This week we had a developmental pediatric appointment and her First Steps intake at-home appointment. Both went great.
They looked at Coraline to see how she measures up to other 2 month olds (even though she’s actually 5 months), and turns out she is pretty on track. She has discovered playing with her own hands. It’s pretty cute. She looks very nervous with the hand-wringing. She tracks with her eyes really well, and I swear she actually smiled at one of her toys the other day. A real smile!
Both developmental and First Steps said there was no need for any immediate follow up. So we’re doing great! The next big appointment in May will be pulmonologist. This is the big one. They have to decide whether they think she’s doing well enough to get moved down to a lower flow of oxygen. This kid is getting really good at knocking her cannula out of her nose. The new thing is pushing it down into her mouth! So that’s nice. We’re hoping her time on oxygen is short. But hey, if she needs it, then she needs it.
Coraline has so many cute outfits and very few opportunities to wear them out. So we have decided that once a week we will have photo shoot times in a new cute outfit. Here are some of this week’s winners.
And you can’t even see where she spit up her green vitamin-y milk all over herself. Woot!
Some things around here look very different compared to a year ago…and some things haven’t changed at all. Here are a few glimpses at what things are looking like around here these days.
Let’s start in the Living Room
These blankets always start out folded neatly on the end of the couch with a pillow or two. As soon as the dog sees them that way he makes sure to get on in there…ruffle them up a bit, and attempt to become as intertwined with them as possible. This is nothing new.
Now to the Dining Room
Oh…the mail. Has anyone else had the amazing experience of opening a bill for $125,ooo!? We have!! It was pretty funny, honestly. How are you supposed to respond to something like that. Andrew said, “So do I just call them and SAY bankruptcy? How do you do declare it?” Heh. Thank goodness for insurance. And Medicaid. Anyway…this is where we are stashing all this stuff. We get so many things in the mail and we don’t really want to put any of it away yet. Ick.
BTW, we don’t eat in this room. Yet.
And the kitchen…
I spend WAY too much time in here washing parts. Lots and lots of parts. I feel like it’s all I do.
Finally, shots of the new bathroom…
Please keep in mind that while the bathroom is SO much nicer than it was, it is still tiny (which is fine) but pictures are hard to take in such a small space.
Soup the cat still steals heat from us. But check out the cork (made from recycled wine corks) floor! Woot!
The shower was tiled in subway tile. I was insistent that we keep the original arch. I think it looks pretty slick.
Andrew put together the vessel sink cabinet. I was skeptical about the space it was going to take up (we’re used to having a pedestal sink) but I think it turned out great.
The widest view of the room I could get. It’s so much brighter.
Coraline’s Room
This used to be our office. And then it became the guest room. We renovated it about 3 years ago, painting the walls green and refinishing the floors (which were carpeted). It is actually the nicest as a baby room.
We have so many clothes, because of the amazing generosity of others, that we don’t have enough room in her dresser. As she is not currently sleeping in her crib, it has become the staging area for wardrobe. As much as Coraline spits up on herself and as many outfits as she goes through, it helps to just have it all sitting out. Her aunt Amy made the cute charcoal comic over her bed.
Love these gifts. Now on the wall.
Changing table. You can see on the hooks that her leads for her monitor hang nicely there.
Our bedroom…
Where I sit and blog while this baby lounges and naps on her tummy, which is her favorite thing.
Coraline had her ROP check this week. Trips to Riley are getting easier now that we know where we are going and what we’re doing there. She had her eyes dilated (and they stayed that way for a LONG time) and turns out the ROP is almost completely resolved so she won’t have to go back for another 6 months. Rockin’! They did notice that I was wearing glasses and took a look while they had her there to check and see if they thought she might also have issues. Turns out she will most likely be near-sighted and will have Andrew’s astigmatism. Poor kid can’t get a break.
Coraline’s grandparents came down and babysat for the first time last night so we could leave the house for the first time together since she got home. It was very exciting. We went to trivia at the Red Lion Grog House and won 1st place in two rounds and 2nd place in the other. Woot! And I had a tasty beverage served in a copper mug! The grandparents didn’t seem too put off by their experience. I think she was generally pretty nice to them. She saved her crazy time for when we got home.
She is doing pretty well on the eating. She definitely wants to eat more at night before bedtime – oftentimes what seems like an obscene amount of food.
So Coraline has been home for two weeks now and I think we’re doing pretty well. Thought I would give a little update about what’s going on with her and post some new pics.
Eyes: Her ROP is back down to Stage 1. We had her first ophthalmologist appointment at Riley (which was a little bit of chaos) and they are hoping to only have to look at her one more time before we get a nice 6 mos break from them.
Heart: We had her cardiologist appointment today, also at Riley, and her very kindly doctor said that she sounded pretty good. She got an EKG and that looked pretty positive. She didn’t even seem to notice getting the test done.
Lungs: She doing pretty well on her O2. She hasn’t had any real episodes of apnea, which we weren’t all that concerned about. Her oxygen does drive me nuts, mostly because the cat thinks her tubing is a toy and jumps on it every time I take her into a different room. When he does this it makes for a shocking stop when we’re trying to turn a corner and we get yanked back. The portable O2 is also stupid because it’s like a tower, and you have to keep it upright to work, which in the moving car is not easy. Poor design. Very poor design.
Development: She isn’t really smiling yet with her mouth…but she smiles with her eyes. 🙂
She is really into staring at high contrast things. I found an app for my phone which is just slides of black and white pics with little sounds that go with each one. She LOVES it. She is also very into the picture that is over our bed. Ceiling fans are also the coolest.
Eating: She hasn’t gained a ton of weight, she’s about 9 lbs 2 oz. She has been eating pretty well though. Unfortunately she has also been spitting up quite a bit. Hopefully the spitting up slows down a bit and the gaining weight speeds up.
Social Life: Her and the animals get along swimmingly. The dog loves to sniff her…and often watches over her.
The dog also doesn’t seem to care that she has ears and does not refrain from his insane barking. She doesn’t seem too bothered by it. Coraline also has a new buddy, Kellen, who was born this week. She’s obviously excited to meet up with him when she’s more free from her wires and tubes. She also has some neighbor buddies who are so excited to meet her, but they are underage. They did make her a welcome home sign, which was super sweet. We’ll feel better about kids coming to visit after our first pulmonologist appointment.
In addition to Coraline coming home last week, Andrew’s grandmother, Dorothy Nelson, died. Sadly, Coraline was not able to meet her great grandmother before she died, despite being in the same hospital at the same time. We are even going to have our first babysitters this weekend so we can both attend the funeral.
Thanks to everyone who has been so helpful during this very busy time. We are lucky people.
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