Monday 15 December 2014

Who said pointing was rude?

For the past 3 weeks or so V has just started exploding in her communication skills. It all started with her pointing to a Budha head that we have in our hallway and saying buuhhba (or baba or nothing). So we started asking her where stuff is and her current list of mostly correct answers are:

Budha
Star
Ball
Cow
Baby
Strippey bear
Monster
Book
Cube
Flower
Barn
Cheerio
Mama
Dada
Mina
Grandpapa

I just can't believe it!

Can't stop, won't stop the pointing!

My husband and I now get a serious workout running from one object to another around the house as she points away. This is a bit of a problem when bedtime comes around, because she prefers to point than to sleep. But thats ok, sleep wins out in the end. For now.

Speaking of language development I saw a really cool TED talk about it here:

http://www.ted.com/talks/deb_roy_the_birth_of_a_word

Xo

C

Monday 13 October 2014

11 months old!

Little sweetie is less than a month away from being a whole year old!!!

I am a little apprehensive about the so-called "anniversary season" coming up around the corner, but she has been doing some nice progress both on the physical front and socially, so I'm hoping that all the good news with lighten the blow of remembering some pretty scary times!

Current nicknames : cocotte, pumpkin pie

Weight and height... deferred until weigh in for her 1 year doctor's appointment (and yucky vaccines!)

Medical:

Still no respiratory infections for sweetie, or any sickness at all really! We've been trying really really hard to keep her protected from any possible infection! Anyone else scared about enterovirus D68?!

Her eyes seem to be focusing well, no crossed-eyeness for now, so I'm guessing the hypermetropia is under control.

Eating:

She is eating 3 meals a day and still breastfeeding despite the fact that I have returned to work. Good thing I froze so much milk up when she was in the NICU! Favorite food right now : Raspberries!

Diapers:

Using size 3! They seem a little big, but all the better to cover her over night. Our fabric diapers need a stripping and since I have a front load washer, that task has been put off for now.

Toys:

She loves playing with blocks and squeeky toys!

Development:

October first she pivoted for the first time!! It was amazing!!! She has become so much more mobile recently, rolling back to front and back again. Now we are onto trying to get her to go from tummy time to sitting on her own.

Socially, she is way more giggly than before. Still saying mamamama like it is going out of style, but also saying baba, grrrrrampa, dada, and today she started saying buuuhhh. There are also a bunch of other sounds that are difficult to pin point, but there has definitely been some progress there.

She is banging toys together and pincer grasping I believe.

For the official development update, we'll have to wait till October 27th for our next neurodevelopment appointment.

Gosh I love this girl! Now to try to figure out this whole work/home life balance!


xoxoxox
Mamamamam

Friday 5 September 2014

10 months old (7 corrected)

Current Nicknames : 
Cocotine
Weight :
Not sure because its been a while, but definitely over 14lbs.
Medical Issues :
Thankfully nothing too bad to report here! Physio has been going well, you are within corrected age milestones. 

We had an ophthalmology appointment and you have a bit of hypermetropia. No need for glasses just yet, but we need to watch out for crossed eyes. The doctor didn't seem too concerned, our next apt is only in a year.
Sleep:
You had a solid few months of waking up every hour, but now by being a bit more rigourous with our bedtime routine, you wake up every 3-4 hours.
Clothes/Diapers:
You wear a mix of 3-6 and 6-9 month cloths! You are on size 2-3 disposable diapers and your small Fuzzibunz perfect size still fit you wonderfully!
Diet:
So much new solid food! Your favorite is "pearvocado", but you've also tried banana, apple, green beans, peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pears, nectarines, asparagus, rice, oats, turkey and lamb.
Baby Gear Love:
Your favorite game is "peakaboo barn" on the iPad, we can get you to sit a solid 5-10 minutes button mashing away at it. Otherwise, you really like the activity table!

You still really enjoy plastic rings, especially bringing them up to your mouth and trying to munch on them!
 
Your favorite book is "if I were a monkey"
Milestones/Firsts
You can sit unsupported a good while and have started to show backwards righting reflexes.

Still having a rough time rolling from back to front, but you have definitely done it on your own.

You say Mamama, bababa and grrrrrrrr/grrrrrrma/grrrrrranpapa all day long!!!
So much lalalalove!

Xo
Mamamama

Tuesday 12 August 2014

Rolling rolling rolling

My little sweetheart has been showing signs of actually wanting to roll for a few weeks, and has been rolling from tummy to back for a little while also.

