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Happy Halloween You Cheeky Monkeys -From the captain |
Monkey Business & Dr’s Appointments
On the 26th Morgan attended his first Halloween Party. It was an adult affair so he was the only one under the age of 21 ‘“ but he was the hit of the party in his Monkey costume.
The 26th was also his 6 month check up.
Height: 25 inches (75th percentile for his Actual Age)
Weight: 13 lbs 4 ozs (50th percentile for his Actual Age)
And he got his 6 month vaccines and flu shot. Morgan ran a fever from Friday until Monday, probably due to his vaccinations. Even with a fever he was pretty mellow. He had a bad couple of hours Tuesday morning, but other than that he’s been a trooper.
Since Morgan is now on the curve for his age, height and weight, instead of below the curve, we’™ll be switching him from Preemie Formula to regular formula.
On the 30th he also got his first Anti-Body injection for the RSV virus. RSV is a common cold/flu like virus that most children get by the age of 2. For preemies, due to their compromised lung functions, the RSV virus can result in hospitalization and even death, so preemies are vaccinated every 30 days through RSV season. The RSV shot, called Synagis is actually a shot of anti-bodies, not a vaccine, which is why he needs a shot every 30 days. RSV season is from October to March or April.
Dr says that developmentally Morgan is probably equivalent to a 4 month old (His adjusted age is 3 months old). He is grabbing for toys, putting things in his mouth, raising his head and feet when he is on his tummy and supporting himself on his elbows, and has recently started rolling onto his side.
The Dr would like to see him have better head and sit up control before we try solid foods. So maybe in a month, or two.
His caffeine dose has not been increased since he came home form the hospital, and the dose is no longer therapeutic so the Dr decided stop it. He is still on Zantac and Regalan and we think his continued apnea spells are more acid reflux than brain stem related. On the 29th we had the Apnea monitor’s memory erased so that we can begin tracking the data for 2 weeks. If he is apnea free for 2 weeks we’™ll take him of the monitor (This will take the place of the 12 hour sleep study and was recommended by the hospital). Monday was day one of the 2 weeks, and Morgan had 4 Apnea episodes, one that lasted longer than 10 seconds that he had to be stimulated out of. So on Tuesday the Dr said to put him back on the caffeine. But I decided not to do that, since his dose is not therapeutic it was my feeling that if he has no apnea episodes they’™ll attribute it to the caffeine and he’™ll never get off the monitor. So I decided to let him go another couple of days to see if he continues to have apnea, and if he does I’™ll restart caffeine, if not, we’™ll leave him off and see how it goes. He has had no apnea episodes since Monday.
For Halloween we went to his new daycare center (the one he’™ll go to in December) for a Halloween mixer and Trick or Treating.
Side Note: We will be switching daycares in December. His current center is too expensive for us. Also, although we really like her she’s not as flexible as the new center. She will be closed for 2 weeks at Christmas time, she also takes one week off in August, and during these vacations we will still pay our weekly rate and will also have to pay another center for daycare, or take time off ourselves. And, each year in December you pay a materials fee equal to your weekly daycare rate for replacement of toys and equipment used in the center, that’s in addition to providing our own portable crib for Morgan to sleep in at daycare.
The new center is the same one that my friend’s child attends, so I know I can trust them. It is $55 a week cheaper, no annual materials fee, they provide the portable crib, and when the owners are on vacation their staff continues to provide care for the children, so we don’t have to pay twice for the same service. We would have went with them initially but I was hoping for something closer to work, and they also didn’t have an opening at the time I was going back to work.
It will be hard to leave our current center because she has been so good to us and Morgan. His monitor cable was broken on Monday and while the monitor was off she gave him extra attention to make sure he didn’t have an unobserved apnea episode and allowed the monitor company to come there to fix the monitor. This was huge for me because with his Dr’s appointments I didn’t want to take off anymore time than necessary. But the bottom line is that we can get the same level of care for less money, and $55 a week will make a big difference for us, and for Morgan.
Ok back to Halloween, We went to a party at the new daycare and then went trick or treating with my friend Melissa, her daughter, Keilani, and the daycare center owners. We went down one side of the block and then back up the other. Morgan didn’t actually get any candy but he observed the ritual and assures me that he will be ready next year. Of course he looked adorable in his Monkey Costume, so at least we got to wear it twice.
He also has a couple of Halloween jammies that are too cute. One I bought him for ‘œWear Orange Day’ at daycare, and other Grandma Sandra got for him. So all in all we got lots of cute pictures from his first Halloween.