Dylan is 10 months old today! I can hardly believe it. My tiny baby is almost a year old!
Where to start with the update? A few friends have reminded me that I said I would post an update about Dylan's developmental visit (Thanks Sarah & Amy!). We went for his developmental check a few weeks ago. We have to go to Iowa City for them, but I really enjoy it. We see a lady named Sara whose specialty is preemie infant development. Sara mostly just plays with Dylan to see what he is doing. She gave him a squeaky duck to play with which he proceeded to shove in his mouth. She also gave him some blocks & wanted him to copy her & bang them together...he put them in his mouth instead. Go figure. She had him pick up cheerios & put them in his mouth. Sara also checks his movement, his weight, & his height. She tried to get a blood pressure, too, but he was wiggling too much...she says that is normal though & that she hadn't gotten one from any baby all day. Overall, he is doing great. He is doing all the things he should be for his adjusted age of 7 months. He is also doing several of the things that are expected from a 10 month old. He is also at about the 50% for his actual age in weight & at about the 3-6% for his height.
We have been working on sitting up & crawling. Dylan does great at sitting up...most of the time. He is still not really crawling much, but he can certainly get to something if he really wants it. He loves to stand & will stand at the couch & then let go & turn & hold onto my leg instead. I think he will be walking soon, as long as he can get some balance under control. He loves Casey, our beagle dog, & while Casey isn't too thrilled with him, he tolerates him & even licks his face sometimes. Dylan gets a kick out of that!
My one area of concern is Dylan's speech. He really doesn't jabber much & never repeats sounds back to you. I often say, “Mama” & “Dada” to him & he will grin really big, but he never tries to repeat them back. His main form of communication is screaming & Derrick & I are not really such fans of that! He screams a lot! I am thinking about looking into Early Intervention coming out & doing some speech therapy with him, but Sara thinks we should wait & that he is doing well for his adjusted age. I know that we have to account for him being a preemie, but I don't want to use that as an excuse. I don't want to push him too much, but I really think he would benefit from some therapies. I will be talking to the pediatrician at the 12 month appointment about it if his “speech” doesn't seem to be improving.
Overall, Dylan is doing well. Even though some days are more tiring than others, we woul
