9 months!

The Schlegel boys celebrated their 9 month birthday in style last week.  I think some pureed pears and sweet potatoes were on the menu, pretty standard party fare.

I wanted to wait to post this until our doctor's appointment yesterday to get the most up to date stats.  Unfortunately, I could have used the numbers from last month because the boys just haven't grown a whole lot.  Carter weighs 13lbs, 9 oz (1st percentile) and is 24.9 inches (3rd percentile).  His head is 44cm (50%).  Anderson didn't do much better; he weighs 15lbs, 8 oz (11th percentile) and is 25.3 inches (8th percentile).  His head is 44.9 cm (75th percentile).  Needless to say, we are still struggling with getting the tiny outfits that fit their bodies over their giant heads.

The doctor is pleased to see how well they are doing developmentally, but is pretty concerned about their lack of weight gain.  We have a goal of getting Carter to drink 25+ oz of milk per day and Anderson to drink 30+ oz.  It's frustrating for Ty and I because we don't feel like there's much else we can do.  We have tried feeding them larger amounts at one time, smaller amounts throughout the day, etc., but they are pretty much taking in as much milk as they want to and short of sticking a tube in their mouth, we can't really think of any other way to get it done.  They are also eating 2 solid meals per day, which is going very well, but Carter seems to think he doesn't need to drink milk anymore because he gets solids.  Sometimes he gets a third solid food feeding, just to get more calories in him.  We are now adding olive oil to their food in order to boost the calories.  So far no complaints, but I am going to buy some cheaper olive oil to use for them, and we'll see how refined their little palates are. We will keep trying and hopefully they'll be able to gain some weight.

Carter went to see the gastroenterologist last week and his liver still looks good.  He did have some concerns about Carter's blood work though, so we are going to go see an immunologist.  They are concerned that Carter is maybe not producing enough antibodies, so they just want to check him out.  Poor little guy; it means more blood being taken (perhaps related to his lack of weight gain....) and another doctor.  He handles it like a champ though.

One piece of good news on the medical front is that the OT is now only coming once per month!  She is not concerned about their development and just wants to check in periodically to make sure they are still on track.

At 9 months, the boys are:
-Rolling all over the place and scooting backwards; no crawling yet, but they are rocking more and seem to be pretty close
- Eating a fair amount of solid foods: Sweet potatoes are the favorite, followed closely by pears and avocados, bananas are still not loved, but they did really enjoy zucchini and summer squash.  Their OT also suggested giving them puffs or cheerios to work on their grasping and putting foods in their mouth.
- Very interactive, but only once they have checked you out.  Stranger anxiety seems to be becoming a greater issue for them, but they warm up quickly.
- Fighting over toys - they each hold one end and scream
- Yelling when you take a "toy (like Mommy's phone)" away from them
- Really enjoying bath time and splashing
- Saying a few consonant sounds like "ba" "ma" and "da", in a completely nonsensical way

Here are a few pics:

Play it cool. Do not make direct eye contact with Mom and if you do, act like an angry teenager

Oh, you've got foot problems, let me take a closer look (Side note: Does every parent of children this age worry that their kids will have a foot fetish later in life?  I am honestly worried).

Let's just smile and get it over with

Carter was working those baby blues

This was the best smile I could get from him

"Average" is the sweetest word in the world

The boys had their big appointment with the developmental specialists yesterday to assess their development at 6 months (adjusted age).  Our last appointment was 4 months ago and they recommended the boys begin seeing an occupational therapist to help them catch up developmentally.  Since then, the boys have seen a therapist once a week and have been under the watchful eyes of many other physicians and specialists in order to keep them on track.

When we headed in to the appointment, I had Carter undressed first for weigh in and he started to lose it.  Usually we have Carter go first at all appointments, as he is typically the better behaved baby, so I took it as a bad sign that he was crying hysterically.  I fed him and he seemed to calm down, but he was very wary of the doctors and nurses.  In an unprecedented move, Anderson was very calm and compliant, smiling and cooing at the doctor (perhaps trying to charm her so that she didn't notice that he still doesn't stick his thumb out?).  They took the boys through a series of tests and asked me a million questions, some of which seemed completely valid and others seemed more than a little asinine (does anyone really know how often their child grabs objects with the palm first or with their fingers first?  and how often?  and which child does this? etc., etc., etc.).  Several things seems a bit contradictory (e.g., you are pleased to see that they do have wariness towards strangers, but then are concerned that they aren't smiling and talking to you immediately?; I guess I am unclear on the appropriate reaction to strangers then....).  The boys actually did a few things that I had never seen them do before and then chose not to do some things they have been doing for months (really Anderson, you're just going to stare at something and make no move to roll over for it?). After a little more than 2 hours of tests, forms and observation, the team finally came back in with a whole stack of papers to go over.  It didn't look good.

