I am a couple of months behind on my Morgan updates, so this one will be packed full of info.

At his March 4th Dr’s appointment Morgan was 18lbs 1oz. That appointment was for his monthly antibody shot, and we made an appointment for his last shot for the flu season, April 1st. At the time the Dr wasn’t sure if we’™d do another shot in April, but we put it on the books anyway.

As April rolled around, his Dr was thinking against the shot, then 2 kids in her practice came in with RSV towards the end of March, so Morgan had another shot on April 2nd. At that appointment he weighed 18 lbs 15½ ozs (He is finally on the weight chart for his actual age ‘“ he’s in the 5th percentile). Next appointment is his 1 year old well baby check up and vaccines, scheduled for April 25th, the day after his Birthday.

The Harbor regional center evaluated him when he first came home and determined that 1 ‘“ 2 times per week physical and occupational therapy would be beneficial. But they never contacted us to set up the therapy. I called, but his case worker was on maternity leave with no one covering, and the manager of the day never returned my call. I didn’t really push the issue because Morgan has been on track developmentally with his adjusted age.

For example, he has been tummy crawling for about 3 weeks now, and gets up on his knees and rocks back and forth, and is starting to get the idea of crawling on his knees instead of his tummy. So his adjusted age (the age he would be if he wasn’t 13 weeks early) is 8 months and 2 weeks old, right on track for belly crawling and moving into crawling on all fours. His belly crawling is one legged, and one leg remains bent at the knee, like a rutter, while he pushes with the other leg and pulls with his arms.

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The NICU follow up unit called last week, they follow all NICU babies until age 3 to make sure they are doing well. They called right after he came home, and then again just last week. When they call they ask about his development, his diet, his activity and so on. They had also checked in with the Regional Center and found out that we had never received therapy, so they got Morgan in for a developmental assessment.

We had the assessment appointment last week, on Friday. Morgan met with a former NICU nurse, and Physical Therapist and a Nurse Practitioner. The NICU nurse is the one who calls and she asks all the questions about lifestyle and diet. The Physical therapist did a Bayley evaluation of him and scored him as follows:

Cognition: 8 months
Receptive Language: 7 months
Expressive Language: 9 months
Fine Motor Skills: 7 months
Gross Motor Skills: 8 Months

The Nurse practitioner evaluated his health, checking his ears, eyes, lungs and overall physical health. They also weighed and measured him. His weight at this appointment, just 2 days after the Dr visit on the 2nd, was 19lbs 7ozs. He was fully dressed, with a diaper, so weight isn’t 100% accurate. His height is 29½ inches. He is in the 90th percentile for his adjusted age for his height and 30th percentile for his weight, again, adjusted age.

Overall the NICU follow up center was pleased with his progress, his health and his daycare situation. Daycare scored high on all of the things they routinely do for his development, such as working with him on sitting up, giving him cheerios to help develop his fine motor skills, and having him in a 2 year and under environment.

We were given a couple of exercises to do with Morgan, one involves making him put his weight on one foot at a time and pressing down on his hips to encourage him to be flat footed, instead of pointy toed. This will help with his standing and walking later, helping him to segment his muscles, and also to loosen his leg muscles which are tight. The other exercise is designed to teach him how to get into a sitting position from a side laying position, which is easier than the ‘œsit up’ version he’s been trying to do.

They also asked us not to put him in a bouncy exersaucer that would allow him to stand pointy toed. The exersaucer is ok, but he needs to be flat footed.

Morgan is continuing to add new foods to his diet. We have gone through almost every vegetable that is currently in season, with the exception of spinach, cauliflower & brussel sprouts. I tried to start introducing fruits, but Morgan doesn’t really like them. He recently had Fuji apples, he loved them one day and then didn’t care for them the next, he absolutely HATED nectarines, and bananas were just ok. So we went back to vegetables, last week he had butternut squash, which he loved, and this week he is having eggplant, which he also really likes. And I already have acorn squash prepared and ready in the freezer for him for next week. He his getting Cheerios at daycare and we have added them at home, too, along with Sweet Potato puffs ‘“ both for his fine motor development more than the nutritional value.

In just 2 weeks Morgan will be 1 year old! His party is scheduled for Saturday the 26th. Invitations went out this Monday, and we are so excited! The party will be in the park, and will have a Monkey theme. I am having a lot of fun planning it.

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