Tate is almost 4 months old, 8 weeks adjusted. He has changed so much in the last few weeks. About a week ago it hit me that he’s not a newborn anymore, he’s now a baby. He’s outgrown that tiny newborn stage. He is smiling all the time (even at 3 am!) and really starting to “talk” too. He is working on getting his hands into his mouth and occasionally he succeeds. Most of the time though he just hits himself in the face with his hands and goes cross eyed looking at his hand. Pretty cute! In his bouncy seat or on the playmat on the floor (they both have toys that hang over him) he’s starting to grab at the toys just a little bit. The playmat has a mirror on it and he’ll stare at himself for quite awhile in it. His eyes have lightened up a lot but they still have a lot of blue in them. I would probably say they are more hazel at this point than blue because they do change with what he's wearing.
I’m torn between being really excited that he’s starting to interact with us and do more things, and being sad that he’s growing up so quickly! The first 10 weeks took forever it seemed like (when he was in the NICU and should have still been in my tummy) but since he’s been home the time has flown by. Except for when one of us is sick. Thankfully we are all healthy right now. Hudson finally got over his cold about a week ago, and Jamie struggled with a sore throat for a few days after that, but it never turned into anything more. I think I’ve said this at least 4 times now but I am SO hoping we are done with all the sickness stuff. We’ve had a couple nice days out so maybe spring is finally here.
We went through a few weeks where he wasn’t sleeping much at all during the day but the last few days all he’s done is slept. We still make sure he eats every 3 hours during the day but at night he has actually gone 5-6 hours the last 3 nights. That’s been really nice for mom and dad! He only does one long stretch and then is up at 3 hours on the dot. He is (so far) totally opposite Hudson in the sleeping department. Tate we can rock for 5 minutes and lay him down and he’s out. Hudson never worked that way! But, I do have to brag on Hudson here a little because since Tate has been home he has been taking awesome 3 hour naps and sleeping great at night as well (except for when he’s been sick). We have a great naptime and bedtime routine down and after reading his books and saying his prayers we rarely hear another peep from him. That has been SO nice! He has finally figured out he can get out of bed himself and he gets up and comes to our room in the morning, instead of lying in bed and yelling for one of us to come get him. Some mornings he gets up and goes directly into the bathroom and sits next to the toilet. He sits there, silently, until one of us finds him. We usually hear him walking so we know he’s up but I wonder how long he’d sit there waiting if we didn’t get up!
Tate had his follow up audiology appointment on Thursday. Unfortunately, he still didn’t pass the hearing test in his right ear. The left ear passed – again – just fine. We were able to get him quiet enough to actually complete the test this time (last time he never was quite enough to finish it) but he still failed it. They did another tempanogram which showed more movement (of the eardrum) than it did last time, but still not a normal amount. So the audiologist is still optimistic (and we are too) that it is a fluid problem rather than a structural one. We go back in 2 weeks to do an ABR (auditory brainstem response). This should give us some actual answers. The test takes an hour and a half and he has to be really quiet and still for the whole thing, but it will tell us if there is a structural problem with the cochlea itself. If he passes the test than there isn’t anything wrong with the cochlea and it is probably just fluid. So from there we’d take him to see an ENT (ear, nose and throat specialist). So we are still praying for fluid to clear out and that fluid is the cause of the problem. She did say that if it is a hearing loss it is most likely a minor one (because he did pass the mini ABR test they performed in the NICU.) And since it is minor she wasn’t concerned about speech development but he would need to have a hearing aid.
Tate goes back to the pediatrician this Thursday for his 4 month checkup so we’ll find out how much he weighs and how tall he is. He is in size 1 diapers now and wearing 0-3 months clothes for the most part, although some of his newborn stuff still fits him. He doesn’t have much of a selection in 0-3 months so I’m ready for him to get a little bigger so he’ll fit into more “outfits”. Right now he just wears onesies or pajamas most of the time, which works since we don’t go anywhere. But someday, eventually, he will be able to leave the house and he’ll have to have something to wear! The other day I tried leaving him in his pajamas all day and it drove me nuts! Every time I looked at him it annoyed me that he hadn’t gotten “dressed”. So that didn’t work. Would have saved me some laundry though!
 |
| Our new stroller. It's a sit and stand stroller which means Hudson can either sit (like he is here) or he can stand up on the platform below his feet. He can get on and off by himself instead of me having to lift him in and out of a seat. We have only got to take it on one test drive and it worked out great. Hudson didn't want to stand though. It is a little heavy to push but I'll just burn more calories that way! It will be so nice to be able to take them on walks. Now we are just waiting for the weather to cooperate, |
 |
| Hudson showing off what a BIG boy he is. I was upstairs feeding Tate and he came up and didn't have his pants on and his undies looked like this. I asked what happend to his pants and then realized he must have gone potty ALL BY HIMSELF! He didn't even tell me he needed to go. And got his pants off by himself and managed to at least get his undies back on (kind of!). |
