We had an appointment for the boys today with the Mission Hospital Developmental Follow Up team. They track all of their NICU babies for two years to check their progress and provide any services these children might need due to their prematurity. The boys as of today are 4 months and 28 days chronological age but only 3 months and 7 days adjusted age.
The boys met today with an RN, a physical therapist, and a speech therapist. A nurse came out to get us and commented on how big the boys looked. Her exact comment was, "They were premature?" Haha - the way they are growing, you can't tell anymore!! ;) They were first weighed and had their lengths noted. Alex is now 13 lbs, 11.5 oz and 24 inches long. Charlie weighed in at 13 lbs, 11 oz and was 25 inches long. I was surprised how their weights were almost the same but I figured Charlie was a little longer. They have both been playing a little in the exersaucer at home and Alex has to have a towel underneath his feet where as Charlie does not.
The RN looked them over and declared them healthy. She did note their eczema but that was an issue we're already aware of. ;) The RN and the physical therapist both commented on the excellent shape of each of the boys heads - yay! No flat spots for these boys!! I am hoping this means we are out of the woods as far as needing helmets. This was a big worry of mine and I'm so glad that it looks like we avoided it.
The speech therapist was there to watch the boys take a bottle and to make sure that they were handling everything well. Their technique looked fine and since they don't seem to have any reflux issues, they said everything seems fine. I did ask about starting solid foods since their pediatrician wanted them to start them before we come in for their next appointment. The boys have also seemed to be more interested lately in watching other people eat - I though Alex was going to reach out and grab Lucy's slice of pizza the other day! The speech therapist said that she feels like they should be about 5-6 months adjusted age before starting any solids. . . so I'm not sure what we'll do about that. She did say it was ok to let the boys "play with" eating some rice cereal in a few weeks or so. I had thought about starting them on cereal this week, so I'm not quite sure what I'll do. On one hand, they are only 3 months old in the adjusted age group but they are showing signs of readiness. . . . so we'll see.
The physical therapist had the boys down on the mat and they showed off with their rolling skills and holding their heads up. Both of them were smiling and talking and kicking and showing off just like they love to do. They also showed off their new found skill of reaching out and grabbing at objects. She said that while they expect for the boys to be at a 3 months skill level, they are actually showing skills of what an average 5 month baby does! She did caution that at our next visit they may be closer to their adjusted age as they get more involved in fine motor skills but that wasn't unexpected. She also talked about how language development can sometimes be slower with premature children as well as with twins. I had read some about this - often times, twins can have delayed language because people forget to speak to them one on one. . . since you are interacting with both of them. This can lead to them tuning the language more into the background which causes them not to learn quite as quickly. But since we're aware of this, we make a conscious effort to engage both boys one on one. And if they are anything like their sister, language won't be a problem! ;)
Overall, it was a great visit. It's always nice to have professionals reaffirm that you have happy, healthy children who are right on target for their age. Sometimes things can get so overwhelming and there are so many times where I feel like I could be doing such a better job at being a mom. All of them though commented that we were doing a great job with these boys - a little reminder like today is always helpful. We love our boys so much and even though we certainly wouldn't call life with twins "easy," we are so blessed and thankful to have these precious sweet boys to love.
No comments:
Post a Comment