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