Year End Round Up for Princess

Here is our Year End Round Up for 2015:

Trips to Sac: 6

Trips to YC: 2

Therapy Sessions: 50+ -- Princess receives weekly therapy, plus we added 3 more therapists, 1 though is redundant.

Dr. Appointments:  A LOT!

Specialists Seen: 4 -- We added 1 new one this year.

Ultrasounds: 2, thankfully done the same day!

ER Trips: 1!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!

New Diagnoses:  2

Hospitalizations: 0!!!!!!!!!

Highlights:

Princess graduated from NICU Follow-Up Clinic!

She was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy (CP) and Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD).

After her next birthday, we will no longer be seeing J, our developmental therapist. We also will no longer be seeing M, the OT through the county special ed department. She will no longer qualify to have her gym class paid for, but we will likely continue it, as it's only $7, we just probably won't be going as frequently. But we will be continuing with the medical based therapy with L, the physical therapist and M, the occupational therapist.

On Monday, she's scheduled for an MRI of her brain. It's to "verify" the CP diagnosis. I'm not sure if we're going to see anything on it or not, but it's more to make sure the insurance doesn't stop her services.

Also coming up in the next few months, the school district and regional center will be assessing her to see if she falls within their range to receive services. It's likely that she won't qualify except for maybe school based OT for the sensory issues, since the medical unit doesn't deal with them. Also coming up, we make the first quarter rounds with all the docs. Some we only see once a year (Dr. M and Dr. R), some we see twice a year (Dr. K and Dr. D), and then we see Dr. H quarterly.

But God continues to watch out for this little girl. At our last PT visit with L, she said that they would like Princess to be seen on their "clinic" days. I'm not entirely sure all that goes on, but I do know that a medical doctor comes in and we meet with her therapy team. It's every other month. Well, it turns out that Dr. D from Shriners is the doctor that comes to the location Princess is being seen at! So it means that we'll be able to get additional therapy, any medical adaptive devices, or other services taken care of much quicker than having to wait to see Dr. D at her bi-annual appointment.

So all in all, 2015 was a good year for Princess. We are two years out of the hospital and hope to stay that way! She's in a preschool that she enjoys and works well for her not only socially and academically, but also with all of her issues. And pretty soon, she'll be 3. It's hard to believe that this little tiny tyke is going to be three years old soon. She's such a warrior.

Linked up at #BloggyBrunch

No More Bottle!

We are now bottle free! Yay! No more bottles! And BOTH my kids did it ON THEIR OWN! They're so smart!

A little background:

Little Man has ALWAYS been built like a linebacker! He's been in the 95th percentile for his weight since he was 4 months old! So at a year old, his pediatrician told me that he needed to give up the bottle. Okay... (I guess this is the new recommendation based on oral health.) Well, thankfully, he did it on his own around right around that time. He still had a binkie (pacifier) that he used until he was about 2, so I wasn't worried.

Now, for Princess. Well, since she was a preemie, it took her a while get the whole "suck, swallow, breathe" thing. She also had a binkie, but gave that up around 6 months old. I think she began to associate it with getting poked (poor kid! Too much sweet-eze and the binkie, I guess). So I wasn't about to take the bottle away from her at a year old. Plus, it helped that her nutritionist wanted her to stay on the formula until she was a year adjusted (one of the FEW things we've EVER done by her adjusted age!). So after she came off the formula, a year ago, I went ahead and let her keep having her bottle of milk at bedtime. It seemed to help her calm down. Yeah, okay, I know you're technically not supposed to let them do that, but you know what, my kid was a NICU baby. It took her long enough to figure it out. I'm not about to take it away from her!

Well, the other night, she was taking her bottle and she was just about done, when she puked it! Oh how I hate puke! Yeah, most people hate puke, but I especially hate puke. Why? Well, it's simple. We've been told by Princess's nephrologist, that if we were ever thinking about giving her Pedialyte, to just go to the ER and have them run a saline drip. Okay, so essentially that means that if she gets ANY KIND of stomach bug, we need to go to the ER and get her electrolytes checked. Thankfully she hasn't need any IVs yet. (She was a SUPER HARD stick in the PICU!) But puke from Princess typically means going to the ER and having them look at me weird. I usually have to drop either the phrase "her cardiologist said..." or "her nephrologist said..." before the nurses start taking me seriously. Otherwise I get looked at like I'm some panicky new mom.

