all's well

The laptop seems to have recovered from its temper tantrum. That strange sound you just heard was me breathing a sigh of relief.

Today was a very trying day. It started at 7am when Robbie was fussing in an usual way and I discovered that his feeding pump had come loose at some point in the night and I'd been "feeding the bed" for a while. He was hungry. And his bed was soaked.

Then there was the breast milk dumping incident, which initially annoyed me because it was yet another waste of breast milk, but then turned into panic when the laptop died.

Robbie was also quite clingy today. Now, I secretly enjoy those days a bit, but today the timing just didn't seem to work out. The pump session that ended with the dumping had actually been interrupted 3 times to console/entertain/change him. I probably should have taken that as a sign to give up.

BUT. It wasn't all bad.

As I mentioned- we're off quarantine! Sort of.

We celebrated tonight by taking a trip to the book store. Robbie came with me and was perfect. He was probably secretly plotting how to eat all the books since paper is his favorite chew toy.

One stranger did try to touch him. (Please, for the Love of God, DON'T TOUCH PEOPLE YOU DON'T KNOW.) I managed to duck and twist to keep her hand off his head. We even got through the whole trip w/o anyone asking how old he was. That means I avoided the inevitable shocked gasp and subsequent explanation.

I got some new books and even took Robbie's picture in the mystery section. I waited for someone to ask me why I was taking such a boring photo, but they didn't.

In other good news, Robbie semi-sorta-partially-kind-of rolled over from back to belly tonight. I had a toy up at the right side of his head and he rolled over to reach for it with his left hand. He sort of thunked down so he was laying completely on his right arm, grabbed the toy and rolled back. I'm not sure that "counts" but in my book it shows he CAN do it, he just doesn't want to.

Add that to the fact that he sat unassisted for about a minute and a half tonight and really it was a good day in Robbie gross-motor-land.

In the last week he's also started doing something that I am loving. He reaches for me (or David) to pick him up when he wants up. That might seem like a minor thing, but man it's just so sweet when he's hollering and you go over to ask what the problem is and he reaches for you and looks happy. Totally melts my heart.

He's also getting better at holding two toys at once. He could *sort of* do it before, but it was pretty rare and short lived. He's still not banging them together or anything, but given two toys that he loves (his favorite "toys" being the tube of Aquaphor and a tube of Butt Paste) he'll choose to hold both for a few seconds.

He should be starting PT any time. Depending on the paperwork, he might have his first session this week but definitely by next week.

At our IFSP meeting last week, we were discussing his 6 month goals. Mine were: sitting, crawling, walking. The PTs included all of those AND stair climbing, running and a few other things.

It blows my mind to think he could be climbing stairs in 6 months. I think it's one of those things I'll believe when I'll see. But he really is making a lot of progress the last month or so, so who knows.

In eating news, it's a mixed bag. He's completely given up on the bottle. For a while he'd at least drink a little at night but now he wants nothing to do with a bottle at all. It all goes in the tube.

However, he's made some improvements with solids. He's not eating enough to rely on, but he's actually been opening his mouth and smiling during feedings. That's HUGE. It's so amazing to not having crying, writhing & fighting when he sees food. Hopefully it means good things in the future even if overall they kind of suck right now.

In one last positive milestone, he finally broke 12 pounds over the weekend. His weigh in tonight was 12 lb 1.5oz. There was a point I wasn't sure he'd hit this weight by his birthday. At this rate, I think we'll actually hit 13+ pounds by the time he's 1. Still tiny, but headed in the right direction.

All in all, I think the day ended up in the positive. All's well that ends well, yes?


--Trish