Today she finally rolled from back to front!!! She had been trying so hard, but that darn extension tendancy preemies have was blocking her. Today she vanquished it, at 6 1/2 months corrected. I am one proud Mama!!!

Growing pains

These past few weeks have been a little difficult on the sleep front. We think its because little V has been working on growing her two front teeth, but its hard to tell exactly what is at cause... She has been waking up screaming, sometimes every hour, and while she used to fall back asleep with a little back rub, now her screaming persists until we pick her up. Could it be night terrors? Separation anxiety? Gas? Teeth? I really can't wait until she can speak so that these little mysteries become clearer!

In the meantime, we tried our hand at our first breastmilk popsicle, V really enjoyed it!!

We used the pacifier protector as amold, clipped the pacifier in, and voilĂ !

Xo
C

Friday 25 July 2014

6 months Corrected !!!

Just a few days ago my sweetie turn six (SIX!!!) months corrected. Wow. It is crazy to me how very far she has come. 

She just started showing some real interest in rolling from front to back. I think with her newfound willpower she might start progressing faster on that front! Sitting in the corner of a couch is getting more and more stable with some protection responses from her arms. She also just recently started grabbing and holding her knees! Yay!

She started intermittently saying "baba", we think she either means "dada" or bottle. Same thing right?

Two little teeth have simultaneously pierced through (July 31st). Lots of nights where she woke up hourly and days of fussiness. But she's such a little trooper, often smiling through the pain!

Her current solid food situation is to avoid cereals at all cost - they constipate her way too much! Her pediatrician is ok with that because she gets her iron from her daily supplement anyway. No apples or bananas either.

Current foods: pear, prune, avocado (pearvocado really), carrots and zucchini.

She is loving the interactive books, often sitting with us 20 minutes or so feeling the different textures!

We love our little snugglebug to bits!!

Xoxo
Mamama

Wednesday 16 July 2014

5 Months Corrected!!

This is late, but its really just as a reminder to myself that on her 5 month corrected bday, she said MAMA!!! For the very first time!!! And not some mumbly babble, but a really clear mama after a super concentrated effort. 

Gosh I love my girl!!

Sunday 25 May 2014

Four Months Old!! (Corrected Age)


Current Nicknames : 
Pumpkin, pumpkin pie
Weight :
5.51 kg (over 12lbs!)
Height :
About 60 cm
Medical Issues :
Although we got our discharge from respirology, we are having a hard time breaking out of the lock-in mentality... We know you are still at risk of having a pretty bad respiratory infection, so no risk seems reasonable.

Our Neurodevelopment 4 month assessment is coming up tomorrow, so for now we are hopeful that things are going well. You are certainly improving quite a bit! That darn tummy time is still not easy though!
Sleep:
Although you had been sleeping 6-7 hours per night, recently you've started waking up after 5, super hungry. Lets hope that you are going through a growth spurt!
Clothes/Diapers:
You have officially grown our of your 0-3 month clothing! You are on size 2 disposable diapers and your small Fuzzibunz perfect size still fit you wonderfully!
Diet:
Still exclusive breastmilk, with the occasionnal enriched bottle.
Baby Gear Love:
Your favorite toy is "Roary", a pink and green lion that rattles. He had helped you a lot by getting your arms down and forward because you like hugging him so much!

You really enjoy plastic rings, especially bringing them up to your mouth and trying to munch on them!

You still adore hanging out in your sweet vibrating rocker

You have started to be interested in the patterns of your pretty play mat - so helpful in keeping you distracted while doing your dreaded tummy time!
Still not super into books yet, but I'm sure that will come!
Milestones/Firsts
You rolled over from your tummy to your back for the first time! It was a total fluke, and you haven't repeated it yet... the neurodevelopment nurse thinks its because of your extensor tone, but whatever, you rolled!!

You have DEFINITELY discovered your hands this month! When you are not cooing you are focusing on your hands and trying to get them into your mouth, often folding over in the process!

You LOVE it when we whistle and sing to you! Often, you will hum along with us, making a super cute happy cooing sound.

You have started majorly drooling. Mina and Grandpapa think you have starting teething... I kind of hope you haven't because I'm worried the iron will stain your teeth. 

Today you grabbed at your feet for the first time. I was holding them up in front of you, but still, it was the first time you seemed to realize they existed!

