Justice's Development, Eyes and Heart

He may still be half asleep, but at least he's smiling.

It's been almost two weeks already (hard to believe) since I met with Justice's Early Intervention Specialist and EI Case Manager. What can I say? He's perfect. Right on track for his adjusted age of 8 months. Goals for the next three months are crawling and working on his pincher grasp. I think he'll have the pincher grasp down in no time. He's very close. As for crawling, he can support himself on his hands and knees, he just doesn't like to. For one, he'd rather jump. And two, if there's a pillow anywhere close when I put him on his hands and knees, he'll lean forward until his head is resting on the pillow.

Last Friday JW had another eye appointment. His eyes are looking good. The right eye is still weaker than the left, but not as bad. His near-sightedness has gotten better as well. So no glasses and no patching the stronger eye. The eye doc said it was probably just delayed maturation of his vision. Of course, because I'm so near-sighted there's always the possibility that JW, or the girls for that matter, could need glasses in the future. Next eye appointment is in 6 months this time.

Then this past Monday JW had another cardiology appointment. If you remember, Justice has been on an increased amount of oxygen for almost 2 months now. Several appointments, extra breathing treatments, and a round of steroids later and we were able to lower him a little, but not to the 1/4 liter he had been on. On Monday he had an echocardiogram checking his pulmonary hypertension. His pressures were fine at 3/4 liter of O2. When we put him on 1/2 liter (what he came home from the NICU on) his pressures went up. So for now he's staying at 3/4 liter. Other than that his heart sounds fine. The doc commented that JW must have been busy during the echo. Indeed he was. He was laying at and angle and since his feet were touching something he thought he needed to jump. The tech was very patient with him and obviously accustomed to dealing with wiggly babies. She was great. We see cardio again in 2 months.

It's a good thing he's such a happy baby. A smile or laugh from him and I forget how high maintenance he is! :)

Up next, JW's one year well baby visit on Sept 14 and another appointment with the pulmonologist on Sept 16.