Well we went and got the results from Ronan’s sleep study today!! He is on the border of mild to severe sleep problems.. He pauses in breathing quite a lot at night, desats with his oxygen levels at a low level - around 71% (should be over 90%).. His condition isn’t at the stage of life threatening BUT it’s the level lower..

He is seeing a specialist when i get the chance to make an appointment as he will be having his tonsils and adnoids out.. Apparently his tonsils are the size of golf balls (specialists words) which means when he is asleep and relaxed the tonsils close in together which in turn makes his air flow cease and he is constantly waking at night to make himself breath again..

It is amazing to think that we didn’t even know he had a problem until the paed just out of interest asked me how his sleeping was going so you just never know, but i guess that is why they are the experts!When the doctor said to me that the results were not good as soon as we walked in the door i had a sigh of relief. I actually said to him that i was relieved to know something was wrong because i thought he had a perfect nights sleep when we were there. If these are the results on a good night i would hate to see what they would be on a bad night!

I still can’t believe we never picked up that anything was wrong.. We just thought he naturally had bags under his eyes just like under my eyes are always dark looking now matter how much sleep i get.. At the end of the day we have the results and something is being done about it.

This is a picture of him when he woke up the next morning..

We still can't believe it!!

I am still in a state of disbelief but Ronan just walked about 10 steps from the door to me..

He has been taking little "risks" by walking from lounge to lounge by taking 1 step without support so this is the first time he has ever taken the leap!! Talk about lets get in as many as we can in one go!!!!
Won't be long now!! It's funny because the paed was checking his muscle tone and reflexes today to make sure he didn't have a slight case of cerebral palsy because he wasn't walking yet.. We were hoping it was going to be by Christmas and it just might be now!! 

At 20 months (17 months corrected) he finally took his first real steps! 

20 months old - (17 months corrected),

I can't believe in 4 months Ronan will be 2 years old! He is going very well in all aspects although he isn't walking yet. We are doing quite a few exercises to help him progress with his walking but he has only just started to walk forward. Something that he thinks is hilarious is to walk on his knee's. We are trying to discourage him from doing so but i can see that he won't be walking for quite a while yet. 

He was weighed and measured the other day and he is now 11.4kgs, 84cms in length and his head is 49cms. He amazes many professionals with just how big he really is. He is an awesome eater! pretty much eats everything that i give him. If we let him eat every hour he would, he loves his food that much. Apparently we are very lucky because alot of premature babies are actually quite fussy with their foods.

He now brings me books to read to him, climbs on and off the couch including our bed which is actually quite high. Walks around the furniture like it is going out of style, waves hello and goodbye and many other things. He is very good with his words and says hello dad, bye, hello, hi, mum, dad, i got, i know, bot bot, cat and does alot of babbling to himself. 

Ronan and i will be going to the hospital on Tuesday the 20th for a sleep study. Ronan always tends to have bags under his eyes and snores quite alot whilst asleep so we believe that he is not getting enough sleep at night (disturbed sleep). We saw the specialist and they want him to have it done. If there is an issue there it is very likely that the problem is his adnoids which will need to be removed. It will be amazing having a baby/toddler that doesn't have bags under his eyes. We are so used to them that we don't even notice his eyes until someone comments "did he just wake up" even if he has been awake for a few hours. 

I will keep you updated with how his sleep study goes. Considering he seems to have broken sleep he is always on the go and has bundles of energy!

18 months old - (15 months corrected),

It feels like forever since i last updated Ronan's progress but i guess he is almost 19 months old. He has become a very cheeky little man. We are forever saying "no" and he forever tries to test the boundaries which is so cute but also makes it hard not to laugh.

He crawls around like a mad man. We try to keep up with him but he is so damn fast on his knee's. He is walking along furniture but doesn't walk unaided yet. He seems like he is quite a while off walking yet as he is having trouble walking forward. He can walk sideways without any problem but as soon as you try to get him to walk towards you whilst holding his hands he just flops on the ground and doesn't want to do it. We still attend physio and keep up with his exercises but i feel that we are not progressing very fast. I have certainly learnt to be patient with him and his milestones.

This is a list of words which he currently says alot: I got, I know, Mum, Dad, Bye Bye, No, Hi, Hi Dad, Bubba, Back.

Mr Ronan has been in the media quite alot of late. He has been in newspapers, magazines and on websites. He was last featured in the Knox Journal and That's Life magazine. I have attached a copy of each article in his photo's.

