Most of Bren's first month was spent in the NICU. There was not a lot that was focused on during his first month. We got use to being at home with a newborn. We had appointments right away with his primary care provider, and by right away I mean the second day we were home. He had weekly weight checks but that was about as much doctor interaction we had, which was nice. We had lots of visitors, it was like Bren was a celebrity.
Month 2 hit and that's when we realized the craziness that was going to be our lives.
Bren started speech therapy. Which I thought was crazy, how on earth do you do speech therapy with an infant?! The amount of times I have been asked that question, only validates that I was not alone in my questioning. So let me tell you what you do in speech therapy with infant. The ST watches him eat. While she does that she is checking his swallow, his suck, and his lungs. The first few appointments, Bren was not able to eat from a bottle and so we did taste trials with a pacifier. At this point Bren was eating through the tube still. January 3, 2018, a date I will remember for the rest of my life. That was the day I gave Bren his first bottle. My son, who was almost 3 months old, had a bottle for the first time. We were sitting in his doctor's office for his 2 month well child check. Bren had been doing such a great job swallowing, that he was going to do a swallow study in a week and half and needed to be able to drink from a bottle for it. I didn't want the study day being the first day he drank from a bottle so his doctor and I tested it out at his WCC. I held back tears as he so eagerly drank from a bottle for the first time. He so clearly loved it and he hasn't stopped loving it since.
Bren also started physical therapy. Again, I asked, what do you do with an infant during physical therapy? Once again, I was assured I was not the only one with these questions. Essentially we did lots of different stretches with Bren. One of the things the NICU team was concerned with was low muscle tone. As the psychical therapist assessed Bren, she thought he had high muscle tone and wanted to work on stretches so his muscles did not get tight(a sign of Cerebral Palsy).
We continued weekly weight checks. We also started his string of appointments in Madison. We learned Bren was not having any more seizures and stared weaning his off of one of his meds. We watched as Bren tried to hold his head up on his own. We saw Bren smile and watch everything around him. We saw our little boy being a little boy and it brought so much joy.
Month 2 hit and that's when we realized the craziness that was going to be our lives.
Bren started speech therapy. Which I thought was crazy, how on earth do you do speech therapy with an infant?! The amount of times I have been asked that question, only validates that I was not alone in my questioning. So let me tell you what you do in speech therapy with infant. The ST watches him eat. While she does that she is checking his swallow, his suck, and his lungs. The first few appointments, Bren was not able to eat from a bottle and so we did taste trials with a pacifier. At this point Bren was eating through the tube still. January 3, 2018, a date I will remember for the rest of my life. That was the day I gave Bren his first bottle. My son, who was almost 3 months old, had a bottle for the first time. We were sitting in his doctor's office for his 2 month well child check. Bren had been doing such a great job swallowing, that he was going to do a swallow study in a week and half and needed to be able to drink from a bottle for it. I didn't want the study day being the first day he drank from a bottle so his doctor and I tested it out at his WCC. I held back tears as he so eagerly drank from a bottle for the first time. He so clearly loved it and he hasn't stopped loving it since.
Bren also started physical therapy. Again, I asked, what do you do with an infant during physical therapy? Once again, I was assured I was not the only one with these questions. Essentially we did lots of different stretches with Bren. One of the things the NICU team was concerned with was low muscle tone. As the psychical therapist assessed Bren, she thought he had high muscle tone and wanted to work on stretches so his muscles did not get tight(a sign of Cerebral Palsy).
We continued weekly weight checks. We also started his string of appointments in Madison. We learned Bren was not having any more seizures and stared weaning his off of one of his meds. We watched as Bren tried to hold his head up on his own. We saw Bren smile and watch everything around him. We saw our little boy being a little boy and it brought so much joy.
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