Lily & Leo

Happy 3 Months my little prince Leo!  Leo weighs 10.05 pounds now (still under 0 percentile but he’s growing so that’s all that matters) and stretches 22.5 inches long (3 percentile)!  He is growing bigger and stronger each day and he developing into such a bright and happy boy!  Leo is starting to smile more now and is very alert and likes to look at his surroundings and just take it all in.  We are letting him sleep for a 5 hour stretch at night but we will start to let him sleep longer now that he’s gaining a decent amount of weight!  He feeds about every 4 hours, and takes about 95cc per feeding.  He still throws up now and then, especially when we increase his intake, and he takes about an hour to finish his bottle, but lately he’s starting to take maybe 45 mins!  Leo had his hearing diagnostics a couple weeks ago and for both ears, his high and mid tones are normal but he has trouble picking up the low tones.  He has more trouble in his left ear than in the right.  The doctor thinks it could be due to fluids in his ears that prevents the ear drums from moving properly but they need to check to make sure it’s not nerve damage, and they couldn’t test him at the time since it needs to be super quiet for the test to take place and by the time it came to that portion of the test, he was already awake and feeding (to keep him from shaking the equipment off his head and ears) and the sucking of the bottle was too loud for the test.  So we will come back end of September to see if it’s due to nerve damage or if it’s just fluids.  If it is just fluids then eventually he will be able to hear low tone sounds but the fluids can come back.  If it’s nerve damage then it will be permanent and the low tone sounds will be very soft and hard for him to hear, but it’s not serious enough for him to need a hearing aid.  I think that’s pretty good outcomes!

Leo 10 Weeks Old

Leo 11 Weeks Old

Leo 12 Weeks Old (PC: Phong Truong)

3 Months Old

Check out these video clips of Leo during his tummy time, making silly faces, and some bonding time with his Ông Ngoại (grandpa)!

Overall, Leo is doing so great and it makes me super happy!  Sometimes he does a vigorous head shake that’ll be on and off for 10-15 minutes, and after doing some research on the trusty internet (haha), I concluded that it could be due to blockage inside his ears and so it’s probably bothering him and he’s trying to get rid of the annoyance.  I would massage his ears when this happens and he actually calms down so I feel like that could be it.  He is so calm and mellow and happy, it just warms me heart to be with him.  I’ve also met with a case worker from the Regional Center of Orange County and she is setting Leo up with an in-home infant program for babies with special chromosomal needs.  A therapist will be coming once a week for an hour to work with Leo and make sure he’s developing on track.  If he is showing any signs of delays or needs help reaching his development goals, the therapist will work with him to get him to where he needs to be.  Also, if the therapist feels that Leo needs extra help from an occupational or physical therapist, then she will make that recommendation and get that set up for him as well.  This will be great for Leo regardless of delays or not because this will only help Leo become a healthy strong and smart individual!  Leo also went on his first family vacation to San Diego and got to go to the beach and watch his first sunset and he loved it!

Also, Lily is such an amazing big sister to him.  So far, she hasn’t shown any signs of jealousy!  I try to be very conscious about how I treat her when Leo is around and even when other people are interacting with Leo, I try to make sure to give Lily attention too so that she doesn’t feel like everyone is so focused on Leo that we forgot about her.  Whenever she comes home from school, she always asks where her baby Leo is or if she sees him she goes up to him and gives him a kiss!  She’s so super sweet!  She likes to hold him and always asks to feed him and say he’s hungry and needs his milk haha.  She likes to watch us change his diaper and would sit and watch him get a bath too!  She amazes me so much and I cannot be more proud of my precious Lily pad.

Lily also started the new school year at LePort a couple weeks ago.  She is really cute and wants to bring her baby Leo to school with her too, so I thought it would be cute to take this picture with Leo inside her backpack haha.  Lily also made a new friend at school, a new student named Zoey and her teacher Ms. April says they’re inseparable!  That’s really cute that she can make friends so easily.  She’s still such a happy and spunky little toddler.  She talks so much now and speaks in complete sentences, it’s like she’s a tiny person!  You can read some of the super cute and clever things she says HERE.  She understands everything I say and hears everything too.  She’s always paying attention so its harder to get things past her, she’s definitely a smart cookie!  She loves to draw, paint, color, and do all sorts of arts and crafts.  I feel like she’s definitely my mini me!  Haha!  She also likes to paint her nails, wear hair accessories, dresses (no pants!), and is very into sandals now since she sees us wearing them all the time.  She also still loves minions, she likes to play in her kitchen and make me a “special lunch”, play with play doh and now legos!  She also likes to play with her toy cars and guns as well!  So well rounded!  Her favorite shows are the moment are Masha and the Bear, Octonauts, Dragon Tales, How to Train a Dragon, Cinderella, Wreck it Ralph, and the Minions Movie!  She has moments where she’ll be very good at eating but then other moments where she hardly eats.  She’s so easily distracted at home but when we do go out, she tends to be better at eating, probably because there’s no toys to play with haha.  I love you my Lily pad, you are so wonderful and amazing, you light up my life!  Happy 3 months Leo, you are such an amazing little fighter, I love you so much!

Here’s a couple videos of Lily being a wonderful big sister burping her baby brother and then another video of her at Target, and then one of our fun at the pool together!