Happy One Year ADJUSTED

It's been a long time since I last posted an update and I apologize to those of you who have been patiently waiting for one. (Thanks for being patient!) Hannah has been busy growing and learning new things since the last update.

Hannah turned one year old on November 9th and we had a small birthday party at our house to celebrate. She did great with all of the people and all of the commotion. I made her a little smash cake that was free of most of the crazy additives and preservatives that I would have purchased from a bakery. It didn't end up making much of a difference, though, because she wasn't very interested in eating it or touching it. Ha. But that's okay! 

In the past month (since her birthday), she has gotten physically stronger. She has mastered getting into a sitting position from the laying position. She's *THIS CLOSE* to crawling - she made it forward about two inches today but she still hasn't gotten going. She LOVES to stand up, though, and whenever someone is around to help balance her, she likes to practice standing. She has learned to sit down from the standing position (when holding onto furniture) without help and she is getting more confident--she'll let go of the furniture with one hand to grab something or just to move her hand. It won't be much longer and we'll have a little mover. I am excited and terrified! :)

She's learning lots of fun social things, too. She knows to wave hello and bye bye. She does touchdown and high five. She's waving bye bye to the baby in the mirror in the car (when I take her out of her car seat, she waves bye bye to her reflection). She knows what words we say mean and will obey some commands (sit down, stand up, lay down, etc.). We have also been doing baby sign language with her for a long time and this past weekend, she finally started signing "more". That's the only sign she'll do right now, but when she wants more, she does it with vigor. Ha. She also loves to shop! If we have to be cooped up in the house all day, she gets pretty bored and irritable, but the second we put her in the car, she'll "talk" to herself and play in the car seat. She loves sitting in the front of a cart and shopping at the grocery store or clothing stores. She loves to "chatter" to strangers.

She's getting two more top teeth. One has already broken the gum and the other isn't far behind. They're the two to the sides of her two front teeth. 

She's getting so big! She's still pretty little compared to the national average, but I think of her more as a "big girl" now instead of a baby. Today was her original due date, so in preemie terms, today is her one year (adjusted) birthday. It's hard to believe how much she's grown and learned over the past year. We adore her and her fun and loving spirit. Here's some pics and videos since our last update. Enjoy!

Celebrating my birthday with Grandma S.

Early November

She's outgrown her basket!

Smash cake

Cake for the party attendees

Big girl on her birthday!

Hanging out with Grandpa Z at my birthday party

Upgraded to 12 month clothes! Big girl!

Has learned to blow spit bubbles. #classy

Sweet pic from her sitter, Sharon. 

Merry Christmas from Hannah! 

Videos

45 Weeks

It's amazing just how fast Hannah grows and changes. In the past month and a half, Hannah has been much more communicative of her wants and needs. She'll pull a bottle into her mouth if she's hungry or she'll push it away when she's done. She loves to eat big people food and works on chewing every day. Thankfully, she's a good little eater. So far, she has been munching on a lot of peas, black beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, dill beans, pears, and pickles. I'm still surprised at some of her "likes" such as the pickles and even sauerkraut. She hasn't been a fan of lemon flavors, but other sour foods seem to suit her fine. 

Today we went to the heart doctor to do a follow-up on the hole in her heart, or atrial septal defect (ASD). Her EKG was a bit "abnormal" but it was similar to her previous EKG and the abnormalities didn't appear to be related to the ASD. The doctor listened to her heart and said she does not have a heart that sounds in distress. He rattled off a series of questions about her energy levels, her development, her breathing, her desire to eat, etc. and said that it sounds like she could be completely healed of the ASD. He said he's not concerned with her in the slightest but the only way to know for sure if it has healed is to do an echocardiogram. Insurance only pays for one per year, though, and we had one in February, so he said we can put off another checkup with him for a year and choose to do an echo then to see if the hole has closed or wait longer if we want. Frequently, these holes do not heal this quickly, so it's possibly still there, but he said he's not hearing what he heart last time and there is no other indication that she is having any sort of heart issue. PRAISE THE LORD.

