The cure for any bad mood

How can this not put you in a great mood?! She giggles at the most trivial things!

Changing so fast!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Whew, it's been too long since my last update! Troy was finally able to get in the fields, so I have been pulling single-mommy duty lots of nights...which just doesn't leave much time for blogging :)

Catching a morning catnap with Bella

Well, where to begin? Between the time Emily turned 6 months old (October 19) and 7 months old (November 19), our poor baby had to endure no less than 8 shots!! She had the H1N1 shot and booster, the regular flu shot and booster, her 6 month immunizations, and her first Synagis injection. I am so glad that is all over! She will have to get the Synagis monthly until April, but I think those are the only shots she will have between now and then. Whew!

We are still attempting rice cereal and a few fruits and vegetables, but its not really going that well. We try every day, but Emily just doesn't eat much of it. She's on straight formula now, since she decided she wouldn't drink anything with even a drop of breastmilk in it :( But on the positive side, I'm finally done pumping YAY!! I can't say I'll miss that.

Still not much progress on rolling over from tummy to back. She did it a few times, and now she seems to have forgotten how. I really need to focus on tummy time with her, I know that would help.

On Thanksgiving day, Emily figured out how to roll from her back to her SIDE...hasn't completely rolled over yet, but she definitely has the side thing down.

Emily is wanting to be sitting up (supported) or standing (with us holding her up) most of the time now. Her bouncy chair and play gym don't allow her to sit up all the way, so those are starting to lose their luster with her. She really likes her Bumbo seat now, and we also got her one of those doorway-mounted jumpers - once she figured that out, she really liked that too!

Awwww, she fell asleep in there!

I put the "finishing" touches on Emily's room this month, too. I wanted to get a few more things on the walls, and I finally got it done.

I'll leave you with a couple more pictures from this past weekend:

Giggles

I'm a big girl now!

I've been told I'll say this over and over again for many years to come...I can't believe how fast she is "growing up"!

We got the go ahead from Emily's pediatrician and the follow-up clinic to try some rice cereal. We had our first attempt tonight, and considering how poorly I thought it would go, I would consider it a huge success! Emily ate about 5 spoonfuls before swatting at the spoon, which I took as a sign that she was done for now. She didn't even make any nasty faces while trying it out! She just stared at the bowl of cereal, like she was trying to figure out what this new stuff was :)

So fun doing new things!!

6 months old!

Emily turned 6 months old on October 19!! We had her 6 month check-up on Monday, and here are her stats:

Weight - 13 pounds 9 ounces - She finally landed on the growth chart for a "regular" 6 month old baby - compared to other 6 month old babies, she's in the 10th percentile! This is so cool!

Length - 23 1/4 inches - Not quite on the chart yet, but the doctor says length is usually the last measurement for preemies to catch up on.

Head circumference - 40 1/4 cm - About 5th percentile on the 6 month old chart!!

The doctor was extremely pleased with how great Emily is doing. She totally showed off for him, kicking like crazy on the exam table, and smiling and laughing during the whole appointment...well, until the nurse gave her FOUR shots. Poor little Emily! We gave her lots of extra hugs and kisses to make up for it :)

The doctor says Emily is developmentally on track with a 4-month old, so she is slowly closing the gap between her actual age and her corrected age.

So, what is Emily up to these days? I'll tell you!

• Rolling over - although she seems to have temporarily forgotten how and is completely protesting tummy time!
• Smiling - at everyone - and everything - all the time!
• Giggling when Mommy and Daddy act silly
• Getting ticklish on her ribs, neck, and under her arms...which makes getting her dressed and undressed really entertaining!!
• Making spit bubbles and starting to drool
• Grasping her toys tightly, and starting to reach for them on her own...and moving them straight to her mouth!
• Drinking a 50/50 mix of breast milk and formula...just because she decided she didn't want straight breast milk anymore. Lil stinker!!
• Sleeping AWESOME at night - the last 3 nights she has slept 9 hours straight! Of course I probably just jinxed this and we will be up every 3 hours tonight. Ugh.

