Dads, ducks, and duds!

After the last 'honesty' post, I've decided that this one will be GOOD NEWS only :-). So here goes....break out the balloons and streamers!!!

Weight gain - Nate is up another 400g this fortnight, growing like an absolute trooper and now an impressive 6.24kg at nearly 25weeks. Frankly, he's positively porky (okay, a little stretch of the truth there!). And last length measure was two weeks ago, and he was 60cm then.

Arsenal - he finally fits his arsenal kit. Daddy is happy. The world is at peace. Football reigns supreme :-)

Can now suck from two more bottles types - had a go on two different types of 'typical' bottles, and managed both easily. Now all we have to do is convince him to be bothered with working that little bit harder with one of those bottles, for a couple of feeds a day! We're determined to work those low tone mouth muscles (so he can keep up with Daddy on the talking front :-)).

Goodbye Cpap! After not even one remotely full-night sleep since Cpap arrived (for any of us!), we're now investigating other options to help Nate's 'central'-related sleep apnea issues.......

.......and so hello caffeine (well he is from Auckland!). Nate is now sharing a twice daily caffeine habit with Mummy, as an alternative to Cpap. No trim lattes though, just a straight shot! The first day was Wednesday last week - TALK ABOUT WIRED!!!! No sleep from 4pm through till 1am!! But he's adjusting more and more everyday. We are likely to have oxygen therapy added into the mix too...watch this space on that one (we are waiting on the results from an oximetry that as run over the weekend before that's determined).

Sid Vicious bodysuit courtesy of the Normans

ENT exploratory surgery - scheduled for early this week. Some might say that that doesn't qualify for good news, but at least then we will know if Nate has an obstruction that may be complicating his sleep apnea condition, or whether it's just part of the muscle floppiness that will hopefully change as he grows.

Saying ''mum" - yep he can say it, just not direct it discriminately :-).

More makaton madness - in this household, we now also speak Makaton sign language. T9M-ers often learn to sign before they actually speak, so we've decided to embrace the concept early. We figure that learning it may well be harder on us than it is on Nate! He seems to have nailed 'bottle', and 'nappy', well at least the understanding part. So the latest signs that we are learning now include some of his favourite things - 'Froggie' for his green frog toy, 'Cat' for Monet, and 'Duck' for Jemima Puddle-duck. (Those of you who know Grandaddy, feel free to test him too :-))

Stylish threads - where do we start?! Got to be one of the coolest kids around! And not hard with Granny onboard! Huge thanks to everyone who keeps sending clothes - how spoilt is Nate!?!!! And thanks also to Uncle Darryl, Auntie Jo and cousins Thomas and Ethan for the cool bubble gun, the shaker, and cds! (it's just so fantastic listening to 'three blind mice', 'I'm a little teapot', and 'bananas in pyjamas'?!?!?! Daddy is well thrilled :-)). Anyway, check out some of his 'looks' in the photos that follow below...

England!! Outfit sponsored by Uncle Darryl and Auntie Jo!

First Puma Tracksuit, courtesy of Uncle Craig and Auntie Kate!

What else is new on the Nate front?

Well this week, he has just learnt to roll from his tummy, back on to his back (anything to get out of tummy time!) - great to see some progress :-).

Plus soon we will have a custom-made neonate suit! Watch this space for pics to come, but Grandaddy and Granny are shouting Nate a support suit to help his low trunk tone - we get measured up this coming Friday! It's thought to help hypotonic wee ones with the challenges of learning to control their trunk, and ultimately to sit up and crawl.

They are a really common therapy tool for hypotonia in the UK and the USA, but sadly aren't yet recognised or funded here under the Ministry of Health. One hopes that will change in time but we're not holding our breath :-(. Although interestingly enough, apparently ACC (a separate department run under the exact same government, but which won't cover Nate as his condition is congenital, not an accident) does recognise the suits' benefits and WILL fund these to treat the same hypotonic conditions that exist with cerebral palsy patients?!

Either way, we're not going to let that bureaucratic rubbish hold our Nate back :-)

Breaking out the solids ! Unlike some T9M-ers, Nate doesn't seem to aspirate, so we can more safely look at a move to solids, even though he isn't yet anywhere close to sitting up.

We've had four days of organic pear and are now on day two of sweet vegetable - although so far we're pretty much just practising spreading it on the bib and screwing our face up (Nate that is, not us).

And today was a special day, it was Fathers Day!

So we celebrated with Granny and Grandaddy, with Mummy and Nate shouting brunch and then we went down to the park by Motat and the Zoo. We enjoyed a short walk around the lake, where we spent time watching all the ducks, and making the most of the sun.

Enjoy the photos that follow....

And last but by no means least, there is a small small possibility that we've starting teething. Either that or we're just currently blessed with an excessive amount of drool and some lovely rosy red cheeks on occasion :-). Either way, it's fun and games!

Xxx

The three amigos!

Chilling by the lake, holding his new 'Sophie' from Granny

Happy days :-)

 

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