The latest at the Selly house

Jace

Gavin showing his muscles

Kai--smiling for the camera

It's been awhile since I have posted so I thought I better write an update. Kai is almost 5 months now. He weighs just a little over 13lbs. He is growing, but at the bare minimum. He continues therapy weekly. He is working with bottling, different positioning, tummy time, rolling, head control, trying to grasp at toys and looking to his left (he favors his right side). Did I miss anything in there? It's a lot of stuff that he is working on. It's very exciting to see him try new things. When he was working on rolling at therapy (he was rolling on a wedge to have gravity to help), I was fighting back the tears. We are working really hard with his feedings, but unfortunately bottling is not going very well at all. I can't get him to even take a few swallows. It makes me sad that he isn't doing any oral feedings. Hopefully with the help of therapy, he will be able to eventually do some oral feedings. We are also working on trying to diminish his overnight feeding. This is going to be very tricky. That amount somehow has to be added to his day time feedings. He is only taking a little under 3 ounces (85mls) per feeding (every 3 hrs). We also want to get away from the overnight feeding for another reason. Kai is moving quite a bit in his crib during the night and is getting wrapped in his feeding tube. One morning his feeding tube was up by his neck. I'm worried that some how it will get wrapped around him tight or get stuck on something and his button get pulled out. It just seems when we have progress, then Kai gets sick and we take a few steps back. Kai was sick last week with some kind of stomach virus. It takes so much out of him and takes him a little longer than the norm to get through it. He seems to be doing much better this week. Yesterday Kai got scanned for his craniocap. He will get fitted for it next Wednesday. He is required to work 19-22 hrs per day. He will have to get it adjusted every 2 weeks. He also met with the rehabilitation doctor. At this point there is no addition equipment that Kai will need. He will probably have to have leg splints when the time comes. This will give him a little more support since he has such low muscle tone. Otherwise Kai is enjoying watching all the kids play around him. He is a very happy and content little guy who loves to be talked to and most often will crack you a big smile!

Gavin and Jace....they fight like crazy right now. Hopefully they will grow out of it soon. Gavin will be turning 4 at the end of the month and is very excited about his birthday. Jace has been improving on his speech. Every day he is saying new words. He also has had a sensory assessment done. He does seem to show some kind of sensory disorder. He with have the early intervention OT (the same one that works with Kai) that will work with him twice a month.

Levi's work has laid off 8 guys. Levi and the rest of the guys have gone down to 40 hrs per week, 10 hr shifts 4 days a week. So right now he just work M-R. Income wise it kinda sucks...he has worked 60-70 hrs per week for the last 8.5 yrs so this is a big change for us. It nice to have him home more and the boys really enjoy it as well. And I think Levi is enjoying just working 40 hrs a week and having some down time.

A lot of people already know this but I am downsizing daycare and cutting back. It was a tough decision to make. I have decided to do this because I need more time to work with Kai on a daily basis. I have let one family go to lower my daycare numbers. My plan is to continue to do daycare with the remaining families until I am no longer needed. It will allow me more time to do some of Kai's cares. There is such much to do with him and I feel bad that I don't get to everything on a regular basis. And then I also feel bad that Gavin and Jace don't get the quality attention that they need.

One last thing...we have a new baby boy in the family! Levi's sister had her baby yesterday (17 days early!). Lots of boys!!