Emily is still staying at our house with Barb and Irene 3 days a week, and I have Thursdays and Fridays off. I can tell Emily is well cared for when Troy and I are at work, and I think Barb and Irene are enjoying their days with Emily as well.

Since it's been such a WET and COLD fall, Troy has been around at night and on weekends more than we expected. While the harvest situation makes him stressed out and a little grumpy, I am trying to see the silver lining and be grateful he is home with us! We definitely have had a lot more time together than we planned for this fall.

I need to get some recent pictures of Emily and her sister Bella. Bella is a little TOO interested in Emily's constantly moving feet and arms, and Emily gets a firm grip on Bella's fur from time to time...so this could get interesting in the next couple months :) I have no doubt that once they work out the kinks, they will be good buddies!

Until next time...

Rockin' and ROLLING!!

I am so excited - I managed to capture pictures of the VERY FIRST time Emily rolled over by herself! I had the camera out to take some pictures in her Halloween onesie...and she decided to perform during her tummy time!
She tried this method for a while, and her legs had the right idea...but she couldn't get enough momentum to roll over...

So, I gently reminded her that if she put her hands in front, it might help. And here is what happened...

Success!! She hasn't quite figured out how awesome of a skill this is, or why I was cheering and clapping for her...but she did seem anxious to repeat her performance, and she did!

I took video of a failed attempt too, its worth sharing because she is just trying so hard!

Almost 6 months old!

I'm way overdue for an update, Emily will be 6 months old in one week - I can't believe it! I will definitely post some 6 month pictures and a status report after her 6 month doctor's visit next week....here is a video from tonight to hold you over until then :)

Emily at 5 months (2 months corrected)

Wow, 5 months. I know people say that time flies, but the past 5 months has actually felt like...a long time! Emily has come so far since April 19. I think the fact that I have been able to spend every single day with her since her birth has really allowed me to cherish each day, each moment we have had together. I went back to work this week - I'll be working part time through Christmas, and then back to full time in January. I feel lucky that my employer worked out a part-time arrangement with me!

We are also lucky to have found two wonderful ladies to come to our house and watch Emily while we are at work. Both ladies are friends of Troy's extended family. They are both retired, and they plan to trade off days with Emily so they can still enjoy retirement but also be able to take care of our 'lil Bug :) They are also both Grandmas, and I can already see that Emily is going to be like an adopted Granddaughter to them. Seeing their excitement to snuggle and cherish Emily while they care for her makes it easier for us to leave her each day - she is in great and loving hands!

So what's Emily up to these days? Well, here's what she has started doing in the last few weeks:

- Putting her hands in her mouth, sucking and licking them!

- Drooling and making bubbles a little

- She has 'discovered' her toys hanging from her gym and bouncy seat, and stares at them, smiles at them, and talks to them! I'm loving this!

- Attempts to 'bat' at the toys hanging from her gym - and actually hits them occasionally!

- Her head control is great, has been for a while. She still bobs it quite a bit, but she's getting there.

- Sleeping 5, 6, and occasionally 7 (YAAAAY!) hour stretches at night before waking up for a feeding

- Lots of "ooowww"s and "ooohhh"s and "eeehhhh"s. We even have conversations back and forth making these noises - she STARES at our mouths and it looks like she tries to imitate what we are doing with our mouths

- Occasionally pushes up on her arms for a few seconds when on her tummy

- Smiles, smiles, smiles when we talk to her!

Here are a few pictures from Emily's baptism last weekend.

Mom and Dad with Emily

Aunt Jenny and Uncle Joey are Emily's Godparents!

Here are a few recent videos - "talking" to her toys, and doing her best to "bat" at her toys!

Until next time!

