6 months (adjusted)

It's a day late, but here is Cameron's 6 month adjusted update. She made these pictures nearly impossible, she would not sit still for her life.

Adjusted age: 6 months

Actual age: 9 months, 5 days

Weight: At her last pediatrician appointment on 6/26 she was 15 lb 1.4 oz

Height: 24.5 inches also according to her pediatrician appointment

Diaper size: OS cloth

Clothing size: 3-6 months

Medications/medical concerns: The only thing right now is we are waiting on her echocardiogram to check on her PDA.

Sleep: Sleeps through the night from 8:30 to 8:00 or 8:30 in the morning. She does not wake up for a feeding the majority of the time now. Takes 2-3 naps per day ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours. No real nap schedule, just depends on that day's activities.

Eating: Cameron nurses 5-6 times per day. Usually going 2.5-3 hours between nursing sessions. She is eating purees three times per day, usually eating 3-4 ounces at a time, probably totaling about 10 oz of solids per day.

Developmental milestones: The big milestone this month was sitting up unassisted. She has gotten very good at it and can sit for long periods of time. She is still getting better and better with her hand control and coordination. We are starting to get more smiles and giggles and squeals from her. She is starting to like games like patty cake and we have found a ticklish spot on her belly. She is getting increasingly good at putting her paci back in. She wants to crawl badly but can't. She is very efficient at scooting backwards and is trying to get up on her knees and rock back and forth. In general, she is starting to become a little bit more agile with her body movements, I don't know how to explain it but she just has much better control of everything. No new developments in speech which is something I'll be watching, she should start babbling consonants soon.

Best moment this month: I really enjoyed taking her swimming and out on the boat on Lake Erie for the first time. It was such a fun day!

Here is a comparison collage of her 1, 3, and 6 month pictures. I can't believe how much bigger she is!

5 months (adjusted)

Cameron is 5 months adjusted today!

Adjusted age: 5 months

Actual age: 8 months, 5 days

Weight: 13 pounds 7 oz, her weight gain has definitely slowed down but I think that's normal at this point. She was gaining 1.5-2 pounds per month and this past month she only gained 1. She has not dropped at all on the growth curve though so like I said I'm pretty sure this is a normal pattern for her age.

Height: 24.5 inches by my measurements

Diaper size: OS cloth

Clothing size: 3-6 months

Medications/medical concerns: None! No more UTIs or ailments to speak of. Still on Vitamin D drops.

Sleep: Sleeps through the night from 8:30 at night to about 9:30 in the morning. She is not waking up at all about half the time, the other half she wakes up for a feeding at about 4:30 a.m. Full time belly sleeper. She usually takes three 1/2 hour naps per day. They now have a fairly regular schedule at 11:30, 2:30, and 5:30.

Eating: Usually eats 6 times a day about two hours apart during the day. Like I said in the sleep section she gets up for one nighttime feed about half the time, the other half she goes a full 12-14 hour stretch without eating. She has also started eating some solids! I feed her anywhere from 0.5-1.5 oz at about 10:45 in the morning. Some days she does better than others but at this point solid food for her is only for practice, not for nutritional value. She still takes in just as much breast milk as she would without solids.

Developmental milestones: Last month there were a ton of new developments and this month was much slower but we do have some new things. I would say the past month she spent "mastering" some skills instead of learning new ones. Her hand control has increased greatly, she is now grabbing everything in sight (and putting it in her mouth). She is learning how to put her pacifier back in. She also has developed a much greater interest in toys. She is now a star roller, she would just roll all over the house if she could. She knows that she can travel with rolling now. She has a newfound desire to crawl. She is nowhere near being able to do it yet but she sure wants to. She can scoot backwards when on her belly and while she tries to scoot forwards she just hasn't figured out the logistics yet. Sometimes her pacifier will fall out and roll forward and she wants to go get it so she tries with all her might to scoot forward but just can't. We got our first real laughs from her a couple of days ago. I wasn't in the room to witness it unfortunately but Josh was very excited. He continued to do the same thing that got the laugh and we kept getting more giggles and squeals but nothing like the first belly laugh. Hopefully next time I will get to witness it! She is starting to get better at sitting up, not by herself but she sits with very little support. She can sit with no support for a couple of seconds max and can tripod on her hand for a while. And I think that is about all for developmental milestones this month.

Best moment this month: Either taking her to the zoo for the first time or hearing her giggle and squeal.

Now that there are a lot more pictures I am not going to include all of them for comparison. Here is her 1 month, 3 month, and 5 month pictures compared.

4 months (adjusted)

Here is Cameron's 4 month adjusted update!

Adjusted age: 4 months

Actual age: 7 months, 5 days

Weight: 12 lb, 6 oz

Height: Around 23 inches

Diaper size: 1

Clothing size: 3-6 months

Medications/medical concerns: Vitamin D daily. She did have a UTI and just finished antibiotics for that. Hopefully she doesn't have any recurrent UTIs but it is something we definitely have to watch out for, and if she does she will have further testing to see if there is a bladder/kidney issue.

Sleep: Bedtime is 8:30, usually she goes down without a fight but lately she has started having crying fits just before bed. Nothing I do consoles her so I just rock her and cuddle with her while she cries it out. It lasts maybe 10-20 minutes but I feel horrible not knowing what's wrong. She wakes up between 8 and 8:30 now, which is earlier than she used to. Still getting up twice every night to eat. She takes 3-4 naps during the day, with her long nap from 11-1. Sleeping on the angelcare monitor in her pack n play either on her back or her side.

