Hailey: 16 months old

Hailey's 16 month appointment was today. She weighs 25lbs 6oz and is 31 inches long. She's in the 80th percentile for weight and 60th percentile for height. The pedi is very happy with her development. Hailey alreayd has over 10 words in her vocab and is already forming 2 word sentences (though besides "uh-oh," they are few and far between but thats okay).

Her personality is definitely shining through! and those tantrums are beginning as well! haha but nothing we cannot handle. She has found a new love for Ritz Crackers. she could eat these all day long. She likes holding it in her hand and taking bites as she walks around. She knows exactly where i keep them in the kitchen and points to them, shouts some random jibberish, and then ever so politely says "more" (mmmooooe).

This girl can run and she loves being chased. She will actually tug on you to chase her more if she isnt quite finished with the game. She also has an obsession with Elmo and loves to watch Seasame Street. She'll dance her little heart out when it comes on (goes over to the table to hold on while she dances so she can really get into her moves!). She also loves to read books on your lap and point to everything on the page. She's quite the cuddle bug these days and we are just eating it up while we can!

Time has flown, let me tell you. This time last year she was a small little infant and now she's getting into everything!!

P.S. Photos taken by your truely! ;)

Hailey's 1 year stats!

I am usually not such a slacker with blogging! My apologies!

Hailey's 1 year appointment was 2 weeks ago. She weighs 22lbs 8oz and is 29.75 inches long. The pedi is very happy with her progress. She gave us the green light to ditch the formula and give her regular milk.

The very next day we ditched not only the formula... but bottles too! That's right! NO MORE BOTTLES. We gave her milk in her sippy and never took a bottle out again! She also no longer has a bottle before bedtime. Bottles are done! She seemed to not care for the milk at first but by the end of the day she was chugging it like no one's business! I am so happy that transition was so easy.

Hailey has also become quite the chatterbox lately. She has added dog, duck & toes to her vocabulary (although she only says them from time to time) in addition to mama & dada (which she has been saying for quite some time). She does a lot of nonsense babbling which is a great indicator for developing language. She is such a sponge lately. Know where her toes, ear & hair is and is so fascinated that mommy has toes too!! Still not walking unassisted yet but she's becoming braver by the day.

We are proud of our adorable little girl. She is growing up so fast!

Another Great, Short & Sweet GI Appt!

One of the first things Dr.L said was how surprised and pleased he was that Hailey has never had any really big reflux issues! Also, that she is beautiful and makes him want to have another one! I thougt that was sweet. Of course that turned into him pushing me to have another one....now. HA! Yea right! Not yet!

Hailey is 20lbs 13oz. She wasn't measured. He wants me to go ahead and try weaning the meds even though I have already tried. He just said to go at an appropriate pace. Hailey is basically at the lowest dose of Raglen she can be on before he would say that it's offically doing nothing for her (meaning there would be no point to continue). We can reduce her prevacid dose at any time and see how that goes.

Also to continue going slow with the dairy. She loves cheese, yogurt and egg whites (hard boiled). I noticed a bit more spit up on the days she eats it but nothing significant. And her poop is different but still normal (I know, TMI, but her poop is a big indicator of how well she is tolerating something).

So all is well in HaileyLand!! And now for a few pics!! She was playing in her crib and was trying to pull herself up. She wasn't able to but it was cute to see her try!

Peek-a-BOO!

MMmmmmm, yummy crib

I think I can, I think I can

Hailey's 8 Month Stats

Hailey had a GI doc appointment today. Nothing out of the ordinary & nothing new to report but I did get to find out her 8 month stats!

Currently: 18lbs 13oz & 27 inches long. GI was happy. She is currently just above the 50th percentile for weight and still at the 50th percentile for height.

My growing girl! =)

GI Doc update with pics!

Not too much to report. She is now 17lbs 2oz and 26.5 inches long! Pretty good jump in a month! She is currently in the 50th percentile for both height and weight!

