Preemies are amazing

We got the official evaluation in the mail the other from the big follow up clinic Noah had a few weeks ago. Since we are being followed so closely by people here, there wasn't anything too new from the clinic, but it's still nice to hear them say that he is doing so well. He is right on track for his development for his adjusted age and starting to catch up to his real age in quite a few areas. Something that we found pretty humorous is that everyone who evaluated his muscle tone in his legs rated it as "high normal" in the report and made comments on it while we were there. If you have ever been around Noah for more than 2 minutes, you know why. :)
He still gets his mystery wheezing once in a while, but not nearly as much as he did. And there has never been anything in his lungs that they can hear, and that was true again this time. That is a good thing. If the lungs are good, that is a lot less to worry about. What it does mean is that he has a narrow airway (laryngotracheomalacia, how's that for a word of the day?) This makes sense considering all the trouble the breathing tube gave us those first few weeks of his life. There might be some extra scar tissue from being intubated and extubated so many times (the breathing tube going in and out). This means that if he gets some sort of upper respiratory infection it has the potential to be pretty bad. So we might be semi-hermits during cold and flu season. And we are trying to get him the ridiculously expensive RSV immunization, but from what I've been told the chances of insurance approving it are slim.

Things like that are a big old reminder that even as awesome as he is doing, he is not a typical/normal/full term (I'm never quite sure what word to use...) kid. There are just some things that we have to go about differently. I am NOT complaining, just putting that out there as the mom of a preemie. (you know, raising awareness...November...)

Here is another big difference. My kid is not even a year old and he already has a longer medical record than me. This is just the section for his "birth history" in the report:
"apnea, breech, cesarean section, gestational drug exposure, intrauterine growth retardation, jaundice, pulmonary injury sequence, respiratory distress syndrome, respiratory failure, small for gestational age, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, pulmonary hemorhage, anemia, GERD, laryngotracheomalacia, torticollis, plagiocephaly"
Wowsers. And add to that countless x-rays (For some reason I hate thinking about that. Probably because I was told to avoid them while pregnant because it could harm the baby and then he ended up having so many.) and blood draws. And having IV's and a PICC line. And receiving months of nebulizer treatments and medications. And going through a CT scan, MRI, MRA, and multiple blood transfusions.

Preemies are amazing.
They are miracles.
They are fighters.
They are heroes.

I love you, Noah.