Guess Who Turned One?

 

  Three Little Birds / Elizabeth Mitchell 

One year ago, on July 7^th, a beautiful girl named Anna was born. Incredibly, this past year has just flown by and with the amount of growth and progress our little girl has gone through, one can't even tell she was born 14 weeks early. We are extremely lucky that she has had no major issues this past year and by the strength and intelligence she shows now, we are certain she will thrive in her coming years.

She has come such a long way and finally she was able to celebrate this tremendous milestone of turning 1. With no lack of love and attention Anna leaps towards her 2^nd year of life with smiles, giggles and an unprecedented eagerness to learn.

As Anna soon starts crawling, walking, talking (and of course occupying herself with innocent mischief) we will be faced with new challenges but we take comfort and pride in the fact that these are challenges filled with enjoyment and prosperity with and for Anna.

From being fed through tubes and unable to breathe on her own a year ago, to eating (and sometimes throwing) mashed potatoes and showing off her own little language to anyone who is willing to listen, she just surprises us every day! There is not a single day that we take for granted. We are immensely proud of our beautiful daughter and we look forward to the future and sharing many-many more years and milestones to come.

Here are just a couple of videos of Anna; the first one was about 2 months ago when she was learning how to roll over and mastering her "monster growl" voice --turn up the volume haha -- and the second one is from a few weeks ago of her playing/babbling. What a difference a few weeks make! 

 Marta & Arthur

Anna's 9 month Update

Anna had her visit from the nurses today and all good news again! She is developmentally where an 8 month old would be so again, she's not quite where a baby her real age would be, but definitely not in the range of a 6 month old (she is 6 months and 4 days corrected and about 9.5 months old true age) ~ are you as confused as I am?? :)

She is now able to sit by herself for a few minutes, although the reflex to not fall backwards won't kick in for another couple of months. I'm not sure when this happened, it sort of happened really slowly but I really noticed it today when she sat unassisted for almost 5 minutes without tipping over!

She's not crawling yet, nowhere near actually, that's the only thing she is a bit delayed with -- the tummy time part of it anyway (again from the weakness in her arms/chest but that's nothing new). So we'll just keep practicing and hopefully one day she'll stop hating tummy time and get stronger and stronger!


She is eating big girl rice cookies and bread, along with her purees that we make here. The nurse even suggested we start giving her smaller things to eat/play with because her pincer reflex has already developed (that's a 9 month old milestone!). Another big milestone is her banging things, it represents something about her being aware of object permanence. They also showed us how to practice some things with her so she doesn't become dependant on only using her voice to communicate. This way she will learn that she can verbalize through body language as well, and in the long run this means she will be more independent instead of just crying for someone to do things for her. Cool stuff...I would never know any of this if these wonderful nurses didn't come by every few months!


She also had an appointment with her Pediatrician this week and she is 18 pounds on the dot (8.2kg) and 27 1/4 inches (69.2 cm) --> which is in the 95 percentile range of babies at 6 months old and her weight, well that's off the charts and is more in the range of where a 9 month old would be. But, that means she only gained one pound since her last visit a few weeks back. So she is starting to burn more calories and get more lean since she started sitting and moving around a lot more in the last few weeks. The nurses even commented today on what a long baby she is!

Showing off her new sunglasses!

Taking a break from her busy life :)

I say, start 'em early!

Always laughing at something

Daddy's Girl

Sitting like a big girl in her new highchair :)

Our first meal together at the table

We are so proud of her accomplishments and I can't believe still to this day that she was born at 25 weeks and 5 days and has absolutely nothing wrong with her; physically or developmentally. I am so glad that our biggest problem is what she puts in her mouth, or crying because she is too tired! She came out of this whole ordeal unscathed; she is one strong baby and her big brother was definitely watching over her!

M.A.A.

Oh how time flies!

Wow, what a difference a month makes! Anna has sure grown, physically and developmentally! You would never think that she was a micro-preemie, born so early. I'm often reminiscing about how small she used to be, not that I miss it, I love that she has some nice drumsticks and a little belly to blow bubbles on. I'm just always comparing because she used to be so frail and I wanted her to grow so badly, now that she is, I'm just really happy to see her thriving.

We visited the Pediatrician today for her RSV shot, she will get her last set on March 4th and then we are done for this season. I hope hope hope that we succeeded in her avoiding getting sick. But I can't speak too soon, there's still a month and a half of winter left to battle through.

In any case, she is doing great and you can tell she's really growing now. She's starting to grab things on purpose (so cute!), she's putting everything in her mouth and I mean everything that lands in her hands. She also watches us eat and drink which the Pediatrician said is a good sign that she is ready for solids. So we will be starting her on the rice cereal soon in a bowl. We did this a few weeks ago just to try it out and she really took to it like a big girl so I'm sure she won't have problems at all.

Here's a few pictures of the big Monkey from recently. Oh and she is now officially 7 months old (3 months and 3 weeks corrected).