He basically said to continue as is and see you in 6 weeks. Joy! $50 for that! haha.

Here are some more pics!

Hi Mommy!!
I love my piggies!! Did you know one of them went to the market???

I visited Grannie at her office and got to sit in the big girl chair!!

6 Month Appointment

Hailey's appointment went very well! She now weighs 15lbs 11oz and is 26 inches long!! She's our growing girl!

We can now give her up to 3 meals of solids a day. Looks like we need to go shopping for some more baby food!

As far as the apnea monitor, it is not going entirely away. I admitted to her it's more of a security blanket than anything but I am prepared to not have it any more. She decided that Hailey only needs to be on it at night until she is off of her meds. We can slowly wean her off of it whenever we feel comfortable and once we do not use it anymore it will go away completely. I haven't used it for a few naps already and I was actually fine with it. I think our comfort level is going to increase more and more. I have to admit I am about ready to be rid of this thing! But at least now we can get off of it slowly rather than suddenly!

So that's all to report for now! Hailey is doing very well and Dr.J was very impressed by how Hailey "responds" to you when you talk to her!

GI Doc Follow up!

Hailey now weighs 14lbs!! This made the GI Doc very happy. He said he would have been okay with 13lbs 13oz! He thinks she is taking the soy very well. He is not concerned with her poop (although it has stopped) as long as discomfort or blood doesn't accompany it, which it isn't! He made a comment that I am going too slow with the Soy and to speed it up. So I am happy to say I think we have bought our last can of Nutramigen! This makes our bank account very happy, and us of course!!

He also talked about weaning her off of the meds soon. So I imagine we will be talking about it the next few appointments.

Hailey has been developing so well and it makes us so excited! She has really been catching up with her milestones and I look at her less and less as a preemie! Not that I did a lot before but i kept in the back of my mind when comparing her to other babies or developmental milestone charts. She's cooing and talking. We will "talk" to each other. I imitate her, she imitates me. It's awesome!

She is such a ham too. She smiles at everyone, even strangers who talk to her. She's my happy girl!! She is currently trying to roll over again so I am off to watch and play with her! =)

GREAT GI Appointment!!

The GI doc seemed very pleased with Hailey's progress today. She had a great weight gain since her last appointment (she's still 13lb 7oz but last time he saw her she was 11lb 13oz).

He says we can try to see if we can wean her off of the Nutramigen formula by slowly adding Soy formula and decreasing the Nutramigen. Also he wants us to start solids. Rice cereal and yellow veggies. We will try to wean with the soy first rather than try everything all at once so if she's having a reaction to something we will know what it is.

He upped her Raglen but said we don't have to if we feel she doesn't need it. If she's having random reflux flair ups we can use Mylanta and if that helps there may be no need to increase the Raglen.

A great thing he also mentioned is that he doesn't see this as being a big problem in the future and she should grow out of normally (usually by 1 year definitely by 18 months).

So hooray for a great appointment!

Reason #567,837 why I HATE Reflux...and some good news!

EVERYTHING is always chalked up to reflux. She sounds congested, her nose is stuffy, she's extra fussy, she spits up, she vomits. You name it!

It's hard to tell if she's getting a cold or if it's just reflux.

She begins to scream bloody murder while eating out of no where after MONTHS of not doing this, maybe an ear infection, oh no..it's reflux!!

I hesitate to call the pedi because is it just reflux or is she sick? Do I want to waste a trip to the pedi, a co-payment only to be told her reflux is acting up? What if it isn't reflux this time and she is sick and we are doing nothing when we could do something?

IT.IS.FRUSTRATING.

I suspected an ear infection last week. She was screaming through feeds, not wanting to eat. While this can be normal behavior for a reflux baby, it isn't for her! It's sudden and out of the blue. I call the pedi after hesitating for 2 days because what if I am missing something? I don't want to lag if it is an ear infection. So I call and NOPE it just sounds like reflux. oookkkkay.

