Sunday, April 23, 2006

Chunky Little Monkey

My son has really started to pack on the pounds. Since coming off the I.V. his appetite has come back in full force. Now, he did not gain too much weight when he first came off the I.V. but last night he shocked us all when he gained two and a half ounces. Parker is just under 11 and 3/4 pounds now, which according to my weight chart places him just over the 10th percentile. I know we have a dietician assigned to us but this is one aspect of Parker's health that I feel more than capable at regulating. Parker is playing catch up to the 25th percentile (birth percentile) and I have been monitoring how quickly he has been doing it on my chart (the same one as the hospital). Recall that Parker is on increased calories (concentrated formula) due to his overactive metabolism that is caused by the ADA deficiency. If my wife and I feel he is gaining weight too quickly we will discuss it with his team. For now, we are very happy with his weight gain.

During my wife's and my time with Parker yesterday we noticed him trying to crawl again. The little monkey really thinks he has somewhere to go. The isolation room that Parker is in is not extremely spacious. We have quite a few different activities in the room for him to do, but we currently do not have the space to let him learn how to crawl. I know this is something that babies do not normally do at 3 months of age but I am sure we all agree that Parker is not a normal baby. Yes, we work with Parker on specific things each day that we feel are important for his development but if Parker wants to try something new like crawling, I am going to find a way to let him try.

I again want to thank all the new visitors who have visited Parker's site over the past few days. In the last 48 hours we have had 584 new visitors to the site and a total of 1350 hits. I never thought that this site would gather so much attention. It is so important that we get the word out about Severe Combined Immunodeficiency. So please let your family and friends know about this site and come back often to see how Parker is doing with his battle against adenosine deaminase deficiency. And remember to vote for Parker as the cutest baby on babiesonline for April.

3 comments:

Nonno and Nonna said...

Hey Parker,

How's it going? So you are trying for the big escape! I don't blame you, when you learn how to run we will run right out of there and never look back.
Parker I know in my heart that you will be one of the strongest, and one of the smartest young men in the future.
Stay Strong!

love you tons.

Nonno & Nonna

p.s. Nonnie and Papa send their love.
Luv you handsome boy Nonno!

Stacy and Brad said...

Parker my little man...i am not able to check in for only 2 days ..and look at all the accomplishments i come back to see!!!! I am so proud of you little one!!!! Keep up the great work!!!

LOTS OF LOVE,

Stacy
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Happifax said...

Hey Parker,

Look at you...becoming all famous and stuff. It's just the beginning as you're going to help make a huge difference in the lives of many people around the world!! That's quite a feet for a 3 month old!

Keep up all the hard work. At the rate you're going, you'll be crawling cirles around Doyle any day.

Sarah