Supernanny

For some reason, Paxton slept until 11:00am. He must have been extra tired for some reason. Susanne was hopeful that he would have a gag free morning, but that all changed when Paxton was laid down to get his dirty diaper switched out for a new one. Luckily, he was able to hold it all down. Nothing came up other than sound.

Today, Poppy did the majority of Paxton's care. He did everything from setting up and breaking down his feedings, changing diapers, giving medications, and playing with him. A lot of the day, Poppy did everything without supervision. He had graduated to that level of care for Paxton because he was doing so well. Susanne would only intervene if he had questions. She was very proud of him for mastering everything that went along with taking care of the little guy. This was not an easy challenge to take on. It was truly a huge undertaking, but he was succeeding beautifully.

Poppy also managed to take great care of Susanne as well. It really helped her to have someone to help her with Paxton throughout the day. She was able to focus her energy on other things. Her to do list needed some trimming down. Poppy made both of them his special turkey sandwich for lunch. There wasn't much turkey left so she made sure to savor every bite.

Later in the day, Susanne worked with Paxton on sitting and head control. She was using the little piano that he loved so much to help distract him while she forced him to work. He loved hitting the piano keys and his excitement would escalate the longer he banged around. Seeing him so happy and content always put a smile on her face.

When Gigi got home, she played with Paxton on his play gym. He was really active for a while, but she could tell when he was running out of steam. He ended up taking a four hour nap because he was so exhausted from the activities of the day.

Paxton woke up for a short time at the beginning of his 9:00pm feeding. Susanne took this opportunity to work with him on accepting his pacifier. He was not feeling that whatsoever. Instead of pushing him over the edge, Susanne decided to work on something else. She tried working on motor skills like bringing his hands towards his midline. This would help to strengthen his chest muscles. Right now he still had extremely low tone for multiple reasons. The main reason was that he had two major heart operations where they had to cut into his muscles and sternum. The healing process after those surgeries was a minimum of six to eight weeks. He had also been hospitalized for much of his life where he was confined to a bed. The lack of freedom and movement didn't train his muscles to know what to do. Also, he had a severe heart condition that caused him to fatigue easily. Often, he didn't have the strength to do even the most basic, natural movements that most infants do without thinking about it. Finally, he had developmental delays that resulted in him progressing at a much slower pace than normal. Even though he was almost 11 months, he was only functioning at a four month old level. Susanne was hopeful that all of this would correct itself as he got older. She knew he would be a determined little guy. He had already proven that.

She got a lot of good laughs out of Paxton. He seemed to enjoy that time with his mommy. After about an hour, he was ready to go down for the night. Susanne was so thankful that he was so easy to read. He almost always let her know what he needed.