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

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

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

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