Here's a little video of her learning how to laugh :)

M.A.A.

Anna's Monthly Weigh In

So, a bit of a misunderstanding with the Pediatrician last time. We were told she was 12 pounds at the last appointment but she was in fact 10 pounds. So this puts her at 13 pounds today which is a healthy weight gain of 3 pounds in one month. She is already fitting very comfortably in 6 month size clothing, and I don't think it will be too long before she reaches the 9 month size. She is almost outgrowing her car seat soon too, a couple of more inches and we'll have to get her a big girl seat. Which means no more click and go for me :) She'll be coming out of the seat every time which is a bit hard at this point because she's still too little to sit on her own.

It's so wonderful to see her growing so big though! Her development seems to be on track as well:

She coos and smiles (and even lets out a few giggles now and then)
She kicks and waves her arms and legs when she is excited
She is able to recognize people
She sees quite far and is able to smile back at you even if you are a few feet away
She is able to follow objects from side to side
She can hold things when something touches her hand or if you put something in her hand, and she has discovered how to bring her fist to her mouth
Although she hates "tummy time" she is very good at it when she tries! Her head control is amazing but she just really dislikes being on her tummy and being frustrated.

But all in all, she is still such a good baby, just has a really nice demeanor and doesn't cry much. Today at the Pediatrician's appointment she was such a good girl when she received her shots. Now she will only have 2 RSV shots left for the season (until March) and then she will get her regular baby shots again when she reaches 1 in July.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that she doesn't get sick this season. We are washing our hands every time we come home from the store or appointments and trying to be very careful not to get sick.

So that's all that is new, here are a few pictures from today before her appointment. :)

M.A.A

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

With having Anna here with us and moving into our new home, this has pretty much been the perfect Christmas for us in a long time. We couldn't have asked for more than to share it with family and our little girl. We're still astounded to see her at times; knowing how much we wished to have a healthy baby with us to share this holiday.

It's been a hectic few days/weeks and here's a few pictures to capture baby's first Christmas:

 

Anna LOVES all of her gifts from family and friends and she wanted Mommy to send everyone a big Merry Christmas and thank everyone for the wonderful presents and for thinking of her! :)

Marta, Arthur and Anna

Memories

As we approach almost five months with Anna being with us, it's hard not to look back at the second hardest thing we've all had to face as a family, but with a happy outcome this time.

Just wanted to thank everyone again for their support, we know it hasn't been the easiest 5 months and Anna's birth was so unexpected; you could say we are still in shock. So here's to getting through 66 days in the NICU!

Thanks everyone for your continued support!


Please press play for both :)


You are my sunshine - Elizabeth Mitchell

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Speak into my good ear(s)?

Hi all,

As you all remember, Anna had a hearing test back in the NICU last September and got a 'referral' for her left ear. This means that they couldn't quite pass her, which could have meant she had just slept on her ear, had some dirt in there or she could not hear from that side.

She had her referral appointment yesterday and it was really interesting. They hooked her up to four probes, two on her forehead and two behind her ears, and one probe went into her actual ear during the test. Then we made sure that she was fully asleep so that her readings would be clear (that was quite the task!!). If she wasn't fully asleep then there would be spikes in her readings from normal alertness so this way if she was completely in dream land the spikes would only come if she was able to hear the sounds from the test.

We are happy to announce that she passed on both ears!! She will of course have to go back when she is one year old next July, just to follow up since due to her extreme prematurity there is still the risk of her losing some of her hearing up until that age, but I think she will be fine. She seemed to have beat the odds so far with every single thing in her life so I have no doubts that she will beat this too.

Anyways that's the update for now! She has her second RSV shot tomorrow and a checkup with the Pediatrician, and next Wednesday we are starting a program with Durham Health where they send a Nurse out every few weeks to check on Anna's development. So far, from my conversations with them on the phone, it looks like she is right on par with where she is supposed to be. :)

M.A.A.

She Graduated!!

"Na-na-na-naaa-na!" she says to having any more eye exams! 

 She is officially done her eye exams!! What a relief it was to hear that she's graduated and doesn't have to come back anymore. I overheard the eye doctor mention before she got started that she's 45 weeks "gestation" now so she would be fully developed at this exam... and she was! I'm not sure who is more happier that she doesn't have to go through that again; her or us.

*Insert sigh of relief here* :)

When you're smiling :)

Louis Prima - When You're Smiling

We're having so much fun with the wee munchkin now that she's smiling regularly! I don't know why people miss the baby stage of their kids, well I guess I won't know myself until she's a toddler HA, but I definitely can't wait until she's older and cooing and "goo-goo ga-ga"-ing or hearing her laugh out loud. She's got her Daddy's dimples too so it'll be really nice to see her laughing one day soon! She's already smiling at her mobiles and people's faces every day! 
She's such a big girl now and I can feel that we're slowly reaching those "fun" milestones, and soon we'll even be able to play with her.