In addition to that good news, she was weighed and measured again today. She's now at 15.93lbs and 27 3/4" long. He was really impressed with how well she's done since he saw her in February.

Hannah is sitting up really well on her own. She's still a little bit wobbly and will topple if she gets too excited and reaches too far or too quickly for something, but for the most part, I can sit her up and walk away for a minute or two and know she'll be fine. She was upgraded to a "big girl tub" this week since the newborn one she started with was starting to get too small (and she was trying to fling herself off of it to grab at things). She has had a good time splashing and sitting up since the new tub arrived. Her favorite things to do at the moment are grab things and throw them, pick them back up and throw them to the other side. Her top two teeth have broken through but one of the gums is still swollen as it recedes. She's still babbling "mamamama" but not "dadadada" (much to daddy's dismay). It's such a joy to watch her grow and see her learn new things. 

Here are some more videos and pictures since the last update. I can't believe there are only four more laundry basket growth updates left and then she'll be one year old. TIME FLIES!

Hannah sitting up watching the laundry. She loves this.

Hannah claps when we ask her to play patty cake or say "YAY" in celebration of something. :) 

With Grandma S August 2013

Enjoying some munchies

44 weeks!

45 weeks! 9/20/13

9 months old!

I can't believe it but Hannah turns 9 months old today! She has grown so much in just the past month or so and becomes more aware of her surroundings by the day.

She had her 9-month checkup today and weighed in at 15lbs 2oz and 26" long. At her 6-month appointment, she was in the 3rd percentile, but as of today, she's in the 8th percentile. YAY! She grew a full 3 inches since her May appointment.

She is doing great rolling both ways and she can sit and maintain a balance pretty good with support, but she's not sitting independently yet. She will "scoot" when she's on her back to get around but to get from point A to point B, she mostly rolls to get where she wants to go. Doctor isn't worried about any of it and neither am I -- her muscle strength is a bit behind due to her difficulties with tummy time due to the torticollis so that is probably a big contributor to the delay. She puts weight on her legs/feet just fine, she's just still too wobbly to pull up or sit up on her own. I suspect as her muscles continue to strengthen, she will get there just fine. :)

She has been working on mastering "Mamamama" and babbles it quite a bit during the day. She doesn't associate "Mama" with me yet, but I love hearing it any way. She is still a patient baby -- she doesn't cry too much (compared to many babies I know). She will play with what is in front of her, but if we take it away, she doesn't get too concerned -- she'll just try to find something else in her reach to play with instead. She isn't very aggressive about anything, which (in my opinion), may also be contributing to some of the delay -- she just likes to do things at her own pace.

She's eating solids like a champ and likes to stick her tongue out to feel her four bottom teeth. We're anxiously awaiting some top teeth! Other personality quirks include the love of dogs - she giggles at Oscar and our neighbor's dog. She likes the vacuum and she thinks being startled is hilarious. I'm pretty excited about that -- I may have a scary movie buddy in my future. :)

Here are some pics since last time including a video from today. Enjoy!

Long Time No Update

My apologies for the lack of blogs -- everyone is doing great but we've been very busy and when I get some down time, it's spent doing other things. :) Actually, all of those trips to Charlotte pretty much stole away all of my down time, so that's my excuse. Ha.

Hannah is officially done with her helmet treatment. Yay! She started back in April and she did great with it, for the most part. She got hot wearing it a few times and there were a few weeks where the redness took a bit longer to disappear than was expected (which forced an emergency trip to Charlotte on a Monday afternoon - no fun), but overall, she did great and we were given the green light for her to stop wearing it as of 5/31/13 (after her head grew 5 mm that week!!!!). We went back for the official completion/graduation appointment on 6/14/13 where they did her exit scans so we could see the comparison from the beginning of treatment to the end and they sent us off with a certificate saying she's an official DOC band graduate. What's really amazing is that the week before her treatment ended, her ears were still pretty off symmetrically, but that 5 mm growth spurt the final week really evened them out so we are very happy with the treatment and the results. Her sweet little head is perfect and her ears are symmetrical and she's been getting lots of forehead kisses for the past month.

