Dear Syed Brian (vol. 1 iss. 6)

What a long, strange month it’s been! I almost don’t even know where to begin, Syed Brian. At the conclusion of your sixth month, your dad and I are exhausted. On some level, we know that we’re only getting started but yet it feels as if we’ve been doing this forever. And we’re okay with that, but if you want, feel free to slow things down a bit…we won’t complain.

At the beginning of the month, you were immobile and free of foreign-bodies. At the conclusion of the month, you are mobile (a little bit) and you are now the proud owner of a foreign-body (V-P shunt). How did all of this happen, you ask? I have no idea. But I’ll try to answer your questions.

When we left off last month, you were thinking about rolling over. But you really weren’t ready to do it. So you waited another week and did it surreptitiously while your dad was drawing a bath. He left you on your back and when he returned, you were on your tummy! Self-inflicted tummy time! We thought it was great, and you thought it was horrible. Worse than tummy time was the fact that you were stuck and unable to roll back to your preferred position of being on your back. And your father and I, being the loving parents that we are, we left you to figure it out on your own…fostering independence. Now, eventually we rolled you back over because we didn’t want to go through what we went through with Simon when he was learning to go up and down stairs. Simon, for quite some time, was able to go upstairs but then he was stuck as he was terrified of going back down the stairs. You and rolling over were quite reminiscent of Simon and stairs…but within about a week, you figured out how to roll from your tummy to your back, thus becoming somewhat mobile.

As far as the foreign body goes, well, it’s a little more eventful in some respects. At your appointment with the NICU follow up clinic, your head was not only big, but gigantic! I’ve often told you that your head is on the large side, and I wasn’t kidding. To summarize, we decided to take another picture of your brain – your 4th one! And it showed us that you needed to make some new friends in neurosurgery to manage hydrocephalus. You like your new friends in neurosurgery and they gave you a souvenir – a brand new V-P shunt! You will always remember them and get to visit them on occasion. We just hope that you and your shunt do not decide to go visit neurosurgery very often. You were a little superman when it came to surgery – recovering faster than anyone expected! You made your father and I very proud.

Those weren’t your only achievements this month…you also had your first ear infection followed by antibiotics, you managed to end the month with a grand total of 6 MRIs to date, you started to eat solid foods, and you are sitting up! These pale in comparison, somewhat, to another first this month – your first human cousin! Your cousin, Suri, was born at the very beginning of your sixth month. You’ve been a good “big” cousin so far, allowing her to hold your hand (briefly) and rest her head on your shoulder. I told you, it’s been an eventful month, buddy!

This month has been equally a blur and marathon. We love you more than ever, little guy, and we’re thrilled that you’re doing so well in the crazy world in which we exist. You are already wise beyond your months and you spend a fair amount of time telling Simon and Charlie what you think. To their credit, they listen intently, occasionally interjecting. When they don’t pay attention to what they have to say, you quietly grab their collars and pet them to encourage them to listen. And they do. Sometimes. They will benefit from your wisdom, just like we already have. Until next month…

Love,
Mom