well, it was certainly interesting visiting the dr. today without the help of my mom or jon. i have been with the two of them before alone, but just when only one baby was seeing the dr. managing both was a different story. all in all it went well - it was a little hairy trying to calm them both down after the shots. the nurse was nice enough to wait until i had keegan calmed down before giving max his shots. but as soon as i picked max up to console him, she was gone and then keegan was upset again. they are getting hard to pick up at once - and my back complains if i do too much of that.
overall, max and keegan were very well behaved for the appointment and are growing on a nice curve. max weighs 15lb 9oz and keegan weighs 18lb 13oz! not bad for 31 weekers! keegan is an inch longer than his brother and has two inches more in the head circ. funny how that little peanut turned into the big guy. even the nurse called him a chunky monkey.
as mentioned, we saw a developmental specialist today as opposed to our regular pediatrician. she was very thorough. they have been watching max carefully with his umbilical hernia and hydrocele - both are almost rectified! so that was good news. in addition to the regular check up questions, the specialist performed a number of tests to see how the motor skills, muscle tone, socialization, etc of the boys compares with other 6 month old babies. she did say they were very socially engaged, which can be in our favor for language development. but basically, they are more in line with their adjusted age of 4 months. keegan has low muscle tone, which she anticipated causing some motor delays. ie, he is a chunker and it will be harder for him to roll over, sit up, etc. he needs a lot of tummy time to build his upper body strength and core strength. she was concerned about max's torticollis because not only is his neck favoring one side, but his core is as well. he needs some physical therapy. we called the infant and toddler program today, and hopefully he will be accepted. the program runs through the public school system, is free and provides in-home service. the in-home part is really appealing to me given the logistics of getting out with all three once a week for PT. i also asked the ITP to evaluate keegan to see about the muscle tone and some gagging problems he has been having with being spoon fed. the specialist wants to see them back when they are 10 mos. old to be sure all is in order.
being the mom of a preemie is a totally different experience than what i have had with fin. max and keegan are amazing little kiddos and we are soo blessed with their good health. yet there have been a ton more drs. appointments than with fin and more stress watching for milestones, etc. plus, it is hard not to compare them to one another - let alone other 6 mo. babies. i am very grateful to live in an area where all of these services are at our fingertips.
later this month fin has his 4 year checkup - i can hardly believe he is going to be 4!!
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