SMILE!

This has been a very eventful week! Adalyn started smiling, I went back to work, and we started brainwashing our child to watch sports.

This past Monday, June 11, when I woke Adalyn up from her nap (in her crib, no less), I talked to her and smiled big (like I always do).  Well, this time, she smiled back!! So, I did it again and she smiled again! I called Rodney to the room, and she did it again when I smiled at her! Ever since then she has been doing it.  Granted, if she is in a pissy mood she won't do it.  However, she's been doing it for us at least a couple of times a day! This is what they call a  "social smile" which is a big developmental milestone! Here's a pic. :)



She also had an appointment with the opthamologist this past Tuesday, and her ROP (retinopathy), although still there, has not changed in about 6 weeks.  She has another appointment in 3 weeks to make sure that things are not worse and we'll go from there.  She is also down on how much oxygen she needs every day.  Right now she is only needing the oxygen when she is down for a "deep" sleep.  She doesn't need it anymore when she eats! And she has definitely been eating! She is eating more and more everyday--always a light eater in the morning and around 4 or 5pm she kicks it into high gear.  She's been doing well with the rice cereal, although we're pretty much just giving it to her in the bottle and not with the spoon.  I may try it again with the spoon tonight or tomorrow to see if she's figured that out a little more.

I also went back to work this past Tuesday.  14 hours without seeing Adalyn was hard, but not as hard as I thought it was going to be.  Rodney was great in sending me tons of pic texts and a couple of video emails.  She was up when I got home (Rodney was performing for her on the ukelele) so I got my snuggles in.  ;)

We've been watching the EuroCup and have been dressing her up in sports outfits on several of the days.  The day that Italy and Spain played I dressed her up in blue because, well, we have to cheer Gli Azzurri (the nickname of the Italian team).  She did look a little too much like a boy, so I decided to add a headband.  :)  Here's a pic of Adalyn cheering for Italy!
 

Wait, what? 4 month checkup already???

Today we had Adalyn's 4 month well-checkup appointment with the pediatrician.  She tipped the scales at 8 pounds 4 ounces (3.76kg), which was an increase of almost 1/2 pound (200 grams) in just 1 week! Her length and head circumference stayed pretty much the same,  but that can be normal due to it only being a week.  She is still less than 2% percentile, but her pedi said that she is following her own growth curve very well and isn't concerned at all. 

Her pedi said that we can also start trying to feed her rice cereal with a spoon at our discretion.  She said that she may not really be able to do it since she may not have the eating reflex down, but that it's worth a try.  If not, she said to give her the rice cereal in the bottle to get her body used to it.  She said that at 6 months she would really like to start Adalyn on vegetables.  I can't believe that this is already happening! I don't know if we'll start it tonight (since she got her shots today), but I'll report back when I do!

She got 2 immunizations today, and she was such a trooper! All morning I felt guilty because she would look at me with such contentment when I was feeding her a bottle, and all I could think was that I was going to take her to get shots and she had no clue! :)  She cried her pouty mouth cry for less than 1 minute, and wanted to be held instead of in the carrier (until we got to the car), but other than that did pretty well.  She's laying on me right now, somewhat wrapped in the Moby wrap, and is sucking away on her pacifier sleeping soundly. 


Which brings me to another development this week.  Adalyn has been needing the oxygen less and less. YAY!  She still needs it when she deep sleeps in the RNP, but only needs it for feeds about 1/4 of the time.  That's an improvement! So, little by little she is needing the oxygen less and less, and soon she won't need it at all! Since she only needs to be wired to the pulse ox for pretty much the whole day, I've been putting Adalyn in the Moby wrap and wearing her for several hours a day.  I wear her while on the recliner, while doing housework, and even while working out!  Rodney went running the other day, and I decided to do modify my workout a little and did light dancing/aerobic steps with Adalyn strapped in.  Of course the Britney Spears Pandora station was blaring, and I was moving around, and Adalyn LOVED IT! She pretty much slept the whole time, even with me singing along! It was really fun "dancing" with Adalyn. :)

The Moby wrap was also fabulous when we went over to my parents for our weekly family dinners with the whole family.  I strapped Adalyn in and we all got to sit at the table and eat.  I actually had her facing out, so she was part of the dinner table.  She LOVED looking at everyone and she just sat there quietly while we all ate. Then, we strapped Adalyn in the Moby on my mom.  She said it was comfortable, but would ask me every 5 minutes if the baby was ok and if she was breathing fine! She was so cute! Happy to report that Adalyn also enjoyed the hug hold with Abuelita. :)

2 Great MD Appointments!

I was a little nervous going to Adalyn's 2 doctor's appointments today.  She had a pediatrician appointment (follow-up to check her weight, etc) and her first pulmonologist appointment.  I was nervous, irrationally so, that they were going to tell us something was wrong and/or that Adalyn needed to see another specialist or something. 

Today was a day where if you had the option you would stay in! The skies were gray, and when it was time to load her up in the car, it started to pour.  So, Rodney had to pull the Accord in the garage (and the Altima out) so that we wouldn't get drenched! Luckily, her pediatrician's office is at the hospital, so we park in the parking garage and have a covered walkway. 

Adalyn has been gaining weight fabulously and is up to 7.8 pounds (3.58 kg) and is 20 inches long (51.5cm)! She is, of course, not even on the growth charts--ie, less than 2 percentile--but that is because she is compared to full term babies, so it's nothing to worry about.  When you adjust it for being a preemie, she falls between the 10th and 25th percentile for weight, length, and head circumference.  Our pediatrician said that the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) recommends to plot her growth on the regular growth charts to see when she finally catches up with regular full-term babies. 

