Alex is now 1o months old. Figuring out his adjusted age, compensating for his prematurity, is difficult. They say preemies take about two years to catch up to their calendar age. Pro-rated, that puts him maybe at about 8 months...? Anyway, he's been saying "mamma" for about three weeks and said "dadda" for the first time this morning. But, he's really lazy about sitting up and when you hold him to stand, all he wants to do is jump. So, his calendar is not linear.
Now that we're past all the post-hospital follow-up appointments and Alex is seeming quite normal and healthy, the hole where his brother ought to be is enormous. It's overwhelming to imagine two charming, adorable Alexes. But, I try to keep in mind that Nick would not have been anything like Alex, that he might not have ever said "mamma" and he would probably still be in the hospital ten months later... and that by itself would have been intolerable.
On a brighter topic, Alex's blood lead level is a little high. This took us by surprise. Of course, looking back at all the work we've done on the house, we feel like idiots for not having assumed there were dangerous levels of lead in all the paint in the house and now there is lead dust everywhere. So, the taxing process of super cleaning every corner of our house and abating problem areas begins. We bought a $500 industrial HEPA vacuum, hired a lead tester, and the city is sending someone out today to re-test (they are required to, even though we hired someone).
The good news is that Alex doesn't show any clinical symptoms of lead poisoning and we likely caught it very early, just as he started to spend time on the floor. The bad news is... is this why I can't remember what happened ten seconds ago? I get my level checked in a couple weeks.
