Bam!
Yesterday they turned six months old. Their adjusted age is 11 weeks. Their last weight a few weeks ago was 12 lbs each! Wyatt (on the left) is about half a pound heavier than Cameron (on the right).
They love to smile and play peek-a-boo. There's been some giggling too. They can hold their head up pretty well. They love faces and mirrors and they love to sit up so they can see what all is going on around them. The chairs pictured above are kind of a step before going to an "exersaucer". It supports them but lets them work on their core and neck muscles while sitting up.
And we have a milk thief. This is the start of something, I'm sure.
Wyatt on the left, Cameron on the right.
Cameron
Wyatt
Such handsome little boys!
Things they hate- tummy time. Beyond just a little frustration. I'm talking, in a minute, we have dolby digital surround sound screaming. Even if I lay down and put them on my stomach. So I'm trying to work around that.
And we've had a lot of reflux but it's getting better. It's common for preemies to have it and usually worse than full term babies. We had to come up with some pretty interesting things to battle it. First, of course, medicine. Their pediatrician prescribed prevacid. We also burp them really well after eating and keep their head elevated for half an hour after eating. Vitamins are tricky but we've figured that out. They're most comfortable if I give them half a dose in the middle of their meals twice a day. A full dose at once results in arched backs and screaming and it breaks my heart to see them hurting. I'm so glad we figured that out.
They had to sleep in their rock and plays for weeks before I figured out how to get them into their cribs. I tried stuffing a pillow under one side of the mattress to keep their head elevated. I'd check on them in a while and find they had rolled down the mattress. Hardly safe.
So one day I made a "bendy" like what they had in the NICU. It didn't have a rod through it to help it hold its shape, so I had to pin it down. But it's basically a stuffed tube that's about 1-1/2" in diameter formed into a u-shape. It came up to their armpits and I would sit their butt against the bottom of the "U". This kept them in place. We have Owlet monitors so if any funny business went on, we'd be alerted. But this worked and they were able to sleep comfortably and on a mattress instead of the hard rock and plays. We've been battling flat spots on their heads ever since the rock and plays.
But now their reflux is controlled enough, or they've grown out of it enough, that they're on a level mattress! I'll be talking to their doctor about whether or not they still need the medicine. It's strawberry flavored and Cameron hates it. He's going to be our picky eater, I think. Wyatt eats everything you put in front of him. Cameron takes his time. He'll be the one everyone is waiting on to finish his plate.
Another preemie thing is hypospadias. It's mild and not a big deal, but does need to be corrected. They have surgery for it towards the end of June. There's a certain age where anesthesia becomes much safer for them so we've been waiting.
Preemie thing #3. Their ROP has completely vanished!! Cameron had been seeing a retina specialist because he came so very close to needing surgery to prevent blindness. But he started improving and now their eyes are both fully vascularized and don't have any ROP.
We've been doing good though. We have our routine down. We're busy of course, but we've figured it out. So far. Once they get mobile though...
I've had enough time to have a hobby or two. I've got our garden going. I usually do one every year and had figured not this year. But then I realized they'll be doing solid foods about the time the garden would be producing so home grown food would be so good for them.
I've also started to crochet octopuses for preemies. Some of the hospitals around here use them in their NICUs to help the babies. I'd love to introduce them to the NICU the boys were at, but I'm short on time these days. One of the nurses there loves to crochet and I think I'll work on convincing her to be the ambassador, then I'll just make the octopuses. I usually work on them at night about a half hour or an hour before bed. It helps me wind down while helping other preemies.
But I had to find someone with the right experience to test the tentacles and make sure I was doing it right. Wyatt has the experience and says they're perfect!
The boys are stirring and ready to eat so I better close. We appreciate all the support from friends and neighbors. Gifts, food, it's all be so wonderful.
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