For the past few months, Miles has been drooling a lot, fussing a lot, and generally crying more than ever. Today, it’s all paid off, as his first tooth has finally broken through. It’s been 3 months in the making, but it finally came through. Bottom front… it’s sharp like a shark’s tooth. We may have to change his nickname from Chugsy to Chompsy to commemorate the occasion.

We have set up a donation site that can be used to contribute funds to the walk. It’s simple, fast and secure: http://www.firstgiving.com/mileswolfe

We’d like to thank all of our friends and family who have supported us so far. We know that you will continue to support us in whatever way you can.

If you would like to join us on the walk, please contact us and we can make arrangements.

Miles is showing more and more signs of being a happy child. He now takes breaks during feeds to smile at us. And he’s doing so with more than just his mouth. His whole face lights up… it’s wonderful.

He is also still rolling over from front to back. On a few occasions (while lying on his back), he has lifted a leg up and pulled an arm across his body. Seems like he is gearing up for a back to front roll. I’ve helped him complete the maneuver a few times, but nothing he hasn’t gone solo yet. No big deal, he’d be way ahead of the game if he did it now, anyways.

We also have an excellent sleeper on our hands. He is typically going down for bed around 7pm and not waking up until 5 or 6 in the morning. As you could imagine, we thank our lucky stars for this.

It hasn’t all been roses, though. There were 2 nights this last week when Miles had some major reflux freak-outs. At least, we think it was reflux-related. It was around bed time when he would suddenly begin wailing in pain. A few gulping swallows later, he’d be calm as a caterpillar. Five minutes after that, he’d be wailing again.

All in all, the State of Miles is strong.

Genetics Analogy:
“Every kid is different, even siblings. Just because one kid sleeps easy, it doesn’t mean the next one is going to. Both kids are made with the same DNA from Mom and Dad… they’re just put together differently. If you take ground beef, lettuce and tomatoes and put them together one way, you’ve got a hamburger… put them together another way and you’ve got a taco.”

Attenuated Vaccine Analogy:
“The new roto-virus vaccine is attenuated, which means it’s crippled. Your body will still form antibodies and prepare to defend against the real thing. It’s just much easier with the crippled virus. Imagine playing against Tiger Woods. In a regular game, he’ll beat your pants off. But if you cut off his arms, he’s crippled. You’re still playing against Tiger Woods, but he’s crippled and much easier to beat.”

So far, so good. He is less squirmy post-feeding that he used to be, and he is pretty much finishing all of his bottles in a timely manner. The best part is that his poop is once again exiting at a normal pace.

He’s still been having some reflux issues, so we’re trying out Prilosec instead of Zantac. It’s been a week, and there’s not much change. Sarah things the Prilosec might even be worse than the Zantac.

On the plus side, he’s had a really healthy appetite. He’s been getting better with timing his breathing and swallowing. Just yesterday, I had a feeding session with him where I didn’t have to pull the bottle to give him a break. He would suck, rest and swallow all on his own.

Other than that, he’s sleeping and filling his diapers on a regular schedule.

Miles began exhibiting difficulties breathing while eating. Sometimes, it seemed like he would be choking. We tried going back to the “slow” nipples, but some of the breathing symptoms persisted.

We tried Doc Brown bottles, but the results were the same.

We tried the Avent bottles, but Miles didn’t care for the nipples.

Finally, we scheduled a swallow study to see if there was any way they can tell what the problem was. After trying several of the same bottle/nipple combinations we tried, they began adding rice cereal to the formula. It turns out that Miles has a case of Aspiration. Thickening the formula with rice had helped Miles gain more control over the flow of formula so that he could time his breathing better. It all worked great at the hospital.

It was a different story when we got home. They suggested we do a 1-tablespoon to 1-ounce ratio of rice to formula. That seemed to be took thick for Miles at home, so we moved to 2-tablespoons per 3 ounces of formula. That has been working much better.

But he’s still having some breathing issues. From time to time, he will absolutely freak out and it’s as if he’s hyper ventilating (maybe he is). He gets so worked up, that trying to feed him becomes an absolute nightmare. He had the perfect feeding this morning at 5 am. Calm breathing, smooth sucking, and controlled swallowing. I took 3 ounces and burped in 20 minutes. Three hours later, all bets were off. It was as if he had forgotten what to do with the nipple and when to breathe.

We’re getting better with our patience, but I hope that one of these days something will click and we can take a load of stress off of our backs.

The only time it really hits me is during feeding time. He can have a pretty difficult time getting a good suction on the bottles. A lot of the time, he’ll do this weird breathing freak-out thing that sounds as if he is having an asthma attack. It can be sort of gurgly, too, so I’m always afraid that I’m drowning him in milk.

It usually turns out OK, though. If you give him a break from the bottle, he’ll level out and start sucking like normal.

At any rate, Miles has found his place in our house without much trouble. We all love him, including Nora and the cats. Well… maybe not Gordon. It took him more than a year to show any sort of affection towards Nora. Pumpkin, on the other hand, has already been spotted holding vigil next to a sleeping Miles on the floor.