Finally, you LOVE looking at yourself in the mirror. Its like you've found a new friend! Lots of happy cooing going on when you catch sight of yourself!
Still no mama or dada in sight.
Things I don't want to forget:
Your smile lights up a room. Just like your dad who was nicknamed "l'halloween" because of his huge grin, you sure know how to melt our hearts with your great big smile!
So much lalalalove!
Mamamamama

Tuesday 20 May 2014

"You don't need to justify"

A good friend of mine dropped by yesterday. It was her first time meeting V because we had been limiting visitors, tgen when we felt comfortable having more people over, she got sick. After our standard 2 week quarantine, we scheduled another date, but that night was rough so I ended up rescheduling again.

Of course, before she came over, I somewhat apologetically asked her if she was sick or anyone in her household was sick. As she walked in the door, I explained to her the usual hand cleaning procedure and asked her to take her sandals off. 

Then, as she was leaving, I mumbled an apology about not having seen her earlier. She stopped me midsentence and said : "You don't need to justify. I would probably do the same." Amazing! I didn't know it until I heard it, but I really needed someone to tell me that. Instead of a look of: "Again? You want me to wash my hands again?". It felt absolutely amazing to feel validated! Who knew? And instantly, I had a whole lot more confidence in her hand hygiene capabilities and was less worried she would expose V to illness. 

If you are in contact with a preemie parent, validate their point of view, their precautions. Ask them what you can do to minimize infection risk. Vocalize that first, you have to wash your hands. They need it, because they realize in a so-called normal world their positions appear extreme. You will make them happier and more at ease than you can imagine!

Xo
C

Monday 19 May 2014

Big City Living

Here we are a few weeks out of our very first lock in season. You would think that we would be all over running around outside, taking in the beautiful weather and the fresh air... but we're not. At least, we haven't yet. The thing is, we live right in the middle of a big city and with lung precautions still in full effect (do they ever really go away?) we don't really know how to proceed.

I think this fear of the outdoors is influenced by a few factors:

1) People in our area are quite heavy smokers. This freaked me out when I was pregnant with V, and now that she has BPD, it pretty much keeps us in the house. I don't really know how I would go about telling some stranger in the street, on the sidewalk, to stay clear of us with their toxic smoke without totally losing it. I realize that they would have no way of knowing my baby has lung problems and are fully allowed to smoke outside, but I'm afraid of exposing V and I'm afraid of how I might react.

2) The very first respirologist who saw V was super nice and must have gone over precautions with me for about 30 minutes during our first meeting in the NICU. These precautions included getting a HEPA filter, keeping our windows closed (we live on a busy bus-ladden city street) oh and by the way maybe it would be best to move to the country. Move?!? Far away from the NICU, the children's hospital, our emergency lifeline? In the middle of this crazy NICU hospitalization? We just aren't ready for that yet. So in the meantime, we are stuck in lock in limbo because while flu season has been over for weeks, busses and trucks and fine particulate continue to be kicked up outside our front door so we stay inside with the windows closed and our HEPA filter on...

3) Since we live in the city, it is very difficult to go anywhere alone. Just yesterday I walked to a store (my mom was at home with V) and I crossed paths with about 20 young children. For  some reason about half seemed to be coughing. And you know how most 4 year olds cough : mouth wide open, spewing germs EVERYWHERE without a second thought! Also, the times we've gone to doctors appointments with V, we have to constantly shoo off people who want to touch her, hospital secretaries, random health care professionals in the hallway, strangers and their kids on the street. They think she is so cute and little and I'm sure it is well intentioned, but their dirty little hands terrify me!!

I realize this seems a bit crazy from an outsider's point of view and maybe it is even from a preemie parent point of view, who knows... But until someone can tell us it is safe for our sweetie to go outside in our unfortunately polluted little world, we will continue staying locked in.

Our best solution for now is to plan a weekend day trip to the country, hopefully next weekend.

Any ideas on tricks to protect her lungs, but still go out? I'm getting a little stir-crazy. Help!!

Xo
C

Saturday 17 May 2014

Cloth Diapers and Preemies

Before I got pregnant, I saw a Dragon's Den episode (a canadian version of Shark Tank) showcasing Apple Cheeks cloth diapers. I had never heard about these new modern looking cloth diapers before; my understanding previously had been that cloth diapers were a piece of cloth that you pinned on your baby with clothing pins! Clearly I could not have been more wrong!

During V's hospital stay, the diapering had to strictly be disposable for infection control issues. This policy made a lot of sense to me, besides, V's tush was much too small for even the tiniest cloth diapers. That didn't stop me from browsing (ok, ok, becoming completely addicted to buying) cloth diapers between hospital visits. Receiving a packages in the mail was my guilty pleasure while V was in the hospital, a little harmless pick-me-up when other things were not going so well.

