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 voilà!

Xo

C

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

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!!

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

"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

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