A Little Rash

Ella has had a little circular rash on the back of her leg for over a month now. We thought for sure it was ringworm, but after a month of putting Lotrimin on it and it not getting better, Marilyn decided to take her to the pediatrician's office today. They said it is actually a form of eczema and wrote out a prescription for her. Ava also had eczema when she was a baby. Oh well, I'm glad it didn't turn out to be ringworm.

Also, in 3 weeks, the physical therapist is going to come out to our house to assess Ella and determine if she is in need of physical therapy or not. My bet is that she does need the therapy, but we'll see. After the hospital pointed out her upper-body weakness, I have noticed lately that when you pick Ella up from under her arms, she offers little or no resistance, and that's why it always seems like she's going to slip out of your hands. Anyway, it will be good that she gets the help now and that we will be able to help correct any issues she may have, instead of finding out about them later when it is too late to do anything about them.

Weight: 16 lbs. 10 oz.

Happy 7 months old Ms. Ella Bella!

First Developmental Follow-Up

Early this morning, Ella had her first developmental follow-up back at the hospital where she was born. The developmental specialist took Ella and placed her on a little blue mat. She held patterns up in front of her and some small red blocks. She gave her a light-weight pink rattle. She placed her on her back and pulled her up by the arms looking for Ella to lift her head. She placed Ella on her stomach to see if she could push up. All the while, she was, I suppose, observing Ella and how she did and did not react to things. Then a doctor came in to assess Ella. She said Ella is hyper flexible or something to the effect that she thought she was a contortionist! That’s funny since Marilyn is not really flexible at all. In any case, she also commented that Ella was chunky…that’s a good thing since a lot of former preemies have trouble gaining weight. She concluded what we already knew…that Ella appears to be doing fine, however, her upper body strength is a little weak, which is very common for preemies that were born so early. She said that Ella was borderline. The conclusion -- they wanted to refer Ella for home physical therapy sessions, however, they warned that the physical therapist may come out to the house and say that Ella is not really a candidate. If that were to happen, she gave us some copies of exercises that Marilyn and HER HUSBAND (unbelievable…who in the world did she think I was?...my quote of the week is “don’t confuse ignorance with malice”) could do with Ella to strengthen her upper body.

After our visit, Marilyn called up to the ICN to see if HN J. was working. To our surprise, she was on today, so we wound up meeting her up in the lobby. She was happy to see the girls and couldn’t get over just how big Ella had gotten.

Happy 6 months old Ella!

We took the girls for their pediatrician appointments this morning…Ava for her 2 year and Ella for her 6 month visit. That’s right…Ella is technically 6 months old today! Happy 1/2 year Ella! Our pediatrician could care less about her corrected age of 3 months. Instead, she prefers to compare her to true 6 month olds. Whatever. Ella weighed in at a whopping 14 lbs. 14 oz. and was 24.5 inches tall. She’s even on the chart for true 6 month olds….she’s in the 25th percentile for both height and weight. She’s just doing fantastic. The doctor seemed slightly concerned that Ella could not roll from front-to-back or back-to-front. We, however, were not at all concerned since Ava did not roll over until she was probably around 10 months old…no lie! The doctor confirmed our beliefs….that Ella is doing wonderful! She even suggested that we go off of the special NeoSure formula and switch to the regular calorie Similac Advance formula. She wanted to make sure that Ella is going to have her developmental follow-up with the hospital she was delivered at and we assured her that that was scheduled for sometime next month. Ella is also going to go off of her daily Poly-ViSol multivitamin. We’re still giving her .6ml of Zantac twice a day for the reflux, but since she gained so much weight we’re now able to up the dose to 1.1 ml so we’ll see how that goes. The doctor also gave Ella the go ahead for earrings, but the jury is still out on that one since Ava’s earpiercing appointment caused us so much stress! The appointment concluded with Ella getting 3 shots in her legs. Once again, she didn’t even cry until the second shot.


On a more general note, Ms. Ella Bella is now wearing size 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers. See in the pictures the comparison between what she wore in the ICN and what she is wearing now! In the last few weeks she has begun to smile at us and giggle herself silly when we do funny faces and voices at her. She tries to mimic us and Mom Mom Weez even claims that Ella said her own name the other day! And also, many people have commented to us that it's hard to believe she was ever even a preemie....what more could we ask for?!

