We're trying something new today. I'm sizing the pictures the exact dimensions of a Wal-Mart wallet photo. If you go there, pick their pick up immediately photo processing, which by default comes on matte paper. I've poked around and while I haven't tried everybody's photo processing, so far the Wal-Mart matte processing is the best I've tried.

We went to the gastroenterologist today to get the results of the tests. Everything came back normal, which is great news. Daniel's also up to 8 lbs 10 oz, which the doctor said was good. He wants to do a follow up at the end of January just to make sure he's still gaining, but that's it. Yay! :)

--Amy

At this point, these are almost going to be some 7 month pictures. Also a downer is that I've got great idea for some Christmas pictures, but that involves having a Christmas tree set up. We'll probably whip out the "spare" tree as opposed to waiting for the 11 footer as mentioned below.

Anyway....

Yesterday morning was Daniel's 6 month doctor appointment. It went pretty well, considering he had to get 5 shots (7 vaccines, but some were combo shots). He really hated that part, but fortunately, he got over it quickly. He's pretty good about that, which is a relief, since the actual shot part is awful. He screams his head off and looks at us like "Why aren't you stopping this????" It wasn't as bad as that one eye exam (see September 19th entry), but still, not fun.

We debated a bit over whether to hold off on some of them because he is still pretty small, but in the end we decided to go ahead. The only one he hadn't had before was the flu shot, and they have an inactive one for small children, which is what he got. He's doing well and isn't showing any signs of a reaction to anything.

The really good news is that his weight is up to 8 lbs 8 3/4 oz. The doctor was pretty happy with that. I'm very happy, since given his previous growth rate, I was expecting right around 8 lbs. He's started wearing 0-3 month clothes lately (they're a little big, but baby clothes really only fit perfectly for about 2 days), and he's grown out of a lot of the newborn stuff. He's also grown in length, up to 22 1/4 inches (from 21 3/4 about 2 weeks ago). Length hasn't really been an issue, but it's still good to know he's growing there too.

The doctor was also happy with his other milestones - he was alert and smiled for her, and was able to show off holding his head up. He still gets tired of that after a while, but that's to be expected. She mentioned that he'd probably start rolling over soon and was really surprised when we told her he'd been doing that for over 2 months. He's only going from tummy to back, but that's still way ahead of schedule. We've been working on going from back to tummy and sitting up with EI. Oh, and grabbing toys and such. He's perfectly capable of grabbing things (he grabs my hair all the time, for example), but he doesn't have a lot of interest in grabbing toys yet. He's pretty happy to just look at them.

The only other thing is that we have to make an appointment with a cardiologist for around the beginning of the year to follow up on Daniel's PFO, but we knew that already. That's just to make sure that it's closing up on schedule.

--Amy

Okay, so we've been slacking at updating the blog lately. There isn't too much to report, but the little man does keep us busy. :)

There's a program called Early Intervention that Daniel's been enrolled in. It's for preemies and other kids who are at risk for developmental delays. Daniel's automatically about 3 1/2 months behind because when he was a newborn, he was busy learning how to do things like eat and breathe, not smile and hold his head up. So, it's silly to expect him to be doing things that a full term 6-month-old would be doing at this point - he's more like a 3 month old for the most part. He's been doing very well, so they're just making sure he stays on track and meets his milestones on time (at his adjusted age, which goes by his due date instead of his actual birthdate). There's a nice gal who comes to the house once a week to work with him.

Our pediatrician is still somewhat concerned about Daniel's weight. He's been gaining consistently, but not as quickly as a full term baby. We're still not sure if this is a problem or not. Half of what I read says that it's very common for preemies to gain slower and that it sometimes takes until adolescence for them to completely catch up, but as long as they're eating, pooping, and peeing regularly, and gaining weight (even slowly), they're fine. The other half says that they should gain exactly like a full-term baby once they've reached their due date. So we went to a pediatric gastroenterologist to get everything checked out. He didn't seem particularly worried, but he ordered some tests to make sure everything's working okay, and we see him again on Monday to get the results. Oh, we don't know Daniel's exact weight right now, but when we went on November 19th, he was 7 lbs 11 ozs.

--Amy

Other than that, we're just trying to get ready for Christmas over here. Last year we bought an 11 foot tree on ultra-clearance. Buying in January will do that for ya. We then promptly forgot about it. Seriously, we almost bought another one this year with the plan to buy some 11 foot tree on ultra-clearance in January.

So, after making a little surprise find in the attic (that we didn't know we had, it's like Christmas!) we unboxed it and proceeded to set it up. It comes in 5 pieces clearly marked 1, 2, 3, 3 and 5. Part 4? The manufacturer is going to ship that to us from the other side of the planet. They say it should take 2-3 weeks which, as a timeframe, is remarkably close to Christmas. Too close. Plus, I'm sure the shipping companies have absolutely nothing else going on. Outlook not so good.

--Paul