Holiday wrap-up

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We had a lovely Christmas with Adele. We were happy to be spending our first family Christmas at home, but that meant missing seeing extended family that day. We were able to see a bit of family on each side, but there were lots of people we didn't get to see at all. We hope to catch up with those we missed soon into the new year. One personal disappointment was missing the DeLorio's visit. Lindi and kids were going to come through Lawrence on their way to Wichita before Christmas, but the weather had them changing their plans. We rescheduled for after Christmas, but wouldn't you know it, by the time the day rolled around her baby, Izzy, and Adele were both sick. Neither one of us felt like it would be a good idea to swap baby colds so we sadly decided to skip the visit. Lindi was pregnant with Izzy the same time I was pregnant with Adele (our original due dates were only a few weeks apart) and we talked a lot during that time and we were both looking forward to FINALLY getting the babies together. But I suppose the kids' health is more important than a photo op... ;)

Christmas morning we all managed to sleep in a little bit, which was nice for Steve since that was the first day off he'd had in two weeks. When we finally did roll out of bed we made coffee and had First Breakfast (coffee cake) in preparation to open stockings. After we'd finished, Adele completely crashed out on the floor so Steve and I decided to open our gifts to/from each other, and leave hers for when she was awake. We only got a few gifts in when she woke up, so we got her back into the rotation. Steve opened the ones for her that I purchased and I opened the ones that he purchased, that way one of us would be surprised by what was inside (Steve was in charge of toys & books, I bought clothes). Adele seemed mildly interested, but I think that was due more to the crinkly paper than what was inside the paper. (I could swear I got some photos of her opening her first gift, but I guess I didn't. Oh well...) We all ended up with a great haul and a nice mixture of fun and necessary, which is how it should be. We spent the rest of the day eating and playing with toys and eating and napping and eating and reading books. It was a fantastic Christmas! For Adele, the highlights are her Fisher-Price light-up/musical "stage" toy and the green maraca that Santa left in her stocking. She got plenty of other fun toys, stuffed animals and dolls, which she'll have loads of fun with. Of course Mom & Dad were thrilled by clothes and cereal spoons and sippy cups and other necessary items. She really got a lot of great stuff from people and folks were very, very generous this year. We're truly thankful--for many things!

Other, non-holiday related news: We've been giving cereal a try now and then. Adele's not too excited by it, at least as far as I can tell. She may take one or two decent bites and get them from the front of her mouth to the back sucessfully, but the majority of the bites come right back out or just hand out in her mouth for a few minutes. We've been making an effort to make sure she's seated at the table with us during mealtimes, whether she's eating or not, so that maybe she'll begin making the connections between plate, food, fork and mouth.

Steve said her heard her use consonant sounds the other morning, specifically "da-da-da-da." He assured me she wasn't saying "Daddy" or any form of it, since it wasn't addressed to him. I do know that the "da" sounds are some of the first consonant sounds that babies make, and I was waiting for her to start making sounds other than vowels. Truth be told, I was starting to worry about the lack of other vocalizations and it was going to be brought up at our next doc appt. I hope that maybe she'll start making different sounds more often and I can stop wondering if she's delayed. You'd think that as much as she's around talking (ahem) that would be the one area she'd excel in.

Her weight is yo-yoing again. I took her in for her monthly Synagis shot 12/24 and she'd lost weight again. Sigh. She just can't break the 16-pound mark. She had gotten up to 15 lbs, 12 ounces, once but had dropped back down to 15 pounds, 9 ounces, on Monday. We were back in the office on Thursday to get her cough looked at (common cold--nothing to worry about) and she was back up to 15, 12 again. Go figure. I know she's much more active now than she was a month ago--we're working on spending more play time on the floor (back and tummy) and that leads to more kicking, twisting, attempted and successful rolling and other activity--but she's not really ingesting any more calories than before. January 18 we have her CMH pediatric appt and her local monthly pediatric appt, so hopefully between the two docs there we can find out how concerned they are about all of it. We also have her cardiology follow-up at CMH that same day, and I assume it should be pretty uneventful. It's just an echocardiogram to check that her PFO (heart murmur) is definitely closed.

I think that's about it from here. Here's to a Happy and Healthy 2008 for you and yours!

Some photos:

With her life-size stocking

Adele says, "Merry Christmas!"

With her Fisher-Price Little Superstar Sing-Along Stage (She also received a play guitar for Christmas--looks like she's bound for musical stardom!)
She's doing a good job of sitting up without assistance for small stretches of time!

Won't be too much longer and she'll be asking for a bite of Dad's Boo-Berry cereal.