Fast forward to today. My dad calls and says she only took 1oz (she NEVER only takes 1oz). Screamed. Her ear has a weird smell. The next feeding she ate 7oz but it was a struggle and she screamed bloody murder.

I call the pedi. Come in ASAP. possibly an ear infection. I suspected this a week ago! I am cursing under my breath the whole way there.

And what is discovered? NO ear infection. In fact, once again, pedi says she's doing perfect (yay!). Today must have been, surprise-surprise, REFLUX. While I am glad she didn't have an ear infection, its just annoying. The ear smell was gone by the time we got there (of course! Doesn't it always work out that way?). Ears, lungs, all clear.

But on a good note, she's 13lb 7oz. Pedi says she's developing like a 4 month old. This great news because she is actually 3 months old adjusted! So at least I got that out of it!!

Her next feeding she did fine and seems back to normal now. I guess it was just reflux!

Hailey's 4 Month Check-Up

Hailey's check up went really good. In the pedi's words "She's perfect." She was really impressed with her smiling and communication, head control and overall growth. She is now 12lbs 13oz and 23.75 inches long! No word on starting solids but I am okay with that. I don't want to start her on solids until around 6 months anyway. She also got 4 vaccines and blood work done. The blood work is to check and see if her anemia is better. Cross your fingers that it is. I would hate for her to go back to those shots 3x a week or worse, a blood transfusion.

The pedi didn't mention anything about the apnea monitor. I didn't bring it up either. I am sure at her next appointment in February, it's going to go away. I have to admit it has become our security blanket and I am happy to have it but I am trying to prepare myself to be without it! It's not easy.

Here are some pics from today. Nana & Papa came along to this appointment and Hailey was in such a cute mood. She's only wearing her bib & diaper in this picture because she is examined without her clothes on! She looks so cute!!

She conked out after the vaccines, poor baby.

Another GI Doctor Appointment

Not much to report really. She now weighs 11lbs 14oz and 23.5 inches long. She is in the 55th percentile for both height and weight. I told him my concerns and he thinks it's important for her to get 4 doses of Raglen. Usually it's one dose every 6 hours but the way she sleeps she ends up sleeping through her last dose. He said every 4-5 hours would be fine too. Making sure she gets the proper doses will help with the choking and spitting up. I hope he is right!!

Back to work tomorrow.....boo.......

And tomorrow is it....

I can't believe it is already here! It's time for me to go back to work tomorrow. I have been off of work for 16 weeks. It makes me feel much better to have Hailey with family instead of daycare but it kills me to be away from her for 5 work days out of the week.

I am so happy that she sleeps through the night. She now sleeps 9-11 hours stretches and dropped her night feedings 3 weeks ago. Sometimes getting her down is a challenge (like last night, she thought it was party time until 12:30am). So she is still sleeping as I type this (it's 10:30 now).

She has another GI doctor appointment today. Some of her reflux symptoms are coming back again. Choking while eating, randomly choking inbetween feedings, spitting up 2-2.5 hours after she eats (it should be digested by then). I am hoping this isn't a sign of one of her meds not working. She doesn't seem to be in a lot of pain however, which is a good thing. Hopefully he will give us some insight as to what is causing this.

GI Doctor Update

Hailey had a follow up visit with the GI (Gastroenologist) Doctor today. She now weighs 10lbs 15.5oz and is 22.5 inches long. He showed me that in weight she is in the 50th percentile for 3 month olds!

The prevacid seems to helping a lot. He increased her dose of Raglen (to match her weight) and wrote a prescription for the formula she's on to try to see if my insurance will cost a portion of the cost since it's for an allergy. I am hoping my insurance cooperates but we will see.

He is allowing me to give Hailey Children's Mylanta to her when she has random flare ups of her reflux. With the prevacid they are not as often anymore but still occur from time to time. That makes me happy to be able to give her some instant relief for when that happens.