Hannah will be eight months old in about a week which boggles my mind. She weighed in at 14lbs 5oz at our last doctors visit a couple of weeks ago (that was clothed weight) which is a huge jump from her mere 4lbs at birth, but she's still really small for her age. She's in the 3rd percentile, but she continues to grow proportionally for her height/weight so that is great news. Last Friday she welcomed her first tooth on the bottom. The one next to it is still hovering under the gum line (and slowly driving her crazy) but hopefully will pop through soon so she can get some relief.

Overall, she's a very good baby. She likes being in the car seat and usually doesn't mind to travel; she gives away the smiles and "talks" and laughs constantly. She loves to watch ceiling fans and still loves to kick her feet. She is very ticklish and laughs like crazy when daddy kisses her toes or blows on her tummy. She doesn't care much for nap time, but she'll usually sleep okay if she is in a place that is free of distractions. She is rolling back to tummy and tummy to back really well. She's not able to sit unsupported yet, but I believe that due to her torticollis (the neck muscle issue) and being a bit behind getting good on her tummy that she will get there. She's been doing really great on her tummy ever since we got her helmet off and while she still has a bit of the neck tilt from the torticollis, she is able to keep her head upright (and not tilted) when she wants to -- she just falls back into the tilt when she's really tired or stressed. She loves to eat solids now and is getting really good at eating - she likes bananas and sweet potatoes and peaches and pears and yogurt. She wasn't too keen on the carrots but we'll try them again and she tolerates the apples but I think they're more boring than the other foods. :)

We love her to pieces. Here are some pics (and a video from earlier this evening)! Enjoy!

Mother's Day

This year marks my first "official" Mother's Day, but in my heart, I became a mother back in 2008 when we got that first positive pregnancy test. We lost that baby at six weeks along (though we didn't find out for another few weeks). That baby would have been due at the end of April 2009 and would have just turned four. We got pregnant again in the fall of 2009 only to find out that he or she had also not developed. That baby would have been due in early May 2010.

Having Hannah has been amazing, wonderful, beautiful and miraculous but just because God answered our prayer and allowed us to have this incredible, precious little girl has not diminished the love and longing I still have for those little ones that I never got to hold. This year, the due dates came and they were just as heavy on my heart and mind as they have been every other year.

There was a post from a local woman who makes jewelry (she calls them sweet peas) and she was offering a Mother's Day special to create a piece and meet up in person to save on shipping. I checked out her website and noticed a sweet section where she was beginning to make pieces to memorialize "lost peas" for women who have lost their babies.

So this is my Mother's Day gift to myself. It's adorable and has so much meaning to me -- the little pearls (or "peas") are the colors of the birthstones of April and May and those pearls are smaller. And then the larger pearl is Hannah's birthstone.

If any of you are interested in ordering, you can check out her website: mamabssweetpeas.com or like her on Facebook: facebook.com/mamabssweetpeas

Sign up for her newsletter and you'll get a coupon code for a discount on your first order. She usually ships her orders, so you can get your own "sweet peas" even if you're not local.

And for all of you mommas who have lost babies or who are still praying for God to answer your prayer for a baby, know you are being prayed for this Mother's Day.

If you are reading this and know someone who has lost a baby (or a child), please call her or send her a card on Sunday. Validate the life she carried but lost. One of my sweet friends has sent me a Mother's Day card every year and that has meant so much to me -- to know that someone else remembered my babies and remembered me as I grieved not having them here.

