After what seems like forever, Dash finally has a tooth poking through his lower gums.

There was one point in while he was in the NICU that we thought he might have been teething, but it turned out to be a false alarm. Over the last few weeks he had been showing the symptoms again: excessive drooling, fussyness, and wanting to grind his gums on stuff. Within the last 3 days it became notably worse, he didn’t want his pacifier, and he kept putting fingers in his mouth.

Today, he seemed a lot happier, and was taking his pacifier. Sometimes we’ll rub his gums on with our fingers, and before dinner I noticed it felt a little different. Sure enough a single tiny tooth had broken through. We tried to take a photo of it, but it’s basically impossible to get it in focus.

Now that we’re home and we’ve got a routine, it’s become more difficult coming up with details that distinguish one day from another. Luckily, this means things are finally boring.

I’m going to discontinue daily updates and just do updates for big milestones.

Dash had a good day.

He had a physical therapy session today and this was his second session with this person. Their first visit was last week and she said she could tell that his skills had grown a lot.

He had a moment today where he rolled over (back to tummy) a few times in a row.

Dash had an ok day.

He had a good speech therapy session where they started working on speech patterns and helping him make specific sounds with his mouth. He also had 2 pureed meals today.

Dash had a good day.

Not too much happened today, though he had lots of playful times. He rolled over a few times.

He has been practicing holding his pacifier in his hand and aiming it into his mouth. He’s successful like 1 out of 5 times, but he seems pretty excited when he gets it. He can’t keep the paci in his mouth while he’s sucking on it because he ha a ridge on the roof of his mouth from when he was intubated which prevents him from making a deal. So we have to hold it for him when he wants it. Once he figures this out, it’ll be great.

Dash had an ok day.

He was a little fussy, but not overly so. He had some happy moments as well. His g-tube was leaking more than normal, so we checked how much liquid was in the balloon that holds in place, and it was in a normal range. Though it stopped leaking a little later in the day, so maybe it’s just a fluke. It’s due to be replaced in early September.

Today was the first day where I’m back in the office. I’m kind of easing into it a bit and only working the mornings from the office and working from home in the afternoon and late at night. I haven’t worked from the office since pre-pandemic, so it was a little weird.

When I got home at lunch, both Olive and Dash were happy to see me. Katie needed a bit of a break because he hadn’t had a nap. He actually didn’t nap all day, which made putting him to bed at night a little easier than normal.

He had some apples & blackberry puree which he seemed to love.

Dash had an ok day.

We figured that he finally pooped overnight because he was grunting hard enough to wake up the house, but he didn’t and was clearly in discomfort this morning. So, we used a Windy to help stimulate a poop. It’s like a little tube you insert rectally and it’s supposed to release gas. He got stimmed enough in the NICU, it didn’t phase me, though Katie was the one doing it so maybe she’s have a different answer.

It didn’t really help, so we got a glycerin suppository which did the trick. He immediately pooped out a golfball sized poop. And the rest of his day was much better. He was happy and playful the rest of the day.

Dash had a better day today.

Today, he was back to crying his normal amount. And there was plenty of happy interactive time. We even went for a walk around the block.

The prune juice hasn’t produced a big poop yet, but he’s had a few smaller ones.

Dash didn’t have a good day.

He essentially cried from 9am until 1pm, took a nap and woke up and cried for a few hours more. He was inconsolable and he pushed out enough formula from around his gtube to require an outfit change. We thought maybe he was constipated so we gave him some prune juice, which did cause him to poop. He calmed down a little bit in the evening, but was still upset. 50% crying, 40% sleeping and maybe 10% happy.

He slept more than he should have today, so we’re not imagining he’ll go to sleep easily tonight. At least tomorrow is Saturday and we can get some naps during the day if we need to.

Dash had a good day.

He played a bit more than normal and we found a few things he wouldn’t stop smiling over. He had butternut squash and seemed to like it.

He took like 90 minutes between being set in his crib and actually going to sleep.