Okay, so back to the bottle. Yes, she puked. I got her cleaned up, changed her sheets (that I had just washed!) and then the poor kid didn't want to sleep on her bed! Why? Because it was blue and not her "Doc Bed." Oh the joys of having a verbal 2 year old! So I got her to sleep, FINALLY, and found pajamas for me that were at least not my clothes just in case I was going to be up all night at the ER with her. Surprisingly, she slept all night and didn't puke any more! Yes, there were prayers of joy that morning. But, I certainly held my breath when she ate her breakfast. Hooray! It stayed down! In fact, everything else the rest of the day stayed down! I was so thankful! I REALLY didn't want to text J and tell him that Princess had a stomach bug and he needed to watch for it and apologize like crazy! (Hey, he's got kids on his list that have more serious issues than Princess and REALLY couldn't handle getting sick!)

So that brings us to bedtime. I asked her if she wanted a "baba" and she said "No more baba." Okay... If you say so kid! Well, even though she had only taken a 20 minute nap, it still took her like an hour to fall asleep because without the bottle, she didn't know what to do! We tried reading. We tried snuggling. I tried the "I'm going to go put your brother to bed and be right back" (which used to work) and she just came out of her room! Eventually she fell asleep on the floor. That was Wednesday night.

Thursday night I asked if she wanted her baba and she again said "No more baba!" Okay, so we went to bed at 7:30. We read two books ("Hippos Go Berserk" and "Giraffes Don't Dance"), snuggled, and eventually she wanted to be "upside down" on my lap on the floor and wanted me to rub her tummy. She eventually fell asleep after an hour and was out enough for me to move her to her bed.

I don't know about last night, as she was at her dad's house, but I've washed the bottles and will be putting them up. I don't think I'm going to throw they away JUST yet. I'm probably going to hang on to them for about a week, THEN toss them. I don't think she's going to use them anymore. She's a BIG girl...um, Diva.

Princess's 2nd Birthday and Development

A couple weeks before Princess's second birthday, I had to do the "million questions" with J. This is an assessment. Thankfully he keeps the same file on the kids so we don't have to go through a bazillion more questions! The week after that, was her IFSP (think IEP for little kids). And surprise, surprise: she's "caught up!" OMG! I can't believe it! The only reason she's "caught up" is because now everything is a range and she's right in that range for her age! YAY! So the next NICU developmental clinic will probably be our last, we hope! Surprisingly, J is still going to be coming around for another year. I guess that's a good thing, and job security for him. I mean, if he didn't come around, I think Princess's little heart would be broken! Then the following weekend was Princess's second birthday.

For her second birthday, we started celebrating on Friday. We wanted her to have time to play with her new toys, as our plan was to go to the zoo on Saturday. I knew she would be too tired when we got home and it would be too much to ask a two year old to get up and leave the toys she just got. So Friday night when Meme got home from work, we broke out the cupcakes I had picked up earlier in the day. I had ordered cupcakes instead of a full on cake because it's just the 4 of us and being Princess didn't do the whole cake smash thing, I wasn't sure if she was even going to like cake! Well, of course, if it's not one thing, it's another. This kid was afraid of the candles! Go figure! But her cupcakes were cute!

Then it was on to presents. She really enjoyed opening them. She got Doc sheets for her bed, a new ride on giraffe toy, giraffe pictures that my uncle took, and a kitchen (which I had to build ahead of time)!

The next day, we were off to the zoo! Our whole plan was to feed the giraffes and then pretty much go home after that. We saw the animals, and then, of course, when it was just about time to feed the giraffes, Princess was exhausted! But when it was her turn to feed the giraffe, she was practically jumping up and down! She was SO happy to feed the giraffe lettuce! I didn't manage to get any pictures of her doing it, but she LOVED it! Then we had to ride the train and then we went home.

