cannon at 7 months....

The little man is seven months! He has made a lot of progress this month. He is playing a lot more and loves to reach and grab at anything he can. Everything still goes straight into the mouth. He is self-soothing easier and seems to be a little more content overall. We have gotten into somewhat of a schedule which seems to be making the days a little easier.

Last week we went to the NICU follow-up clinic. He was seen by a speech therapist, an occupational therapist (not his regular one), a nutritionist and Dr. Merchant (one of his NICU doctors). He weighed 15 pounds 5 ounces and was 24.25 inches long, both at the 50th percentile for his adjusted age. He was right on track for his adjusted age in gross motor and receptive and expressive communication. He was about 3 weeks behind in fine motor skills. They were not concerned about that and said it is pretty common to be a little behind in fine motor. The doctor and the OT did have a concern with a small tremor he had in his arms when he was reaching for an object and what they noted as a possibility of asymmetrical muscle tone in the upper extremities with the right arm having increased muscle tone over the left. The doctor was on the fence about it since it was so slight, but she decided that she would like us to visit with a neurologist to have an MRI completed. What a bummer to hear this, especially since we weren't expecting them to have any concerns. I have since talked to his regular OT and PT and they both stated that they have noticed both of these issues, but that they are 99% sure that he will outgrow them. They believe the tremor is happening because his shoulders are a little weak due to the muscle tightness he has in that area. He really protects his shoulder area and does not like for them to be touched. If we can work on getting that muscle area stronger they believe the tremor will go away. They also agreed that he does have a little increased muscle tone in his right arm, but since his muscle tone has already increased so much over the last few months, they believe it will get better over time. We all agreed that there is no harm in going ahead with the neurologist appointment just to be sure. I totally trust his therapists so I believe that he will outgrow this, but the peace of mind can't hurt. There is only one pediatric neurologist in all of Idaho, so it will be a few months before we get in for a consult. Please be praying that he will continue to outgrow these problems and that his scan will come back perfectly healthy!

A few things about Cannon at 7 months.....
- we officially started "crying it out" about 3 weeks ago. He has a bath and a bottle before he goes to sleep around 7pm. He took the crying it out WAY harder than Charlie did. It took about 2 weeks, but now he is doing great. He goes to sleep with very little or no crying and will sleep until about 4:30am. Then he goes back to sleep until 7 or 8am. Now the naptime routine is a whole other story, let's just stay we are still working on it....
- He can roll over from his belly to his back. He loves to use this little trick when I am trying to get him to do some tummy time. Now I have to place my hand under his chest while he is on his tummy to prevent him from rolling over. He is still not in love with tummy time, but he is doing much better with lifting his head and propping himself up on his arms.
- His hair and eyebrows are starting to come in. It seems to be a light brown color. His eyes are still blue. He is wearing size 9 months and is just about ready to move up to size 3 diapers.
- He still loves to be held or carried around in the baby bjorn, but he is more tolerable of time on the floor in his play gym or with his mirror toys.
- He is still drooling like crazy but there doesn't seem to be any teeth in sight. It is so funny to see him try to cram everything in his mouth so he can chew on it.
-He is much better in the car. Most of the time he is happy driving around and more times than not he will fall asleep. He is also doing better when we run errands and get out. He does not seem to be as overwhelmed with the process.
- He loves to be outside.
- He is still in love with his big brother. He won't take his eyes off of him when he is in the room and he can always get a smile out of him.

Here is a cute video of him giggling. As you will notice, he still gets the hiccups every time he laughs! I hope he outgrows that soon....