I have been having a hard time finding time to update my blog. Busy with the kids, busy with Lilah, busy with life. Lilah is coming along wonderfully. She is up to 9 1/2 pounds as of last week. She is following her own curve on the growth chart, but if she keeps up the good weight gain, she will probably be caught up in no time. She is the perfect weight for her length. Therapy has been going good as well. I had a long talk with her OT about cerebral palsy, and how even if she has it, she will be able to greatly improve her quality of life with OT and PT. I asked her if she thought that Lilah might have it, and she said she did see some tone that might be indicitive of it, but that is not set in stone. She also noticed (which I have also) that when she looks to the side her eyes make a little shaking motion, this could be nystagmus( an eye disorder), it could also mean that her eye muscles aren't quite developed yet. Regardless, she suggested I have her eyes checked out by this opthamologist in Windham. He does one free eye exam before a child turns one, it's called an Infant See. He is also a long time friend of Susan, and with my permission will discuss with Susan things we could try that might be beneficial for lilah. We are still working hard at trying to gain some head control, and strengthening her sholder and neck muscles, she seems to have a hard time with this when she is laid flat on her belly. It is easier for her when we roll up a towel and place it under her armpits, or when I lay her on my chest. It gives her something she's interested in looking at (my face) (: She is moving her head pretty much equally from side to side now, she no longer prefers the left side. She does however tend to swing her legs to the left side a lot. This is not a good thing, since she could develop a curvature in her spine. I have to straighten her out whenever I catch her doing it. We are working on having her follow objects with her eyes, she does a good job following from her right side to midline (center) but has a hard time tracking to the left. We have been trying various toys and pictures that might pique her interest but nothing seems to intrigue her enough to follow. I have switched arms when feeding her, because she tends to look at me when she's eating, this seems to be helping a little.
Lilah is having much longer awake periods and is settling into somewhat of a schedule now. She takes little naps throughout the day and usually settles in for good around 11:00 pm. This is a good time for me since I go to bed late anyways. Then as long as she has had a bottle right before bed she will usually sleep right through the night, anywhere from 5:30 am to 8:00 am. She was assigned a new PT, because it was so far out of the was for Lisa. I met her new PT named Karen last week. Llilah was completely zonked out cold, so she was unable to work wi-yawns she does and elieve how hard she was to rouse. She was worried about shunt failure. I told her thats normal behavior for her. She responded by telling me that I would know better then her, since I'm with her all the time. I also made the mistake of feeding her right before she came, and that is usuallywhen she is the sleepiest. This week when Karen came I held off her feeding, and she was wide awake through her whole session. She noticed that when she talked to her that she completely avoids eye contact. She was wondering if she did that all the time or maybe just because it was a new face. It's fuuny, because awhile back my sister Kristin noticed this, she's like Melissa she refuses to look at me, but when I took her she stared right at me. I told this all to Karen, and the way she explained it is that she might be a little stressed out or anxious having certain people around or she might be overstimulated so she kind of shuts down in a way. This can be common in preemies, and not un-heard of in newborns. I am what she sees as calming and familiar so she has no problem staring at me. She also told me all the little half-yawns and even some sneezes and facial movements are sometimes the equivilant to a sigh. When she is experiencing a change of emotion,stress, or overstimulation, even happiness and relaxation she might do this and it's her way of letting out a sigh. When she handed her over to me to kind of prove a point she immediately looked at me, stopped crying and did a half-yawn (i'm assuming in contentment) I don't know why, but I find this all super cute (:
My in-laws came up for a week for vacation, and I took Lilah to the beach for the first time. I had bought two umbrellas to put her under out of the sun, but apparently the sun was super strong that day because her face was a little sun burned at the end of the day. I felt so bad. She was miserable, and the fact that she had the oxygen taped to her made it worse. He face was all rashy and irritated so I decided since her pulmonary visit was only a week away, and they were going to take her off during the day after that visit, I was going to take it off and give her cheeks a chance to air out. It had been super muggy and hot for weeks and it wasn't doing her skin any good. I monitored her the whole time she was off for the next couple days and she stayed at 99, 100. Below is a picture of her without the oxygen, look how pretty! I have that pulmonary appointment tomorrow and OT on Wednesday I will try to keep up with my blogs, so then I don't have to cram a ton of info into one, plus try to remember everything that happened. My mother-in-law took the kids back down to Mass with her for a week, which was nice because I was able to have some nice quiet bonding time with Lilah. I did a lot with her, we went to the lake, to the Maine Wildlife Park, Chuck E. Cheese, and out to eat. She was quite the busy little girl these past couple weeks. It is so hard to do these things lugging around a baby and two other kids on top of it. Now I know why some people decide one is enough! Three month pictures below, with the oxygen and without.....
Lilah is having much longer awake periods and is settling into somewhat of a schedule now. She takes little naps throughout the day and usually settles in for good around 11:00 pm. This is a good time for me since I go to bed late anyways. Then as long as she has had a bottle right before bed she will usually sleep right through the night, anywhere from 5:30 am to 8:00 am. She was assigned a new PT, because it was so far out of the was for Lisa. I met her new PT named Karen last week. Llilah was completely zonked out cold, so she was unable to work wi-yawns she does and elieve how hard she was to rouse. She was worried about shunt failure. I told her thats normal behavior for her. She responded by telling me that I would know better then her, since I'm with her all the time. I also made the mistake of feeding her right before she came, and that is usuallywhen she is the sleepiest. This week when Karen came I held off her feeding, and she was wide awake through her whole session. She noticed that when she talked to her that she completely avoids eye contact. She was wondering if she did that all the time or maybe just because it was a new face. It's fuuny, because awhile back my sister Kristin noticed this, she's like Melissa she refuses to look at me, but when I took her she stared right at me. I told this all to Karen, and the way she explained it is that she might be a little stressed out or anxious having certain people around or she might be overstimulated so she kind of shuts down in a way. This can be common in preemies, and not un-heard of in newborns. I am what she sees as calming and familiar so she has no problem staring at me. She also told me all the little half-yawns and even some sneezes and facial movements are sometimes the equivilant to a sigh. When she is experiencing a change of emotion,stress, or overstimulation, even happiness and relaxation she might do this and it's her way of letting out a sigh. When she handed her over to me to kind of prove a point she immediately looked at me, stopped crying and did a half-yawn (i'm assuming in contentment) I don't know why, but I find this all super cute (:
My in-laws came up for a week for vacation, and I took Lilah to the beach for the first time. I had bought two umbrellas to put her under out of the sun, but apparently the sun was super strong that day because her face was a little sun burned at the end of the day. I felt so bad. She was miserable, and the fact that she had the oxygen taped to her made it worse. He face was all rashy and irritated so I decided since her pulmonary visit was only a week away, and they were going to take her off during the day after that visit, I was going to take it off and give her cheeks a chance to air out. It had been super muggy and hot for weeks and it wasn't doing her skin any good. I monitored her the whole time she was off for the next couple days and she stayed at 99, 100. Below is a picture of her without the oxygen, look how pretty! I have that pulmonary appointment tomorrow and OT on Wednesday I will try to keep up with my blogs, so then I don't have to cram a ton of info into one, plus try to remember everything that happened. My mother-in-law took the kids back down to Mass with her for a week, which was nice because I was able to have some nice quiet bonding time with Lilah. I did a lot with her, we went to the lake, to the Maine Wildlife Park, Chuck E. Cheese, and out to eat. She was quite the busy little girl these past couple weeks. It is so hard to do these things lugging around a baby and two other kids on top of it. Now I know why some people decide one is enough! Three month pictures below, with the oxygen and without.....
