Avery is 7 months old!

On March 30, Avery turned 7 months old! It's hard to believe that we have a seven month old. Time has stood still and flown by. Her favorite thing to do now is watch tv. Yep, we are those horrible parents that let our 7 month old watch tv. She just loves watching the flashing colors and hearing the sounds.

Well starting on Friday night, we experienced Avery's first time being sick :-( She had a fever of 101, a cough and was very congested. She didn't feel good Saturday either so we gave her Tylenol a few times throughout the day. Today she no longer has a fever but she is still very congested and is coughing. I am very happy that when she was born we bought an electronic nose sucker because it has come in very handy these past few days. (Thanks Sarah G. for the suggestion!)

Avery's babysitter's family is all sick with the stomach flu right now so we aren't really sure what we are going to do with her Tuesday morning when Tim has to go to his business networking meeting.  Both sets of Avery's grandparents are still working fulltime. I would take off of work but I don't really have PTO since I pretty much used it all while on maternity leave and I am taking off on Friday to take Avery to her eye doctor appointment and genetics appointment at main campus. Oh well, we will figure something out.

We hope you all had a good Easter! Avery received so many cool things from the Easter bunny. (Thanks Grandma and "Grandma" Michelle!) I can't wait until next year to see her reactions when she receives gifts. It should be a lot of fun!

All snuggled up in the blanket Mommy won from the Parents of Preemies Day event

 

Being sick is not fun. All I wanted to do Saturday was lay on the couch and watch tv

 

Grandma and I on Easter

 

I was holding on to my basket

Look at all this neat stuff I got!

I went to visit Great Grandma today

 

Easter Family Photo

Day 79 at Home- March 28, 2013

Avery had her repeat hearing test on Monday. She failed yet again. The audiologist thinks that the results seem to be consistent with having fluid in the ears. We had an appointment with the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor right after her hearing test. He wants her to have surgery to get tubes put in her ears. This will help drain out any fluid that might be in there. He wants to do it sooner rather than later because this could eventually affect her speech. He said babies with cleft palates tend to gather a lot of fluid in their ears.

The surgery only takes about 10-15 minutes. Once the surgery is complete, she will have another repeat hearing test while she is still under the anesthesia. We will know immediately if her hearing loss is due to fluid in her ears.  They are also trying to coordinate for Avery to have a repeat MRI while she is under the anesthesia. At the last neurologist appointment, he wanted her to have a repeat MRI to check her cerebellum but he didn't want to put her under if she wasn't having any symptoms. If we could get a bunch of things taken care of at once, that would be great.

Darn it Lily, get out of my bed!

 

Sometimes I like to try and hold the bottle by myself

Hi there!

 

Look, my cousin Eddie is holding me. Mommy and I went to visit him yesterday.

Day 75 at Home- March 24, 2013

Avery and I made it through my first week back to work. We have been doing okay. Not much is new. She has been doing pretty well with the bottle. On Monday we have an audiologist (hearing test) appointment and we also have a pediatric ENT appointment. Hopefully we will receive good news. I feel like Avery can hear us when we are speaking with her but I guess we will see what they say.

Yep, I am exactly what my shirt says.. "Too Cute"

 

 

 Looking pretty in my spring dress

Looking pretty some more

This was the only pic I smiled in, even though it was blurry

 

I love looking at my play mat mobile

 

I am so cute...and so naked!

Looking pretty in my Easter dress

 

Mommy loves my little butt and little feet

A Few Firsts...

Tuesday was Avery's first day at the babysitter's. (Thanks Becky!) She drank almost her whole bottle there. Then when she came home, she ended up drinking a whole bottle for Tim!! It is the first time she drank a whole feeding from a bottle.  Later that night, Tim was holding her while she was dozing off and she started laughing. It was the cutest thing ever! I can't wait until she really starts laughing.

Avery is so close to rolling over when she is in her crib. It is going to happen soon, I just know it.

