Silas has now been out of the hospital for over a month, and he has made some fantastic progress over the past few weeks. He now holds his head up by himself most of the day and is gaining more and more strength and coordination in his hands and arms. It's getting easier to take him out and about because he can sit up and look around when he's strapped into his baby carrier.
Here he is on a trip to the zoo in Atascadero with Grams.
His one-month follow-up appointment at UCSF last week went well. It is still too early to predict when his vocal cord function will be restored, but his pulmonary doctor is hopeful that we'll see results by this summer. He is gaining back a lot of strength and coordination, but is still struggling to put on weight. Last week he still weighed a full pound less than before we went into the hospital in March. He has had a tough time keeping his food down. Since he had his trach put in we've tried all kinds of combinations of thickeners, protein and calorie additives, and we've tried adjusting everything from his eating position to his shunt setting to his diet to try to keep his food down, but he continues to lose his lunch (and some other meals) unpredictably several times a week. We've become quite adept at changing his clothes (and ours) each time it happens, but the hours add up, and it's frustrating when all the hard work of thickening, warming, and mixing his food (not to mention pumping and preparing his medications) goes to waste. We're hopeful that another follow-up appointment with his ENT surgeon this Monday will help to solve the mystery.
Silas also has some other big news: his first two teeth are coming in and he is starting to eat solid foods. Squash and prunes are his favorites so far, but we're introducing new foods slowly as we try to figure out the best chances for him to keep it down. Here he is sitting up like a big boy.
Mom's major accomplishment this month was finishing the Wildflower Triathlon for Team Lifewater. Thanks everyone for your support. Sada met her fundraising goal and finished better than she expected with her limited training time. Baby made the trip too. Here are a few pictures from mom's big race.
Silas also got to go on his first boat ride to get to Wildflower. Parking was on the other side of the lake, and a boat shuttle ran back and forth to the race. Getting his life jacket around his trach was a little tricky, but he loved the feeling of the wind and waves on his face.
Finally, here are a few pictures from a little trip to Morro Bay from Mothers' Day. Silas got to see a family of sea otters playing in the bay.