So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. -1 Thessalonians 5:11

22 weeks update

After having consultations at two different places in regards to Hannah's flat head and her need for helmet correction, we decided to go with the Charlotte facility, Cranial Technologies. They were able to start her in it right away and the other place couldn't get us back in to do a second consult until April 26th and then they said they might want to wait to see if her head got any better on its own, which would be nice, but waiting too long with the watch and see approach means that we could lose valuable time.  The correction works best when the baby is in the helmet during growth spurts and she is about to reach a critical one, the 4-6 month growth spurt, so we wanted to get her in it as soon as possible to hopefully see results sooner and not have her have to wear it quite so long. So, we went back last Friday to do the official Digital Imaging to get the helmet created and we went back yesterday to get the helmet and get it fitted.

She had some redness when they first put it on (which is expected - her little head has grown in the week since the scan) so they made some adjustments and then she wore it for about three hours after we left. She did great with it last night, but she didn't sleep in it since our appointment was so late in the day and there wasn't much time for her to do the trial wearing prior to bed time. So today, she will be in it every 3-4 hours, then we'll take it off to check for redness and leave it off until the redness disappears (which should be less than 1 hour). As long as the redness disappears, she'll be in it another 3-4 hours, then we'll check for redness. If she doesn't have any lingering redness today, she will wear it to bed tonight. However, if she develops any sores or rashes this weekend, we'll have to go back on Monday to get everything checked out. If she doesn't have any issues this weekend, she'll begin wearing it for 23 hours a day starting Monday. We are able to take it off to work on her torticollis exercises five times a day as well, but mostly she'll wear it all the time except bath time.

We were told that she will be sweating more with it on and that it will keep her on the warm side, so we have to dress her really really light as we enter the warmer days (which are already here). So, if you see my child without pants, it's not because we're bad parents. Haha! She's been eating a bit less lately due to teething so prayers that she'll be able to keep her fluid intake up so she doesn't get dehydrated while she's teething and wearing the helmet would be greatly appreciated.

We don't know how long she'll be in it - it will probably be a week-by-week thing to see how she grows and how quick her head changes shape. We are hoping it'll be less than 12 weeks, but that's the average amount of time, so we'll just wait and see! We'll have to go back at least once every 7 days to do adjustments as she continues to grow (which pretty much means a very long day in the car going to and from Charlotte).

We are able to decorate the helmet after our next appointment, so hopefully we'll be able to "pretty it up" next weekend. We'll see what we end up with - I'm leaning for something "cute" but we'll see if Paul intervenes and she ends up with a Gators or Tron helmet. ;)

Here are some pics since the last update.

Quality time with daddy means KICK TIME! Hannah's favorite.

4/1/13

 

4/1/13

Sweet pic from our sitter, Sharon. 4/11/13

Pic from Sharon, 4/11/13. LOVE!

22 weeks! 4/12/13

Trying on the helmet for the first time. 4/12/13

4/12/13

4/12/13

20 Weeks Update

I know it has been about a month since our last update. There's been a lot of happenings!

Hannah has been very busy hanging out with all of her family! Her Grandma Marlys and Grandpa Chet (Amber's mom and step-father) came to town to visit recently so that was a lot of fun. Last time Grandma and Hannah were together, Hannah was still just four pounds so she had changed a lot  in the few months since their last visit, having gained seven pounds and now interacting. I think they enjoyed singing to her and having her chatter away and smile the whole time they were here. :)

Hannah was dedicated at Biltmore Baptist Church on March 17th and we made sure she was wearing green so she didn't get pinched. Pastor Bruce introduced us and our church family prayed that Hannah would come to know Christ at an early age and that we'd raise her up for His glory! I know we'll fall short at times, but she is a gift to us from Him which is why we named her Hannah, so it was very special to stand in front of all of the people who had prayed for us for months (and some who knew Paul and I personally and our longing for a child and had been praying for us for years) and recognize God's answer to prayer as a family. What a special time!