I had off of work today and tried (keyword is tried) to catch up on some sleep. Being back to work and working 10 hour days has caught up with me. I am completely exhausted. Hopefully I will start adjusting to the schedule soon.

Check out my hair..it's still bright red!

I am sitting on the couch and watching tv like a big girl

Hanging out with Mommy



Day 69 at Home- March 18, 2013

Sorry that this post was late. Things were hectic yesterday with it being St Patrick's day and my last day to spend with Avery before going back to work.  Today was my first day back to work and I walked in to this....

 Yep, I guess they missed me. That is the thing I like most about my job. I love the people I work with so it made going back to work a little easier today..480 traffic on the other hand sucks. I also don't like having to fill my car up with gas every 3 days.  I was very excited to see Avery when I got home. I missed her a lot.

I don't have much to update. PT came today and worked with Avery a little bit. They were happy with her head control and gave us a few suggestions on helping her learn to roll over.

Look how cute I am

 

I tried to laugh here :-)

 

My first trip to Giant Eagle

 

I tried sweet potatoes the other day. I didn't seem to mind the taste but I was a little unsure about what to do. Maybe I'm not ready yet.

 

Lily and I were playing on my play mat

 

 

 I had a play date with my friend, Layla. She was born a few weeks after me. She kept trying to hold my hand the whole time. It was really cute!

I love to sleep with my butt up in the air

Happy St Patrick's Day! (My shirt says Mommy's Lucky Charm and it's true)

 

 

 

Day 64 at Home- March 13, 2013

Not much is new. I am just trying to take advantage of my last few days off with Avery before I go back to work on Monday :-( We have called around to different daycares and no one would take poor Avery because she has a feeding tube. Tomorrow we are going over my friend Becky's house to teach her how to feed Avery using the feeding tube. We feel so blessed that she is willing to watch Avery on Tuesdays and Thursdays so Tim can work during the day. We don't know what we would have done without her. Tim will watch Avery on Mondays and Fridays and I work 10 hour days and have off Wednesdays so her and I will get to hang out then. I am excited to go back to work. It will be nice to have some adult interaction since I spent the past 10 weeks talking to a baby and two dogs. I am also really sad. I feel like I am going to miss a great deal of Avery developing by being at work. She is starting to be so fun and smiling and cooing all the time.

This is a picture of Mommy and I by the Care Bear at the Parents of Preemies Day event. Thanks Sarah for taking the pic for us!

Great Grandma and Great Aunt Peg came to visit me!

I am helping Mommy make some thank you cards.

 

Scarlett and I were hanging out on the couch

 

I was mesmerized for about 45 minutes by this piano that Mommy's friend Jackie got me

 

My buddy, Chewie, and I

Day 61 at Home- March 10, 2013

On Friday we had a Bureau for Children with Medical Handicaps (BCMH) nurse come to our house. Avery was approved based on her birth weight, prematurity and cleft palate diagnosis. BCMH will act as a secondary insurance and will cover what Cleveland Health Network (my insurance through the Cleveland Clinic) won't cover. Also, we were told that if we would get our feeding tube supplies through a BCMH covered supplier, we wouldn't have to pay a dime for it. I wish I would have known sooner but we were also waiting for her approval from BCMH for the past 5 months. If Avery sees a BCMH covered provider (which so far all of Avery's doctors are) we will not have to pay any copays for her appointments which is awesome. This week I need to call to get new prescriptions for her feeding tube supplies so we can send it to a BCMH covered supplier.

Yesterday I had my friends who I used to work with from Cleveland Clinic Independence over. It was great to see everyone. They all got to see Avery and they still don't believe she cries sometimes :-)

Today, I took Avery to the Parents of Preemies Day event at UH. It was a little get together for preemie parents and they had informational booths, a Carebear you could take pictures with, therapy dogs and a raffle. This was Avery's second trip out into the real world (besides for a doctor's appointment). Her first trip was a quick run to the bank where we got to see my friend, Kandi. She typically does pretty well when we take her places.