Understanding RSV and why it's so serious for Emily

Since Emily was born, doctors and nurses have repeatedly mentioned the upcoming flu/RSV season and how critical it will be to keep Emily isolated from any exposure to germs. We have been told to keep her away from the mall and other enclosed areas where lots of people gather (churches, restaurants, etc.), and that we should not put her in a regular daycare where she will be around a lot of other kids. Basically, they advise a "flu season lockdown"!!! I have to admit, I found myself thinking that I would feel the same way whether Emily was a preemie or a full term newborn...I mean, what's the big deal about the preemie thing, because now she's a BIG GIRL, just the same as other babies! She's not 'sick' or having any health problems. But because the doctors have been so adamant about this subject, I've been doing some research and discovered this blog post which explains the effects of RSV and why it's so much more serious for preemie babies. I'm asking all our friends and family to read this information, so you can be informed as well.


The writer of that blog does a good job explaining it, so I'm going to just copy her words here. Once again, I don't take credit for this...it came from the link above!


People don't seem to really understand what sick means when we tell them they can't come over if they are "sick". What we mean is if you have the sniffles or the remnants of a cough, DON'T COME OVER! I'm not trying to be rude but the dr specifically told us that you have to be symptom free to come visit. I'm sorry but we are listening to her over anyone else.


Why is this important? Because our babies are preemies. No, they aren't small anymore nor do they look ill. They actually look like any other 6 mth old baby at this point BUT their lungs are still underdeveloped & they still have a compromised immune system. This is very important to know b/c there is a virus called RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) which to us or a full-term baby, would not do anything more than just give us a cough & a runny nose, much like the common cold. For our babies, it can mean DEATH.


Why? Our babies lungs look very different from that of a baby the same age that was born after 37 weeks gestation. Let me show you a picture of what our babies' lungs look like compared to that of a regular full-term baby. The 1st 3 pictures are that of our babies' lungs (not actual but you get the idea). The 4th picture is that of a regular baby. Scary to see how much less our babies have compared to them!

This is another good picture to look at. As you can see, they used trees to explain the difference between a normal infant's lungs (left) & a preemie's (right). WOW!
Finally, this is a photo of the airway when affected by RSV. On the left is a normal infant & on the right, a preemie. You can see how much LESS airway is open in the preemie's picture. SCARY!

Once RSV has been passed to one of our babies, hospital stay is a certainty. Actually, they would probably end up in the PICU (Pediatric ICU). There is NOTHING they can do to help our babies except to give them O2 to help them breathe. Again, something we don't want to experience.


How do we keep our babies healthy? By staying away from sick people! You may not even know you are carrying RSV & if you come over & infect our babies, you would feel very badly afterwards. Sorry if I sound so harsh but I have had to explain over & over again why it is important not to come over.


RSV is contracted through physical contact or vapor droplets in the air. This is why if Todd or I get sick, we will have to wear a mask anytime we are around the babies b/c obviously we can't avoid caring for them. RSV can also live on surfaces for several hours so you better believe I will be Cloroxing all surfaces at least once a day!


We are also hoping that we get the RSV shots but if we don't that means we are really going to be strict about who comes over & where we take the babies. No crowded places is a definite no-no. We will basically be on house arrest which is NO BIG DEAL if we can keep our babies healthy. The shots will buffer the effect, not prevent them from getting it so we are hoping & praying that we are approved!



Okay, thank you for taking the time to read that. Emily WILL be getting the "shots" mentioned in her post - they are called Synagis , not a vaccine but a shot that will give Emily antibodies to help protect her from contracting RSV. She has to get them once a month during flu/RSV season (October - April). The shots are not a guarantee that she won't get RSV, but besides keeping her away from germs and sick people, its the only thing we can do to reduce her risk. She will also be getting the regular flu shot, as will Troy and I. We are also worried about H1N1 and waiting to hear what the recommendations are for babies (and us) to get the vaccine. So far, I'm not liking the reports I hear about the vaccine!!


