10 Months Old!

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter! We had some family over and had a great time. Mason did really well with everyone and even let his Mom out of his sight for a while with no complaints! The Easter Bunny brought him some toys which he loved!

Overall, Mason is doing pretty well. Last week he weighed in a few ounces shy of 16 pounds. It has been a few days, so we are guessing he is 16 pounds now. UofM just called today and increased his total daily calories to match his new weight. Mason is also going to get another trail off of his nighttime oxygen. We need to straighten out some software issues with his Pulmonary team and we will be ready for trail. Not sure how long the software issue is going to take.

Mason's occupational therapy is going pretty well. He is now totally comfortable making a mess in his baby food. Instead of just getting himself messy he now includes the walls, the floor and the dog :) Our goal is to get Mason to feed himself. Instead of playing with toys in his food, he is playing with spoons and will feed himself a little. So far he is enjoying all of the baby food flavors, but only if he feeds himself. We are also working with a sippy cup.

Unfortunately Mason is still having some gagging issues. We think this is caused by a combination of his small stomach and his weak esophagus. After some discussion with his surgeon, we both agreed that it is time to take a look and possibly dialate his stomach wrap, which could possibly be a little tight. His esophagus has always been pretty weak because of how his anatomy had formed before he was born. We depend on gravity to help him digest after he eats something by mouth. This will hopefully improve and normalize as he grows and gets stronger. The procedure is scheduled for April 4th and will last about an hour. Mason is undergo general anesthesia and the surgeon will use a small camera to look at everything. The procedure is scheduled as outpatient, so he should be able to come home afterwards.

You may have noticed an addition to the page in the last couple of days. Travis will be walking in the March for Babies on April 26th. His goal is to raise at least $500 for the walk. Thank you to everyone who has donated or committed to donate so far!! The March of Dimes is a very important organization to us because Mason was affected by both a birth defect and prematurity. We are hoping that starting next year, Mason and I will be able to join Travis in the annual walk.

Family Easter Picture

Playing with toys.

Feeding myself.