Throw back Milestones

I was looking back at some posts and realized I never posted this one... Crazy how I'm less worried about that appointment, but still generally apprehensive about milestone! 

"A few weeks back we went to our first neurodevelopment appointment. Miss V was almost 7 weeks corrected age at the time. Before this appointment, I thought she was doing quite well, lots of smiles, some giggles, she seemed to be tracking and was starting to lift her head from side to side when she was doing her tummy time.

Turns out she was not doing so well. During the entire exam, the doctor and physio kept making remarks to each other that did not sound so great : "look at her left sided preference" or "hmmmm, she is startling a lot", etc.

I worry a lot about whether or not Miss V. will hit her milestones on time.

I'm not sure if it is because she was born at 29 weeks so has been around 11 weeks more than you average baby, but I'm starting to get impatient for her to start reaching various milestones. I realize she is only 8 weeks corrected age, but she has been around for such a long time, surely she should be sitting, or saying her first word or running a small business by now!! 

I wonder if this impatience is just me, typical to preemie parents or something everyone experiences... I've heard the first three months tend to be a blur, what with constant feeding, diaper changing, very little sleep, learning how to take care of your sweetheart. For us it has been a bit different, we had 77 days in the NICU and step down units to get to know our little lady, we developed our routine long before heading home! The fact that her feeding schedule was so regimented at the hospital (every three hours, on the hour) got Miss V. used to regular feeding I suppose; despite feeding her strictly on demand, she tends to feed quite regularly every three hours and a bit less at night. As such, we have been getting quite a reasonable amount of sleep! Which makes these weeks at home less of a sleepy blur."

I'm soooo glad they were wrong about the whole side preference business! Nice to see how far V's come!

Blurry, but I still love it!!

Getting into trouble again the sneaky girl!

Xo

C

Meow meow

Its been clear for quite some time now that V's favorite animal is a cat. Probably because we own the nicest, most docile furball possible. Anyway, over the past week or two, we have discovered that the very best way to make V laugh is to incorporate anything cat-themed into what we are doing.

Singing "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream...". Yawn. 

But, sing: "I know MIUuuu, I walked with miuuuuu once upon a kittycat". Barrels of giggles! Seriously, she cannot get enough of it!!

Mommy trying to run after her... Soso entertaining. But if we pretend the cat is (I mentionned he is incredibly docile, right?) and she can barely hold it together. Think little pile of laughing lady on the ground. I love it!

Morning crêpes? Yummy, but old news. A cat shaped crêpe? Gets spared from being devoured and is showered in kisses instead.

I'm loving this phase!

Xo

C

Butterflies

As we approach the end of lockdown #2, D & I decided we would attempt something way outside our comfort zone: head out to the insectarium to see the butterfly exhibit with little miss V.

It turned out much better than expected! We arrived right at opening on a weekday and there were only a handful of amateur photographers who were visibly NOT sick. Our sweetheart loved all the butterflies and flowers! Even though the insectarium is right downtown, I guess by getting there early enough on a Tuesday, we were able to stay away from oh so scary crowds.

It was really great to see V interact with a new environment!

Xo

C

A Cardboard Box

Things have been going quite well at our house lately. I am back at work, still no cold or virus of any kind in sight for V, she is home with her daddy till the end of next winter unless she catches a bad cold an handles it well, and she has been progressing well on the neurodevelopment front, although we will only truly know know if she has lasting motor sequelae from being a premie once she starts walking.

At 14 months corrected she has not yet started to walk. I felt very comfortable with that fact until about 2 weeks ago when my good friend's baby took her first steps at ten months. Its been said a billion times I'm sure, but here I go adding my voice to the group... I'm super happy and proud of my friend's baby, the little champ! And I'm also incredibly pround of my sweet V!! There's just nothing quite like a baby that was born 6 months after yours speeding ahead of yours to remind you that your darling mayindeed have some developmental delays and more struggles ahead.

The thing is I'm convinced V would be able to walk. She cruises like a total champ!! I think what is stopping her is that she is scared of falling. Now how on earth am I supposed to show her not to be scared? When I try to entice her toget something, she swiftly plops down onto all fours and speeds across the floor. How can I keep her on her feet?

To finish, some pics of her playing with the best of toys : the magical cardboard box!

Xo

C

p.s. these blocks are pretty great too!

Furniture Cruizer

Just shy of her 1 year corrected, V has amazed us again by achieving furniture cruizing! She we have to coax her with pretty red books (her favourite colour) or a remote, but the cruizing is all her!

I can hardly believe she was still hospitalized at this time last year. Unreal.

The Night Before Christmas - Improved Healthier Version!

Like every year, on December 24th, we cuddled up together and read Twas The Night Before Christmas. This year was special though because it was the first time we did it as a little family! Last year, V was still hospitalized. 

As Dada read through it, we realized that this old St-Nick character, though jolly, has some pretty bad habits! Namely, smoking the pipe. Now, there will be no smoking anywhere near our little sweetie, what with her BPD and all, so we decided to change it.

Here's the passage I am referring to:

"The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath."

And here is what we changed it to:

"The milk that he drank was good for his teeth,

and the cookie he ate was shaped like a wreath"

So there you have it, an updated, preemie friendly version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas!

Here's wishing you all a healthy 2015!

xo

C

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