CHKD NICU Follow-up

Today Kieran went in for his NICU follow-up. Luckily his appointment was at their satellite office so we only had to drive 20 minutes as opposed to the hour drive if it was at the main hospital.

The appointment went really well and I was amazed at how fast the appointment went. I think we were called back 10 minutes before the appointment was scheduled to start, and we were done in less than 30 minutes.

I was hoping to feed Kieran right before the appointment, but that didn't end up working out. I was afraid he would fuss and be super hungry, but he didn't fuss at all. In fact, he laughed, cooed and hammed it up for the lady checking him out.

This woman, I didn't get her title or name, did a development assessment on him based on watching him, holding toys up for him to observe, ringing a bell for him to look at etc. She said basically anything 3 months and above for him is good.

This is how he scored:

Gross Motor Level: 3 months
This is how he uses his legs, arms & body to roll, sit, crawl, walk & run. Obviously he's not doing most of that stuff and wouldn't be expected to at his age. Although he has rolled a few times, it isn't consistent and he still doesn't push his body all the way up with his arms. He can't sit unassisted yet, and obviously he can't crawl, walk or run. They aren't concerned with this, but since it's at 3 months, it's something I'm going to monitor and hopefully he'll be rolling and sitting soon.

Fine Motor/Visual problem solving: 4 months
This is how he uses his hands, eyes & brain to explore his environment, including picking up objects, playing with toys etc. He seems to be right on track gestationaly with this. He would have "scored" higher if he could have passed an object back and forth from one hand to the other, but right now he'll grab onto something with both hands but doesn't move it to the other hand.

Language:
Receptive 5 months
Expressive 3 months
His receptive skills reflect what he understands and his expressive skills reflect the sounds or words he actually says. I guess this means he knows what we're saying but can't always communicate what he wants. Kieran recognizes my voice and definitely always seems interested in what anyone has to say. He makes lots of cooing noises, laughs and hams it up but doesn't make a "o" sound or stick his tongue and blow raspberries. I guess that'll be coming soon.

Oh and these are his stats as of today:

Weight: 14 lbs 3 oz (he had a huge poop on the drive over, he weighed in at 14 lb 3.8 oz at the boob group earlier this morning).
Length: 24 1/4 inches (yay finally over 24"!)
Head: 16 inches