Austin is getting so big. He is 17 lbs 9 oz and he is over 27 inches tall. He is becoming more and more vocal. First, it was “dadadada” all the time. Then it switched to “babababa”. Then to "babamamababamama". Now he mixes them all together and just kind of yells random things. When you smile at him, he likes to giggle. He has been pulling himself up on everything and cruising around the furniture. He often lets go – I think to test himself. It is probably just a matter of time before he’ll be walking all over the house.
He is finally getting a little more hair, but it's so light and fine you can barely see it.
He is also a drooling machine, hence the bibs in all of the pictures. We think he now has 8 teeth - 4 on top, 4 on bottom. We know for certain he has 7, but we think the 8th just reared its ugly head late last week. Hard to confirm as he is not a big fan of the poking around in his mouth.
Austin and Baxter are starting to play more together. Austin will squeak Baxter's toy bone and patiently await Baxter's arrival. Upon hearing the squeak, Baxter will run to Austin and start a gentle tug of war game, during which Austin just giggles.
When you ask Austin, "Where's Baxter?" he looks all around until he finds Baxter. When you ask him “Where’s mama?” or “Where’s dada?” you get nothing. Guess we know who his favorite is.
In mid-October, Austin had his follow-up appointment with Dr. Wright, his cardiologist. When the nurse was trying to do his echo, he was extremely wild and wouldn't lay still. He is also going through the stranger anxiety phase now so he isn't a big fan of anyone who isn't mommy or daddy. The nurse suggested we help him calm down by giving him a drug, like valium for babies, that they just squirt in his nostril. Let the screaming begin. But then, about 10 minutes later, we could’ve sworn we had a drunk baby. He was so limp, he had a bit of the bobble head syndrome going on and he could not stop giggling. When the nurse started the echo, he just kept yelling “dadadadada” in between giggles. It was the cutest and yet saddest thing I’ve ever seen.
Anyhow...Austin still has his PDA and atrial septal defect so Dr. Wright recommended that he have a cardiac catheterization. This is a procedure whereby the surgeon (Dr. Clapp) will go in with a catheter through an artery in the groin and up to his heart to close those ducts with a device called a duck occluder. This is scheduled for November 19th at 7:30am at the Children’s Medical Center in Dallas. Both mommy and daddy are extremely nervous, but are hopeful that this will be the last of his major NICU war wounds. Please keep Austin in your thoughts.
Early November, Austin also had his follow-up with Priscilla, the developmental specialist. Due to his stranger anxiety and the fact that the appointment was right in the middle of nap time, it was very difficult for her to assess him. He screamed pretty much the entire time we were there, with the exception of when Priscilla left the room to go write up her assessment, then he passed out in Daddy’s arms.
Per Priscilla's notes, Austin was doing excellent in gross motor, but not so great in fine motor and language. Still not a candidate for ECI, which is great news. We go back when he is 1 year, adjusted, which will be in March.
For Halloween, we dressed him up in his monkey costume and handed out candy to the trick or treaters. He wasn't allowed to eat any candy, but he sure enjoyed chewing on the packages. He didn’t really seem all that impressed with Halloween – probably still a bit too young.
Daddy has recently started helping out with bath time. As you see below, he is still learning. He claims that he was just trying to be productive, washing Austin and his socks at the same time...but I don't buy it. He probably wouldn't have even noticed Austin still had his socks on had it not been for my laughter.
My, how time flies! I can't believe our sweet baby boy is almost a year old!
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