Big boned

Torsten has gained some weight. So much that Ryan jokingly says that he's big boned and looks like a marshmallow. To us he looks huge, but next to other babies around the same age, he's still just a tiny little guy.

Who are you calling skinny?! Torsten, Jan. 12, 2013, 13.5 lbs.

No pants day. Torsten, Jan. 24, 2013, 14.7 lbs.

We had two appointments today - one follow-up with the pediatrician and a pre-op appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist. The pediatrician is thrilled with the weight we've put on our little guy. In the past 17 days, Torsten has grown 1/2 inch (up from 9th to the 10-12th percentile), gained 2 pounds (up from below the charts to ~4th percentile) and his head has grown by 1/2 inch (up from 25th to the 50th percentile). Even though we're still low on the charts, we agreed that Torsten will probably stay near the bottom for life due to thin genetics, and that this is fine as long as he's growing, which he is now. Since I've been nursing him all night, every night (every 1.5-2 hours), she said that we could start cutting back on those feedings and finally try to get some sleep. However, we do need to keep the effort going and feed him the same as we have been during the day. So by day, Torsten will continue to nurse constantly and eat plenty of carb-filled veggies, fruits and yogurt. He definitely has a hearty appetite and shocks people when they see him eat for the first time. Even though he'll only eat the healthiest foods I've offered him, he nearly needs a shovel to get it in his mouth fast enough. Mealtime has become seriously amusing in this house!

Our good friend Allison (MD in Atlanta) suggested that we discuss with our pediatrician the possibility of seeing a geneticist to check if all of the issues we've had so far could be related. When I mentioned this today, Torsten's doctor agreed that it would be a good idea. So even though we would like to cut back on doctors and appointments, we do want to make sure that we're not missing anything.We'll see this new doctor on February 11th and will hopefully be able to get some questions answered and move forward.

The pre-op appointment with the ophthalmologist went fine as well. He tried to get another round of measurements of Torsten's eyes, which seems to be a struggle. He'll measure again on Monday morning, but other than that, we're set to go. We have to be at the hospital at 5:30am on Monday and the surgery will be at 7:30am. He again told us that there should be very little recovery and that once he's "under" and in the operating room, it should go quickly. He also verified again that the worse of the two eyes is shutting down. Since we weren't clear on what that meant, he explained that when there is double-vision, one eye will begin to be shut down by the brain and that if not corrected, it will eventually cease to function. Glad we're getting this taken care of sooner than later!

Thank you all again for your calls, texts, emails, thoughts, love and prayers. We can't even begin to tell you all how great it is to have such a loving, huge and widespread support network. We love you all and will let you know how Monday goes once it's over.