Generally speaking, I think preemies are great candidates for cloth diapering, primarily because they tend to be super constipated from iron supplements. V spent 3-7 days without having a stool. While I was worried about that for quite some time, it also meant that most of her cloth diapers remained poop free for quite some time. So if you are hesitant about cloth diapering because you don't like the idea of dealing with poopy diapers, know that your preemie has a good chance of being more on the constipated side of that continuum.

Wednesday 14 May 2014

Daddy's Gloves

I managed to convince my husband to write a post - woohoo! See why he is not too keen on the warmer weather setting in:


Worry seems to be a part of having a preemie. I worry about my baby’s scholastic future, her mental health, her physical health, cerebral palsy, etc etc… Very little can be done to immediately address or control these issues, so there is not much to their involvement in my life besides worry. There is however something that I do have some degree of control over and that is doing what I can to ensure that little Miss V does not get sick… which means trying to ensure that I don’t get sick… which basically means being a germophobe. That is why the transition from cold early spring to warmer spring weather is bittersweet…

Sunday 11 May 2014

Mother's Day

This time last year, I took a pregnancy test... and it turned out negative! I would have to wait two days later before the "YES" showed up (I can't stand the +/- type of pregnancy tests, they just aren't clear enough when I'm that excited/nervous). So I'm not really sure then if this is my first Mother's day, though it is my first time celebrating it..

Saturday 10 May 2014

100 Happy Days - Day 53

Today I got to start drinking milk again, and that means I get to have my morning latte again! Let me tell you, coffee with chocolate soy milk gets old quite fast. Its the little things that make me happy! That also means I get to eat cheese and milk chocolate, just in time for Mothers' Day. Tripple yay!!!

I stopped all milk products to eliminate the possibility that V had a milk protein allergy (milk protein allergies can look a whole lot like reflux apparently). I haven't seen a huge difference, but the true test comes in the next couple of days: if her reflux suddenly gets worse, we may have an allergy case on our hands!

Until then, I'm going to savor those lattes!

Bonus points to whoever knows who Gino is!

Xo
C

Thursday 8 May 2014

Breast milk Donations - Informally and Milk Banks

As previously mentionned, I make an incredible amount of milk, likely due to my prolactinoma. As such, I continue to have to pump pre-breastfeeding at least once per day to avoid feeling like my breasts are going to explode and risking drowning poor V in milk! Since V is not a fan of drinking from a bottle, that means I have a huge store of milk!

I saw first hand the effects lack of breastmilk can have in preemies; NEC seemed to be looming in every other room at our NICU. A huge review article found that donor breast milk decreased the risk of NEC (although it also showed preemies grew at a slower rate, the article did not look at fortified breast milk, which is what is used in the hospital V was hospitalized at, and your hospital likely does too). So I decided to do something about it...

Wednesday 7 May 2014

Whistling Dixie

Two days ago, our pumpkin started distinctly humming everytime we whistle a song to her and clearly stopping if we interrupt our whistling. Its adorable! I think this will go under the notquiteamilestone category, but it seems like progress nonetheless!


Xo
C

Sunday 4 May 2014

I can't believe its been 6 months!

As they wheeled me out of the ICU, my dad asked me how I was feeling. I said : "I'm scared". What else was there to say? I could only hope for the best, but I was terrified. The very first connection I had with you, was I heard your unbelievably vigouroys cry. What a relief! How your little 910g body mustered up the energy to let out that yelp, I'll never know. While the journey has been treacherous at times and it remains uncertain still, you have surpassed my expectations in every way.

I love you no matter what my tite cocotte!

Xo
Mamamamama

A view from the top: The mamama view

Wednesday 30 April 2014

Massaging Premature Babies Might Increase Weight Gain - What the Science Says

After our meeting with the pediatric physiatrist, her only recommendation to us, other than to enjoy our baby's company, was to integrate massages into our routine.

After looking around a little bit on the internet, I found this nice short and sweet video how to that I plan on trying out today. I think I'm going to stay away from the stroking around the mouth and nose area for the moment however, I suspect that all those nasogastric and orogastric tubes she had might make that area still uncomfortable to be massaged... just a thought. The other part that I think I will skip for now is the massaging of the back - sweet V. still does quite a bit of arching and her back muscles are quite overdeveloped, I do not want to over stimulate that area. Perhaps I'll try it when she is extra calm.