7-month update

I'm in disbelief that Adele is 7 months old and the end of 2008 is upon us. Where did the year go?? Adele is growing and learning and doing like crazy these days, seems like I've neglected to tell you about it.

First, the stats from her appointment last Friday:
Weight: 15 pounds, 12 ounces (25% actual age/90% adjusted)
Length: 25 3/4 inches (25%/95%)

Things she's doing:

• Attempting to hold her bottle during feedings. She doesn't always do it very well or for very long, but she tries. It's especially cute to see her get excited when she sees it and grab it and cram it into her mouth. That's my girl!
• Passing toys one from hand to the other
• Playing with her feet. This is BEYOND cute, except at diaper changing times, and then it's just sort of cute, and mildly frustrating.
• Laughing--a lot. She likes it when you "gobble" her belly, but I don't know if it's the sensation on her belly that's amusing or your hair tickling her face. We don't care--we just like making her laugh.
• Rolling over a little. If she's on her tummy, she can get on her back after a while. She usually squirms her legs under her stomach and gets on her side that way or if she's propped up on her elbows, she'll lay down on one arm and let gravity do the rest of the work. Still not rolling from back to front, but she does kick her feet up to grab them and then uses that as leverage to get onto her side.
  
• She's very squirmy at night, we've learned, since whenever we go get her in the morning she's never in the same place/position we left her in the night before. I've found her with her head wedged into the corner of the crib, up against the short side of the crib, with her back against the short side of the crib, flipped over on her back all the way against the side of the crib (she's a tummy sleeper, yes I'm aware of SIDS, thankyouverymuch, but on her tummy is the only way she'll sleep for any extended period of time) and the best one yet, on her back with her feet sticking out between the rails of the crib. Zoinks!
  
• We're using the Bumbo a bit more nowadays, trying to get her muscles worked up for sitting up on her own. She still gets a bit slumpy after a while, but she's getting better.
• She enjoys standing up, and can bear all her weight on her own for a quite a while. All she requires from us is a bit of support for balance. She's doing all the hard work herself.
  
• She's eating a lot better, and is back up to where she was before her hunger strike. She even finished a full bottle at daycare the other day--that was a first!

Dr. Murphy said her fine motor skills and social development are all in line with a 6-month-old. Her gross motor are more in line with her adjusted age, which is fine. No cause for concern at all. We'll just continue to work on tummy time and those things that will help in that area and she'll catch up in no time. Overall it was a great appointment and Dr. Murphy said she was extremely pleased with how well Adele is doing. Yay! It seems to me that over the past month or so, she went from being a "passive" infant to a more interactive, playful person. She's so much fun, and it's so interesting to me to see her learn. I love watching her as she's trying to figure something out or as she's working SO hard to get to something or flip over or whatever the task. I wonder what she's thinking sometimes! Oh, we were given the go-ahead to give Adele cereal if we want. I have spoons, I have cereal, I just haven't gotten around to doing it yet. Part of me wants to try it, the other part wants to wait a few more months, maybe until she's 5 months adjusted. No sense in rushing into it, right? Also, we might try taking her off Prevacid for her reflux to see how she does. Since she rarely spits up these days (knock wood) and because the medicine is super expensive and a pain to get, it would be fantastic if we could drop it altogether. So we'll give that a shot next week and see how it goes.

I owe you lots of photos, so without further ado...(ignore the date on most of these--my camera got messed up and I didn't realize it.)

Feet are fun!

In November, we went to Kansas City to visit Adele's NICU podmate, Alton (Ali) and his family. Hard to believe both of these babies were preemies! Alton was born at 24 weeks, which is about as early as you can get and still survive. Miracle babies!!

Steve, Adele, Alton, Lemond

Candice, Alton, Adele, Darrah

Say "E Pod!"

Rockin' the Bumbo

Adding the finishing touch to the Christmas tree. I think Adele wants to eat it. Steve, too, possibly.Oh yeah...we had an ice storm! We didn't lose many limbs because of the ice, although power company did have to trim some from our crabapple tree in order to fix some outages. We lost power for a few hours overnight, but nothing crazy.
The view from our driveway.

Our neighbors' back yard.Our side yard (including crabapple tree pre-delimbing).

Answering the age-old question

“How old is she?” has always been a difficult question to answer when it comes to Adele.

Whenever anyone asks, my internal dialogue goes something like this:

“How much time do you think they have?”

“Oh, just give them the short version.”

“But she’s too small/not doing enough for [actual age] they might wonder what’s wrong with her.”

“Well, then just tell them [adjusted age]!”

