Defying the odds!

Despite his diagnosis, as of today Dylan is a completely wonderful, normal, amazing 2 month old!  I feel like when people hear that he has Microcephaly, they start looking for what's wrong with him.  He does have a smaller head than other kids his age, but other than that he is perfectly normal!  Here are some of the great things he is doing already.

SMILES!  Dylan shared his first smile with us on June 19th, when he was only 3 weeks old.  It was actually on the same day that we had that horrible appointment with the geneticist.  We had just received the devastating news on his diagnosis, and afterwards we drove over to my parent's house to pick up Jack.  My mom was holding Dylan as I tried to explain what the geneticist had told us, and Dylan looked up at her and gave her the most amazing, wide mouthed grin!  It was as if he was telling us "don't listen to those crazy doctors...I'm ready to surprise you all!"  I thought for sure that it must have been gas - three weeks seemed way to early for a genuine smile - but over the next few days he convinced us that he was really smiling!  It is absolutely heartwarming to see!

SLEEP!  Warning...if you are a new mom with a baby who gets up multiple times a night, you may want to skip over this section.  I don't want to loose any friends over this little brag session!  Dylan is sleeping at least TWELVE HOURS a night!  Seriously, Jack was a good sleeper as a baby, but Dylan is amazing.  I feed him around 8:00 pm, and he sleeps until 8:00 or 9:00 the next morning.  I've actually had to wake him up a few mornings!  I don't know how his little tummy can handle that long of a stretch at this point, but as long as he's happy I'm ok with it!  He has been sleeping stretches of 6-8 hours since he was just a couple weeks old, and has stretched it out to the full 12 hours as of this past week.  It sure makes dealing with everything during the day a whole lot easier when I'm able to get a good night sleep!

EATING!  Another area in which Dylan is a rock star!  He started nursing great right off the bat.  He lost just a few ounces right after he was born (typical of a newborn), and was already back up to his birth weight within a few days.  As of last Friday, just a couple days shy of his 2-month birthday, he had already doubled his birth weight.  This is actually a really encouraging sign, because most babies with neurological problems have a very hard time with breastfeeding.  Apparently the process of sucking, swallowing, and breathing at the same time is pretty complex, but Dylan was up for the challenge!  He eats just about every 2 hours throughout the day (which I'm ok with if he's going to sleep through the night!)

TUMMY TIME!  It gets a bad rap from most newborns, but Dylan LOVES his tummy time.  If he is fussy, I roll him onto his tummy and he is almost always immediately soothed. He has a really strong neck, and is happy to just hang out on his tummy and watch his brother play.

I'm being told that we can expect Dylan to start missing milestones and falling behind other kids his age, but so far that has not been the case!  This kid just continues to amaze me in so many ways.  I feel like he is starting off a lifetime of defying the odds and proving "them" wrong.  I can't wait to witness his development and report on his amazing progress!