More searching found that there is some evidence that massage might be particularly beneficial to premature babies! I wish someone had told me about that when we were in the hospital. According to a Cochrane Review (Cochrane reviews basically look at the entire body of medical literature, every good study published on a subject and comes to an overall conclusion on how effective a treatment or a diagnositic tool is), it seems that there is some evidence to suggest that when comparing massage to light touch for premature babies, that massage may lead to a 5 more grams per day in weight gain, earlier hospital discharge and some improved neurodevelopmental testing. Amazing!! The best part really, is that although no study is perfect and perhaps the effects are somewhat overstated, they did not find any disadvantage to the massages. Read more about the details of the studies here.

My husband and I are now considering consulting an infant massage specialist.

Do you have any experience with infant massage? Do you think internet videos are sufficient or would a consultation with a specialist be preferable?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Xo
C


Tuesday 29 April 2014

Hypoallergenic Diet For Reflux

Yesterday, the dietician responsible for following V's growth recommended I try a diet without any milk products to see if this might be the cause of what seems to be reflux. Apparently it is very difficult to distinguish reflux from bovine protein allergy in infants and in a few rare-ish cases, eliminating all dairy products from the mother's diet solves the problem completely! We should see a change in 48 hours.

So here I go on a non-dairy diet! To keep my calcium intake high, we got a super pack of soy milk (chocolate flavored!), so that won't be so bad. Turns out chocolate soy in coffee is kinda yummy. No cheese is going to be more difficult, but I am up for the challenge! What we wouldn't do for our bubs right?

Also, we have to skip the enrichment for the next 48 hours because it has some milk protein in it. Not that it will change her calorie intake that much, yesterday night she flat out refused the bottle... I'm really hoping the reason for this is the milk proteins, though I realize the chances are slim.

I have been researching diet changes and its effects on reflux, later this week I'll compile what I found and share it here!

For now, I have to go, time to breastfeed my hungry babe.

Wish me luck!

Xo
C

Sunday 27 April 2014

Reading in the NICU

To put this post in context, I first have to specify that my husband and I spend an inordinate amount of time at the hospital. My husband and I basically split the days in two, I would go in the morning to see our sweetheart, come home for supper, then we would both go in the evening and he would spend the night shift with her. I know this is an unusual set up, we just had a few scary nights at first when we were not there and my husband has a work schedule that allowed him quite a bit of flexibility during that time. We realize how very lucky we were in that respect! Living a 5 minute walk to the hospital was also extremely convenient because parking daily would have probably not been possible.

I spent from one to 4 hours in kangaroo care with my little bub everyday. I found after a while, that while she was sleeping, she did much better (from her O2 sats and heart rate monitoring at least) if I was otherwise distracted. When I had no distractions, I ended up spending all my time playing with her hair, or rubbing her back or stroking her arms... all things that I eventually found made her a little unstable.

We were not allowed to use our cell phones while we were in Kangaroo care at our hospital. As such, I could not distract myself with browsing the internet... I found that an even better solution was to read riveting novels. Immersing myself into another world kept my hands busy turning pages and my mind off the scary possibilities my sweetheart might be facing, it was win-win for both of us!

During our 77 days, I had time to read 2 books, both which were quite successful at keeping my mind off the NICU :

1) The Kite Runner



A great book that really transported away, the Kite Runner is about two boys who grow up in Kabul. I have to warn you there are a few difficult passages that are quite graphic about abuse (sexual and otherwise). Overall, it was very interesting to experience what it is like to have your seemingly quaint small town become completely disfigured by war.

2) A Cuckoo's Calling

 

J. K. Rowling's foray into adult litterature under a pseudonym. This book was great because it was a light read and a real whodunnit (aka great at keeping your mind off the many NICU unnecessary stressors). She keeps you guessing right until the end.

Although just from personal experience, I believe reading kept me in a calmer mindset, therefore less likely to fidget which could only have been beneficial to my sweetheart!

Xo
C



Saturday 26 April 2014

More on Breastfeeding my Preemie

"Each latch took an average of 20 minutes to achieve. I've never worked so hard in my life!"

These sentences really resonated with me! I read them on birthing and breastfeeding, where an amazing mom shows us that breastfeeding is possible even in the face of seemingly insurmountable difficulties! I really encourage you to go read her story, it is really touching, and her sweetheart, born with arhinia, is so darn cute!

I used to tell my lactation consultant that breastfeeding Miss. V felt like a wrestling match! How very far we have come from those early hospital days!

