Eight Months

The babies had their Nephrology appointment today, and they both had good blood pressures -- hooray! (We were especially happy that Matthew's was normal, since he was fussy just before the doctor took it, which could have caused it to be higher.) They both have to stay on their medications for now, but the doctor is optimistic that they'll be able to wean off them within the next few months. That would be nice! Overall, she was very pleased with how they're doing.

Matthew is now 15 lbs! James was at about the same weight as last week (13 lbs, 6 oz). We were a little disappointed that he hadn't gained weight, but the doctors weren't concerned; his growth is still on a good trajectory overall.

James also had a speech/feeding appointment today, and his therapist was also happy with how he's doing. After a nice upward trajectory, the amount of food that he's taking during the day had gone down recently, most likely due to him having a cold. The therapist said it's very common for kids to eat less when they have a cold, and that it can take a couple of weeks for things to get back on track. So, hopefully he'll start working back up soon.

Poor James was the victim of bad parenting this evening. At the Nephrology appointment, the nurse put a urine collection bag on him, but then it turned out that they didn't actually need a urine sample. After we'd been home a little while, he started to get fussy when we put him down to play. So we fed him, we gave him his paci, we read him stories...and we couldn't figure out why he was still unhappy when we put him down. Well, finally it dawned on us that the collection bag was still on! (We hadn't changed his diaper because Matthew was sleeping in the nursery, and we didn't want to wake him up. And usually wet diapers don't bother our boys, unless they're really soaked.) Oops!! The poor kid was getting sloshed around in pee -- no wonder he was unhappy! Fortunately, the problem was easily solved. :)

We're visiting friends and family this weekend, so there may not be new posts for a couple of days.

[Top photo is Matthew, bottom photo is James.]