Tera is two months old today! To celebrate, I wanted to show how much she has grown in the last two months.
I don't have a full body shot from the actual night she was born, so this picture is from February 24. She was 2 pounds 5 ounces when she was born, but I think she had lost a little bit of that by the time this picture was taken.
This is March 23. She weighed 2 pounds 13 ounces.
And here she is today, April 23. She weighs 4 pounds 13 ounces. Can you believe how chubby she is?!
My day started early so that I could make it to the hospital by 8:30 for her first (and only, for me) meal of the day. The doctors had increased her feeds again to 40cc, and she took them all effortlessly through her bottle. It's still so strange that sometimes she takes it like she's been doing it for years, and other times it seems as if she's never even tried it before. The Speech Therapist assures me that this is normal preemie stuff, and I know that it is. Now that I know that the doctors think she is on track to be well enough to go home in a couple of weeks, it's like I'm trying to make that happen. It's not that I want to rush her or that I want to take a baby home in two weeks that really isn't ready to go home. It's more about her continuing the journey she has taken so far. She made so much quick progress - the Rock Star, if you remember her from the NICU. She's grown faster than I ever expected. She started taking bottles sooner than I thought she would. She's only been really sick once in her whole stay. She's quite an impressive baby. I must have a bit of a competitive side in me, even with Tera. I don't mean to, but I think I want her to be the Exception. You know, what I mean. In the future when the doctors tell parents, "Preemies typically start taking bottles at 34 weeks, but there was this one Rock Star who started at 32." Or "Preemies usually stay until their due date, but sometimes - like with the Rock Star - they go home at 36 weeks."
Again, I'm really not pushing for anything that is not right for Tera. I think I wrote a couple of days ago how odd it is to be led by a two-month-old, but that truly is what I am letting her do. She tells us what she's ready to do and when, and there's not a lot we can do about it. I'm still on board with that philosophy. Sometimes I just want her to be a little bossier. Don't ever tell her I said that!
When she was finished eating, Kyle and Mandy came by to visit us again. They were in Birmingham for a Secret Service. It was a 6-hour church service led by a well-known preacher whose name I can't quite bring to mind right now. Some of our friends in Dothan watched it broadcast at our church. After talking with them, I wish I had known about it. Though six hours sounds extremely tiresome, they all said it was very powerful and worth every second.
I was happy that Kyle and Mandy were able to get up so early to come and see us. After a much too short stay, I left the hospital with them (so that Kyle could carry my Milk Cooler!), then headed to Greenville to pick up Canon. As usual, I had the hardest time leaving Tera, but once I was gone, I couldn't wait to get to Canon.
He had been at an Easter Egg Hunt with Ceil and Amelia all morning. This is one of the pictures I got from that:
He has never hunted Easter eggs before (last year he emptied his Easter bucket then put it on and off his head for about an hour), so I was interested to hear how it would go. I think he had a good time.
When I arrived at MyGoo and Docs, Ann Steiner and her family were there. We ate pizza on the porch and let the kids run around in the front yard. Ann Steiner and Doc took lots of pictures, so I'll have to get some of those from them to post. When I was sure Canon would take a good nap in the car, we headed back to Dothan. It seems I didn't wait long enough . . . Canon never went to sleep.
When we pulled into our driveway, we saw that our neighbors had their blow-up slide set up in the park. It's like one of the big slides people have at birthday parties but on a slightly smaller scale. We took Canon out to play with his old friends, including Colt. Soon, we decided that Canon and Colt were inhibiting the fun of the bigger kids. Canon stood either at the bottom of the slide or the bottom of the ladder (too high-traffic areas) and Colt just stood in the middle of the pool looking at everyone running past him. Barry and Josh took them across the street to play in a more toddler-friendly pool. This is the picture we got back from them:
We finally found a game that Canon and Colt can enjoy together. Colt finally gets to be the bully!
Barry took Canon in after that, and I stayed in the park to hang out with our neighbors. When I came back in, Canon - who has fallen asleep in the bed with us maybe three times in his life - was fast asleep next to Barry.
Barry said that he was watching TV with him, then Canon just rolled over and handed Barry whatever was in his hand (I think Barry's phone) and closed his eyes and went to sleep. Barry was laying there smiling when I came back in.
When he woke up, we all went to Josh and Mary's to eat take-out and have a low key evening. The boys continued to play great together. Colt didn't even seem to mind too much when Canon laid right on top of him while they were watching Shrek. They fed each other Goldfish and there were dozens of times during the evening when I thought about getting out my camera. Then I decided that some moments are not meant to be interrupted, even with something as unobtrusive as a camera.
Of course, I called in to the hospital throughout the day - frequently enough to please me but somewhat sporadic so as not to annoy her nurses. Tera had a good day. She had a new nurse, but I wasn't worried about it a bit. The nurse told me that she was back and forth between 21% and 22% on her oxygen. Tera usually needs a little extra oxygen around the time that she eats, so this was not a surprise. The nurse was still offering her a bottle as Tera seemed to want it, and Tera was still only drinking part of it each time. More normal preemie stuff.
My favorite night nurse from last night was back again tonight, and I was able to talk to her for awhile. She reported many of the same things as the day nurse. She had already weighed Tera tonight, and I learned that Tera had started making her usual weight gains again. Last night, she had gained two grams back (2192) but was still at 4 pounds 13 ounces. Tonight, she gained 43 grams, up another ounce to 4 pounds 14 ounces.
No comments:
Post a Comment