One of the cool things Princess did was Carry a Bead. This is a GREAT program put on by Beads of Courage. Anyone can Carry a Bead. All you have to do is pay for it and shipping is free! They send you the bead, then you pin it to yourself and do something! It can be running a marathon, going on a hike, your first day of work or school, or like what Princess did, a trip to the zoo. It really doesn't matter. You get 2 beads, one for you and one for you to send back. This bead that you send back becomes an "Act of Courage" Bead for a child undergoing treatment. So, the next time you're thinking of doing something, think about sharing that adventure with a child who can't and is probably in the hospital undergoing cancer treatment or heart surgery or some other treatment for a disease. These beads really make their day and mark milestones in their treatment journeys. Click the link above to order your Carry a Bead kit now!

Shriner's Trip

When Princess started walking, shortly afterwards I noticed that her left leg was bowed. I researched and found that this was not normal. So I asked J, our developmental therapist. He recommended a PT evaluation. Before the physical therapist could come out, we were at the NICU developmental clinic. They told me that they wanted her seen by PT, which we were already on board with. See, Princess W-sits like there is no tomorrow. I hate it. I've been telling her to fix her feet and sometimes she does it and sometimes she doesn't. Well, with all that W-sitting, she lost trunk tone. So then M, the physical therapist, came out and recommended that Princess be seen at Shriner's, the closest and only pediatric orthopedic specialists near us. She really didn't think there was much that could be done about the bowed leg, but thought that at least they would be able to say definitively if there was something they could do. M gave us exercises to be doing with Princess and we started doing them. Most of them we had already done when Princess had come home from the NICU, so it was just reintroducing them.

After meeting with M, I made an appointment with Dr. M, Princess's pediatrician to get the referral to Shriner's. Princess's previous pediatrician, Dr. J, was GREAT about getting us referrals, so I didn't think anything about it. How wrong I was. Dr. M completely pooh-pooh's me and makes me think I'm an overbearing mama. She says that she's not going to write the referral because as long as Princess doesn't have a vitamin D deficiency or any other issues, that she would out grow it.

It didn't dawn on me until I got home that vitamin D could be a kidney concern. Thankfully we were seeing Dr. H two weeks later. When I brought up the one bowed leg to her, she added on a vitamin D test to our normal labs. Turns out Princess WAS vitamin D deficient, like majorly! So we added vitamin D supplements to her daily medication. It was like 3 times the regular dosage for a toddler!

In between seeing Dr. M and Dr. H, I finally got the recommendations from the NICU developmental clinic. I noticed that they sent it to Dr. J, Princess's previous pediatrician, so I was going to call them and get it sent to Dr. M. So, as I was reading through the paperwork, I skipped to the part where I knew Princess needed to work on. In there it said "Refer patient to Shriner's." So I picked up the phone and got the NICU developmental clinic on the phone. In telling them Princess's new pediatrician's information (of which I was sure I had told them when we were there), I also mentioned that we had just been in to see the pediatrician and she didn't want to refer us to Shriner's. They were shocked to say the least. They said they would write the referral.

Now, this all transpired between October and November of last year. After having two different people tell me that Princess needed to be seen at Shriner's, we finally got our appointment. The information came in January. It was a little scary seeing the paperwork say she was being evaluated for cerebral palsy, but when the referral comes from the NICU developmental clinic, I guess that makes sense. Our appointment was the beginning of March.

Now, here's the thing, usually when we get these new appointments I have absolutely no clue as to where we are going. Not this time! I knew exactly where the Shriner's hospital was at. It's right in between the children's hospital and Princess's nephrologist! Well, of course, Meme has to come so she insists we leave way early. No biggie. We're there like an hour early! Thankfully this hospital is SET UP for kids. Our little waiting area had a little table and books and couple little things for the kids to play with. When we finally get back there, Princess gets to sit on a weight chair (why don't ALL her specialists have this thing?) and we get an actual standing height! Then we got to wait. This is typical for just about any specialist we have ever seen!