Here she is smiling away at her toys:

This weekend was busy busy busy, with all the showings for our house and Arthur busy with work, there wasn't much time left to relax. So needless to say, Monkey had quite the weekend as well, and she behaved like a perfect little munchkin, always content to just "be". 

Anyways we finally got to take her out to the infamous Korean Grill House during our outings this weekend. We've been joking and talking for years about going there one day with our kids and we were finally able to take her! Of course she was out cold the entire time, but it was an enjoyable day for us! Those of you who know us well know what this means to us haha! :)

Here she is working with Daddy on Saturday at his office, (I wasn't kidding, he really IS training her to be a future Global student!!):

Here she is hanging out with our friendly Kitty while having dinner, I can't wait until she realizes what and who cats and dogs are! :)

Here she is just sitting, but I can't get over how cute her little bunny feet are!

 A video of her smiling finally!! We've been trying to catch it on video since she started but she just likes to stare at the camera so much and gets so serious once it's near her that it's hard to capture it. But here she is...there's another surprise in there (mind the compulsive cackling from me at the end):
 

Here is another video of her being a little piggy:

And finally, her being such a good girl in the car:

We're going to have a long week ahead of us as well!She has another eye appointment this coming week and we hope hope hope that finally it will be her last one!

M.A.A.

10 Pound Turkey!!

Looks like we're going to have a 10 pound turkey for Christmas this year! At least 10 pounds that is! Anna had her checkup with the Pediatrician yesterday and she has hit the big 1-0 mark! On the dot to be exact! I would have never guessed it, I almost fell off my chair. She is also now 22 inches long (which is about 57 centimeters) which is not that long if you think about it, some babies are born 21 inches (like Liam who I think was just right at 21 inches at birth). So Anna clearly is a shortie like her Mommy. :)

She received all of her shots yesterday, including the RSV shot for the cold/flu season, so we have been keeping an eye on her. Other than some big swelling at the vaccine site, she didn't have any problems at all. She was such a good girl, she cried for maybe 20 seconds while the shots were given to her and then she was over it. I guess for her it's nothing compared to those dreaded eye exams.

Which reminds me, she had one this week and she has to still come back in another two weeks. The Pediatrician explained that all that they are looking for is for her blood vessels in her eyes to reach all the way to the sides which hasn't happened for her yet.  It doesn't mean that that she can see any less than another baby her age, it just means that the vessels and muscles of her eyes have not yet fully developed. Let's hope that the next eye exam will be her last. She was quite upset at the last one, I think because now she has a lot of energy during the day so she didn't want any part of being touched.

One of the reasons why she has so much energy during the day is that she is sleeping through the night. She eats about 5 times a day now, 200mls per feed and her last barrage is usually around 8pm at which point it takes her an hour or two until she falls asleep and then she is asleep for somewhere between 10-12 hours. I'm not sure if this is normal behaviour for a baby this young but we'll enjoy it while it lasts, I'm sure it won't be like this once her teeth start to cut in.

Which is something we've noticed...she has a couple of white spots in her mouth, and they are quite sharp, but likely that doesn't mean that her teeth will come any time soon, just that they are definitely there and waiting to poke through! :)


Speaking of her mouth....Anna officially smiled her first real smile just about a week ago! Since then she has given us a few more here and there, yesterday she smiled at me after she ate and it was just so adorable. There's nothing like the toothless grin of a tiny baby to make your worries melt away!!

So she's still such a wonderful little girl. She only cries if she is hungry or has tummy pain (which is not that often). Overall she's just a content little girl, I guess she was so happy to make it into this world and she's enjoying every minute of it. So are we!!

M.A.A.

Happy Hallowe'en!

It was Anna's first Hallowe'en and first 'real' snowfall even though it was short lived. Although we didn't celebrate Hallowe'en this year (or well any year so far for that matter) I was so tempted to dress her up as a little devil but I couldn't find a suitable costume small enough for a wee baby. :) Oh well, maybe next year!

Anna was so excited this week, she finally got to meet her wonderful Auntie from Ireland! They spent quite some time getting to know each other and I am pretty sure Anna is already attached. We can't wait for her to meet her cute cousins Eva and Finn, maybe next summer?? In any case, she sends hugs and kisses all the way from Canada to her cousins and her uncle Sven. 

Looking at her first snowfall

Auntie Inez and Anna, gazing into each others eyes and having a smile :)

 Feeding time with Inez

Little Miss Baldie at bath time

Daddy multitasking with work and cuddles ~ Anna now knows the ins-and outs of Underwriting :)

Future Global Aerospace Rookie

So as you can tell, Anna is still quite the content little baby. She is spoiled with cuddles and gifts from everyone so she doesn't really have much to complain about except maybe a tummy ache or two. :) She still really only cries if she is very hungry or if she startles from a bad dream. She loves being held which makes it quite difficult to get anything done around the house each day but well worth it. We can't seem to get enough of her and each time we see her in the morning, it's like seeing her for the first time all over again. 

We are loving every single day with her! 

M.A.A.