Yesterday was David's developmental screening at Sutter. They offer it to all preemies just to follow up on how they are doing. We saw a social worker who was very nice, a physical therapist and a pediatric nurse practitioner. The physical therapist was the most helpful, as David is behind in his gross motor skills. We've known that for a while and it isn't that uncommon... Anyway, the good news is that he seems right on target for most things. He picks up things and had pretty good fine motor skills, displays object permanence and also has really good social skills.

The physical therapist gave us some exercises to do with him to try to strengthen the front part of his body. Apparently in preemies, it's common for there to be an inbalance between the anterior and posterior because they develop strength in the womb in the posterior body first. Then during the last several weeks they develop strength in the anterior. Because of all this, even though he can sit up, but has poor balance because of the way he's compensated. His lateral muscles are undeveloped, so his movements are jerky as he tries to keep his balance. The good news is that it's early and we can help him fix the imbalance before it gets to be a big problem.

I also found it really interesting to talk to the physical therapist about her opinion of the "Back to Sleep" program. (I thought that maybe David's imbablance was partially a result of us putting him to sleep on his belly.) In her opinion back sleeping it's not a natural way for babies to sleep and she told me that they see all kinds of term babies that develop problems because of this, and that there's no proof that it prevents SIDS. The more likely reason for SIDS is soft mattresses, (in her opinion).

He's 8 months old now with an adjusted age of 6 1/2 months. The nurse weighed and measured him and didn't use the adjusted age for this. He weighs 22lbs and is still in the 50-75th percentile for an 8 month old. I don't really know what all of that means except that he's continuing to gain weight and grow like he's supposed to. That makes us happy because he's still pretty spitty. The nurse said that as long as he continue to gain weight and doesn't appear to have any irritation from the reflux, they qualify him as a "happy spitter." Bummer for us and all of the laundry we do, but again, happy that it's not worse than it is.

Isabelle didn't get to go to this appointment. Initially, I was irritated that we had to get a sitter for her, but once we were there I totally understood and was glad we didn't have the option to bring her. She stayed home with my friend Diane and they had a lovely time. The went to the horsey park and we're banging on things "making music" when we got back. It's so nice to have someone to jump in when we need to do things like this. And I think as much as Isabelle loves us, she gets tired of our ugly mugs and likes having new people to play with.


Oh jeez... speaking of imbalances though!!! Poor Isabelle did a face plant right into the concrete the other day! We were going out to get burritos and she tripped and fell and bounced her mouth off the pavement. You parents know that sickening feeling... You see it happening in slow motion and there's no way you can get there to catch them in time, then you're hands fly up to your mouth and you hope they don't see your reaction. She split her lip inside pretty good and had a nice big fat lip. She still has a fat lip in fact, but seems ok other wise. I got great advice from another mom for lip injuries, which was to put them in the bath with a popsicle. Pain relief, distraction and no mess!

The other great thing to report is that John's work has agreed to continue with an arrangement that makes it possible for me to be home with the kids during the day and work in the evenings. It's still not the ideal situation for them, but they've been generous in their compromise. With the exercies we need to do with David and the fact that I adore being home with the kids every day, we are so grateful. John gets one on one time with them the three evenings a week that I work and then on Saturday mornings. He's just the best Dad ever! And the kids light up for him like no one else. We're pretty happy with our little family.