Two Gold Stars and Some Taste Testing...

On Friday we made the snow covered trek back up to Cincinnati for two doctors appointments. Pops (my Dad) was gracious enough to plow the roads in his big truck and accompany us on our visit! One appointment was with an orthopedic doctor (bones) and the other with our nephrologist for our monthly dialysis check up. It was a long, long day but sweet Owen was such a trooper. Not to mention he slept until after 9am two days in a row! :)

Our first appointment was with orthopedics. When I was pregnant with Owen, I has lost all amniotic fluid by about 27 weeks. This not only causes issues with lung development, but also with babies' bone development. Owen was very smushed, almost like being wrapped in Saran wrap. Because of this, many babies develop club feet, or an abbreviated version of club feet. Since birth, Owen's feet have been turned in. This is when we coined his "monkey feet" labeling. The turning in has been improving with time, working with PT and OT and finally being able to bear weight on them! Orotho had done x-rays of Owen's feet when he was in the hospital and this was a follow up visit from that.

We are so thankful to say the doctors found NO EVIDENCE OF CLUB FEET!

Yay! They were very impressed with Owen's range of motion and said when the time comes, he should have NO trouble walking. :)

At this appointment I also asked about a helmet for him. Not because he is cruising through our house or anything...because he has quite the flat head in the back! Our doctor was very firm in letting me know that the research he has done does not prove the necessity for a helmet. He said with or without a helmet his head will round out on its own. Also, Owen is just now starting to do more activities that don't require him to lay flat on his back. So no helmet for us, yay!

Our second appointment was with our wonderful nephrologists to check up on our dialysis. After a lengthy blood draw.....Owen's labs look great! :) They made no changes to meds or his dialysis prescription.

There was one change though....Owen's calorie intake. Basically, Owen is fat. haha (For those that know me well, you know I have always been obsessed with fat babies and always wanted one!) We are going to be cutting back on the number of extra calories added to Owen's milk. He is still getting strictly breast milk (Thank you to those that prayed for my pumping...I think I could open a milk store now!) with added protein and formula for extra calories. Apparently kidney babies usually have difficultly gaining weight....hmmm...not us! So basically instead of 2 Tbs we are doing 2 teaspoons.

Praise God Owen is growing and gaining weight! I love that our only "issue" was the fact he is growing so well! Owen's length is not moving as quickly as his weight. This is very common for kidney babies, as many actually go on the growth hormone shots. At this time Owen's growth is steady enough that he does not qualify. If at a time he does, it will be something to discuss. We need all the extra room we can get to hold that kidney!

So that was two visits and two gold stars...Way to Go, Owen!

Owen and Pops. Even after a very LONG day in Cinci Owen was still smiling!

Now on to some taste testing....

Owen has been given the "go ahead" to start eating solids! It's still a little bit early. Our doctors said 4-6 months is the range to start, with 4 being a bit early. Owen will be 6 months old at the beginning of February, but his age is "adjusted" 6 weeks for being a premie. We have to be very careful with what we feed Owen. Potassium is filtered through your kidneys and if it gets too high serious problems can occur. So no bananas, prunes or squash here!

Right now we are just trying cereal. This is really just meant to be for a fun experience for Owen. He will still need all his milk and we will continue to increase the amount of milk he gets. Although he is not orally aversive, he will not take all his nutrition by mouth. Many babies like Owen have severe oral aversions and gag when anything is put near their mouth. We are so blessed that Owen loves putting things in his mouth!

So the cereal went okay. It was only our first time. I think we recycled a lot of it, as it kept coming back out...but we will try again!

He wasn't too sure what this new stuff was at first...

But it couldn't stop him from sharing that sweet grin!

So we will be trying cereal for awhile and then moving on to green beans and carrots. Oh yummy!

Thanks for all the prayers for Owen. His development is impressing all his doctors. Our prayer has always been that The Lord would make the doctors be in awe of His great works. He has been doing this since day one!

Our doctors are starting to talk about doing some transplant testing. If all goes well and Owen continues to grow so well it looks like transplant will be before he is 2 years old! Please be in prayers that God's hand is just covering this process. He already has the day planned and donor ready, and I pray we follow His lead. Please pray the Lord is preparing the donor (hopefully Michael) and preparing Owen's body.

Psalm 27:13 "I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."