He was in that's life as part of a story about L'il Aussie Prems. He was in the Knox Journal because of the National Premmie Foundation which will be launched in October this year. He is my little "media hog".

We are about to head up to Sydney in a few weeks for a friends wedding. Ronan hasn't seen his grandma since March this year and the rest of the family for almost a year. He now weighs approx 11.2kgs so he is going to be a lot bigger than the last time they saw him.

He now has 10 teeth! He has his 8 baby teeth at the front and 2 molars. The molars were not fun when they came through but once they broke the skin he was back to his happy, placid self.

17 months old - (14mths corrected),

Well Mr Ronan is growing up! He is almost 1 1/2yrs old, it's hard to believe. He is going VERY well and is still a very happy and placid baby. He was weighed this week and is now 10.5kgs, 79cms length, 48cm head circ and he is at the same weight for his "corrected age".

His physio has been going well. He can sit for longer periods of time ie: 15 mins. He can crawl out of the sitting position BUT he doesn't know how to sit from crawling, he sits on his knee's and thinks that is the proper way which it isn't of course so we have been trying to show him the proper way. In typical Ronan style he'd prefer to do it his own way. He is now standing against furniture as well and very steadily.

He now says "mum", "bubba", "i got", and occasionally says "dad" although that isn't his favourite word. He babbles to himself ALOT and loves to mimick any noises we make, especially coughing as he thinks it is very funny.

The paed wants us to watch him with his sleeping/breathing because he snores alot of late so he is worried that he may have inflammed adenoids. If he seems to have restless sleeping he will need to have a sleep study done and once they gather the data from that he just might need to have them taken out. I have noticed since the paed mention about the adnoids that he is always looking tired, so maybe just maybe this has been a problem for a while but we never realised it was because we were not aware of it? either way i will update you on this next month.

My website L'il Aussie Prems (www.lilaussieprems.com.au) is going very well. The site was created because i have a prem baby & know how difficult it is and wanted to offer online support to parents. It has recently been in parenting magazines and local papers which is very exciting! and i am off to Sydney in August for a National Premmie Day meeting.

I have added a few pics of Ronan in his profile so you can see just how big he has grown.

15 months old - update!

Wow where does the time go? I can't believe it has been 3 months since i last updated his journal. He is going VERY well. He now weighs around 10.3kgs, eats and drinks us out of home and is still very happy and content.

He lovesssssss to say "mumumumum" but still has yet to say "dadadada". He is now crawling (commando crawled for about 2 weeks), pulls himself onto his knee's at every chance he gets. He is still going to physio for his milestones and he still isn't sitting 100% - he will sit but isn't the best because of his balance, which is our main focus at this stage. He is now 12mths "corrected" and whilst he is a little behind that is OK, we are doing all that we can do and he is just an amazing little guy and very determined.

He still only has the 8 teeth but we think a few of his molars are coming through as he has had a few cranky moments.

We just celebrated National Premmie Day and my website L'il Aussie Prems helped to host an event and it was fantastic! It was great seeing all the prem babies as alot of them are now 2yrs+ and are all fighting fit, so it is good to see how they develop and gives us alot of hope for the future.

Our little man decided that he likes to stand and bang on the glass coffee table! He has never wanted to stand before and usually refuses too but the other day we decided to try him again and he stood for a few mintues! We are still shocked but very excited.. 

He now has 8 teeth and we hope this is it for at least a month.. He wasn't actually too bad all things considered but we did have a bad night the night before the tooth popped through but his bottom is red raw from teething.. :(

12 months old!!

Well it's hard to believe but our little man is 12mths old! We had his party on Saturday night and it was fantastic.. We had around 37 guests (mostly family) and Ronan loved the attention.. He got lots of fantastic presents including a new highchair.. We had a time capsual/box for when he turns 21 and it sounds like there are some great gifts for him so now i can't wait until he turns 21 so we can see what was given.. hehehe

Ronan was weighed a few weeks ago and is now over 9kgs and putting on approx 94grams a day, is now 72cms (grown 5cms in 3 months) and rolling EVERYWHERE! He is getting his 8th tooth through at the moment but whilst he has his moments he is handling it pretty well the poor thing.. :)

Grandma flew down from Sydney for his special day and it was so special having my mum down here to celebrate with us!