1 month (adjusted)

I'm going to do monthly posts around Cameron's "adjusted" age. I know it probably doesn't make a lot of sense to other people but she is nothing like a 4 month old baby. Plus I want to use these onesie stickers and I couldn't the first couple of times I would have wanted to use them in the NICU so I figured I would just start out fresh now. In case you didn't know, adjusted age is basically how old a preemie would be had they been born on their due date. Pediatricians go by this age when it comes to growth and development. Yesterday she turned one month adjusted (due December 29th) so this is a day late but these pictures were from yesterday. The shoot didn't go that well because Cam wasn't really cooperating but these are the best photos I got, she had stopped crying just long enough for me to get them but still has kind of a sour face.

Adjusted age: 1 month

Actual age: 4 months, 5 days

Weight: 7 lb 8 oz

Length: 19 inches (January 18th)

Diaper size: Newborn

Clothing size: Newborn

Medications/medical concerns: Still on caffeine although we have less than two weeks left of that. Also still on the apnea monitor at night. It never goes off and I can tell her breathing has really regulated and she has reached full maturity in that way, she should have no problem coming off the caffeine and the monitor. Also still on vitamins. Still in limbo with the ROP, we go back to check up on it on Valentine's Day. A little bit of reflux issues also but easily managed.

Sleep: Going so much better! I think she has figured out her nights and days. She has very long wakeful periods all day and sleep through much of the night, only getting up once to eat but then quickly goes back to sleep. This has been consistent for over a week now so I'm hoping it continues as her party time used to be smack dab in the middle of the night. Still sleeping in her rock n play right next to me.

Eating: Breast milk fortified with formula, bottle fed. Also adding a little bit of rice cereal for reflux/vomiting. She is so much better than she used to be, spitting up smaller amounts vs projectile vomiting. She is taking anywhere from 1-2 ounces at a time usually every 2-3 hours, at night she goes longer stretches (more like 3.5 to 4 hours). Not as much as I would like but she is still small and gaining weight just fine. Plus fortified milk is more filling than regular milk.

Developmental milestones: Starting to smile occasionally, makes infrequent cooing sounds, has close to total head control, lifts head on her own and turns from side to side on belly and back, can lift herself a little bit onto her elbows, can bear weight on her legs if held stable, follows objects with eyes, looks at faces, and she does a lot of staring nowadays, staring at lights, mirrors, windows, etc. She wants to be worn and walked around the house constantly so that she can look at things.

Best moment this month: Seeing a huge surge in development. She is a different baby from when we brought her home and I love how far she has come. The baby we brought home was not doing anything in that developmental milestone list aside from lifting her head. She literally slept the entire day and only woke up to eat. Now she is often awake and I am able to interact with her a little bit.

Ff

Bumbo seat

We tried out the bumbo seat for the first time on Saturday. Cameron has great head control so I thought she might do well in it. I wouldn't say she liked it but she was being fussy in general to begin with so who knows what the culprit was. Either way she looked adorable sitting in it (of course) so I thought I would post pictures.

"What is this seat I'm sitting in?"

"I don't think I like this..."

"Get me the heck out of here!"

Dd

Daddy's Little Girl. This week the photo is self explanatory :)

Oh and by the way, Cameron is 4 months old today! Can't believe how fast she's growing up :)

Another photo shoot

These photos are unedited but they don't even need much. I think they turned out great. Enjoy!

New toy!

Over the past couple of month I've been wrestling with whether or not to do professional photos of Cameron. It can get really expensive once you purchase all the prints and everything and I'd like to have them done more frequently than we could afford. So I decided to forgo professional photos and invest in a DSLR camera. I've taken enough photography classes to know how to use it and I'm creative enough to take some nice pictures. I chose the Nikon D3000. So far I am really, really happy with it. It does everything I need it to do. I like to shoot in manual mode which means I control the focus, shutter speed, and aperture instead of having the camera doing it automatically. I'm using photoshop to edit the photos. Something I learned pretty quickly is that taking the photos is only half the battle if you want professional looking pictures. Quality editing is imperative, it is pretty time consuming and there is a ton to learn about photoshop but I'm getting the hang of it. So with no further ado, here is my first set of shots (which includes Cameron's very first, ever embarrassing bath photo shoot)!