Then the assistant comes in and takes Princess's history. I guess she's pretty rare in being an ex-28 week preemie and not having any major complications. I mean, sure she has eczema and sees an ophthalmologist, but beyond that, her specialists are for her disease. Then after she's done, we wait some more. A nurse comes in and says that they want x-rays. So we follow her to radiology. I take Princess back there and they want a standing x-ray of her hips. Oh yeah, this ought to be interesting! So I get all covered up, the technician gets everything set up and then we plop Princess on the step, snap the picture and get down. Thankfully they got it the first time! The other technician gives Princess a Scooby-Doo sticker and then notices that she has "Tinky Nee" (her stuffed giraffe) with her, so she goes and finds her a giraffe sticker. You would've thought the girl had been given a real giraffe with the way her face lit up!

So then, back in our room, we wait some more. Finally Dr. D comes in. He is like SO wonderful! He talks to Princess. Shows her the picture of her hips. Checks her reflexes. Then he has her walk up and down the hall. The bowing is better than what it was, thanks to the vitamin D she's been on! So that she will likely outgrow. The other concern I had was that when she walks, she rocks her left ankle out. Dr. D seems to think this will self correct, but she may need an orthotic just to remind her. He was also concerned that her reflexes were still really easy to solicit. He was concerned that she might have a very mild case of Cerebral Palsy. Like it would be so mild, Princess wouldn't qualify for services. So we go back in six months (September) to see how she's doing.

Doc Update

So Princess has had a few doc appointments lately. Let's go back to August:

She saw the ophthalmologist, Dr. R. The great thing about this was that Dr. R is LOCAL! Like here in town local! Granted, it's only twice a week, or something, but still! We'll take a LOCAL eye doc over a two hour drive any day! Oh, and this was like the QUICKEST we have EVER gotten in to see a specialist EVER! Princess's therapist, J, called on a Tuesday morning to get all the info so he could submit the referral (thankfully we didn't have to go through her PCP, as her 15m appointment got bumped). That SAME DAY we got a call from Dr. R's office to set up an appointment! And the appointment was only like a few weeks away too! We were concerned about astigmatism, as when the nurse came out to assess Princess back in January, the nifty eye machine detected such. But Dr. R didn't see it at this time. She had her eyes dilated and things looked good. She goes back in 6 months just for a quick check and then it will be yearly!

Dilated and waiting to see the doc.

 Then at the beginning of September, Princess FINALLY got in to see her new pediatrician. Because we go to the "clinic" which is technically a "rural clinic" with labs, and specialists and even dental services on site, we will only see the new pediatrician, Dr. M for well child visits. If Princess or Little Man get sick, they can be seen the same day by a PA there at the clinic. So we get in there and, as expected, it takes 2 hours! For one, Dr. M runs late. For two, we had the WHOLE HISTORY that is Princess to go through. So by the time we left, it was two hours after Princess's appointment. And I still have forms for record requests to turn in! Of course Princess fell asleep while we waiting. The only good thing is that we don't have to go back until Princess is 2 years old, outside of the kids need their flu shots, so we'll do that in October sometime. Being we probably won't see Dr. M except for well child visits, I'm okay with her.

Waiting to see the doc.

Fell asleep waiting.

Then last week, Princess had her nephrology follow up from June. (Backdated post coming soon on the nephrologist from June.) I took Princess by myself so Little Man didn't have to miss out on his classes. Dr. H was running "more than 30 minutes behind." So I KNEW we were going to be there for A WHILE. Well, when we got back into vitals, Princess was having very little to do with ANYTHING. She wasn't screaming until we attempted to get her blood pressure. Then we finally got back into the room and she wandered around and played for about ever. Dr. H's new med student came in to take Princess's history. We attempted another blood pressure with MORE screaming.

Leaving on the long drive there!

In the waiting room.

Waiting for the doc.