Eating: Still exclusively nursing. Her weight gain has been steady and we go for a weight check the first week of May but I imagine they will be happy with it and will not want us to supplement with fortified milk at all. She eats every 2-3 hours all day. At night after she goes down for the first time she goes a 4-5 hour stretch. Then she goes another 4-5 hour stretch usually. She goes back down once more before getting up in the morning. It takes her about 10 minutes to nurse, sometimes only 5 if she's not that hungry.

Developmental milestones: Wow has there been a lot going on in this department. Her development has been explosive. She rolls over from belly to back and from back to belly. It took her longer to master back to belly as her arm would get in the way but she can do a complete roll now without her arm getting in the way. She is just a rolling machine, I can't put her down on the floor anymore without her traveling several feet, rolling over and over only for me to find her 4 or 5 feet away from where she started. She is starting to babble and squeal, every month her noises become much more diverse. She is very, very vocal these days and is starting to smile at people other than myself and Josh. She is just starting to develop a very early laugh, she chuckled a tiny bit a couple of times and squeals a little bit when she thinks something is exciting or funny but nothing consistent yet. I don't think it will be long before she is consistently laughing. Also blowing raspberries is just hilarious to her. She loves it so much when Josh and I do it and does it right back. She definitely has started imitating to an extent. Now she doesn't even blow raspberries just after Josh and I but she is doing it all the time. She sure does love blowing bubbles and spitting and sticking her tongue out. The phase of life where she wants everything in her mouth has begun. She is starting to grab onto toys which is very exciting!! She wants to grab them and immediately put them in her mouth. She loves to lay on her playmat and look at all the toys above her which she grabs onto and then quickly gets frustrated that she can't bring them down to her mouth. She is starting to get into teethers and loves to hold them and chew on them. She has also really figured out how much she enjoys her fingers. It's getting to the point where she is gagging herself all day every day because she wants to stick them so far back in her mouth. She is going longer stretches during the day without naps and has shortened the amount of time she sleeps at night. Some days she drops a nap but others she still needs it. Soon she will permanently be dropping one I think. It's safe to say I am really, really enjoying this age. She is so much more interactive and every day it is something new with her. I am loving all the new things she is learning and she just gets cuter and more fun to be around all the time. The newborn stage really did last a long time for us so it's very exciting to finally get lots of new development.

Best moment this month: I think when she rolled from belly to back. She hated tummy time and I thought she would never roll over. But then one day she popped her head up and just pushed herself over. Tummy time no longer exists because the second you put her down on her belly she just rolls over :)

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

2 months (adjusted)

Here is my monthly update for Cameron's 2 month "adjusted" birthday! Luckily, because of the leap year she has a 2 month adjusted birthday this month, otherwise there would have been no February 29th :)

Adjusted age: 2 months

Actual age: 5 months, 5 days

Weight: 9 lb 5 oz (2/27)

Length: Roughly 20-21 inches. Our next pedi appt is on March 26th where we will get an official measurement. I've measured her but have no idea how accurate my measurements are.

Diaper size: 1

Clothing size: 0-3 months

Medications/medical concerns: None really anymore, I am so thrilled about this! In the past month Cameron came off of her caffeine and her monitor. Her ROP has resolved and we don't have to go to anymore eye doctor appointments! Any reflux/spitting up issues that we had seem to have completely resolved which I'm so happy about. She is still on multivitamins.

Sleep: Sleep is going great for the most part. She is sleeping through the night pretty well, we got an 8 hour stretch and a 10 hour stretch over the weekend, last night she went 9 hours but the night before she did wake up once in the middle of the night to eat. But overall it's going great. The only issue is the time at which she goes to sleep is still all over the place. Some nights she will go down at 10:30 and others she will be up until almost 3 in the morning. I'm not sure how to get her schedule more consistent.

Eating: Eating has greatly improved over the past month. We are still fortifying but it we are now fortifying to 24 calories per ounce instead of 27 calories per ounce. We are also cutting out the rice cereal since her reflux/spitting issues have resolved. She is eating way more every feeding, ranging usually from 2.5-3.5 ounces. She eats about every 3 hours during the day, almost every 2 hours in the evening and then we get at least a 6 hour stretch at night, more recently it's been 8+ hours. She finally seems to be eating a substantial amount, her digestive system seems to have really matured in the past month.

Developmental milestones: She is definitely starting to smile more. Now sometimes if I walk into a room or come back from the kitchen or something she will smile when she sees me. She likes to smile and "talk" on her changing table a lot too. She is interested in toys, obviously not batting or grabbing at them yet, but paying attention to toys when you put them in front of her face. She is tracking faces and toys with her eyes, absolutely loves looking into mirrors, and in general she is having more wakeful periods where she remains content. She is making many more noises and cooing sounds.

Best moment this month: Completing all of her lingering issues from the NICU. No more ROP, no more caffeine, no more monitor! She finally feels like a completely normal baby!!

I have to say, I really love doing these updates. It is so hard to remember how she was acting a month ago because I am with her all day, every day. But looking back at last month's update in comparison is pretty cool. She has made some really great strides without me even realizing it!

And a comparison collage:

Notice the sticker looks smaller in the 2 month photos, really it's the same size but Cameron is bigger! She is also wearing the same onesie in both photos, it's just tighter on her now.

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.