All the Firsts

I love where we are with Josh right now. He is doing wonderfully. Being a mother is amazing. I know Matt loves being a father. And Matt is a great father. Josh is so precious and he is such a good baby. One of the best things about being a mother is all of the firsts. I feel so proud of Josh when he does something new for the first time. I love to watch his face when he does something for the first time or when he discovers something new. Watching Josh discover new things is bittersweet, though. It means Josh is growing up. But with Josh growing up is a good thing because we worked so hard to get here.

Where we are is where I have imagined being since we brought Josh home. This is the closure I have imagined having. This is the way I have wanted to feel. Now don't get me wrong, I am not trying to wish away Josh's infancy. You can ask Matt; I am hanging onto as much as I can. I have just wanted Josh to be on a platform comparable to other infants. It doesn't mean Josh was loved less or that we considered Josh different. Josh has always been special, and I think we loved him a little more because of what we all went through. Matt and I learned at an early point how important it is not to take your child for granted. I just love looking at my precious son and not seeing any signs of prematurity!

At almost 5 1/2 months Josh is almost 16 pounds. Matt has a co-worker who's wife gave birth a few days after me. Their son is not even a pound bigger than Josh! We knew Josh is above the 55th percentile in weight. He is doing so well. We have not measured him recently, but we are guessing he is about 24 inches long. He is still a little on the short side, but with Matt, at 6'3", as his father, I am not too worried about it. I know he will catch up in height eventually. Plus, girls are often taller than boys eventually because they hit puberty sooner. I remember being taller than most boys I knew well into middle school. But now that Josh is eating baby food, the doctor mentioned he won't gain as fast as he has been. It is the milk and formula that puts on the weight. Even with Josh leveling off, he is still on track. The doctor mentioned that baby's gain differently and a lot of factors affect their weight gain. He told me that at 1 year there is a wide range of weights a baby could be. The apparent normal weight for a 1 year old is between 19-27 pounds. So Josh is definitely on track!

Josh is doing so well. Some of the firsts we are experiencing with Josh right now are normal, but on some of them Josh is considered to be developing fastly for a preemie. Josh is trying so bad to talk. He also loves to play games. Josh is fascinated with the TV and we let him watch a few TV shows. In typical child fashion, Josh loves Sesame Street! He loves music and we let him listen as much as he likes. Josh is crazy about stories. He loves to look at the pictures. We are working on Dr. Seuss right now.

Josh can take his passy out and put it back in. He has been taking it out forever, but now he can put it back in the right way. Our little boy is also teething. He has three tooth buds, which means three teeth will be coming in soon. He has been teething for a couple weeks. The doctor thinks the first one will be in by six months! Also, Josh is trying to roll over. He has been trying forever. He is almost there. He just can't throw that last shoulder over. Josh should figure it out soon. He gets closer every day. I imagine he will master this within the next couple weeks. Yesterday we were having tummy time on the floor. He was having a good time playing. He decided to start trying to roll over. He was getting so mad that he couldn't do it. So then he decided to try to do something amazing. He started to crawl! Not a normal crawl, but across the floor on his elbows like he was in war. Matt called it the Vietnam crawl. He went about 4 or 5 feet on his elbows! We were so proud of him! That is a step in the right direction. He will be up on his hands and knees before we know it!

We are so blessed that he is doing so well. With Josh we are not experiencing near the delay, if any, that we expected. There are no visible or internal signs that he was a preemie. No hearing loss, no eye problems, no weakened immune system, and now he is developing on time and even earlier. We are so thankful! God truly is amazing and a miracle worker! Our baby is just fine. His acid reflux even seems to be subsiding way earlier than we expected. We couldn't be any luckier than we have been. Josh has his sixth month checkup on May the fifth. He will get his shots, and will probably be taken off his caffeine (for the apnea). Josh is now on the smallest dose of caffeine possible. He just moved down yesterday. If there are no flare ups before our next doctor's appointment, then we are golden. They will give us permission to take him off the caffeine. If he does well off the caffeine for a couple weeks, the monitor will come off. I am so thankful that the monitor should be off by the end of May! God is so good! I will update after our next appointment, if not before.