I am starting to smile more when Mommy and Daddy talk to me

Trying to smile

 

 I like watching TV (Don't worry, Mommy was sitting right next to me so I wouldn't fall off the couch)

 Playing with monkey

 

Stretching out

 

These are all of Mommy's friends from Independence. They didn't really come to see her. They secretly came to see me :-)

They were all so nice and brought me some adorable outfits and fun things to play with!

 

 

Day 57 at Home- March 6, 2013

Avery met with the pediatric neurologist, Dr Neil Freidman, on Tuesday. He said that Avery looks really good. He didn't see anything wrong with her. She is delayed but doing everything that a 2-3 month old would do. (That is her corrected age.) He said that he would like to get another MRI to check her cerebellum but doesn't want to put her under anesthesia if we aren't seeing any symptoms of anything wrong. He said he will try to do it the same time as her cleft palate surgery since she will be under then.  He (as well as the cleft palate doctor) would like us to see genetics. He said just because we don't see anything wrong now doesn't mean there isn't anything wrong with her. We might not see it until later on like when she starts walking since the cerebellum deals with mobility. When Avery was first born, they did some general genetic bloodwork and it came back normal (no down syndrome, etc.). We are going to genetics in April and they might want to order some more testing.

On Wednesday we met with the nurse in pediatric surgery. Avery was scheduled to have her gtube changed. The nurse looked at her and decided her gtube is great right now and it doesn't need to be changed to a bigger size. She said she might not need a new one for two months. It wasn't necessarily a wasted trip because she did check the water in the balloon part of Avery's gtube and put new water in it. She showed us the procedure of changing out the gtube. I am glad she demonstrated it for us because now I am not nervous when she actually has to get it down. It is very simple. They remove the water from the balloon, which in turn deflates the balloon, and they just slide it out, put the new one in and then fill it with water. It seems simple enough.

Avery has been doing pretty well with bottle feeding. On Sunday she took 72ml from the bottle and Monday she took 65ml. This doesn't happen all the time but she definitely seems to be improving which we are excited about.

On Sunday I will be attending a Parents of Preemies Day event at University Hospital. It is sponsored by Graham's Foundation which provides care packages and support for parents in the NICU. I am contemplating bringing Avery. This would be her first fun outing, going to a place besides a doctor's office.

Daddy showing off my strawberry butt

I was such a good girl waiting for my appointment this week

There she goes again. Lily is trying to play with all my stuff

Hanging out with my buddy

 He puts up with me even when accidentally kick him or grab his fur.

Day 54 at Home- March 3, 2013

Avery had her 6 month appointment with the pediatrician on Friday. She is 20 inches long and 9lbs 4oz. She is definitely going to be short and skinny. The doctor said she is right on par with the other 25/26 weekers. She got two vaccines and was not a happy camper. He told us to ask the feeding clinic the next time we go (which is in 3 weeks) if we can start giving her about 2 teaspoons of rice cereal with her feedings. I decided to try it anyways. Avery first tried rice cereal on Saturday. Needless to say, she wasn't too excited about it. Oh well, we will keep trying.

We have a busy week. Tomorrow, Help Me Grow physical therapy will be coming to our house, Tuesday she has an appointment with pediatric neurology at main campus and then Wednesday she has an appointment at main campus to get her gtube replaced. Hopefully we will be able to relax on Thursday and Friday.

My buddy, Chewie, and I hanging out

Lily likes to think all of my things are her things too

I like to watch tv now

 

This was me before my shots at the doctor's appointment

 This was me after my shots. The Clifford bandaids didn't make it any better :-(

I was watching the fish and Chewie was watching me

Family photo :-)

I look so pretty in my dress! (Thanks for the headband Cindy!)

Mommy loves this picture of me. That is my real eye color too!