Mm

This one is from January, Cam is probably between 7 and 8 pounds but otherwise it is self explanatory!

3 months (adjusted)

Today Cameron turns 3 months adjusted. Here is the update!

Adjusted age: 3 months

Actual age: 6 months, 5 days

Weight: 10 lb, 13 oz

Height: 22 1/4 inches

Diaper size: 1

Clothing size: 0-3 months

Medications/medical concerns: No concerns. No longer on multivitamins, just a vitamin D supplement.

Sleep: Sleep is going GREAT! Cameron goes down every night between 8:30 and 9 at night. She sleeps until about 9 in the morning. She does get up the nurse once during that time, usually between 3 and 6 in middle of the night. She eats quickly though and goes right back to sleep. She takes 2-3 long naps during the day too but is awake for most of the time.

Eating: Exclusively nursing! I have kicked the pump to the curb and Cameron nurses for every feed. She is nursing about every 3 hours during the day and once or twice in a 12 hour period at night (a total of 6 times in a 24 hour period). I have to take her to the pediatrician in 6 weeks for an official weight check to make sure her weight gain doesn't slow too much going from the fortified breast milk to unfortified milk.

Developmental milestones: Cameron is becoming more and more socially interactive all the time. She is starting to have more interest in toys, trying to bat at them at times and is having lots of fun looking at everything in her activity center. She is just a smiling and talking machine all the time and will smile back at me almost any time I smile at her. Her noises are much more diverse with some agoo's and things like that. She definitely likes to "talk" to her toys too. She is still not enjoying tummy time at all but she has total head control. She has rolled over a couple of times from back to front (not consistently) but seems to have no interest in doing it from front to back. She is also starting to stay awake throughout the day. I talked about this in the sleep section but it kind of overlaps with her development, she is so alert throughout the day and takes naps but has definite extended periods of awake and alertness.

Best moment this month: Succeeding in exclusively nursing! I also like that we have a sleep schedule now and I don't have to stay up until all hours of the night exhausted.

3 month comparison

Pedi appointment and I'm sick AGAIN

Cam had her 6 month pediatrician appointment today. She got her last set of shots until she turns a year old!! She has had so many shots, through all her days in the NICU, her synagis shots, and her well baby vaccinations, she has had way too many shots in her short life. I am so happy that she is done for 6 months! She did great though and calmed right down. She was 10 pounds 13 ounces and 22 1/4 inches long. Her height was about 10th percentile, weight was almost 25th, and head circumference was 50th (all for adjusted age, not actual). Her head is huge! But she has great head control so it's okay, we just know she is all brains ;) Her doctor was very happy with her growth and development as usual. Once again she says everything looks perfect and Cam got a totally clean bill of health! We go back for an official weight check in 6 weeks and our next real appointment is at the end of June. At that time we will discuss having another echocardiogram done on Cameron's heart to make sure her PDA is closed. And the pediatrician would like us to start feeding her solids in one month! I am excited to start doing that, I think it's going to be a lot of fun! I think that's about all we discussed. Not much exciting news but that's okay, it just means she's healthy as usual!

I on the other hand am not healthy. I have ANOTHER cold. This is the FIFTH time I've been sick this winter. I have never been sick this much in one winter. I had strep in December, the flu earlier this month, and a total of three colds. As most people know, we are on "winter quarantine". Cameron is not allowed to go out to public places like grocery stores, restaurants, churches, large family gatherings, etc until RSV season is over. And since Cameron never goes out of the house, obviously I don't get out much either. It seems that every time I go out and do anything at all, I end up getting sick two days later. I think this whole winter quarantine thing is backfiring in a way, I'm not a scientist but here is my theory. I am not going out and about into the world being exposed to this winter's germs so I'm not building up any immunity to them like I normally would on a day to day basis. So on the rare occasion that I do get out, I get sick without fail. I have no immunities to this year's germs so any little thing I pick up gets me sick. Ugh. I can't wait until flu/cold/RSV seasons is officially over. Luckily, Cameron has yet to get sick from me. If I weren't breast feeding it might be a different story but that is one of the huge benefits of breast milk. The antibodies that I produce against an illness when I get sick enter my breast milk within 24 hours so in the case that Cameron picks up germs from me, she will already be getting the antibodies to kill it off. The trouble would be if she got sick first, obviously I would not be producing any antibodies against that specific illness for her but thankfully that hasn't happened. Anyways, I'm not sure about cold/flu season but RSV season is officially over at the end of April (I'd guess cold/flu season ends around the same time) and it can't get here any sooner!!

