Getting longer!

CURRENT WEIGHT: 6LBS, 9.6 OUNCES
CURRENT LENTH: 19.25 INCHES
ADJUSTED AGE: 5.5 WEEKS

Truman had another good doctor visit on Wednesday. They did a full check-up with more assessments than usual. His pediatrician was happy with his muscle tone and overall physical health. He's still very small, but growing at an average of 2/3 of an ounce a day. He is really starting to look bigger and is outgrowing his clothes. He is still in preemie clothes, but he's wearing the larger brands now. His ECI case worker came to visit last week, and I think we are really going to like her. His developmental assessment with the occupational therapist will be next week.

His nasty diaper rash is almost completely gone. I think the greatest factor has been a maturing GI tract. Instead of having small stools 20-30 times per day, he is now having about two large ones each day instead.

Truman is getting better about sleeping at night -- at least the first part of the night. He still wakes every two to three hours to eat, but will go back down after eating, that is until about 4:30 or 5 a.m. He is currently shaping up to be a super early riser! For any of you who know his dad, yikes! The only thing that will get him back to sleep after that is cuddling with Mom.

He appears to have made it through his first minor illness at home with flying colors. Yesterday, he was acting lethargic and clearly having more gas pain than usual, as it was causing him to squeal in pain. He also had a little diarrhea and was spitting up what little he was eating. A phone call to the nurse practitioner diagnosed it most likely as a GI bug of some kind. We pumped him full of Pedialyte and he was fine by this morning. We are still holding off on the fortified milk for another day or so and giving him straight breast milk, which he is handling just fine today.

We are still doing okay with the isolation. Truman has had a couple of healthy visitors and we get out about once a week for a doctor's appointment of some kind. We also try to go out in the stroller or into the yard some on nice days. And, I try to run errands on the weekends to get out some when Ben is home. The hardest part has been the logistics of it all. For example, there are no drive-through pharmacies in Dallas that will compound the liquid Prilosec that Truman needs, so I had to find the one in town that compounds and is open after hours so that one of us can go and stand in line while the other parent can be home with Truman. And, even the weekend errands have to be well-coordinated to make sure they all get done because making it out on a weeknight is virtually impossible by the time Ben gets home from work and we've had dinner and such. Also, errands have to fit in around pumping. And pumping while caring for a very demanding baby (he doesn't like to ever be put down) is a whole other story for its own day. Even with the hard work and early mornings, we wouldn't trade him for a million other babies.

--Kara