“But that’s a LIE! She’s NOT [adjusted age]. Do you think they really want the whole story?”

“I don’t know, but this is getting ridiculous. Just tell them something already! Sheesh…” [stomps off to think about something much more interesting, such as what’s for dinner]

After all that, my answer depends on who is doing the asking. If it’s some random stranger on the street, who is obviously asking only to be polite, I give them the short version: actual age. Adele’s big enough now and charting appropriately for her actual age, so I figure no one should really think twice. [This is a relatively new change in my way of thinking. When she first came home from the hospital, she was significantly smaller than a “normal” 3-month-old, and I felt the “actual/adjusted” spiel was necessary.] If they make a comment about her not doing this or that, or outright ask about her development (i.e. “Is she sitting up yet?”), then I give the explanation of her prematurity. Those who know us already know her story so I can give the short, no-further-explanation-necessary, “X actual/X adjusted” line. I make exceptions for mothers with similar-in-age babies because I know they’re doing the same thing I’m doing—silently, discreetly comparing—and I feel I need to explain. Not to say I think she needs an excuse, but I know those moms are also reading “What to Expect the First Year” and are mentally checking off the milestones for each month for each baby.

“You say your baby hasn’t rolled over yet?* Oh….” (Which could mean “Oh, you poor thing, I hope she learns to walk before she goes to kindergarten!” or “Thank GOD it’s not just my child!”)

The adjusted/actual issue causes a lot of hiccups in a lot of areas. For instance, whenever we make her monthly well-baby appointments, the nurse always has to ask which month/age it’s for. Um, good question! Take your pick! Inevitably, they give me the info sheet for her actual age, which is good for future planning but not so helpful now. Then there’s the starting solids debate. From a digestive standpoint she’s almost 7 months old, but she’s got the motor skills of a 4-month-old. There’s a huge difference between the two ages when it comes to solid food readiness. Just the other day I came across a whole new kind of age conundrum. I found a class through our local Parks & Rec department called “Aqua Mom & Me.” It’s a water resistance class where you use baby’s weight in the water as added resistance. The class is for moms (or dads, I assume) with babies older than 6 months. Is that 6 months ACTUAL or 6 months ADJUSTED? Sigh…here we go again. Is the age requirement some randomly-chosen number, or was it selected based on the physical control that “normal” 6-month-olds exhibit? If we enroll, will I find it difficult to complete the exercises because I have to work harder at keeping her supported? Will I put her in danger because of it? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? When is it okay to stop obsessing about the difference between her actual/adjusted ages?

The good news is that with time the age difference will become less and less of an issue, and eventually she’ll catch up to (and hopefully surpass, in some areas) those children who are the same actual age she is. In the meantime, though, if you ask me how old she is and I get a far-away look in my eyes, bear with me as I try to formulate just the right answer.


*Disclaimer: She gets a lot of leeway in the development department to account for her prematurity, so it’s perfectly acceptable if she’s doing only 4-month-old things and hasn't accomplished older-kid tasks, such as rolling over. However, she’s accomplished most (if not all) of the “should be doing” 4-month-old things, and a few things a couple months beyond. So there.

Time to do the happy dance!

I just heard from Apria, and our insurance has authorized coverage of Adele's formula! Oh, happy day! We'll get 9 cans, delivered directly to our door, at the low out-of-pocket cost of $24. Yay!

In other news, we had our well-baby check-up yesterday and all was, uh, well! This was our third trip to the doc this week, unfortunately. The one on Monday was a weight check, Wednesday was because A had spiked a fever the day before and today's was her regularly scheduled appointment. Anyway, she's 15 pounds on the nose, 25.5 inches long (weight puts her at 25% for full term 6 month olds, and 85% for 3 month olds--not bad, I say!). Doc wants to see a bit more tummy time to encourage her neck/arm strength, but overall she's doing fine. Poor baby had 3 vaccinations, and then her first flu vaccination at the Health Department later that afternoon. They tried giving her the oral Rotavirus vax, but after a few drops she promptly threw up her last meal all over the exam table, so they decided to delay this one for a few weeks, and she'll get it when she gets her RSV shot on the 26th.

And YES, I still owe you pictures. They are coming, I promise.

A positive post, for once

I realized that I've been posting so much negative, whiney stuff lately, and really aside from the food stuff, things are going really well with Miss Chubby Cheeks. So, this post is about that.