I hope this post has helped you understand why RSV (and the flu) are so serious for Emily. Each time we leave the house with her this fall/winter, or have visitors at our house, this will be in the back of our minds. I hope you all can understand if we don't make it to every family gathering or don't have many visitors. It will be important for Troy and I to stay healthy too, so you would be doing us a huge favor if you steered clear of us if you are ill or have been around someone who is ill. I read on the Synagis website that RSV can live up to 6 hours on toys, clothing, bedding, and other surfaces!


It's not going to be a lot of fun HIBERNATING this winter...but on the plus side, we will get a lot of alone time with Emily!!

Thanks again for taking the time to read this.

Happy Girl!

First, I am happy to report that Emily has outgrown all of her eye issues (ROP) and doesn't have to go back to the eye doctor until her 1st birthday. WAHOO! We are all so thrilled!

And, I have a new video to share! Here is our happy girl hanging out with mommy.

Smiles!!

Emily started smiling a week or so ago, and I finally caught one on camera!! I just looooove seeing her smile!

We had Emily's 4 month well baby check on Thursday, and she weighs 9 pounds 15 ounces now! Yay Emily! The doctor was very pleased with how well she is doing. Her 'corrected age' is 1 month, but the doctor said developmentally she is on track with a 2 month old. Size-wise, when he plots her on the growth chart for a 1-month-old, she is 75th percentile for head circumference and weight, and 50th percentile for height. She barely even makes the chart for a 4-month old! This will continue to improve as she gets older, and by her 2nd birthday she should be caught up with other kids her age, both in size and developmentally.

That's about all I have for today. We have another eye doctor appointment tomorrow, I'll post an update after that. Here are a few more pictures from this week.

See, Emily doesn't sleep ALLLLL the time...

...which is a good thing, because she happens to have the sweetest, prettiest eyes! See?


Emily will be 4 months old on Wednesday, August 19! Wahoo! She has her 4 month appointment with the pediatrician on Thursday, so we'll get an official weight...but we think she is well over 9 pounds now. She is still a great baby! She is sleeping 5 hour stretches at night pretty regularly, followed by a quick bottle, then another 3-4.5 hour stretch of sleep. I am so glad that she pretty much figured the "nighttime" thing out on her own. I'm sure it's not always going to be so great, but we'll take it as long as it lasts!

As far as development, she is probably right on track with her corrected age of 1 month (remember, that's her age if she would have been born on her actual due date - July 19). She has pretty good head control when in a sitting position. Of course it still bobs and tilts some of the time too. I bought her a Bumbo seat and tried it out this week - she's not strong enough for me to leave her in there long, but she does pretty well for a few minutes anyway.

By far our most exciting development in the past week is that Emily started SMILING! I have yet to capture this with my camera because we only get a few per day....but as they become more frequent I'm sure I'll catch one. After months of her just staring at us (except for those gas and reflex smiles), it is AWESOME to see that smile on her face. It almost makes me squeal whenever she does it!

We have another eye appointment next Monday. At her last appointment, her eyes were still not fully developed so they need to continue checking them until development is complete. The good news is the doctor is seeing some improvement in one eye...the other one is about the same.

Until next time - I do have to leave you with just one sleeping picture, because it is so precious!!

Missing my baby bump!

I am loving being a mom, and I wouldn't trade my blessings for anything...but I have been working on my scrapbooks and I'm feeling a little bummed that I was "robbed" of the last 3 months of my pregnancy! There are lots of pros and cons here....I never had to get huge and uncomfortable and be 9 monts pregnant in July (PRO!) but at the same time, I am a *bit* of a shopaholic, and I had bought A LOT of super cute maternity clothes that I never got to wear (CON!). Of course I never thought it was a possibility that I wouldn't get to wear them, so I no longer had the tags or receipts for 95% of the clothes either. UGH!

Emily arrived when I was right in the middle of the "honeymoon" phase of pregnancy. I was feeling great, had a cute little bump, and was just starting to do fun stuff like register for baby stuff and pick out items for the nursery.

*SIGH*

Here is my very last pregnancy pic, taken less than a week before Emily was born.

Comfy, Emily?

I know I promised some awake pictures, and I will post some...but she has just been so cute snoozing the last few days!

