My little B is home!!!! It is even better than I imagined having her here. She is so fun to play with. She is really into laughing right now, so when she sees someone she knows or hears a familiar voice, she laughs. Sometimes, when she gets really excited (looking at her mobile) she will just squeal, and it is so darn cute!
We were able to get her completely off of oxygen a few weeks ago. It has been so great to be able to carry her around the house without bringing the lovely 50 ft of plastic tubing with us. Her doctor even said he could call and get home health to come and pick it up. I kinda freaked out a little bit. The pediatrician (who loves to crack jokes) said, "OK, Mom, is she going to carry a monitor to prom, too?" Ha ha. But he did let me keep it one more month, which should be ample time for me to say my parting words, and decide what we will put in the hall closet that is currently FULL of oxygen tanks. Along with that, we got her off of one medicine, the diuretic she's been on since she was born. It was to help keep fluid off of her lungs, but my big girl is able to do that on her own, now. We kept the stickers on her face, for a while. Just in case. All my fellow NICU Mom's will understand this, they would always tell us, "Never trust a preemie" Meaning, there would often be a honeymoon phase where everything would go great, and then the little prince or princess would rebel!
Since she has been off of oxygen, we have been able to do some more fun things with her, like go swimming,
Go for walks at the City Lake...
And watch movies (in the bedroom)
We still don't really take her many places for fear of her getting an infection, but we have loosened up a little bit since it isn't RSV season right now. So far, she's gotten to visit a furniture store, and eat on the patio at Cheesecake Factory (right at 11, there was no one else there) Besides that, her car trips are limited to doctor and specialist visits. She cleared from the opthamologist for her ROP, after seeing him every other week since we got out of the NICU, as of this week, we don't have to go back until December! Her Endocrinologist appointment also went well, besides the screaming fest that happened when they had to draw her blood. Her thyroid levels are in normal range with her current medications, so we won't go back until August. At her 6 month checkup with the pediatrician, she was 9lb, 9oz. That's still pretty tiny for her adjusted age (2.5 months) She is not quite on the growth chart yet for height, but she is actually on the lower end for length. She'll be tall and thin! Besides all of those doctors, she also does Sooner Start, which is an early intervention program that helps ensure she's developing on time. We took her to the physical therapist a few weeks ago, and she showed us some exercises we could do with her to strengthen her muscles. We can already tell a big difference in her head control, etc, since we started that.
Over all, she is doing great. Her Doctor said on Tuesday that developmentally she's at about 4 - 4.5 months. This was really good news for us, because that puts her about 1-2 months ahead of where she should be at this point. More to come later (when I find time)... Sorry for the lack of updates!
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