Everything she's doing is normal baby stuff, but it's so much more exciting when it's your own baby. She's been smiling for a long time now, but lately she's been chuckling too. I expected a more outright laugh, but I suppose it's still early for that. What we do get is a "heh-heh-heh," which is very cute too. Maybe we're not nearly as entertaining as we imagine ourselves to be? ;) She's got great head/neck control and can pretty much sit upright on her own if you hold her hips or she's sitting in your arm while you're standing. Unfortunately she's in the stage where she's prone to random flops forward or backward so we do have to keep our eyes on her. On her tummy she can push her chest up off the surface while on her elbows, but only for a little bit. She's rolled over from back to tummy just once (witnessed only by Steve), so we're still working on that. She can put her full weight on her legs and stand upright while you hold her, and sometimes even tries to push herself up by stiffening her legs. She loves reaching out to grab faces/noses/clothes--anything within arm's reach. Her eye/hand control is better too--she's moved beyond batting toys in her bouncy chair to being able to grab them and hold them for a second or two.

I do owe you an overdue update on her weight. When we took her in after my last post, she was back up over 14 pounds, which was odd since she'd been eating so little. We're not sure, but we think that the nurse who weighed her and got the 13-pound weight (the .5 pound loss) may have weighed her incorrectly, because there's just no other way to explain how she could have gained it all back in less than a week. Anyway, we had another check yesterday and she's 14 pounds, 14 ounces, which is just fine. Her regular well-baby/check-up is Friday, so I'll have more info then.

We're still wrangling with insurance on getting her formula paid for. We've turned in a letter of medical necessity, a prescription and yesterday a record of all the food she's tried and what reactions she had. The Caring Bridge site came in handy for that, as I was able to look at all my old journal entries for exact dates and reactions. Now we're just waiting to hear if we have more hoops to jump through and whether they'll accept or deny her claim. I'm sure they make the process difficult in the hopes you'll just give up!

Today we were supposed to have gone to CMH South to their OT/ST clinic (we were able to get in there sooner than at the regular CMH), but Adele woke up with a fever and was obviously not her happy self, so we had to reschedule for next week. She's been sleeping all day, and is pretty cranky and tired, but her fever seems to have subsided, so that's good. We'll see how she does overnight.

I owe you a new round of photos, so watch for those!

Food Fight

Who would have thought that any daughter of MINE would be stubborn? Pshaw. It'll never happen.

We're still working with (and by "working with" I mean pulling our hair out in frustration) Adele and her feeding issues. She did OK over the weekend, but not stellar. Some meals she'd eat 4 or more ounces, other times we struggled to get 2 in . Doc Murphy decided after all to refer A for more testing, so we'll be heading up to CMH again to visit their Occupational/Speech Therapy clinic. The appointment isn't until December 6, so good thing this isn't, like, a really important deal or anything. Sigh. Anyway, we hope they can tell us if her suck is OK, and if not how we can improve it. Also, I'm starting to think Adele is developing some serious oral aversion issues (actually pretty common in preemies, I'm finding out, especially those who spent a lot of time on tube feeds AND had eating difficulties with the bottle. Hmmm...sound like anyone we know??), and that would explain the sudden refusal, disinterest, etc. The Tiny-K folks worked with her a little bit today and gave us a few suggestions for holds/positions, techniques that may help, although when I tried them this evening Adele was having none of it. Sigh. My main concern at this point is daycare. We've been able to average about 20 ounces a day (still well below her recommended minimum), but that's with either Steve or I feeding her, and giving her all our time and attention. I just don't know how things are going to go tomorrow, and I'm really concerned. I just hope she'll eat.

We have a weight check Wednesday morning, so I'll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, I'm going to eat the calories she should be eating, but only in the form of Fun Size Baby Ruth bars. It's a sacrifice, but I'll manage somehow.

Better

Things are better here. Adele ate 19.25 ounces in a 24-hour period (from 5:00 pm Wed to 4:15 Thur), which is almost double what she ate the previous day. She's doing okay so far today too. She's still under her max of 4 ounces from the end of September, but she's averaging around 3 ounces per feed every 3-4 hours and that's better than nothing. I think she should be somewhere closer to the 5-6 ounce range, but she is getting a higher calorie formula mixture so that helps too. I just did the math and if you go by the 2.5 ounces per pound of weight rule she should be eating 33.75 ounces per day. We're no where near that, unfortunately.

I'll call the doc at 1:00 today and give them another report. We have an appt for middle of the week next week so we'll check her weight then. In the meantime, I'm in the middle of a conversation with the sitter to help determine ways to make mealtimes there more productive. Hopefully we can get that figured out, or I'll just go over a few times a day and feed her myself.

So, we're getting there. The situation still isn't perfect, but it's better and better is okay too.