Updates: March 12th

Mario is continuing to grow like a weed!

He had a pediatrician appointment this past Thursday (March 8th) and weighed in at 8.0 lbs! She was very pleased with how he is doing. She is also very supportive of my efforts to succeed with breastfeeding and is very encouraging. We have now switched to the slow flow tubing with the SNS and are working toward weaning him off of that. Starting tomorrow, I am going to trying one feeding a day without the SNS and just straight breastfeeding to see how that goes. I can tell that his latch has gotten better as has his suck, so hopefully it will go well. Mario got the last 3 of his 2 month shots at his ped visit. He got his second dose of Hepatitis B (it's a 3 shot series), the Hib (Haemophilus Influenzae Type b), and the PNU (Pneumococcal Conjugate). He was a little fussy over the weekend, but not too bad. I'm sure he doesn't like the shots, but they are much better than him getting sick with one of those diseases. I am very glad I split them up into two visits, since he had to get 6 vaccines total (5 shots and 1 oral). I will probably continue to do that for the times he has to get so many. I don't mind taking him more than once and the office is only about 10 minutes from the house. We go back again this Thurs, just for a weight check. For now, she is doing weekly weigh-ins as we work with the breastfeeding thing.

He also had another eye exam with the opthamologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital on Friday (March 9th). He said the blood vessels in the retina are now fully developed (if you remember from his first exam 3 weeks ago, they were a little immature on the temporal side at that time). The next time we go back there will be in 6 months. At that visit they will dilate his eyes again, but he no longer has to have them held open with the little speculum. That visit will just be a check to make sure nothing like misalignment is developing. All babies are at a slight risk for that, but the risk for preemies is slightly higher (he said by a couple percent). So, all looks good in that area. In fact, he was impressed when we told him Mario is starting to follow objects with his eyes and focus on things close to him. That is ahead of what the doctor expected, given that by adjusted age he is a newborn (remember, adjusted age is time elapsed from my due date, March 4th).

It won't be long before I have to pack away Mario's newborn sized clothes. He has just about outgrown them and is starting to wear the next size up (the 0-3 month stuff).

This past week one of Dom's co-workers, John, and his family stopped by to see Mario.

Here's a bit of trivia for you, did you know that there is a Mario Day? March 10th is Mario Day because of its abbreviation (MAR10). Pretty cool, huh? I didn't know that until my Aunt Jill emailed me about it. How many of us can say we have our own days?