One month

We just can't believe it has been a whole month already.  A whole month that Joseph has been home with our family.  It's been quite a month.  A lot of wonderful times and a lot of really hard ones as well.

Joseph's digestive issues seem to be more under control right now.  He has a very limited diet, but it seems to have stopped the diarrhea so we're sticking with it for now.

He's doing so well!  He's swimming all around the house on his belly trying to investigate new things.    He can't walk, but he's not letting that stop him from exploring.  He's more interested in different toys than he used to be.  He loves being held and played with.  He had a little bald patch in the front of his head right above his forehead.  At first we thought it was just a weird cow lick and hair just didn't grow there.  But since he's been home, that spot of hair is now growing in!  The only logical thing is that he used to rub that spot on something so often that it caused the hair not to grow.  Probably a stimming behavior because he was left in his crib all day.  It's so nice to see that it's growing in and that he feels comfortable enough that he doesn't need to do that anymore.  He does still grind his teeth, but we've noticed a big decrease in that as well.

He had a swallow study done to make sure that he does swallow properly and he's not aspirating his foods or having any other medical issue with feeding.  He did great, and the speech therapist was very happy to see that we don't have any other bigger feeding issue going on.

We finally had our first speech therapy evaluation and meeting.  It was probably one of the best appointments we've had yet....and we've had many!  God knew I needed some real help that day and it came in the form of a very positive and helpful therapy session and a kind financial advisor from the hospital taking the time to help me figure out what we're going to do about all of Joseph's medical bills.  I'm hoping we're on our way to getting some things resolved.

I got some great feedback on Joseph...he just seems to have very, very low muscle tone in his face and he has no idea what to do with is tongue.  I actually have practical exercises I can work on with him to bring more sensation to his mouth, help him to practice using those muscles in his cheeks and lips as well as learning that his teeth are for biting.  It's exciting to know that he's finally going to have people in his life helping to work on things like eating solid foods, drinking from a cup and eventually working towards communication.  It was just nice to have tangible things to go home and work on.

A few "one month home" shots...

Having a family looks pretty good on this little guy ;)