Dr. H came in FINALLY after being back there for like an hour! (Talk about B-E-H-I-N-D!) So, we talk, I have her fill out the dietary form for food stamps, I get what I'm supposed to put on her medic-alert bracelet. I tell her about my mom's nephrologist and how he said that if something were to happen to her and she was stuck locally and couldn't be transported, he'd be in contact with her. And when I told her that the only time he had seen PHA2 was while he was with her, she shot her med student this look that said "I told you you were going to see a rare one!" So then when Dr. H tried to listen to Princess and feel her tummy and all that, Princess was having NOTHING to do with it. Even when the nurse went to put a bag on her so we could get a urine sample, she screamed. We did labs with MORE screaming and then attempted another blood pressure, again with no luck. I had to go down to the car with her so we could get her kool-aid so she could have something to drink so we could MAYBE get something for the urine catch. FINALLY we got that! Then we were able to check out! We were supposed to do a renal ultrasound, but after all the trauma that Princess went through, I opted to wait until next time, unless we have to do it locally. All in all, it was a 3 hour visit!

Still waiting on the doc.

Crashed out in the car on the way home.

Then on the way home, there was an accident on the road we were taking back up to the house so we had to turn around and go a different way. So by the time we got home, it had been about 8 hours from the time we left!

The day after the nephrology clinic craziness was Princess's IFSP (Individual Family Service Plan). That wasn't too big a deal outside of they are trying to be more family friendly with the goals. Okay, great! Let's take two educators (me and J) who have worked with IEPs and say "no more edu-speak" and instead be all family friendly is really kind of hard! But things worked out and her goals for the next six months are as follows:

1. Walk up the stairs at the park. (This might actually be more difficult than expected as some of those steps on those play structures come up to the kid's waist!)
2. Use a regular cup independently. (I'm not expecting no messes ever, just to be able to use a cup!)
3. Use a spoon. (This also might be a little far reaching, as most kids don't "master" this until almost 2 and a half, but again, I'm not expecting every time, just often enough to actually get food in her tummy!)

And I have to call and get her medic-alert set up. Maybe I'll have enough money to do that soon.

Milestone Monday: Blocks, Walking and Big Girl

So first up is that Princess has figured out how to stack her blocks. The most she has ever stacked is 5, but those tend to fall right away. She usually manages about 3-4 blocks before they fall over.

Next up is that Princess is WALKING!!!!! She's been cruising since she was about 15 months old and started taking like 2-3 steps on her own at about 16 months. Then about two weeks later, she started getting brave and taking more steps on her own! It was decided that if we put her in shoes, it should help her toe dragging. Well, the problem was putting her in shoes! She HATED them! Then we went to the zoo for Labor Day. We put her shoes on her and she found out that she can WALK by holding someone's hand and she can go where SHE wants to. So now, she has been very good about putting shoes on when we go out. She LOVES her shoes now. And we even got her a pair of Mary Janes and she LOVES her "pretty shoes." She now will get up and walk all over the house. She's walked from one side to the other by herself!

Then, on Saturday, Princess didn't want to eat lunch. So MeMe suggested that she sit at the playschool table. So we tried it.

Later that day, MeMe and Pops went out and found Princess a toddler bed. It was a Minnie Mouse one but we decided not to put the Minnie Mouse stickers on it. Pops had to put it together and of course Princess had to help.

Once we got her "big girl" bed together, she had to sit on it. She got a pillow, a Doc McStuffins pillow case, a Doc McStuffins doll (that is about as big as she is!), a butterfly blankie, and a new butterfly sheet for her bed.

Later that night, we started a new routine: bath (if needed), jammies, story, bottle, and then bed. So far she has spent the past 2 nights in her bed. Of course, she doesn't want to sleep on the pillow and instead sleeps at the foot of the bed, so she has fallen out a lot. We're going to put pillows down tonight. Last night, we put a baby gate up at the door because the night before, the dogs kept coming in to sniff at her. Hopefully by her IFSP, she'll be sleeping in her "big girl" bed by herself and not falling out of it.

Happy 4th of July!

What a difference in a year! This is Princess. Last year, Independence Day was her first holiday out of the hospital. She was wearing a newborn onesie. This year, she is wearing a 12m dress! She has gotten so big!

Thinking about things, she has not been to the hospital in a whole year now! It is absolutely amazing to me that even though she has had TWO stomach bugs in that time, neither one has warranted hospitalization and electrolyte replacement. We truly are blessed in that regard!

It also means that the only beads she has received have been "holiday" beads put out by the Beads of Courage Facebook page! She hasn't had a Bead update in a whole year! As great as this program is, we hope to keep it that way for a while. Being in the hospital is no fun, even if you do get beads for it.

