Sunday, October 27, 2013

Baby girl had a busy week (therefore baby girl's mama had a busy week).  Baby girl's daddy was working nights, so I got to take Aubrey to PT/OT on Wednesday and to the pediatrician on Friday.  She did fine at therapy, and they want her to work on shifting her weight from foot to foot while she's standing so she will get used to that feeling.  They also want us to work on her being able to grasp things with just her "pinching" fingers instead of raking the object up with her entire hand.  Yesterday Aubrey stood straight up in the middle of the floor completely unassisted.  She did it again today.  They asked me at therapy if she had been "cruising" around the furniture--holding on and walking--and she hadn't; I saw her do it on the fireplace today.  Movin' on up!

Worn out after therapy

 We took Aubrey to visit her first pumpkin patch on Thursday.  She wasn't overly impressed.  She liked to smack the pumpkins to hear the noise and she wanted to touch the big blow-up jack-o-lanterns.  And we got some cute pictures, so really it was worth it.

Her doctor's appointment went well.  She weighs 14lb 6oz and is 27.5 inches long.  Still not on the charts when it comes to weight, but in the 5th percentile in height (they're measuring that as if she's an actual one year old; if they were measuring her as a 9 month old, she'd be in the 50 something percentile for height).  She got her one year vaccinations and her flu shot booster (no reaction this time, thankfully).  The doctor thought she looked great and was surprised at how well she's doing (I don't know why she was surprised!).  She did want to check her hemoglobin just to make sure it was ok (she said sometimes preemies have issues with that), so they stuck her toe to get some blood.  Well, the first stick wouldn't bleed, so they had to stick her again; that one wouldn't stop bleeding.  Aubrey was a trooper through it all and her hemoglobin checked out fine.  The doctor is going to order another swallow test so we can see if she'll be ready to use a cup and drink regular milk in a few months.

Today we went to a special party.  Every year the NICU we were in for over 3 months has a "baby come back" party--they invite all the "graduates" from the NICU to come back to see the nurses, doctors, and other families they were there with.  It was so good to see those special people that took such good care of Aubrey (and us), and to see how much the other babies we were there with have grown.  Aubrey's still a might-mini compared to most of the other babies, but it was heartwarming to see them doing so well. 

Of course seeing all those people made you remember everything about being in the NICU, good and bad.  One of our favorite nurses held Aubrey and told us about a moment she would never forget with us: the week back in December when I was sick and couldn't go into the unit to see Aubrey was awful.  She was the one taking care of her the day Aubrey was to be moved to another room, and she told Adam to bring me up there and she would let me see her.  So she let Adam carry Aubrey to the back of the unit where the sliding glass doors were, and she carried the oxygen tank and kept the tubes up to Aubrey's face.  She said she would always remember me standing on the other side of the doors, tears streaming down my face as I got to see my baby for a minute.  This, of course, made me cry today, but that's ok.  It's a moment I won't ever forget either, and I'm just thankful that the people that work there are awesome enough to take care of us parents so well too.

This is what happens when I try to take pictures these days.

This one turned out pretty cute.

-Keli