Nine Pounds Plus!

ADJUSTED AGE: 3 MONTHS
CURRENT WEIGHT: 9 LBS, 2.2 OUNCES
CURRENT LENGTH: 21.1 INCHES

Truman has learned to grab the objects on his play mat. Here you can see he's got a grip on his favorite object, a blue monkey, and is cooing at it.

Truman has finally discovered that his hands are fun to play with, but he hasn't figured out that they are fun to watch just yet.

Truman has fun with all the silly faces his Grampa made for him on a recent visit. He can't wait until both his Lubbock grandparents come for a longer stay next week.

Truman has learned that he can make the objects on his playmat swing around and that they are quite fun to watch and talk to. He seems to add new noises to his repretoire every day, and his sounds have changed from grunts to vowel sounds.

We haven't heard any squeals or giggles yet, but he definitely wriggles when he gets excited and looks like he's on the verge of laughing.

WELL-BABY CHECK-UP

Truman had his six-month check-up today (even though he's three months adjusted and 7 months chronological age). The well-baby check-ups seem to be scheduled based on getting his shots close to the chronogical age.

DEVELOPMENT:

Dr. Suterwala is quite pleased with Truman developmentally. He even tried to see if Truman is starting to move toward sitting up. Truman did try to reach out and actually lasted a couple of seconds. We were shocked and had never even thought to see if he's getting close.

We had been concerned that Truman doesn't seem to turn to our voices when we talk, but Dr. Suterwala tested him with a bell and he followed the sound every direction, so he passed the test. Also, Truman has yet to make eye contact, but since he tracks objects well and studies our faces when we talk to him, Dr. Suterwala thinks it's just his personality. Truman also did a good job showing off his tummy skills for the pediatrician, including a nice roll over for him. It seems that Truman does best at tummy time for others, so we think maybe we need to get some sort of mat similar to the ones at the therapy clinic or the doctor's office.

GROWTH:

Truman picked back up the pace this week on growth and gained an average of 23 grams a day or about 2/3 of an ounce. It looks like the bump in calories in his bottles is doing the trick. We are very happy about that because Truman has "slept through the night" twice in the past week and has therefore skipped his first middle-of-the-night feeding. One night, he slept for six hours. Last night, although he woke up to play for a while and had trouble going back down, he went seven hours between meals.

Truman is in the 5th percentile in both height and weight on the Very Low Birth Weight Growth chart (for babies born below 3 lbs, 5 ounces). Since we keep away from all other children due to the RSV risk and don't see what other babies look like, we forget that even for a preemie, he is still very small. His head circumference, however, is in the 25% percentile, which is a great sign developmentally. Truman does not measure on the standard growth chart for his adjusted age.