Speaking of snoozing, Emily has been doing great sleeping at night! We aren't anywhere near sleeping through the night yet, but we ARE getting some 4 or 4 1/2 hour stretches at night, which seems to make all the difference in the world in my energy level during the day! And most of the time, she goes right back to sleep after her nighttime feedings. Yay!

We have had Emily home for 5 weeks today. WOW! It has gone by so fast, maybe because we were like walking zombies for the first 2 or 3 weeks. :-)

This is what an adorable 8 POUND baby looks like!

That's right! Yesterday we took Emily to the Child Specialty Clinic, and she weighed in at 8.1 pounds and measured 19.75 inches long! The nurse said they like to see the babies gain 20-30 grams per day once they go home, and Emily has averaged 32 grams per day since she has been home! Yay Emily!

The Child Specialty Clinic is an outreach of the same clinic in Iowa City, and Emily will be seen there until she is 5 years old. They will periodically check her development and growth to make sure she is on target for her corrected age (which means age from her original due date, not her actual birth date) and to identify any potential developmental issues early. This is just because she was a preemie, they don't have any specific concerns about her at this time.

At the appointment yesterday, they said Emily's size is GREAT, her movement is GREAT, and all around she is just doing GREAT! We can't ask for any better report than that!

We are still having to take Emily to the eye doctor for exams every 2 weeks to watch the progress of her ROP. One of her eyes is showing improvement (yay!), but the other continues to develop some Stage 2 ROP, and they have to make sure it doesn't develop any Stage 3 ROP, or surgery may be required. The exams are torture for Emily (and mom and dad!), so each time we have to go...its just not a good day. Ick. We go back on August 7th and we are praying hard for an A+++ report so we don't have to go back.

As far as everyday life...we really have been blessed with an easy baby. I hope I'm not jinxing myself by writing this! Emily's temperament is so pleasant, she really only fusses when she is hungry or gets a little bored and wants us to walk around with her. Her sleep schedule has been pretty good, she wakes up every 2.5-3 hours to eat, but at least at night she *usually* goes right back to sleep.

Troy and I are settling into somewhat of a routine now, and getting more comfortable and confident in our abilities to take care of Emily...while still taking care of other everyday things like dishes, laundry, mowing the grass, etc. Some days we do better than others of course :-)

Bella is starting to realize that Emily is here for good, and I think she is a little depressed. She is not happy about not being the center of mommy's attention anymore! For a while, she tried to be front and center wherever I was (aka wherever Emily was!), but she's slowly giving up. Poor Bella!

We have had lots of visitors in the last few weeks. Grandma and Grandpa H returned from their motorcycle trip and came to visit us...they brought ice cream, which you know earned them extra points in my book!

Grandma V has been visiting a lot so I can go run errands or to doctors appointments, etc. Emily also got to meet her cousins Dylan and Addison for the first time, although they have more fun playing with Bella than with Emily...which Bella totally appreciates!!

Grandma C came for the weekend a week ago, and gave me and Troy the wonderful gift of a FULL nights sleep. Ahhhh, it was great!

Emily had her 3 month birthday on July 19. We can't believe how far she has come! The first picture below was taken when Emily was 3 days old...the second picture, 3 months! Praise the Lord for our little miracle!

I guess that's about it for now...for my next post, I'll try to get more AWAKE pictures. I swear she doesn't sleep ALL the time!

Makin' Noises

Some pictures!

I know it has been a long time since my last update...sorry! But I'm sure you can understand we have been enjoying our time with Emily, and also dealing with the lack of sleep!


Things are going great, Emily is now up to 7 pounds!! Her last eye exam still showed some ROP in both eyes, so she has to get them checked again this week. She is NOT a fan of those eye exams, and the bigger and stronger she gets, the harder it is to see her fight through them.


I'll post more of an update another time...Grandma is here for the weekend to give us some relief and keep us company! Here are some recent pics :)

First bath at home

4th of July weekend with family

Snugglin' with my babies