Brrrrr

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it's been a few weeks - a lot has happened and I haven't had an opportunity to update.

Last week Bill's Mom-Mom passed away. We are saddened with her passing, but we know that she is at peace and we are very grateful that she had opportunity to meet her first great-grandchild. We will fill Ryan with Mom-Mom stories as he continues to grow and he will always know what a wonderful and amazing woman she was.

Ryan was evaluated two weeks ago by an Occupational Therapist and a Physical Therapist and they determined that he has a 25% delay on his gross motor skills (sitting, getting up on all fours, etc.) He has difficulty sitting and would rather arch his back and lay down. He'll sit for a few seconds if there is something in front of him to reach for, but then he'll arch back and plop! down he goes. This is very common for preemies. The OT explained to us that full-term babies spend a lot of time curled up in a ball in the womb, so they are used to bending at the waist, where as preemies spend a lot of time "spread eagle" and are more comfortable on their backs. We are working with Ryan's sitting (as you can see in the pics), but he still needs work. Currently we are on a waiting list for P.T., but in the meantime a Massage Therapist is coming out once a week to teach me how to give Ryan infant massage to loosen up his muscles and make him more flexible and more comfortable in a sitting position.

Ryan's doing well in all of his other areas (fine motor, speech, social, etc.) so thankfully we'll be starting P.T. early and get Ryan big and strong!

We are looking forward to Ryan's first Thanksgiving next week and can't wait for him to try some of that Thanksgiving dinner (pureed of course).

Enjoy the recent pics and try and stay warm..... it's cold out there!