last days of 2

I realized this morning that today is Ollie's last day of being a 2 year old, chronologically that is.  That 3 month difference is still noticeable in him.  That whole preemies catch up by the age of 2 is a bunch of bull, it might be true for babies born a couple of weeks early but mostly a huge lie for ones born earlier then that.  His size is still a bit of a struggle for some gross motor skills, stairs are still done on all fours for up and down, he has finally started jumping without holding onto things and is extremely proud of that fact.  Follow up appointments are coming up in March to see how things are progressing.

We had his birthday party over the weekend and he had a blast.  Our parents came over and so did Louis' grandmother.  We ate snacks and opened presents, he took the time to play with each of them individually before moving on to the next.  We had tacos for supper and I had baked a cake for the occasion.  Like usual we were to busy to take pictures ourselves and I forgot to take them before my mom left.....oops..... so I have no pictures to share right now, but I'll be getting them soon, I hope.

I know it's cliché but they really do grow up so fast.

growth updates

Remember last week when we had to spend 6 hours at the children's hospital to have Ollie tested for his growth hormone levels?
I was ready to wait a while to get the results since the paper that they gave us said that it would take up to 5 weeks to get them.  We didn't have to wait that long for them though.  The results are in, we got a phone call from his endocrinologist this afternoon.  It looks like his levels are very low.  This means that his pituitary gland is malfunctioning for some unknown reason.  It has nothing to do with his prematurity.  It's not anything we did or didn't do, it just happens.  I just find it odd that he has no after affects of his prematurity but has 2 separate problems that are not an every day occurrence.  Our endocrinologist will be squeezing us in to talk about the situation and answer our questions then we will meet with the growth hormone nurse to learn how to give Ollie his injections.  They would like him to start the treatment before christmas, the earlier the better seems to be their motto.  Now we will have sharp boxes, syringes and vials in our house, something most parents never think of having to deal with.
We are trying to see the bright side of this.  We know why he is small now, it is no longer a mystery.  It is something that is relatively easy to fix/treat.  An injection a day, 6 days a week until he's about 18.
We just hope that we don't find anything else wrong with him.

poking and prodding

Yesterday we spent the day at CHEO.  We went in nice and early to have Ollie tested for growth hormone deficiency.  It required him to take a pill that had a side effect of making him sleepy.  For 2 hours after the pill dose he got blood work done every 30 minutes.  At the end of that test they injected him with a glucose solution to stimulate his pituitary gland to see if he is making enough growth hormone.  After that injection he gets blood work done every 30 minutes again for 3 hours.  He had to have an empty stomach for this test so he didn't get anything to eat until the test was done.

a quick one

This is going to just be a quick post to let you guys know that we are at CHEO today to have Ollie's human GH levels tested.  It takes about 6 hours so we will be there from 8am till about 2 or 3.

If I get a chance you might even get a 2nd post today, all depending on how everything goes.

baby we're going down

Got a call from CHEO last week, more precisely from the Bone Clinic liaison.  She was calling about the results of the blood work we had done the previous Friday.  Things seem to be heading in the right direction, we are cutting his pill dose in half, we are now down to 1 pill a day instead of 2.  Ollie is great at taking his pills, he actually reminds us about them sometimes.
From what I understand it looks like his body has caught up to his previous lack of vitamin D and now we are just controlling the fact that his liver can't break down the vitamin to it's final form to be absorbed.

Couldn't of typed it any better.

Look at me all up to date with stuff.  I just found out today that the NICU that Ollie spent the first 5 weeks of his life at has a blog.  Great posts written by parents of NICU patients, graduates and people on their parent boards.  This is one that I found mirrored our thoughts exactly.  The debate of what to tell people when they ask for your kids age.

Inside the Sunnybrook NICU: So, how old is he?: