Happy One Month Birthday!

I just can't believe that Turtle is one month old today. It doesn't feel like we've had him all that long, and yet here he's been.

Of course, we celebrated his special day with a trip to the pediatrician. Fun! No, really! It was. We had Dr. V and she was absolutely lovely. So far, we are lucking out with doctors up here. And the nurses seem to love us. They gave us a ton of formula and told us to just go ahead and leave - they would give Turtle back to us in a few years after they were done enjoying him. Ha!

Turtle weighed in at 10.04 pounds (up from 7lbs 6 oz at his May 9 appointment) and measured 22" (up from 20"). This puts him in the 75th percentile for his age, which is way up from his former 25th. His heart, chest and bowels sounded great, and Dr. V said she couldn't hear his ASD at all (although she said it could be because he was hiccuping, but that she thinks it could be resolving itself). Also, his PKU screening came back all normal.

He had been eating 4 oz of formula every 3 hours (and we were instructed by the doctors to make sure we woke him up to eat at those intervals to help him with his weight gain). Today, Dr. V upped him to 5 oz. per feeding and to see how much longer he could go. So far, he's taken three 5 oz bottles (and hasn't left a drop) and has gone 4 hours between each feeding. This is great as we can start getting him used to longer naptimes at night. We'll see how he does at his 1am - usually he's a little lazy for his middle of the night mealtimes, but you never know...

He also got his Hep B vaccine today. We had planned to do it at his first pedi appointment after we were discharged, which would have been May 1 or 2. However, with all the complications, Dr. S decided we should just wait til he was a month. He was such a trooper. He cried for just a second when the needle went in, and then perked right up. We kept an eye on him all day, and his behavior was perfectly fine - hearty appetite, regular sleeping and all that.

While Dr. V said that she would like us to continue using the monitor until we meet with the apnea clinic on the 20th, she did give us one piece of fantastic news: we can take Turtle out and have him be around people. Now, we still want to take it easy, because he did have such a rough start, but it's great knowing we don't have to hide him away from the world - or wheel him up to the front window for people to view him like some kind of holiday window display. It also means we're not so confined anymore, and that's always a good thing.

All in all, DH and I are so relieved. He's progressing so well and so happily, and we really couldn't ask for more.