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. :)