After 22 days of tube feeding and lots and lots of kangaroo time, she finally had her first introduction to breastfeeding at 32 weeks. It would mostly consist of opening and closing her mouth haphazardly and not much else! The following days would bring a few suckles, but nothing that could be considered nutritive. It was hard to believe that her teeny tiny mouth would even fit over my nipple, let alone be nourished by it!

One month later at 36 weeks, miss V would finally have a full meal at the breast. Its funny, because when she had started being put at the breast, she was so great at rooting and starting using the pacifier at such a young age, I thought fir sure she would be breastfeeding before what all the nurses predicted (34-38weeks). The progress at the time seemed painful slow at the time. Looking back now I see she actually progressed relatively quickly!

Currently, while there remain the occasional chocking episodes (my darn breastmilk flow is still too high), overall, we have lovely, peaceful and quite nutritive nursing sessions! Miss V's weight is still a bit of an issue, so we are supplementing once a day with enriched breastmilk, but otherwise I really can't complain. In fact, there is no way I would have believed when I first started trying to breastfeed her that we would one day get to a point where it can be relaxing!

Just look at how far she has come:



So preemie moms who are just starting the great breastfeeding wrestling tournament, take solace in knowing that sometimes, even when it feels unlikely, you too can be successful!

Xo
C

Friday 25 April 2014

Physio - The Third Meeting

I am relieved to say that this meeting went much better than the first two!

See the second physio meeting wrap up here.

The physio immediately noted that Miss V's arms were held lower and more in front of her, her hands continue to become more and more open and she is one very chatty, smiley baby! As the assessment continued, she found that she reaches forward towards a ball, tries to grab at objects and is finally pushing up with her arms during tummy time!

Our mission for the next few weeks consists of:

1) Continuing the tummytime, trying to get her to reach far forward for objects (we can alternate with tummytime on the ball).

2) Playing with her on her back, trying to get her to reach for/grab a small ball.

3) Play sidelying trying to get her to reach for her toys and grab them (they should be large enough that her hand remains mostly open).

4) Generally hold her in an almost fetal position, while stimulating her pects do that she keep her arms forward. As she improves with this, we are to try to get her to use both hands to hold larger objects.

5) Try to get her to grab at her feet, by generally tapping them together, bringing her hands to her ankles, etc. This exercise is my favorite; she giggles so much when she sees her toes!!

Now that I have these exercises noted, I'll see back in two weeks how they have progressed.

All those exercises were hard work! Here is my sweety taking a much needed recovery nap!

Hihi, she looks like she is up to no good!

Xo
C


Thursday 24 April 2014

Choosing Grandparent Nicknames

I am an only child, so having a baby meant my parents became grandparents for the first time. As my husband and I mulled over potential baby names, my parents began considering what they wanted our baby-to-be to call them! The process uncovered a few nicknames I had never heard of and a sweet story!

For my dad, it was quite easy, he had always wanted to be called "grand-papa" just like his father had. Grand-papa is the french version of Grandfather.

My mom on the otherhand had a bit more difficulty choosing. Her mother calls herself Nana, which my mom really likes. However, she was worried that our baby would get confused if there were two Nanas. Grand-maman (the french version of grandmother) was already being used by my mother-in-law. 

She looked to her sister for some help. My aunt became a grandma a few years ago and did quite a bit of research to find an original nickname that she thought would suit her. At first she considered nagymami (which is Hungarian), but no one in my family is Hungarian so we all found it too difficult to pronounce. She finally decided to be called Yaya, from the Greek word for Grandma, which has been super easy for her granddaughter to learn to say! None of those seemed to fit for my mom.

She ended up calling herself Mina. This is part of our heritage : it is Corsican (that beautiful island off the coast of France). Grandma's there are usually called either Mina, MinnĂ  or Minana. I think its adorable!

The absolute cutest grandma nickname in our family has to go to my husband's fraternal grandma. When my husband was little, his (~4 year old) brother listened in on a phone conversation between his grandparents. His grandfather called his grandmother "darling". Hearing this, my husband's brother assumed Darling was actually his grandma's real name! Ever since, the two boys called her Darling. I know its early (wayyy to early in fact), but I'm thinking that could be a pretty cute name for me one day!

What will you or your parents be called?

