into the 2nd quarter of his first year of life, Timothy has been especially cranky and is now giving his parents some peace by sleeping. I can't really blame him - he had three doctor appointments yesterday and didn't get a good nap in until we got home at 12:30.

The first appointment was with the GI specialist at Children's Hospital. It went well...she checked him over again and stated that sometimes they don't know why kids don't eat well and take so long to establish good eating habits. Evidently, Timothy falls into that category. She doesn't feel the need to see him again. Which is good that she doesn't see anything wrong with him, but we are still stumped as to why he is not eating. He also weighed in at 9 lb 9 oz. I was hoping for 10 something, but he is getting just formula now, not the breast milk with formula (I dried up), so it is lower in calories. She also suggested taking away the food thickener out of his feedings, which will not be wasting space in his tummy on non-nutritive volume.

The second appointment was a blast...a physical therapy evaluation that is part of his NICU followup. We spent lots of time playing, smiling, and talking with Jean, the therapist. She was really pleased with where he is and showed me some activities that we can do with Timothy to help keep him on track. We see her again in 2 months for his next evaluation.

The third appointment was with the feeding team (a nurse, speech therapist, and occupational therapist) and was also fun, but probably would have been more productive if it was before the physical therapy appointment because Timothy was REALLY sleepy. They showed me a few things I can do with Timothy so he will like to put things in his mouth, like food. At this point, we think he has just developed a mental block with the bottle (pretty impressive for a 3 month old). He also has a sensitive gag reflex, which he is thankfully growing out of. It was only a few weeks ago that he was gagging after every cough, sneeze, and yawn. At this point, it is only after coughing, but not every cough, and just a couple of times a day.

So at this point, we are not concerning ourselves with the bottle. If he takes one, great. If he doesn't, we progress towards sippy cups and solid foods. Our focus is now on getting him prepared for different tastes and bombarding his mouth with lots of pleasant experiences. This should also help him outgrow the gag reflex and help keep the food in his tummy.

At this point, we are feeling blessed. We have a little boy who is happy (most of the time), smiles all the time, tries to talk our ears off, prefers to be sitting up or looking over your shoulder, and sleeps through the night. He may not eat, but he will.