But then they said the sweetest word, a word that doesn't typically cause me to rejoice, but a word that has never before been used to describe the boys.  When you start off 11 weeks ahead of schedule, weighing in at 1lb and 2 lbs respectively, with limbs the circumference of an adult pinkie finger, and heads the size of a baseball, many words are used to describe you, your stature, and your development, and many of these words do not have a positive connotation associated with them.  But these sweet, sweet, doctors and nurses (please ignore the disparaging remarks I made about them in the previous paragraph), described both boys as completely within the "average" realm of development for their adjusted age.  They even had a few things that were "slightly above average."  I almost cried I was so happy.  Our little guys are doing exactly what they should be doing for their adjusted age and Ty and I couldn't be happier.

My little charmers

The boys love to smile and it's hard for me to capture many of these smiles on film, but some days the stars align and I am able to forever immortalize in film these sweet little grins.  

Solid foods

We recently captured a few photos of one of their first solid food eating experiences.  

Carter is excited about oatmeal!

Anderson is ambivalent

Interested in the camera, but not so much the food

Carter is still going strong, eating his portion and most of his brother's

Carter looks satisfied and Anderson wonders what on earth just happened

8 months!

My apologies for the tardiness of this posting.  I went back to work and school, so things have been a little hectic around here.  The boys love their nanny though and Grandma was just here for a week, so they have been well taken care of in my absence.

At 8 months (5.5 months adjusted) both boys are:

- 12lbs, 8oz and 24 in (Carter) and 14lbs, 4oz and 24.5 in (Anderson)

- Eating 5oz of food 6 or 7 times per day

- No longer sleeping through the night (uggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh) - we're working on it, but they wake up starving and since they are still pretty small for their age, I feel like we need to feed them?  Any ideas?

- Rolling around all over the place (Carter more so than Anderson; while Anderson knows how to roll from his back to his tummy, he prefers just laying on his back, but Carter uses rolling as his preferred mode of transportation, so he can get from one side of the room to another pretty quickly)

- Sitting on their own for very short periods of time

- Eating one serving of solid foods per day (they like sweet potatoes, are not so fond of rice cereal and are unsure about bananas)

- Have graduated from seeing the occupational therapist every week to every two weeks!  She is very happy with their progress and just wants to keep an eye on things to make sure they stay on track with their development.  Her last report stated they are now within "the normal range of development for their adjusted age." Woohoo!!!

Some individual achievements:

- Carter is holding his own bottle for some feedings.  He prefers to drink with either one or both thumbs in his mouth along with the bottle

- Carter seems like he is starting to think about crawling.  He is on his tummy pretty often, moving all his limbs around and getting frustrated that he's not getting anywhere.  He has figured out how to scoot himself backwards, so that's working for him right now.  

- Carter is much more interested in solid foods than Anderson.  He dive bombs to get the food off the spoon and eats at least twice as much as Anderson.  

- Carter is a stomach sleeper.  We still lay him down on his back, but he flips over almost immediately. 

- Anderson is very interested in blowing raspberries.  ALL. THE. TIME.

- Anderson likes any toy where he can stand up and play with it, either in a toy that holds him, or being held by an adult while playing with the toy.  He doesn't like being laid down, ever.

- Anderson can hold his own bottle to eat.  When he's hungry enough, he'll grab it from you, but the majority of the time he prefers being fed.  

- Anderson can sit for longer periods of time on his own than Carter.  Perhaps the extra weight he's carrying in the posterior region is helping him out in this task?

Here are a few photos from the 8 month photo shoot.  Thanks so much Sarah and Jason Johncock for getting the boys these great shirts!

Finally sort of a smile from Anderson

These glares look similar to the looks I will likely get from them as teenagers