Onto today's post. As promised, I will update you on Jonathan's development.
When Jonathan was discharged on June 9, 2011, he was diagnosed with Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). Once he was discharged, we had weekly opthamology appointments for a few weeks, which then turned into every 2 weeks, then a month, and now we are on our 6 month stretch. He goes back to his opthamologist in February 2012 (Jonathan will be a week shy of a year old at that time). So the last time we saw the opthamologist was the beginning of August, 2011. At that time, the doctor said that it appears Jonathan's ROP was correcting itself...so he was growing out of it. His diagnosis was downgraded from stage 2 ROP to immature.
Jonathan has had some visits with his Early Intervention (EI) Team. His team is put together with 4 therapists; Speech, Occupational, Physical and Developmental. When this was set up they put this group together who are more sensitive to the micro preemies and their behavior. They first saw him in August. They said that he was doing really good at that time. His adjusted age when they saw him was just over 2 months old. They did say his reach and grab skills were 50% delayed, but they didn't feel that he needed to have any treatment at that time. They did say part of the delay was most likely due to the ROP. But over all, they felt that we could just do some exercises and "play time" at home to keep him developing in the right direction. So no treatment was recommended then.
In October, 2011, we went back up to the Neonatal followup clinic. There were a couple concerns there. The first concern was that Jonathan had fallen off of his weight curve. So the nutritionist was in the room and it was suggested that we keep him on the high calorie formula (he is on Neosure 27 Cal.). They wanted to keep him on this for about another month and then we can start the rice cereal when he was 5 months adjusted. After talking with the Nurse Practitioner, we decided to start him on the cereal 3 weeks after his appointment and she also said she didn't feel he had fallen off of his curve was as big of a deal as they were making it out to be. She said he was in the 50th percentile because they had gotten him there and maybe he just wasn't comfortable there. He is now in the 25th percentile. After talking with our county health nurse that follows him as well, she said she had him in the 25th percentile when she was here in September. Our Nurse Practitioner said that if he is still on the 25th percentile curve in our December visit, then that will be his curve, he may just be more comfortable there.
There was also a concern that he had a slight head tilt to his right. He has actually had this problem since before he was discharged. It was just more prominent at discharge then it is now. However, the neonatal doctor did say that she would like to see this corrected and if it doesn't get corrected by December, then she will be ordering some physical therapy....so we were given some stretches to do and orders to do them as often as possible.
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| Jonathan...Our "textbook" 5 month old during one of his first feedings |
In November, 2011, Jonathan's EI team came back to do another evaluation on Jonathan. Jonathan was days shy of 9 months old, however, his adjusted again was almost 5 months old. They said that they were once again happy with his development and he was a "textbook" 5 month old. I did bring up the concern of Jonathan's head tilt, and they said that it appears to be correcting (at least in their eyes). They said it was only a very slight tilt, but it could be more prominent when he's tired or upset. So we will see what our December visit at the clinic says...until then, we will keep doing our stretches.
Jonathan's EI team is planning on coming out for another evaluation in February 2012 when Jonathan is about a year old. They said to not be surprised if they recommend treatment at that time, the goal in the 1 to 2 year old range is to close the gap between his chronological and adjusted ages.
February already appears to be a busy month for us. Already scheduled in February are the EI team, 1 year Pediatrician appointment, Ophamology, The County Health Nurse, and something tells me the Neonatal clinic will want to see him then too (however, that is not scheduled yet). So that is pretty much where we are at with the development side of things. Jonathan seems to be doing everything that he needs to be doing at this time. He is cooing and laughing and playing....and so much fun to have around!!
So don't forget to laugh today, and if you need some help, here is some encouragement....
And now a word from our sponsors..... (sorry, didn't get a lot of pictures in on this post, but at least you've got 2 videos to see)...
So it appears that Jonathan's story is all caught up at the moment. So I'm not really sure what the next entry will be about...we will see what idea pops into my head.
Until next time, smile, laugh and enjoy life!!!
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