Talmage is growing and thriving. I can't believe how much he has changed. His favorite activity is to hang out in the toy room watching his siblings play and moving around the room finding toys. If he is cranky during that dinner preparation hour, I send everyone upstairs with Talmage, and he is as happy as can be. Right after he turned 7 months old, he started sitting. He can also get on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth but isn't crawling yet. He can move all over though with army crawling and scooting. Everyone loves to make him smile and get him to giggle. It is the cutest sound ever.
Taking a wagon ride before he was sitting on his own.
I'm a sitter!
Talmage is happier sitting and playing now. He used to fight me with tummy time but now he will go from a sitting position to his tummy so that he can move around and get toys.
7 Month Pictures
Talmage and Lili are best buds. He lights up when she is around.
Gavin in particular loves to make Talmage giggle.
Ready for Halloween
I have another post about Halloween, but Talmage was happy to sit in the wagon and watch all the kids going by.
All the kids can make Talmage giggle, but here is Gavin doing his best to get the best giggles.
Doctor Visits for October:
Neurology- Talmage's Neurologist was really impressed with how well he is doing with his physical development. She still hasn't seen the MRI done in Miami (I'm a little confused why it is taking so long to get the records) but she says his behavior now is more telling then the MRI would be and he is doing great. When we saw her 4 months ago, she wanted Talmage evaluated for Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech. I had him evaluated by a PT and a OT and both said he is right on schedule or close enough to it that they didn't feel he needed therapy. They both gave me exercises to do at home with him which we have been doing. They paid off!
GI- Because Talmage was a failure to thrive baby and had reflux, we have seen a GI doctor. When he saw Talmage in October, he was so impressed with how much Talmage has grown. He is on the verge of getting some chunky baby rolls. When Talmage was 4 months old we saw a change in his eating and behavior. He stopped crying non stop in the evening and was a happier baby. At his last appointment (around 6 1/2 months) I still felt like there was something wrong. Talmage would have a bowel movement 8 times a day which made it very hard for him to sleep. I would fight to get him down for a nap just to have him wake up 30 minutes later for another diaper change. He was a very tired baby. I was also worried his tummy hurt. Talmage was drinking concentrated (24 calorie) Nutramigen formula, but I didn't feel like it was helping just making more bowel movements. Another GI doctor had put him on it and our GI doctor we are seeing now wasn't quite sure why he was put on it. At this last appointment, he switched Talmage to a normal formula although it is still concentrated. Talmage has done much better on this normal formula and has regular BM's now.
I was frustrated one day with how little I get done and how every task I do takes so long, and then it hit me that between Talmage and Lili, I was changing 12 diapers a day. No wonder everything took so long. I was always interrupted!
Swallow Testing by the Speech Pathologist- I talked to the GI doctor about how Talmage really struggled with eating his baby food. With Talmage, it seems like the doctors like to be very proactive and get us into another appointment instead of being patient and waiting things out. The doctor recommended Talmage have a swallow test done to make sure the food was going down the right tube. Talmage sat in a chair connected to the Xray while I tried to feed him his baby food mixed with something to make it show up on the Xray. He was super angry with the taste, so it was really hard. I then had to feed him a bottle mixed with the same stuff. By then, Talmage was furious. After it was all down, I tried to feed him a normal bottle because I knew he had to be starving, but he refused. He didn't trust me that I was feeding him the good milk now. The swallow test came out fine. Talmage is still not a great eater. I may take him into an OT to watch him eat. Right now I'm trying to be patient though and hopefully he starts to like his food.
At 7 months, Talmage weighed 13 pounds 4.5 oz. He is still in the negative percentile and is in 3-6 month clothes. At 8 months, he is getting ready to move into 6-9 month clothes so he is catching up. Talmage and Lili will start wearing the same size diaper soon too!
Within 10 days we had 4 doctors appointments. It was crazy. Three of them took us downtown to the Children's Hospital. I kept coming out of those appointments though with doctors telling me how amazing Talmage is doing. Being at the Children's Hospital though, you see many kids with a wide variety of disabilities. Talmage could have had a severe disability. He probably should have. I am so grateful for my healthy son and the miracle that he is. I am left amazed and humbled at God's goodness.
8 Month picture
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