Another video

Here's another video of the Colbster cooing away. He's been doing wonderful the last couple days. He's really finding his voice. This morning I heard him awake around 7am, but he wasn't crying, just lying in his bed making all kinds of noises. I let him stay there until it sounded like he had had enough and that wasn't until after 9am. So two whole hours of playing by himself, cooing and making his "goooo" sounds.

Birth to Three came yesterday morning. For the past couple weeks, whenever they came Colby wasn't cooperative. He was cranky or had belly issues of some kind. So they hadn't been able to get him on a good day for a while. He did great. He held his head up, grabbed onto things, tracked well with his eyes and responded to our voices well. The therapist said she's amazed at where he is and that at the rates he's going and that in the years to come, he may do just fine. She said his legs were a little tight, but that could be resolved from simply stretching. I asked about CP and she said that most babies who were going to have real problems would show strong signs and Colby shows none. His legs are barely stiff and it's only when you bring his knees up towards him and try to straighten his legs. Thank you Lorna for your suggestion with the chart. She knew what I was talking about and is going to bring it next time she comes.

Colby and I are off on the road again today. We're headed to Babies R Us....Colby's favorite store to get him yet another size nipple. The ones we had were too small.....then I bought ones that are too big. So we'll shoot for the middle sized one today and hope that works.

So that's the scoop. I turned off the music on the blog so you can get the full affect.

Just some pics

(Colby and his little bear on Easter day.)
(B&W of Colby and his little bear)
(Ev, the best big brother around and Colby. Tracey used the fog filter I got for my B-day. cool affect, huh?)
(I worked from home today as Tracey had to work. So I packed Colby and Hamilton up and we headed to the office so I could grab some material. Hamilton loves to come along and Colby was wonderful. He slept most of the time and I had to wake him in the office so he could see everyone.)
(Maybe one of my favorite pictures yet. Again, we used the fog filter with this one. Took it just today)

Colby is doing AWESOME! He's talking up a storm. He's eating like a champ. For a couple days, he wasn't eating much , but we think it was because the nipples on his bottles were flowing too slowly for him now that he's older. So we poked a little bigger hole in them and he's chowing down.

Birth to three is coming tomorrow morning. I'm anxious to see what they have to say. It's a bit hard because they're only here for 1/2 an hour or so. So their impression of Colby's progress depends a lot simply on Colby's mood during that time. We'll just see how it goes.

A video of our boy

He's progressing so well these days! You can see in the video that he's playing with his toys, grabbing at things and he's found is voice!!! Sometimes he'll sit or lay there and boarderline scream and screach. It's adorable!!!

He's doing very well eating rice cereal. We were a bit worried that it might mess with his belly, but knock on wood, he's been doing very well with it.

Colby's first Easter

Happy Easter everyone!
Colby has been doing wonderfully as of late. He's started to eat rice cereal. Thus far it's been two days since we've introduced it to him and knock on wood, he seems to be tolerating it pretty well. He's only having about a teaspoon or so of it a day, but it's a start. I was nervous given his issues with his belly that introducing something new would just create havoc. We'll continue to increase it every couple days or so.
He's also FINALLY starting to consistently sleep more at night. Last night I stuffed him full of formula and some cereal and he feel asleep on me around 10:30 or so. I carried him into his crib around 11 and he didn't wake up until almost 6:30 this morning!!! YIPPIEEEEE!!!!!! Boy does that make a difference for Tracey and I being able to get some good sleep!
Today was my birthday and I must say it I did enjoy being a true daddy this birthday. I can't really describe it, but being a parent really does enrich your life. : ) I'm sure all you parents out there understand this.
The weather in CT is gradually getting warmer so we're looking forward to venturing out with Colby more. He went grocery shopping with me yesterday and was wonderful. I plopped his car seat in the main part of the carriage so that the carriage acted like a cage keeping excited people from reaching in to touch him. We're still very cautious about exposing him to RSV.
And on that note just today he's started to act a bit stuffy and is coughing a bit. It could be nothing or it could be something to be alarmed about. We're going to keep an eye on him and watch him closely over the next couple days.
His weight has plateaued a bit. He's still just shy of 11 pounds. He's been a picky eater this past week, not really eating as much as he usually does. Though it's not consistent.....one day he'll eat like a pig, the next we can't get him to finish his bottles. Again, just something we're going to keep our eye on.
I got some great new filters for the camera as gifts today so I'm excited to start messing around with them. I'll post some pictures in the next day or so. Ow...and I'm working on getting some video of the Colbster as well.

Ow so happy......

("hey baby.....")
(Happy boy)

Over the past week or so, Colby has just been blossoming. He's extremely content and happy....more like the Colby we used to know before his surgeries. He's found his voice a bit more and babbles quite a bit. he'll lie on the floor below his toys and bat at them for a good 1/2 hour. He'll hold his head up and look around and watch as you walk around. He'll grab onto things well.

So he a follow up visit at UCONN yesterday. I've said it before but I'll say it again....I just love the people at Uconn! The doctor has seen him a couple times and looks him over for developmental progress, general health and his lungs. As we sat there and the doctor and his assistant looked over Colby, we could hear him commenting on how well he's progressing. You could hear he was a bit surprised to see how well Colby's motor skills were, how he tracked with his eyes and how he held his head up. After he got done he told us that he's very pleased to say that Colby is right on track....as if he were a full term baby !!! Isn't that amazing!!! They were very happy with all that he's doing and how interactive he is. He really doesn't have any reflux or eating issues. Yes, he has a sensitive stomach, but that's about it. Tracey and I were just thrilled. We try to work with Colby as much as we can to help him progress and to hear that he's doing well just makes us so happy.

The doctor made mention that he would love to see a new kind of MRI on Colby to see just how is brain is functioning because for a baby who had level 3 brain bleeds, hydrocephalus and 2 surgeries on his head, Colby is doing remarkably well. These special MRI's are only done in certain places like Boston. And we don't need to subject Colby to any more sedation or stress that he's already been through. So I although it would be interesting to know how his brain is really doing, I don't think we'll go that route.

I asked the doctor about his lungs and asked on a scale of mild, moderate and severe....where was Colby. He categorized him as being moderate.

Both growth and weight wise, Colby is in the catching up. His head circumference hasn't changed since his last surgery. So that's all good news.

I have to believe that Colby's doing so well has everything to do with the attention he got while he was in the NICU, the help he's gotten since he's been home and the ongoing support, thoughts, prayers and well wishes from all of you!

Sometimes we look back at all that we've been through and think "how the hell did we do it?". But then you look at times like this and it all makes it well worth while. Life is never easy, if it's not one thing it's another it seems. But within the mess of work, finances, or whatever else goes on in your life, it's the times like these...times that you've worked so hard and long for that finally come to be that make it all worth while. Tracey and I worked hard for 4 long years to get pregnant. Then came the whole NICU experience and all that came with it. Then the Home-hospital-home-hospital and home yet again and ongoing troubles with Colby's health. We're by no means out of the woods, but at least for today we have a blossoming young boy that just seems to overcome the odds over and over again. Yup, some of the days in the past year or so we looked at each other and said "man...this sucks". But now we're enjoying our son and are just ow so happy that he's doing as well as he is!!!!

Colby's Rockin'

(Colby and grandpa)

I guess this will be the rhythm now...updating the blog about once a week or so. Things are just too busy now a days and honestly there aren't enough things happening day to day to write about.

Colby is doing wonderfully! Knock on wood, but his shunt seems to be working well with no issues or infections. He is lively, interactive and happy. The doctor had told us to let him fuss for a couple minutes sometimes when he starts crying and that may help him settle himself. Well, we've only been doing that for less than a week now and we see a marked change. Once we see that he's getting tired, we can swaddle him up and put him in his crib and he falls asleep without any crying probably 75% of the time! For the most part, he's continuing to get up every 3 1/2 hours at night, although from time to time now he's pushing the 4 1/2 hour mark. Last night he got up around 2 and then not again until 6! That's a big improvement!

He's also doing great with grabbing at things. He'll grab at some toys or our faces if we get close enough. He's also putting his hands in his mouth a lot. I think by coincidence, he sometimes ends up putting toys in his mouth too now. His head control is still something to work on, but we can hold him up and for the most part, he'll hold his head up. It tends to fall backward a lot, but with some practice, he'll be fine. : )

So that's the big news for the week. Tracey and I are sooooooooo happy that Colby continues to progress as well as he is. Yes, he's had a long road thus far, but as we've stated over and over, you just need to get trough the tough times to then enjoy the better days.

Some pics

(Colby and his big brother Evan)

Everything is going well. Colby had his 6 month check up today. 6 months!!! I can't believe it! he continues to do very well. We're going to start to work on trying to get him to sleep a little more at night as it's really wearing on us. The pediatrician said we could start introducing some cereal in about a month and that could help him sleep a bit.

As you can see he's holding his head up. It's still a bit wobbly at times, but he's doing great. He's also bringing his hands together regularly which is a good sign developmentally.

If you notice in a couple of the pictures, you can see marks on his right forearm. He's learned to suck on his hands and his arms. I guess he's got such a strong suck that he's giving himself a couple hickeys on his arms! LOL