It has been a while since writing any sort of update post about the baby, but after compiling some nice photos and receiving some good news today I felt it was a good time to release an update.
I was planning on doing one a few weeks back, but sure enough I had an issue uploading pictures here so had to hold off on writing it.
Here's a picture of him doing his most recent favourite past time - staring out the window. He seems to really like being able to look outside, which makes sense, because we get out with him for walks everyday and he gets so excited once we're out of the house.
What Has Been Going On?
Well, a few weeks after he was born we both noticed that one of his pupils seemed to dilate much more than the other one and after bringing it up to our home-visitor nurse she booked him in to get some scans and get to the bottom of it.
At the same time, he had been booked in for some physio because a knot in his neck muscle formed which stopped him from turning to one side. We spoke to the physiotherapist about the idea and she thought that perhaps because of the way his head was forming, that could have been a factor in the eye problem. But, at that, it was just an idea.
Because he couldn't turn to the left, he was sleeping on his right, which caused his head to flatten a bit on they side. While it is still a bit noticeable now, the techniques we learned and practiced got rid of the knot and now he has full mobility, resulting in his head evening out and that is such a relief.
Here's the little man in his lion outfit. It's funny, he loves the camera and anytime he sees it he looks at it and tends to pull faces.
Today, we were up at 6:30 AM so we could get up to Dublin for 9:30 (we managed to make it to the hospital just on time.)
We must have been waiting in the hospital for about 3 hours in total, and finally, he was seen and checked by the doctors.
They were really happy with his awareness, and after the final test, we were left in the room for a while, so the doctor could get and check in with someone else.
Needless to say, the anxiety started to build instantly, and all I could do was tell my partner it was going to be fine. However, I was pretty nervous too.
Eventually, two doctors came into the room and stood there for a moment, and at that point, we didn't know what to think. Especially because they kind of took pause to look at each other. But, they told us that the dilation isn't a problem and there would only be a need to worry if one of his eyelids drooped, which isn't the case, so as far as they're concerned, they're happy and that has put our minds at ease.
Size Comparison!
So, he is almost 5 months old at the moment so I thought I'd share a quick size comparison.
Here he is in his first week, and while me and my partner can't really notice a difference at the moment, when looking at the old pictures it's really noticeable!
Here he is this week, and the comparison is pretty mad when seeing the two pictures side by side. He is always hungry, so to be honest, I'm not surprised about his growth.
The Latest Milestone
In the last 2 weeks, he has unlocked a new skill... Eating solids!
Here he is trying his first meal; carrot.
It's really cool that he started eating solids and it was a fairly easy process to get him to eat it.
We decided not to feed him pre-made pots from the shops, as there is a fair bit of salt, sugar, and preservatives in those. So, we went out and bought a mini blender, and just blitzed up our own veg and fruit.
It's really handy, and we also heard that feeding them pots can make it tough to get them onto regular food later down the line because he might develop a sweet tooth... or in his case, a sweet gum.
He wasn't really a fan of it, but he continued to eat it regardless.
So far, he has had Carrot, Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato, Parsnip, Potato, and Banana.
- Carrot - He was indifferent about
- Butternut Squash - He really liked
- Sweet Potato - He really liked
- Parsnip - He hated and wouldn't eat it
- Banana - Kind of confused him, but he ate it
- Potato - He hated and wouldn't eat it
I like this picture because it's almost like he's saying, "No flash photography!"
It's amazing that we can blitz up a bunch of stuff and have multiple meal's worth of pots in the fridge to be heated up when needed.
He has lunch, and then dinner, and it's going well. The reason we started him on solids was because he started to show a real interest in whatever we were eating, and he also started to wake up during the night.
I don't want this post to get too long, while I do have more pictures, I figured I would save them for another installment down the line.
But, before I end this post I thought I'd share one more funny picture, and in a way a new milestone in his life.
Here's a bonus picture to see out this post. Yesterday I was playing a bit of Xbox and he was enthralled staring at the controller, so I gave him a go of it. Getting him started early!
Also, I thought I would tag @grindan who has asked a few times about baby and for an update.