I'm really happy with how they turned out, especially since I got the camera and started using photoshop yesterday! Sometime I might do a post of the before and after editing comparisons. Some of these pics in raw form don't look that great. It's amazing what photoshop can do.

I should also mention how things went with the developmental specialist yesterday. Overall it was not a very in depth visit since there's that much you can do with a newborn but the woman that came to see Cameron had no concerns at all. She thought in a lot of way she was ahead. The only thing she wants me to work on for now is getting Cameron to turn her head equally to both sides since she has a heavy preference to the right. So really not much news but I was happy with it.

Anyways, that's it for now but be expecting many more photo dumps in the coming months!

Doctor visits

We had two doctor visits this week. Tuesday was to the ophthalmologist and today (Wednesday) we went to the pediatrician. I will start with the pediatrician visit.

Cameron weighed in at 6 lb 15.4 oz!! So I'm calling that 7 pounds :) The doctor was so incredibly happy that she had gained a full two pounds in one month since the last time we saw her. She was hoping Cam would be 6 pounds by today. Cam is definitely on the growth chart for her adjusted age (how old she would be had she been born on her due date) and the doctor is really happy with that. She's really small, not quite hitting the 10th percentile but her doctor was perfectly fine with anything on the chart. She gave her another A+ checkup and said she feels that she is going to be hitting developmental milestones pretty early for her adjusted age. She thinks she just looks so healthy and strong for a 26 weeker. Overall it went great and she had nothing but good things to say. We did get Cameron's 4 month shots so that was really sad and she was pretty fussy for a while and then got really sleepy. She gets everything a normal baby would get except for the rotavirus because it is a live vaccine. I've been giving her tylenol today so I hope she isn't too achy and her poor little legs don't hurt.

We went back to the ophthalmologist for another check up on her eyes and there really was no change since the last appointment. He said there is still some ROP hanging on but was okay with having her come back in a month for another follow up instead of two weeks. I am so ready to be done with these eye appointments and for her ROP to resolve.

We have our first assessment with a development specialist tomorrow who will come to the house and assess Cameron developmentally. It's part of an early intervention program run by the state of Ohio called Help Me Grow that Cam qualifies for because of her prematurity. It is a free service that she is eligible for up until the age of three. They will come assess her developmental progress so that we can work on any areas that she may be behind in. I'm pretty nervous for this. Obviously our biggest fear is that she is going to have developmental delays. I know in some areas she will be considered ahead for her gestational age but I'm worried there will be areas where she is behind. We will see!

That's it for appointments. I will update on how the early intervention appointment goes within the next couple of days. Other than that we don't have another eye appointment until February and another pediatrician appointment until March.

Cc

For this week I chose the word catsuit. It's kind of a play on words because she's wearing a one piece outfit so it would technically be considered a catsuit. But then there is obviously a cat on the front of it so that makes it a different kind of catsuit. I also considered going with the obvious 'C' is for Cameron but I guess I felt like being more creative than that. Either way it can double as both.

Side note: I realize that last week's pictures were dated January of 2011 at which point she did not even exist. I will probably go back and change it eventually but for now pretend it says 2012. I still need to get used to the new year!

52 week ABC photo challenge

I'm starting a photo challenge where I have to post a picture every week of something that starts with a specific letter of the alphabet. There are 26 letters in the alphabet and 52 weeks in the year so we will go through the alphabet twice. Who knows if I'll be able to keep up with it but I'd like to try! I am really enjoying documenting Cameron's life and having something that I can look back on. This will make it easy for me to look at the year in review because I'll have a bunch of pictures that I can put in an obvious chronological order. One day I would like to take all of the things from my blog, print them out, and make a scrapbook for Cameron to have when she's older and I think this would make for a cute scrapbook.

So I missed the first week of January which was obviously the letter 'A'. I'm putting the first and second week together in this blog. I'm giving my self extra points for the double in this one :)

And for 'B' I chose Babylegs! I love these things, they are like leg warmers for babies. If we're not going out of the house or doing anything special I can just put her in a onesie and babylegs and not worry about her being too cold without pants! It makes diaper changes super easy since I don't have to worry about anything but her onesie.

