Day 371 - Developmental Assessment, 12 Mo Vaccines & Referral for OctHelmet

Wednesday, January 5th, 2022

UPDATED NUMBERS! 

Weight: 18lb 13oz

Height: 63cm

Dad will fly in around midnight tonight from NJ. Yay!

James had his pediatrician appointment today in the morning. The first thing was his developmental assessment. She asked Mom a lot of questions regarding James' abilities and fine motor skills. Once finished she scored James at 6-9 month category. A few things we need to work on like using his fingers to pick things up, intentionally throwing toys, understanding the word No, recognizing strangers vs familiar faces 😂 (James is very social, so we don't see this happening). And now we have a list of things to work on along with a very large book of games and activities to practice.

He also received 5 shots in his thighs between 2 nurses. These we're his 12 month vaccines, which also included an extra Hep B due to a nurse in the PICU giving him a shot 9 days too early and "not counting". 🙄 It was awful and he cried. 😭 Even Cocomelon didn't help. They tried a numbing cream on his legs prior but it didn't seem to subside the pain. 

During the appointment Mom brought up concerns to the doctor regarding the flat spot on the back on James' head. She gave us a referral to someone for a helmet. We were told that this is something he would need to wear for 23 hours a day. 😲😢 She said that as long his eye was not protruding and ears weren't at different distances then this would just be cosmetic. "Just cosmetic" makes you feel bad as a parent for wanting this fixed. Can you imagine when James is older and he asks why his head is flat in the back and we say, "Well it was just cosmetic, so we didn't bother to fix it". Wow. We know this is common in babies in his situation; those in the hospital for 8½ months, laying in bed. That's why we are currently trying to hard to have him up and out of the crib when he is awake.

In the afternoon he had physical therapy but by the time we arrived home James was irritated and took a while to nap. Of course he was asleep for PT so Mom and the therapist just talked instead and reviewed the next development test James will need to pass in 3 months.

His new thing is grabbing his tongue. 😛

Physical Therapy time! ⏰ 😂

P.S. Do you follow James' journey? James would love to read an email from you. His email is JamesWestonAbramowitz@gmail.com. How heartwarming for him to receive these and fun for you to get a response from him in like 10 years...