Xo
C


Monday 21 April 2014

Three Months Old!! (Corrected Age)

Current nicknames
Tite cocotte, princess pie, little lady
Weight :
4.99 kg (almost 11lbs!)
Height :
About 57cm
Medical Issues :
I think this is my favorite category this month:
Our pediatrician could hardly believe you were (?are) a preemie because you hit the 25 percentile of weight. 
Your respirologist who had previously demoted you from the BPD clinic to his general respirology clinic told us you no longer needed respirology follow-up! Your chest xray looked perfect, although he did warn us that you still have underlying mild to moderate BPD (downgraded, or should I say upgraded, from moderate) and you remain at risk of severe complications if you were to get a respiratory infection. Still a win in my books though!
A pediatric physiatrist essentially told us you are developping well and have no clear motor delays to date. While there are no guarantees, this news has certainly put some of our worries to rest.
Lastly, you started taking Zantac twice a day for reflux. You are not a fan! It tastes quite strongly of mint, we'll have to see what you eventually think of toothpaste, I predict more difficult times ahead!
Sleep:
You regularly sleep 6-7 hours at night. The days are still a bit all over the place, but in general I'd say you have three longer naps.
Clothes/Diapers:
You are starting to grow out of your 0-3 month clothing. I'm excited for you to start wearing your pretty 6 month sized summer outfits! Here you are in our current favorite outfit (a little dress with black leggings):
Hanging out with Mina <3
Diet:
Still exclusive breastmilk, with the occasionnal enriched bottle.
Baby Gear Love:
Your favorite toy is "Rodrigo" or "Eduardo" a lamaze toy.  
You adore hanging out in your sweet vibrating rocker
You are not super into books yet, but I'm sure that will come!
Milestones/Firsts
This past month you have really mastered holding your head up while sitting or being held.
A few weeks ago you clearly imitated us for the first time : you blow us kisses (smack your lips)
Your coos have definitely transformed into babbles. I swear you said mama two days ago, but your dad was there too and he is skeptical. I think he just hasn't mastered babyeese yet! 
Things I don't want to forget:
You LOVE it, often breaking into smile or cooing, when we talk while sticking our tongue out. You seem to find it sooooo silly! Eg. when we say : Lalalalalalove.
You have such a sweet little personality, we are so very lucky that you are our daughter and we get to hang out with you everyday! I can't wait to learn more and more about you!
So much lalalalove!
Mamamamama

Finally Mastering Infant Medication Delivery

Since her days at the NICU, miss V. Has been exhibiting some signs of reflux. She would grimace and gag a little when her bed was flat post feed and sometimes have an associated brady. Later, she would be fussy at the breast and sometimes arch her back. Of late, her weight gain has dropped off slightly, bringing her to the third percentile for corrected age. With the stagnating weight being the last straw, our respirologist recommended we start giving her Ranitidine (also known as Zantac).

Well, miss V. is not a fan! Giving it to her twice per day has proven to be very difficult. When the entire amount of medication is spit right out, you start to question the usefulness of what you are doing. We tried mixing with breastmilk, feeding it to her when she is particularly hungry, sneaking it in when she is sucking on her pacifier or during breastfeeding with a syringe (without the needle, obviously) and feeding it to her via a dropper. The only time some amount seemed to be swallowed was once when she was half asleep... Not something I could count on, since it needs to be given quite rigourously every 12 hours in our case. 

We had a rough time until last evening when we had a eureka! moment. You see, the best results (albeit quite mediocre) we had were when we used a syringe to sneak the Zantac in. The problem seemed to be that the 1mL suringe could not be subtly introduced: it inevitably interrupted her breastfeeding or pacifying flow. The solution : we used a plastic catheter usually employed intravenously! NOT the needle part, obviously, we just the plastic sterile part. Its great because I get to control the amount of medication I administer and it is small enough not to interrupt the suction on the pacifier or the breast. Its so great! Here are some pictures:
See, we just use the plastic part. No needles here! Those go in our nifty sharps container.

Here's Miss V. Happy as a clam, sucking on the plastic bit and swallowing all her medication for once, without tears!

Has anyone else tried something like this before?

What tricks do you have to get your sweetie to take their medication?

Xo
C

Sunday 20 April 2014

Our Very First Easter

A short note to mention how adorable my husband is. He snuck around the house while everyone was sleeping and hid Easter eggs. Since I've known him, I've told him that when we have a daughter, I hope the Easter bunny leaves a little trail of chocolate covered almonds to the chocolate stashes (as a girl, I always figured they were Easter bunny poop... Is that weird? Maybe thats weird... Too bad, I think its cute!) What do I see when I get up? A couple chocolate covered almonds near the coffee machine with a Reese egg in the sugar bowl, a little trail on the bathroom counter leading to the half open drawer, one on the play swing, and a whole bunch in sweeties room! A dream come true! Man have I got a keeper! 