I think I'm going to add one more thing in these weekly posts, I want to take pictures of all the outfits she wears since she doesn't wear them very long. I love all of her clothes and I wish she could wear everything forever but unfortunately she outgrows stuff so fast! I thought this would be a good place to add them in since it will be a weekly thing and again, I can look through everything in chronological order as she outgrows things but I won't start that until next week.

Must have baby items (newborn)

Fisher Price Rock N Play

This item is wonderful for reflux. It became obvious that Cameron was not going to sleep at night on a flat surface so we switched to the Rock N Play. It allows the baby to sleep on an incline and meets all safety standards for nighttime sleep unlike a bouncer or swing. She does not spit up nearly as much when she is sleeping on an incline vs on a flat surface. It also folds up very compactly which makes it easy to bring it anywhere.

Soothe and Glow Seahorse

I've made this part of our bedtime routine so that Cameron has some cues for when it's bedtime vs naptime. I put this next to her in the Rock N Play and allow it to play a couple of times through. It plays soothing songs and noises and honestly helps her get to sleep. It also lights up so that she can transition from the bright living room to the dark bedroom more easily.

Lots and lots and lots of burp cloths

We truly go through burp cloths like there's no tomorrow. Preemies often have more reflux/spit up issues due to weakened esophageal sphincters and Cameron is no exception. She spits up constantly and burp cloths are necessary wherever we go. We couldn't possibly have too many.

Arm and Hammer diaper pail

I love this thing. It is very small/compact and holds about 5-10 days worth of diapers. It's super quick and easy to change the bags and it really helps keep the smell contained.

Nosefrida

I hate the bulb aspirator that they give you in the hospital. The nosefrida works a million times better. I would not be able to get any of Cam's boogers out without it. I put some saline drops in her nose first and then suck everything out with the nosefrida. Yes you actually suck the boogers out with your mouth but there is a foam piece that blocks the boogers from making it to you.

Tommee Tippee bottles

These bottles are what got us out of the NICU. The day I brought them in is the day she started taking all of her feeds by bottle. Who knows how much longer we would have been there without them. They look and feel much more like a breast than other bottles which I think makes bottle feeding easier for babies since they instinctively know how to breast feed.

Moby wrap

I absolutely love my moby wrap. It's wonderful being able to carry Cameron around hands free while she is sleeping. There are so many things I can get done while holding her (dishes etc) plus she sleeps much better with me than by herself in her swing/bouncer/rock n play. Babywearing promotes growth and cognitive development in the baby and a stronger bond between mother and baby.

Graco Deluxe Stylus Travel System

This travel system is the best! I haven't used any others out there so I guess I can't really compare but I love it! The stroller folds up so easily and fits really nicely into our car. The car seat is pretty easy to get in and out once you get the hang of it too. I love how easy it is to pop the car seat out of the car and into the stroller. There are so many neat features there are very easy to use. Assembly was also quick and easy.

Hygeia baby scale

Because of Cameron's struggles gaining weight in the NICU I needed a scale at home to monitor her weight gain myself so this isn't a "normal" baby product. But I would still use it if I had another "normal" baby. I think it gives you really good insight about your baby. I can be completely confident that she is either gaining properly or I can change what we are doing in order to make her gain properly

She looks a lot like her dad too...

Josh's mom gave us some baby pictures of him today and they also look a whole lot alike. I guess it doesn't matter who she looks like, she is too cute either way! I just think it's fun to compare. Not surprisingly, I think she is definitely a combination of both.

Baby picture of Josh

Cameron

And of course I have more cute pictures of Cam that I need to share!

On our way to the pediatrician

Just hangin out with dad!

Not happy

New years eve outfit

On her first walk!! It was really nice out for January!

REALLY not happy

She's so cute sitting in this chair.
I'm going to start taking monthly pictures
of her in it so you can see her growth.

I should mention that Cameron is officially 6 pounds!!! She is growing so fast! Her legs are starting to look really chubby :)