Zoey's PT/OT/Nutrition/Speech Eval today (long)

Zoey was scheduled to see a physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, and a nutritionist to monitor her progress since her NICU discharge. What a big work out for such a little person! Zoey was playing on the floor for about 1 1/2 hours until she hit the wall of hunger and fatigue. What a trooper. Zoey is doing very well with muscle tone and flexibility for the most part, but we need some extra help with her arms during weight bearing exercises. In addition, she seems to favor her head turning in one direction, so she has some shortening of the muscles on the opposite side of her neck. We were given exercises to do at home with her to help her with stretching her neck muscles. We hope to start PT very soon. Occupational therapy was pleased with her visual and motor skills and did not recommend further rehabilitation, for now. She encouraged us to begin introducing more toys to Zoey, especially ones she can grip and shake by herself. The nutritionist weighed Zoey today at 11 lbs. 3 oz., and Zoey is 22 1/2 inches long. Zoey is exactly in the 50th percentile for her adjusted age (4 mo. old), and her weight and height are perfectly proportionate. The nutritionist emphasized the importance of Zoey gaining and growing at this current optimal pace by continuing to have Zoey eat only the fortified breast milk through her adjusted 1st birthday (May 10!!!). Although I nearly fainted at the prospect of pumping for another 8 months, the benefits are undeniable. We talked extensively about introducing solid foods and were encouraged to consider Zoey's 6 mo. (adjusted) birthday. The explanation was that introducing spoon feeding is more for practice than nutrition at this point. So, there is no rush since Zoey is eating what a 4 mo. should be eating per day (around 20 oz.) with the correct amount of nutrition, fat, and calories that she needs. That was good to know. Lastly, the speech therapist got to watch Zoey sleeping after her bottle, so the assessment was based on what we shared regarding concerns. Basically, our only instruction was to work on Zoey working a little harder to take a bottle, rather than gulping 4 oz. in 2-3 minutes (literally). We will be going back to a slower-flow nipple on her bottles to remedy that. We actually already started tonight, and Zoey seems very pleased to take her time eating. We will be going back for our regular appointment with Zoey's pediatrician in October, and back to the hospital in November for the NICU follow up clinic and for Zoey's follow up hearing exam. We are very excited to walk with our team, "Power to the Peep," in the NICU benefit walk at the Akron Zoo on Sunday, 9/20/09.  I think we are going to enjoy these last weeks before full-blown flu season thoroughly.  This is my favorate time of year.  Just wanted to share!