Hannah had her 4-month doctor's visit and everything looked good. She weighed in at 11 pounds on the nose at her March 15th visit. He did mention that we get a consultation for a possible helmet due to her flattened head on one side. This is something we've been aware of from the beginning as many NICU babies end up with a flat head. When Hannah was first born, she always favored sleeping with her head facing to the right. Despite our best efforts (and believe me, we have tried) to do positional changes with her and trying to put her to sleep facing her left and doing exercises to loosen her neck muscles on her left side, she has still always moved back to her right side when she sleeps. The good news is that she's made huge strides since January and now is very willing to voluntarily look to her left and sometimes even sleep facing her left. Unfortunately, the damage is already pretty severe. It's not so noticeable looking at her from the front, but when you look at her head from the top down, you can see how one of her ears is pushed significantly more forward than her other ear and her forehead is protruding more on her right side and her cheek is fuller on that side as well. The condition she has is plagiocephaly and her neck muscle condition is called torticollis. In the past two weeks, we have traveled to two different facilities to do a consultation and are praying about which facility and which type of helmet to go with. There are big pros and cons to both places, so it's been a bit of a struggle to try to make the best decision for her care. However, we are leaning more toward one than the other, so when we make a final decision, I will share it with everyone.

If you want to read more about her condition, click here.

This is a picture of what her head looks like so you can get a better idea of what's going on:

Like I mentioned, this condition is fairly common with NICU babies and has been more common, in general, since 1992 after the recommendation to have babies sleep on their backs (to prevent SIDS) began. In our case, it's possible that some of this started in utero as Hannah was head down right over my cervix from at least 19 weeks gestation until birth, so she may have been laying on that side before she even arrived. Regardless, getting a helmet is usually very effective, especially when it is started very early. I will update on what we'll be doing in regards to that once we have some more things finalized. Prayers for wisdom while we make decisions are greatly appreciated.

Hannah got to meet her Great Grandparents and Great Aunts and second and third cousins yesterday so that was a treat that we got to stop in and visit with them on our way back from Charlotte.

Here are some pictures of our sweet girl who is starting to look more and more like her daddy! I am pretty sure she has momma's eyes, though. :)

4 months old! March 9th.

18 weeks.

Dedication March 17th.

Dedication Day! March 17th.

Grandma Marlys, Mom, Grandma Penny and Hannah. March 17th.

Grandma Marlys and Grandpa Chet.

20 weeks!

16 weeks!

I can't believe we'll have a 4-month old in just about a week.

Hannah is doing great but has been dealing with her first cold this week. Thankfully she hasn't had a fever, but she's had a few days of stuffy and snotty nose and while that has eased up a bit, she's still dealing with a lot of congestion. I've also been dealing with something similar...she started showing symptoms first so I'm going to assume she gave it to me and not the other way around. ;)

In the past couple of weeks, she has started holding on to her toys and really observing all of her surroundings. She likes her bouncer seat and likes looking at the little toys that dangle above her head; she gets really excited and kicks her legs which makes her bounce. It's adorable.

She still hates tummy time and she doesn't like being in the car seat when she's awake and she can't see us. She does recognize her name now and will turn her head from side to side to watch us when we move from one side of her to the other. We love watching her smile at us every day, which she continues to do.

We also got some good news from the cardiologist this week. We had an appointment with them a couple of weeks ago to check on the hole in her heart (which was discovered while she was in NICU). The EKG they did the day of came back good and we got the results of the echocardiogram this week which indicated that the hole in her heart has gone from "large" to "moderate". Our hope is that the hole will close on its own and she won't require surgery (which they would want to do between 3-5 years old). Fortunately, most ASDs (Atrial Septal Defects) do resolve on their own. We'll do another check in about 6 months and then maybe move to a yearly check up just to keep an eye on it.

Here's some more pictures since last time! Oh, and for those who missed the announcement on Facebook, Hannah's baby dedication is scheduled for Sunday, March 17th at Biltmore Baptist Church before the 9:15 am service. We'd love to see you there. :)

Hannah with her Grandpa Zoller.

16 weeks!

I asked her who was cute...I think she knows the answer. ;)

Smiley girl!

3/1/13

She hates tummy time. Propping her on the Boppy gets about 2 minutes out of her.