1/2 year old!

Today is Cameron's 6 months birthday!!! Happy half-birthday baby girl! I am so proud of her and how far she has come. Time flies so fast and I am in disbelief that I was meeting my sweet girl for the first time 6 months ago. I am so proud of her I can't even put it into words!! She is so incredible and strong. She really does amaze me. I thought in honor of her half birthday we could do a little comparison. The first picture was taken on day 5 of life and the 2nd picture was taken today. My tiny little 2 pound preemie is not so tiny anymore!!

Kk, Ll

So I have been completely neglecting my blog but I'm back. We have just been really busy these past weeks and Cameron has been demanding more time from me than usual. Here are my 'K' and 'L' entries for the photo challenge. 'K' is very late and should have debuted almost a week ago so I'm sorry. Don't worry, I will get back into regular posting too!

I can't get enough of her chunky little legs! They used to be so skinny and I just love the rolls!

Jj

I'm a day late for 'J' but here it is. I've already done a similar one so this picture may be a tad bit of a cop out. But I think I have a good one for 'K' this week!

Project nursing

I've decided that I'm going to make the transition from exclusively pumping and giving Cameron bottled breast milk to nursing. My milk supply was getting harder and harder to maintain just by pumping and the only way to fix that would be to start nursing. I couldn't keep up the number of pumping sessions per day that I would need to in order to keep my supply up while taking care of a baby who somehow happens to start screaming every single time I sit down to pump. I knew I could continue giving her breast milk for a lot longer if I made the switch so I'm doing it, and I know it's going to be hard and frustrating at first but I'm making the commitment because I just can't stomach the thought of quitting altogether. Cameron had a rough start to her life and the best way I can help her catch up is to breast feed.

Yesterday was the first day and it was rough. Cameron was not liking it at all. I nursed her first at every feeding but I had to supplement with a bottle after almost every session. Today has been totally different though, I have yet to give her a bottle and it's almost 4 o'clock! Once she got used to it she started to do really well. She will still get bottled breast milk probably once or twice a day so Josh has a chance to feed her and to get a fortified bottle along with her vitamins (and maybe so I can have a break) but other than that she will be a nursing baby. I've always wanted so badly to be able to nurse for the bonding experience and I think I'm finally going to get my chance! I had really given up hope on making the switch but I'm putting my head down and doing it. I'm setting small goals so I don't get frustrated and literally taking it feeding by feeding. My goal for the next feed is to nurse her for the whole feed. It's that simple. I've taken that attitude for the whole day and before I knew it, I had solely nursed her for 4 feedings in a row! It's very exciting. But enough about that.

I took some bath pictures last night and as usual couldn't believe how much bigger and chunkier she is looking from the last time I took them! She was smiling in all but one of them and wouldn't you know, it was the only one that came out clear, all the others were so fuzzy, I was really disappointed! But oh well, she has become such a frequent smiler I'm sure I will get the opportunity to catch those precious bath smiles again. I just can't get enough of her smiles, they make me so happy! And as you can see she wasn't being very lady like and since this picture is going to be on the internet I did a little editing. Josh is right behind her but she is very good at keeping herself upright nowadays.

And two other things. First, no she does not have an outie, it's an umbilical hernia. It's gotten much better and they usually close all the way by their kindergarten years. And number two, she is 10 pounds! What a big girl!!

Strange day

Today is the day that for the very first time Cameron has lived longer at home than she lived in the hospital. Every day from here on out, her hospital stay will be a smaller and smaller portion of her life, more and more of a distant memory. It feels like we were in the NICU for an agonizingly long period of time and every day seemed to creep by slower than ever, while the time that she has spent at home has completely flown by. It truly is hard to believe that she has lived with us at home longer than she hasn't. It feels good though! That got me thinking about something else too. Within the next couple of weeks Cameron will have actually lived for a longer period of time on the outside world than she did inside of me while I was pregnant. She is growing up :) Here are some photos I took earlier today. I love the little booties she is wearing, plus she was pretty smiley during the photo shoot! And don't mind the drool either, she's been drooling quite a bit lately.