On the Go!

I feel like a lot has happened in the past couple of weeks. Gabriel passed his one year adjusted mark, meaning that developmentally, he is equivalent to a one year old child. For any one year old, this means changes. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children be breastfed exclusively until 6 months old and then continue with supplemental breastfeeding until one year old. From there, children can be transitioned to cow's milk and a completely solid food diet and things like honey can be introduced as well. At Gabriel's last GI appointment, the dietician told us we were DONE with preemie catch-up growth and gave us the okay to discontinue formula! Gabriel is now on a 100% blended food diet. We are still experimenting with what kinds of dairy he can tolerate -- it seems that whole milk still aggravates his reflux, but yogurt is fine, and we're trialing kefir right now. He did lose a little weight due to the massive calorie cut we had done in the past two months (due to the discontinuation of his night feeds -- I was nervous he was going to strangle himself with his feeding line), so the recipe I presented to his dietician brings him back up to 1000 calories per day. I also asked what a good weight gain goal for him is, and she said that after a year, they are only expected to gain about one pound every two months. That's a far cry from the pound or more per month he was expected to gain previously! His stats are now 20 lbs., 13 oz., 2' 6", and he's wearing 18 mo. size clothes (although the pants are a bit big, but he needs the length).

We're also working a lot with him and the dog. Jisa isn't too sure about this little human that crawls around and invades her space. She gets grumbly with him if he touches her without warning. So, we are having him "play" with her by picking up her toys and dropping them. The best way to make friends with Jisa is to throw a toy. We also sit with them both a lot and praise her whenever she allows him to touch her without grumbling. I also praise her for moving and getting herself out of the situation, since she needs to know that "escaping" is a viable alternative as well.

Oh yes, and we're crawling now. It's the new big thing. When he's really going places, he does this little bunny hop maneuver, as if he's so excited that he can't be bothered to coordinate the alternating hands and feet. It's quite cute. But, no worries, he can crawl the "normal" way, too. He is also probably very close to standing. He pulls himself into a bouncing kneel all the time, and if you set him on his feet, he can balance pretty well. Given how much he wants to get down and move around when we're holding him, he's going to be one of those kids that runs all over everywhere. But, hey, exercise is good for all of us, right?


While Gabriel's social skills are quite good, he is still working on the eating part of life. The coordination that comes with crawling as well as the switch off formula are both things that are supposed to help him in the mouth manipulation/eating side of things, too. We have actually had some fairly good spoon sessions with him recently. Fairly good, meaning he lets us put a spoon in his mouth about 4-5 times without complaining about it or gagging. So, we're still a long way from eating, but that small amount of progress is a BIG DEAL. There's an awesome video that we put on Facebook, and as you can see from this photo, he enjoys playing with his food.