Beautiful Boy

This is the latest evaluation from one of Jimmie's therapist's:

"10/15/09
Weight bearing and bouncing. Great eye contact.
Looks back at mom. Cooing and now screaming ahh.
Rolling over from tummy to back. Trying to scoot.
Pivots on tummy. Some prop sitting - briefly.
Loves saucer. Activates toys bats at them brings to his mouth.
Nice head control. Likes to walk and really watches the dogs.
Looks at pictures and tries to pats pics. Really responds to mom.
Imitates some mouth action. Sleeping better.
Usually happy. Pats at legs. Some vocal play.
Holds an item and drops it.

Things to work on:
Transferring items between hands
Holding two items.
Imitation of actions: banging toys together. Clapping
Supported sitting.
Core muscle activities- put on hip, have straddle your leg and keep
his balance.
Start looking for partially hidden objects.
Looking for person when name mentioned - mama dada
Starting to hear more sounds - baba mama dada
Looks/turns to name."

So Jimmie is doing very well physically and developmentally. He is gaining weight very slowly though. Rachael is trying to remain positive and not fixate on that. So many preemie mom's have told her they wish they had not been so obsessively concerned over weight gain. As long as Jimmie continues to grow and develop normally we are fine with him being small for a while.

We are still waiting for Dr. S. to find someone who will help with a tube weaning attempt. Dr. S. and Rachael had a conversation a few days ago and he was planning to call the doctor he knows who left Children's Mercy's feeding clinic and struck out on his own. Dr. S. expressed some frustration that mirrors Rachael's in that he just feels like this is not his area of expertise and is not confident to wean Jimmie on his own.(Neither is Rachael-duh!) He also feels like Rachael does in regards to Children's very conservative approach on weaning. Rachael feels supported, but her frustration is not lessened because she is all about results! (-:

Rachael could also use prayers still for her moods. She is struggling with really intense mood swings. One moment she'll be way way down and then in the same day she'll be up and totally fine. It's exhausting for her and Justin and everyone close by... Over all though she feels she is learning to recognize these moods and is trying really hard to limit their effect. Just keep praying for her- I feel we are going in the right direction with this just slowly and painfully...

Jimmie still will pretty much only eat sweet potatoes! He's not turning orange yet. He does however get cuter and cuter and cuter by the day. Thanks dad for the awesome pictures!

Crazy beautiful!


It should be illegal to be this cute!






Jimmie giggling.




I love this gorgeous boy!


Jimmie and Pa.




Thank you for praying for Justin, Rachael and Jimmie!

Love,
Amber