NICU Follow Up

Yesterday we went to Children's for Owen's NICU follow up appointment. We'll go back 3 times between now and age 2 so they can chart his progress and get him any help that he may need for healthy development. We met with an occupational therapist, a nurse practitioner and a
neonatalogist. They had him play with some blocks, a string, a rattle, and a bell, to check his fine and gross motor skills. They had him pick up a Cheerio, play on some mats on the floor and they stood behind him and crinkled paper to see if he'd follow the noise.

Very shortly after we got into the room, he got cranky and sleepy, so that was kind of a bummer. When I scheduled the appointment, I wasn't sure what time to do it. The appointments are two hours long, so there wasn't really a good time that didn't overlap with either nap time or feeding time, so I just picked first thing in the morning, thinking he'd be fresh and awake. Add his being tired to him being enthralled with the crane doing construction outside the window and he wasn't overly cooperative. I guess the appointment was a good reminder though that his actual age is 5 months and 2 days. His calculated age may be 7 months and 19 days, but they consider him to be 5 months old. On a day-to-day basis, I think of him as almost 8 months, not 5 months because there really isn't much that the other babies at daycare are doing that he isn't doing yet.

So here are the results:

Weight - 20 pounds (60th percentile on the term baby chart, off the chart for preemies)
Height - 28.5" (80th percentile on the term baby chart, off the chart for preemies)
Head - 18" (75th percentile on the term baby chart, off the chart for preemies)

His cognitive score was 100, which gave him an age equivalence of 5 months, so right on. His motor score was 100, putting him at an age equivalence of 4 months and 10 days for his gross motor skills (passing a block from one hand to another, picking up a Cheerio) and 5 months and 10 days for his fine motor skills (playing with his toes, grabbing things). His language score was 89, putting him at an age equivalence of 6 months for expressive language (talking) and 3 months for receptive language (hearing). This was when he was busy looking out the window at the crane, so he wouldn't turn to look at the therapist when she was shaking a rattle or crinkling paper behind him.

Physically, they were extremely pleased with how he's grown. They said that they wouldn't have even known by looking at him that he was born so early. They said he was eating the right amounts and they were pleased to hear that he is eating solid foods and so many different ones.

The occupational therapist said that sometimes preemies are very tight through the shoulders and even though he's much better than he used to be, he is somewhat tight. We have to do stretches with him like he is hugging himself to get him to stretch and loosen up. We also have to keep him out of the exersaucer and the Johnnie Jumper for a few weeks so he spends more time on the floor practicing sitting and rolling. It was too bad they didn't see him get up on his knees and rock back and forth! That would have really skewed his score!

After our appointment, we stopped down to 2nd floor to visit with Mona, his primary nurse when we were in the NICU. It was great to see her! She was happy to see how big he was and pleased to see that he kept all of his red hair. Unfortunately at this point, he was not a happy boy. He wanted to sleep and was turning on his beastly charm.

Overall, the appointment went really well. He's growing well, he's strong and he's healthy. We couldn't ask for anything more!