Also last week, we had our quarterly check in with the nephrologist. Princess is doing well. There was about a MOMENT that I thought she MIGHT be coming off her low potassium diet. But when I got her labs back, I don't think the doc is going to let that happen. While her potassium level was in the normal range, it was a high normal. I can't see stopping the diet being a high normal. But we'll find out in September. Dr. H also was concerned when I told her that Princess sometimes would get puffy behind the eyes. I guess it could be a heart issue (but Dr. K has said her heart is fine) or a protein issue. Well, her labs came back fine and she didn't have any protein in her urine either so that's all great news! So I guess Princess is just one to be puffy behind the eyes when she retains water. (I kind of figured, as I remember the nurses in the NICU saying she would get puffy behind the eyes.)

So, as it stands, all is well, which is good. We have a renal ultrasound scheduled (I think, it's at least planned, I have to call and double check that it's scheduled!) for September as well. So that ought to be interesting! We are continuing with the low potassium diet with Princess, which is fine. We have had two weeks off of therapy, as her therapist had some vacation time to take! She's doing well developmentally. She's starting to do finger plays (she likes Patty-Cake, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Little Bunny Foo Foo). And she's even blowing kisses! I can't wait to see what her therapist says! She's got LOTS of words: "ba" (ball), "coo" (either Kool-Aid or cookie), "Bu Ba" (either Little Man's name or bubble), "cla" (clock), "Ma Ma," "MeMe," "bay be" (baby), "Da" (dog), "Gee" (her glow worm). She's doing so well! It's hard to believe all that she has accomplished in a year!

Developmental Clinic from February!

Well, we had our big follow up at the hospital's developmental clinic back in February! I made our developmental therapist, J, take us. I figured it was important that we all be on the same page with her development and doing the same things.

So at the clinic, things were about the same as her 9m (really her 10m) appointment:

Weight: 16lbs 2.5oz
Length: 25.5in

I didn't know what to expect, but it was pretty basic. Met with one of the PTs. They assessed Princess. She did amazing! Of course they were looking at her like a 7m old, not a 10m old. But that's fine.

Met with the doc. She checked her out. Things were fine. I knew they would be. Got the weight and length above. Then, as we were waiting for the social worker, they came in and delivered her PT assessment. She assessed at 7m for gross motor/fine motor and communicative/expressive language. So that's what they expect. But she assessed at 10m for her cognitive abilities! J said that was why they didn't look at adjusted age for the county early intervention. Sometimes this happens and then you have a weird gap. So instead, they look at actual age and work on getting them "caught up."

Social worker suggested we apply for SSI. I don't know if we'll get it, or even if I'll apply. Maybe. Otherwise, we go back in November, so I should be hearing from them soon. So, if my math is correct, they wanted to see her when she was at least 6m adjusted (she was 7m adjusted) and November would be at least 15m adjusted (I think it'll be 16m adjusted or so). So I think they'll be looking for her to be walking. I think I have her adjusted age right. That's why I put the ticker! The ticker will disappear probably either at 2 or 3 years old. I don't adjust her age. I just let her be!

Milestone Monday: Teeth and Spaghetti

So the past month has been kind of rough. After we had our crisis of the stomach flu, Princess cut her first tooth! Actually, I probably should have known she wasn't feeling well because I noticed the tooth had finally popped through the day she got sick and she wasn't fussing about it. But then, right after that first bottom tooth, the one beside it popped through too! So it was like 2 to 3 weeks STRAIGHT of teething pain! And because of her PHA2 and the medication she's on she can ONLY have Tylenol. Glad I got an updated dosage at the pediatrician's when we went in at the beginning of January for her Synagis shot.

One of the other things that may not seem like a milestone to everyone else, but is kind of a big deal to me, is that Princess got to have spaghetti! (I'm working on a post about her dietary restrictions.) One of the things she can't have a lot of is tomatoes. This includes things like ketchup and spaghetti sauce. Well, we managed to find ONE spaghetti sauce that is lower in potassium. And the way we mix it all in with spaghetti noodles, she really doesn't get THAT MUCH sauce. And now that she is really getting good at feeding herself, she got to have spaghetti with us for the first time! Like any other child, she wore most of it. Fortunately, we took her clothes off and let her eat it that way. Then she went STRAIGHT into the bathtub!

Princess is sitting up well by herself. Feeding herself well and we are working on crawling. She may be 10 months old, but we're not really close to the point of crawling yet. Her therapist comes out once a week, and we play. She loves the toys he brings (as does Little Man) and we are trying to find new ways to get her on all fours without her screaming at us. She is generally a happy little girl, but she does have a temper. She's curious and into everything. She sometimes gets frustrated because I think her brain tells her that she needs to get to something, but she just can't figure out how to get there. She'll figure it out soon enough!

Milestone Monday: Rolling Over, Feeding and Sitting Up!

Recently, all of a sudden, Princess decided to roll over from her back to her tummy. She'd done it a couple times but last week, the light bulb just went off and she was off and rolling!

This is what she had been doing:

She had just about gotten it. All she had left was that last shoulder. Then she figured it out! 

Then, just randomly, she started grabbing the little puffs we'd been putting on her tray. She's managed to get a few of them to her mouth. So I watched her, and yes, she did have a pincer grasp!

So when we went to the grocery store, we got her Cheerios! (She's special and gets the chocolate ones!) And this little girl may not have a tooth in her mouth, yet she is chewing EVERYTHING up!

And then on Christmas, she did this:

Yep, she sat up all by herself!

Milestone Monday: Socks and Sippy Cups

This would have been posted yesterday, but I was still having issues with my photo storage website. I'm hoping it's fixed now!

Welcome to the first Milestone Monday! Princess has been approved for developmental therapy through early intervention and we have written our Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP). So I figured I should keep track of all of these milestones that she's going to be meeting. Some of them may not seem very big to you, but to us, they are a big deal. Something as simple as learning to pull her socks off on her own is cause for celebration!

So this past week, Princess made some pretty big strides!

Yes, she did finally get those socks off her feet!

She also learned to hold her own bottle!

And she held her own sippy cup!

She's rolled over from her back to her tummy a handful of times, and I have yet to be able to catch it. She did it the first time the afternoon after we wrote the IFSP. I think it was because we set it as an outcome we'd like to see her do. She was awake the whole time and she heard everything we said. So I think she went "HA! You just THINK I can't do it!" It was kind of like the day she was born. She went "HA! You just THINK I need this tube to breathe. Let me pull it out and show you!"

Six Month Ped Visit and Regional Visit

Monday, the local Regional Center came out and evaluated Princess. I was told that she may qualify for gross motor early intervention, but they're not sure. They'll let me know when they go through the evaluation form.

Yesterday, we did the trip down the hill to town for a pediatrician visit. It started with a stop to drop off a payment. Well, of course, on the way down, there's construction, so it throws off our whole time table! We manage to make it to the cardiologists office by 10:30AM for a blood pressure check. The whole office, save for the receptionist is at the OTHER clinic (I knew this going in) so they had to track someone down to check Princess's blood pressure. Of course, she doesn't want to cooperate and we get NADA! Okay, no prob. So we head off to the pediatrician. Update the address/phone number/kid photo and then get called back.

Princess's current stats:

Weight: 14lbs
Length: 24in

When we meet with the pediatrician, I find out WE ARE ON THE CHART!!!!! Yes, we have finally hit the growth chart! Okay, so if you actually look at her from her 6mo appointment with the cardiologist 2 weeks ago (she's almost 7mo now), she is at the 2nd percentile for length (24in) and the 5th percentile for weight (13.5lbs). Now when you consider Little Man was in the 95th percentile for both length (28in) and weight (21lbs) at 6mo, I wonder how in the world I am saying Princess is heavy!

So, after the pediatrician's office, we went back over to the cardiologist's office because Dr. K had wanted us to do labs. Well, apparently he forgot to put them in! So we opted to just come home instead of waiting because she had finally fallen asleep and was going to need to eat when we got home. So it was a very long morning. Both kids got their flu shots/flu mist. And Princess got a couple others. We'll do the others in a month when we go back for the next flu shot.