Oh, and we've found the perfect way to get our little lady to take her Zantac! More on that later!

Xo
C




Friday 18 April 2014

Fetal Cardiac Ultrasound

Fetal ultrasounds have not been the happiest appointments for our family. Due to a prior pregnancy with a major genetic abnormality, Miss V. underwent a bunch of ultrasounds.

The 13 week nuchal thickness showed short limbs, a soft sign for downs syndrome. Week 16 and 18 ultrasounds showed marginal cord insertion on two hematomas. Then week 20, we were told she had a cardiac malformation called a persistant left superior vena cava, what a mouthful!

To understand PLSVC, you first have to know a little bit about normal cardiac anatomy. There is a great breakdown of what it is here. Usually, we have two vena cavas, a superior right and an inferior right. Everyone develops a superior left vena cava at some point during their fetal development, however, usually it is resorbed (kind of like how we all have webbed fingers at one point, but then they get resorbed).

In miss. V's case, the blood from her arms, instead of draining into her superior right vena cava, it went through her PLSVC, which in turn drained into her coronary sinus. All this simply means that it was a variant of normal.


The worry in her case was that there seemed to be a bit less flow going through the aorta because of a compression for the enlarged coronary sinus (it was enlarged because it was receiving extra blood from the PLSVC). When the aorta has lower pressure pulsing through it during development, it sometimes remains a smaller diameter. In certain cases, that can lead to a coarctation of the aorta.



The aorta is the blood vessel that allows all the blood in the heart to be distributed to the rest of the body. A coarctation of the aorta is just a fancy way of saying that it has a smaller diameter. Imagine two pipes: one has a big opening and one is narrower. You can imagine that less fluid can go through the smaller one. You wouldn't want a tiny pipe draining your sink, just like you wouldn't want a tiny aorta draining your heart. It can cause extra stress on the heart trying to push all the blood through the tiny opening and it means not a lot of blood reaches the legs, the kidneys and a bunch of other organs. 

The key with the coartation is that if you have a patent ductus arteriosis (PDA), the blood can get carried to the rest of the body that way, through the PDA. So while most babies want to have their PDA closed, when you are worried about a coarctation, you want the PDA to stay open! 

Luckily our little princess' PDA remained open for a while. She was followed with weekly ultrasounds until they figured her aorta was big enough that they were no longer worried about a coarctation (fiou!) and then gave her some ibuprofen to close up the PDA. We were some of the lucky ones whose preemie closed up their PDA without the need for surgery and she did not get any of the icky side effects from ibuprofen. 

So at the end of the day, our scary cardiac fetal ultrasound just showed a PLSVC, which is a variant of normal and miss V is not considered to have any sort of cardiac problem! It just goes to show that fetal cardiac ultrasounds are far from perfect, so there is a bit of hope if your child had a not so sterling echo if it is regarding coarctation.

Xo
C

Thursday 17 April 2014

100 Happy Days #30 - Great Doctor's Appointment!

We had a much awaited appointment with a pediatric physiatry (also known as physical medicine and rehabilitation) specialist today. After some not so great meetings with the physio and neonatologist, who told us that many of miss V's movement were abnormal (without settling on a diagnosis), we were bracing ourselves for the worse. Boy were we wrong! 

The doctor was so sweet and reassuring! She basically said that because miss V has good head control, good contact and has been cooing up a storm that the bit of stiffness in her arms is not worriesome. Plus, she reminded us that from a neurological perspective, it is miss V's performance at her best that counts (she opens her hands and brings her arms forward, even reaching for objects when she is relaxed at home, but is quite stiff and stressed during her medical visits).

We are to encourage arm usage by playing with her on her side (gravity helps her reach for objects) and generally try to keep her in positions that help her relax. They even suggested learning baby massage techniques! That sounds like so much more fun than fighting with her during tummytime!


Although of course nothing is guaranteed in life, it sure felt nice to be reassured that our sweetie is doing well! I know two parents who will be sleeping soundly tonight!

Xo
C

Tuesday 15 April 2014

100 Happy Days - Imitation

Yesterday I was just beaming!! Little miss V. started imitating our lip smaking. Up until now, her "imitations" seemed more random luck and not repeatable. I'm such a proud mama!! I cannot find any information online about whether this is a proper milestone, so I'm guessing it isn't... I'm certainly counting it as one though!

Monday 14 April 2014

Miss V by month


At birth:

One month:

Two months:

Three months:


Four months:


Five months:


6 months: