Stalled out

Colin had his follow-up appointment at the high-risk clinic at the hospital today. Lucky boy also had his next opthamologist appointment to check on his ROP. We were at the hospital from 8:00 until after 10:30 — it was a long morning for both of us.

On the good front, Colin’s ROP has resolved itself. He has some mild scarring on the edges of his retinas, but that shouldn’t affect his vision at all. He needs to go back in for a follow-up appointment in six months, but otherwise is fine, vision-wise. 

After the eye exam, Colin saw the occupational therapist. Unfortunately, because they had to dilate Colin’s eyes, he wasn’t doing as well as usual on the tracking exercises (following an object with his eyes and/or head as it is moved from side to side in front of him). She also looks at things like his reflexes, flexibility, ability to roll from side to front, etc. 

Colin’s adjusted age will be two months on Sunday. Right now, developmentally, he is scoring like a one-month-old baby — so he is behind where he should be by about a month. (Veronica scored about a month ahead of where she should have been.) I do think he’s really ahead of where he performed today — between the eye exam and really being ready for a nap, he wasn’t really “on,” but you can’t really control those things. 

Both babies will be getting visits from Early Intervention for occupational therapy and, eventually, speech therapy too. So any lags in their development will be caught (and hopefully successfully addressed) early. I think at least part of his delay is related to being so small. 

And speaking of small, he did not gain any weight between his pediatrician appointment last week and today. He only tipped the scales at 6 pounds (down an ounce, but that’s probably just the difference between the two scales). So he is back on the higher calorie (only 22 calorie right now, not the 30 cal he was on in the hospital) formula now. The doctor wants him to get the formula for three feeds a day, and to continue with it at least until he’s one. 

He has his next pediatrician appointment on December 7th, so we’ll be anxious to see if he has gained anything of note by then. Keep your fingers crossed. I know I will.