Eliza's development

We haven't been posting much lately, have we? Daily life seems to be taking so much of our time lately that it's hard to make time to sit down and write a blog post. I guess it's been almost two months since the last post in which we talked at all about Eliza's development. So, since December, what's new with Eliza?

She's up to 10 teeth now - all eight of her incisors plus two upper molars that have just put in an appearance in the last couple of weeks. Guess we're gonna have to start learning to brush her teeth soon! (Since she doesn't really eat anything by mouth that would gunk up her teeth, that's been a lower priority than it might otherwise be...)

She weighs over 22 pounds now, and getting to be quite an armful to carry around. Eliza's continuing to move up the growth charts overall, and she'll have to graduate to a toddler car seat pretty soon!

Eliza has learned to clap and laugh. Both of these new skills put in an appearance at Christmas time - whenever a roomful of family members were talking and laughing together, Eliza would laugh along with them - it was super cute! She hasn't laughed much since we came home from the holidays (we're trying not to read too much into that...!) but she continues to clap a lot, especially when something is entertaining or pleasing to her. Yay communication skills!

She's gotten good enough at sitting now that she's comfortable leaning forward or sideways to reach for things. (When she first learned to sit on her own, Eliza was pretty much "locked down" and wouldn't move around at all if she could help it.) She's also much more comfortable prone (lying on her tummy or propped up on all fours by us) than she ever was before - she'll play with toys for several minutes before rolling back to her side, and doesn't seem at all fazed or stressed by being on her tummy any more.


We're working very hard in PT (and on our own between PT sessions) on teaching her the skills to transition between sitting, side-lying, and lying prone. All of this is especially challenging for her as a micropreemie, but she seems to be making good progress lately thanks to all the hard work. Just in the last few days, she's finally figured out how to repeatedly roll from her side to her tummy by herself, something that we've been watching for since last May. Hurray! She's clearly getting bored with staying in one place for a long time, so she's really motivated to get around now however she can - and rolling over seems to be a good starting point!

As far as the more long-term prognosis goes, we've been reminded that as a micropreemie who suffered a grade II IVH (brain bleed), Eliza continues to be at significantly elevated risk for conditions including cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, and ADHD. The intensive PT exercises we've been doing to help with her low tone and learn to get around on her own are also essential for minimizing the likelihood/severity of cerebral palsy, especially. Also, we've been grappling with the awareness that even as Eliza's been making progress, she's falling "further behind" compared to the expected development of a baby her age. (In other words, for every "month" of developmental progress she's achieved, it's taken her more than a month to get there.)

At least one of her therapists seems to think this is not uncommon for babies like her - they fall further behind before they start to catch up long-term. She says that developmental delays can tend to be more "fractional" than "relative". So it's not a matter of her being 3 months developmentally at age 6 months, 6 months developmentally at 9 months age, 9 months developmentally at 12 months age, etc. Instead, it's more likely (and matches with what we've experienced so far) that her development will continue more like 3 months developmentally at 6 months age, 6 months developmentally at 12 months age, 9 months developmentally at 18 months age, etc. At some point (I guess as "normal development" begins to slow down?) this trend will reverse - she will hopefully not be 9 years developmentally at 18 years age! - but it seems like it will be a long time before we're there. It's been a really sobering (and stressful) message, but all things considered I'd rather be informed and have realistic expectations. We really can't predict her actual long-term development until we actually get there, so we will just continue to remind ourselves to enjoy the journey, and celebrate each step she makes!

Six Months Old

Today we celebrated Eliza being six months old! It's quite the shocker to think we've had her around for 6 months now and to take a step back and see how far we've come in these months. She's quite the unique baby... six months old but only a little over two months adjusted (2 months since her due date), but acts less than even that since she is just 7.5 pounds. She is working hard at catching up and everyday we see little changes and big strides in her development.

Since coming home from the hospital she's been working on her babbling. It's the cutest thing to hear her "talking" to us or anyone that will listen. I remember the first few weeks in the hospital, when she was still intubated, wishing I could hear her cry. It was so hard to not hear anything from Eliza while the other babies in the room were able to easily make their presence known. Now not only do we get to hear her fussing but her happy sounds too!

She also is tracking us and objects with her eyes! We worried about this after her ROP issues and laser eye procedures but it seems that this is just one more worry to cross off the list. Who knows how far she will actually be able to see considering her parents are very nearsighted but thats a different story. :)

Last week we had our first follow up visit with the Special Infant Care Clinic (SICC) at the hospital. Babies that spend a significant amount of time in the NICU are followed by SICC after discharge to make sure they continue to develop appropriately, provide any therapy they may need to catch up and follow up on any ongoing medical issues. Of course most of our 3 hour appointment was spent talking about our baby girl's feeding skills. More changes to the plan and trial periods because of her continued frustration, disorganization when eating, and her very frequent fussiness. But all in all, the professionals believe that things are going very well since: a) she's continuing to gain weight -  7.5 pounds! newborn diapers already getting a little tight! b) she still WANTS to eat (AKA no oral aversion)  c) she hasn't been admitted back to the hospital. Apparently 50% of babies born before 26 weeks are back in the hospital within a month. It's been almost 3 weeks since we left the hospital (already!) and so far it's not looking like there would be any reason that Eliza would need to go back! (Yeah I know, knocking on wood.) I found it to be a funny marker of how Eliza was doing -- "Hooray! You aren't back in the hospital, you are doing great!" That's one way to look at it I agree. :)

This week we've met with our county coordinator for the Early Intervention Infant and Toddler program. She is automatically qualified for this program because of her birthweight and age. We are in the process of putting together a plan for early intervention and so that she will be able to get even more help in any areas she needs. Good stuff.

Happy 6 month birthday Eliza..we are so happy that you are finally home with us and we are looking forward to each new day with you!