Our 10 pound 2 ounce baby!

He just keeps getting bigger and bigger, stronger and stronger...

We traveled to FW on Sunday so that we could be there for his appointments on Monday. It was FULL day with having 3 appointments to make it attend. We barely had enough time to grab lunch.

The first appointment was with the eye specialist, Dr. Norman. Great guy, by the way. He always welcomes us with a handshake and a "Great to see you" ... They prepared Kadin's eyes before he came in with some eye drops to dilate the eyes, so when Dr. Norman came in, I exited. I saw a little bit of the eye exam while Kadin was still in the hospital and I really don't care to watch those. I could hear him screaming down the hallway but when it was over I went in and held him. Dr. Norman was very optimistic in his assessment of Kadin's eyes and how they have progressed. He had the laser surgery in the left eye and he said it has totally regressed in the "wrong" way that it was growing and is not growing properly and that his right eye is completely matured. His exact words were he expected him to have no vision problems ... perfect vision - unless he gets the genes we all got that have required corrective lenses in grade school. Other than that ... no problems! YAY!

The second stop we made was to the pulmonologist, Dr. Schultz ... She is also great. The nurse asked us most of the questions about how his oxygen is etc. and how often he is desatting ... long story short, we went for an xray since he hasn't had one after being released from the hospital. Dr. Schultz said that you would never know he was a 24-weeker, his lungs look perfect and are growing well! YAY AGAIN! She said we could take off the monitors, but if we are asleep or he is napping in another room we need to have at least one of the monitors on him. We have opted to leave the pulse oximeter on him instead of that big old bulky band around his chest. He seems to really like that thing being gone! He is doing well with the oxygen and will require it for a little while longer ...

As far as visiting the pediatric surgeon, everything went well there. He checked his hernia sites and they look wonderful. He will need to be circumsized in about 4 months or so and we will return to him for that and another small minor surgery in the area. It all looks wonderful tho, he said, and we're on the right road!

We made it home around 2AM. It was a long drive. It is hard to travel with Kadin when he needs to stop every little while and be taken out of the carseat to stretch, rest, be changed or fed ... whatever. So our trip took us longer than it normally would and we are exhausted today, but doing well.

When we were in the motel room in FW Sunday night, I made Kadin a bottle and put him in the feeding position so I could feed him. He was looking right at me ... made my tummy flip flop, ya know? But the sweet thing is I put the bottle in front of his face and he looked at it, and then I said "What is that Kadin?" and he GRINNED really really big !!!!! We repeated this a few times and every time he grinned really big. It was so sweet .... I tried it again today with my sister here and yep, he smiled REALLY big for me ... he knows that it's grocery time, lol. And he took it ALL!

So we are most pleased with his progress at this point. Kadin is technically almost 5 months old, but his adjusted age is about 4 weeks. He is a newborn really and developmentally, that is how we have to look at it. It's not difficult, and actually, if we tried to make him 5 months old we would only be frustrated. So to us, his adjusted age is all that matters ... they say by the time children hit 2 years of age, they are "caught up" so to speak with their peers. Guess we will see.

We are all loving having this baby here with us. He makes our worlds go around. The kids are fantastic with him. They all call him their PRINCE. (may have mentioned that before) Robbi will just pick him up without even asking. She loves to take care of him and love on him. She is very helpful and at times, I take the opportunity to let her know that "this is what kissing gets you!" ha ha ha ha And when it's YOURS ... it's serious time. She realizes what I mean and says "EEWWWW!" Thank goodness ....

Kota is so in love with his baby brother. He just beams when he is with him. He loves to hold him and feed him. He hasn't asked to help change him yet, lol ... but everything else he is more than happy to help with, even playing with the toys, etc. Kadin is the first one Kota wants to see in the morning and the last one at night ... He is already the best big bubba.

And then there's JT ... He came to visit us this past week but had to stay away from Kadin for the most part because he had strep throat. Of course, we didn't know he had that when he came, we just knew he wasn't feeling very well and he rested a lot while he was here, but then he got to feeling really horrible so we got him to the Dr. and got some tests done and BAM! Strep throat ... Bless his heart, he was so worried that he was going to give it to Kadin, but I called the pediatrician and they said it is very uncommon for babies to get it because you basically have to swap spit or some bodily fluid to get it and he had never even gotten close enough to Kadin's face to do so. He is also the best big bubba ... I think Kota learned from him because he is wonderful with Kota. JT wanted to badly to hold Kadin so I did put him in his arms for about 20 seconds but JT refused to breathe the whole time so I then took him back, lol .... He apologized so many times for not feeling well the entire time he was here, but it didn't make a difference to me, I want my children with me at all times, not just the good times. We so enjoyed him being here with us.

So I guess that's it until I can make time to blog again. As you may have realized, times for blogging are coming fewer and further in between! I pray you are all well and enjoying our new Spring that is upon us!