We have an eight-month-old! I can't get over how much has changed for us in the past eight months.
Carter has been home for 149 days now.. 47 days longer than he has spent in the hospital.. actually, 45 days; he spent 2 days in the hospital after he was discharged.
We appreciate our time together much more since Carter came into our world.
We took it for granted that we'd always have 'tomorrow'; that we'd always get another chance.
Since bringing Carter home, we watch a LOT less tv, the kids have 'iPad time' instead of playing on their iPads until they're flat and then playing on them as they charge.. we just spend a lot more time together as a family.
We're starting to find that Brooklyn and Carter already have this little bond.
I could be dancing around like an idiot, trying to make Carter laugh, and the second Brooklyn walks in, Carter's all smiles!
Havanah on the other hand, she thinks Carter's 'too boring' and he 'smells like spew and dribbles too much'; therefore, she doesn't find a whole lot of joy in snuggling up with her baby brother the way Brooklyn does.
As Carter enters his ninth month, he's FINALLY cutting his first tooth!! This bloody c-word of a tooth has been coming up and going back down for the past four months!
It's been Bonjela and Panadol galore lately.. and dribble.. and tears.. and sleepless nights.
It's crazy to think that the little gummy smile we've come to love so much is finally going to be full of teeth!
Looking at him, you'd never really know he was born ten weeks early.
Of course, there's little characteristics I notice and anyone else that has experience with premature babies would probably notice; the shape of his head and the shape of his nose.
We call him "C-Papi" [See-Pahpee] because of his 'CPAP Nose'. I can't tell you how we got from "hey my little CPAP nose" to "C-PAPI!".. but we got there and he thinks it's hilarious.
Carter is still sleeping prone (on his tummy) but he does roll from front to back and from back to front now, so we're kinda just rolling with it and seeing how he goes.
He doesn't last long when he rolls onto his back though. His pulse oximetry monitor doesn't go off, but he's not comfortable and will yell out to wake us up.. and usually find himself having snuggles in Mommy and Daddy's bed at 4am.
I don't know that I'd get the same peace of mind if we didn't have the Owlet Baby Monitor*.
While Carter was in the hospital, we were told that he'd need to be on a monitor while he slept; being a premature baby increases the risks of SIDS.. sleeping prone increases those odds even more.
I searched all over the place for something that would suit our situation and something that we felt would be reliable.
They have hospital monitors which were available to hire, but we really wanted something that was wireless and someone had told us about the Owlet, so we knew there was definitely a wireless option out there.
We love our Owlet! And I love that they're now available in Australia! We had to purchase ours online, have it sent to a friend in Canada and then have him ship it to Dubbo for us.
We recently found out that Carter is allergic to cow's milk.
After a trip to the hospital with what we thought was a mix of gastro and some sort of respiratory illness, his paediatrician quickly realised that it was, in fact, an allergy to something.
Moving Carter to Neocate, a specially designed elemental formula for babies with cow's milk allergy, made a HUGE difference! Within hours, Carter's symptoms all died down.
And then, his reflux got REALLY bad.
Carter had been on Neocate for three weeks. He was vomiting lots more and was refluxing so severely that we couldn't lay him on his back at all.. we couldn't even lay him back in the bath.
Our chilled out little boy was crying in his sleep and arching his back in pain. I hadn't seen him like this since the NICU.
After sharing something on social media about it, a beautiful mum sent me a message; "this sounds just like what happened with my son when he was on Neocate for a cow's milk allergy".
She said the only thing that helped her son was Goat's milk formula. I called John at work and had him buy some on his way home.
A week later and Carter's reflux has completely subsided again.. no more vomiting and bathing with ease!
Our little man is growing up.
Still in 00 and weighing less than 8kg.. but growing!
*If you buy an Owlet Baby Monitor via the link, we receive something like 10%..ish.. I don't really know the exact percentage.. enough for like, dinner at Maccas or something?