We also brought up how we've noticed a few cases of reflux, where hours after she's eaten she'll cough up, almost choke on it a little, desat a little, and then come back up.  The pediatrician prescribed Zantac to see if it will help. So, now Daddy and Adalyn are both on ranitadine. :) I don't think that Rodney every thought that he would be on the same medication as his daughter. 

We also mentioned how we weren't sure if she had thrush or not, since her tongue was sometimes white and other times not.  She said that Adalyn had a very small touch of thrush and prescribed some nystatin for that.  It'll be good to get it before it spreads to the rest of her mouth. 


We set up for her 4 month appointment next week (yikes! She's already almost 4 months old!) where she'll get her next round of vaccinations. So, we'll probably not have a very happy baby next Tuesday, but she did really well with her shots when she was in the hospital, so hopefully she'll do great.

Then we went to the pulmonologist.  Great news there also! Her new magic number is 92 on the pulse ox.  If she is satting at 92, her doctor said that we could keep her off the oxygen.  He said that it was perfectly normal that she needs it more while she sleeps than when she is awake since we don't breathe as deep when we're sleeping.  He also said for us to stop the caffeine (yay!) and that we could just do the apnea monitor at night and while she is in the car seat.  He said to see how she does for a day or so without the caffeine before cutting out the apnea monitor during the day, however.  He said for us to keep trying to wean her off the oxygen as long as she is over 92, and that we could try her feedings without the oxygen as well! He is having us come back in 2 months, and hopefully then she'll get to be completely off the oxygen and maybe all the monitors!

So, in summary, we added 2 new meds, but took away 1! And, we get to have her a little less wired. :)

Hungry Little Munchkin!

Adalyn is really turning into a chunky monkey! The last couple of days she has been pretty much non-stop with the feedings.  She is definitely taking larger amounts than before, and more often.  This morning she actually feels noticeably heavier than she did yesterday!

I really think that keeping her more on the oxygen is making a difference.  Even though she is satting high, we're keeping her on the oxygen unless she is awake and doing tummy time or playing.  However, it could just be that she's going through a growth spurt.  What sucks is that she doesn't really follow what a typical newborn would be doing in regards to growth spurts, etc.  I mean, she kind of does, but doesn't.  I guess it's good that Adalyn just isn't in any of the books--she's a unique character all on her own.  :)

She had an episode this morning which kind of scared me.  I woke up to the pulse ox and the apnea monitor going off and I got Adalyn and it looked like she was gasping for breath.  Her eyes were all wide-eyed and she was looking around.  I got the bulb syringe and suctioned out her mouth and got some mucous.  I'm not sure if she had reflux or something, but it really scared the crap out of me.  What if she wasn't on the monitor?  Could she have choked to death?  She didn't spit up or anything, but there was definitely some gunk in her mouth.  I'll be sure to bring it up on Tuesday when we see her pediatrician.  I'm thinking that she has reflux, but thickening the feeds isn't what is going to work since it is well after she eats that she has the problem.  Perhaps they will have to do a swallow study.  We'll see what her pedi says on Tuesday.

Adalyn also has an appointment with her pulmonologist on Tuesday.  I'm actually a little nervous with what they're going to say.  It's not rational, but I'm worried that they're going to tell me that Adalyn will need to stay on oxygen until she turns 1 or something.  Ridiculous, I know.  Honestly, I don't think that Adalyn will be on oxygen for more than 1 or 2 more months. 

Yesterday Adalyn finally got to meet her cousin Allen.  Allen is 26 months old, and was sort of weary of Adalyn.  He noticed she was there, but just kept his distance.   It will be really interesting once they actually start interacting with one another.  For now, it was really nice to all be together at my parents house for dinner. 

Hello!

Let's start off with why the blog is named the way it is.  I, of course, think of my daughter Adalyn as a work of art.  However, the title is actually a play on words since she is a work of A.R.T, which stands for Assisted Reproductive Technology.  ART includes several different infertility treatments, including IUI and IVF.  Adalyn is here as a result of IVF that I underwent in the summer of 2011.

My pregnancy was pretty run of the mill until I went in at 22 weeks 6 days for a routine fetal echocardiogram ultrasound.  The date was January 11, 2012 and it was a day that changed our lives forever.  We discovered that my water had broken and/or had some sort of tear where I was leaking fluid.  They estimated that it had started leaking when I was about 21 weeks pregnant.  I was immediately hospitalized and placed on hospital bedrest.  I was able to keep Adalyn cooking for 24 more days before I started going into labor on February 3, 2012.  At 1pm I started spotting, was bleeding by 6pm, was sent to L&D at 8:30pm, had a fever at 9pm, elevated blood count and higher fever at 10pm, and Adalyn was born via c-section on February 4, 2012 at 12:17am.  It was determined that I had developed chorioamnioitis which is what began labor.

Adalyn was born at 26 weeks 2 days and spent 83 days in the NICU.  She came home on April 26, 2012.  Despite being on oxygen, an apnea monitor, and a pulse ox, she has been adjusting well to life at home.  She has no major problems other than BPD, but hopefully she will be off the oxygen soon.  However, this blog is about Adalyn's progress and what she is able to do every week.  It is a way for me to document what she's up to, and also be able to share it with friends and family members, and anyone who wants to know.  It's also a way for me to write about her antics and how we figure things out. :)