And here's a picture of Hailey sitting on the couch. She was very content sitting all by herself. A video will follow!!

I hate Reflux

Hailey has reflux, I am not sure if I talked about this much before. It's kinda like acid reflux adults get but a little different. Every baby has a form of it (spit ups) just some are worse than others. Reflux is very common in preemies and Hailey has the luxury of being one of them.

Her reflux is the reason for her being on the apnea monitor. Reflux makes her food back up her esophagus which pushes on her diaphragm and slows her heart rate (This is called a Brady). It can be very painful.

This past weekend it really seemed to be acting up. She was crying throughout feedings and after feedings. Spitting up a lot more than normal. No Bradys (thank God). Choking more often and arching her back in pain although hungry and wanting to eat just not having a great time with it.

I decided to call her pedi yesterday just to see what I can do to help her. I tried keeping her upright and elevated 20-30 minutes after eating, elevating her mattresses (put a phone book underneath), burping her more often when eating, and giving her a pacifier (when she would actually take it) after she eats because it helps push her food back down in her tummy where it belongs. The pedi wanted her to come in.

So we went in today. She now weighs 8lb 6oz! Obviously the frequent spitting up wasn't effecting her that much! The doctor doesn't think it's getting worse, it could have been what I ate the day I pumped the milk she drank (I am so far ahead with my milk supply I don't remember what I ate the day she's eating). or just a random bad reflux day which can happen. Overall, she's not worried because Hailey is still gaining weight rapidly and looks great when examined. And of course, as it works out, Hailey seems to be doing much better today...figures. But still great.

One bit of shocking news is that her doctor plans to possibly have Hailey on the apnea monitor until she's 6 months old! SERIOUSLY? It hasn't even gone off. She wasn't put on it because she has apnea episodes. Strange. I don't know. Whatever. While the monitor can be annoying, it is a great piece of mind. We don't really have to worry about SIDS because this monitor alarms if she were to stop breathing for more than 20 seconds. Having reflux, putting her on her side to sleep can help so having her hooked up to the monitor allows us to do that. Because of SIDS, side sleeping is a huge no-no.

It just sucks that she gets to spend the 1st 6 months of her life hooked up to monitors with those sticky leads suck to her skin and wires hanging out the bottom of her clothes. Plus when she goes to daycare, she'll still be on it so I don't know if this will effect her acceptance. We have a lady in mind who will watch her 2 days a week. She runs an at home daycare out of her home. Having an apnea monitor is a lot of responsibility to take on and I wouldn't blame her if she didn't want to deal with it while also caring after other kids too. Especially since she doesn't charge that much compared to other home daycare so add that to taking on a preemie with an apnea monitor...may not be worth it for her. We'll see.

My job allows me to be off 2 days during the week, which will cover the 2 days she would have to be in daycare but then I work all weekend long and there is not 1 day in which Randy and I will have off together. Not to mention I don't really want to be with this company for long after I go back. I am ready to move on to a different company, but that also means working a Mon-Fri job. I am not going back into retail HR, I want to get away from it because it doesn't pay well.

Okay now I feel like I am rambling! Hailey's next appointment is on October 20th for her 2 month check up. Also that same night, we are taking professional pictures of Hailey with the same photographer who did my wedding. Can't wait!!

Hailey's 6 week check up

Hailey is now 8lbs and 20.5 inches long!! She's a growing girl! Doctor says she's doing great! She goes back in 2 weeks for her 2 month check up (wow, she's going to be 2 months old in 2 weeks!!).

Hailey's First Doctor's Appointment

We got in a little early (was supposed to be Thursday). She weighs 7lb 2ozs! And is now 19.25 inches! She's a growing girl. We basically just got advice. We really like her pediatrician. She's great! She said Hailey looks good and seems to be doing very well! Her next appointment is in 10 days!