Double Digits... Here I come!

What a day it was for Parker. Not only did he get a visit from his Nonna today, he learned first hand the Nonna's motto: "You will know how much I love you by my how much I feed you". Parker began the day with a visit from his Nonna, who was kind of enough to use her alterate status to give Parker's mommy and daddy some time away from the hospital.

Now, I say that Parker learned the Nonna's motto because everytime his mommy called to see how he was doing his Nonna was feeding him. By the time we reached the hospital at 2pm, Parker had already polished off over 500 mL of formula. Now, with an appetite like that we were expecting some big numbers on the scale tonight. Parker definately came through for us smashing the 10 pound barrier, weighing in at 10 lbs, 1.6 ounces. Parker had his biggest positive weight change to date as he gained 3.4 ounces. Parker's average daily weight gain for the week also went up, as it was a whopping 33.4 grams. That was over 11 grams a day more this week compared to last. Now, I wonder what side of the family he gets his appetite from?

When mommy and daddy did arrive today, they did so bearing gifts. We both realised a couple of days ago that Parker enjoyed looking at himself in the mirror that the child life worker brought him. So that Parker can better admire his good looks we bought him a new elephant mirror. To say that Parker enjoyed his new gift would have been an understatement.

In addition to his new mirror, we also purchased him a new mobile. It is definately quite the concoction. Parker stared at it for a good 25 minutes, mesmerised as the bright animals moved past his hand, while the music of Mozart and Bach played in the background. Parker is still learning to move his hand out in time to grab one of the bright coloured animals. Give him a few days, and he will show us all he can do it.

Although Parker has been doing extremely well since coming to the reverse isolation room, my wife and I had requested that the occupational therapist come by to see Parker and evaluate where he was developmentally. Now, recall that most SCIDs do fall behind in this category. So when the therapist evaluated Parker you can imagine how surprised she was when she saw strong and alert Parker is. Although, he had been sick a good chunk of his life, and had a large block attached to one of his limbs for two weeks to secure an IV, Parker was exactly where he should be for an 11 week old baby. She told us that whatever we were doing, we were to keep on doing it. The occupational therapist will visit Parker every Friday to see how he is doing. Trust me. If she was impressed this week, just wait and see how impressed she will be next Friday.