Bananas!

Sam has finally ventured into the world of real food! His favorite item on the menu is pureed bananas, which he eats like a voracious little monkey, kicking his chubby little legs excitedly and opening his mouth impatiently. He can eat almost an entire banana in the time period of about 20 minutes. He tries to grab the spoon himself, but he unfailingly sticks it right into his eye.


Our doctor was quite pleased with his weight gain; Sam is now weighing in a little over 16 pounds, which puts him in the 20th percentile! For a cardiac baby, this is especially exciting since gaining weight is often a problem when half of your heart is doing all of the work.

While the doctor was happy with Sam's overall growth, his left pulmonary artery and descending aorta remain small as of this week, and they are perhaps growing even narrower. If they do not improve by the end of October, it looks like Sam will undergo a heart catheterziation in November. While we are not looking forward to this, we are hopeful that it will work and keep Sam from enduring another open heart surgery this year. Clinically, however, Sam looks great! His upper and lower blood pressures are the same, which is apparently very important, and he otherwise continues to thrive.

Aside from the food and the discoveries made at this week's appointment, here is a brief list of Sam's other accomplishments this month:
1. Rolling frequently from stomach to back (and almost from back to stomach, but his arm keeps getting in the way)



2. Discovering his feet
3. Turning pages while being read to
4. Screeching happily and/or angrily
5. Getting upset when I leave the room
6. Noticing when I eat and demanding to be fed at that moment
7. Pivoting himself around in his exersaucer (which he is doing as I type this!)
8. Somehow wriggling himself off his exercise mat onto the carpet. Also, when I come into his room in the morning to get him up, he has rotated himself 180 degrees in the crib and looks quite pleased with himself.

Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful autumn so far.