Weight: 14 lbs. 14 oz. (25th percentile)
Height: 24.5 inches (25th percentile)
Head Circumference: 42cm (25th - 50th percentile)

Monitor Disconnected

Hooray! The day has finally come! Marilyn called me at work today to let me know that the pediatrician said that we can go ahead and be done with Ella's monitor! This is a huge milestone for Ms. Ella Bella, as we like to call her.

Sick Visit

Today Ella had her first sick visit with the pediatrician. Keep in mind that this is just 3 days after her well visit. Anyway, I fed Ella in the early morning today and she projectile vomitted everywhere. It was on me, on her, on the couch...everywhere! I screamed for Marilyn and woke her from her sleep because I was scared. Marilyn took the baby's temperature and it was high. Marilyn called the pediatrician and got Ella an appointment for the morning. I stayed home from work and watched Ava. Marilyn got back and said that Ella didn't have a fever when they got there and the nurse or doctor or someone recommended taking Ella's temperature rectally instead of axillary. Right...like we're going to even attempt that! They're nuts! After all was said and done, Dr. H. thought Ella might have a little cold. She told Marilyn to keep a close eye on her, take her temperature often, and be aware of any signs that Ella's having trouble breathing.

Weighing in at...

9 lbs. 8 oz.! You heard it right! Ella had a pediatrician appointment today to receive this month's dose of Synagis and they weighed her and she's up to a whopping 9 lbs. 8 oz. Bye bye Preemie and Newborn diapers...Ella is now proudly wearing size 1's! She's come so far from the micro-preemie diapers she wore during her first week. I will have to take a picture of that little thing...you wouldn't believe how small it was! It's still scary to think that when I was born I weighed 10 lbs. and Ella is 3 months old and still doesn't weigh that much! Funny. Anyway, Dr. H. couldn't believe that Ella had gained 3 pounds in a month. I asked when we could take her off of the special (translation: expensive) formula and she said that with her doing so well gaining weight that it might just be another month or so...she'll evaluate at Ella's 4-month appointment.

Weight: 9 lbs. 8 oz.

Monitor Mayhem

Okay, I know, so we said we wanted Ella to go home on a cardiorespiratory monitor…is it too late to change our minds? LOL! That thing is just driving us nutty. There’s really nothing at all like having your baby attached to a 10 ft. cord with a flashing/beeping monitor on the end of it. The leads that attach to her chest are constantly being pulled off because we accidentally pull on the wires or because they stick to her clothes and come off. And of course these events cause the monitor to make it’s lovely high-pitch squeal until the leads are attached properly. And then, the thing goes off multiple times per day alerting us that she has stopped breathing for at least 18 seconds, except for the fact that we’re usually holding her on our chest and can hear and see her breathing! How annoying! And then when the thing goes off we have to record the date, time, # of beeps, what position the baby was in, etc. We have like a 30 page notebook of useless scribbles. The monitor company has already had to download the data from the thing twice because it got filled up. The pediatrician told us she received the results from the first download and there were 2 real apnea incidences and 2 real bradys. TRANSLATION: we will be on this monitor until god only knows when!!! We stepped outside yesterday because the weather was so nice and a neighbor and her 7-year-old daughter were walking by. She had noticed the stork on our lawn and anyway, her and Marilyn got talking and her daughter too was a preemie. She said she was born 2 months early and she was on the monitor for 10 MONTHS!!!! She said shallow breathing is what kept her daughter on it and she had to fight them to get them to take it away. Aye yae yae! I’m all about the monitor if it is necessary, but Ella does so much shallow breathing that I’m afraid she’s never going to come off of it. Time will tell…

Eye Doctor Visit #3

Marilyn took Ella to the eye doctor’s today for her 2-week follow-up visit. Marilyn told me that the doctor found no signs of ROP. Apparently, if Ella did have it in her one eye, it has cleared up or corrected itself or whatever. That is great news. The doctor did, however, want us to bring Ella back in 6-12 months for another checkup because preemies are prone to getting cross-eyes or extreme near- or far-sightedness…I forget which. Luckily, nothing too serious.

Upper GI

Ella had an outpatient appointment at the hospital today. She got an Upper GI done. The four of us went to the hospital and Ava and I waited outside of the room because of the x-ray exposure. Marilyn stayed with Ella. Ella had been fasting since 6am and then they finally let her drink a yummy bottle full of barium solution at like 9:30am. Marilyn was worried Ella wouldn't like it, but the nurse said that at this age they don't have tastebuds and that if they are hungry then they will eat it. That's interesting since Ella HATES her Zantac medicine…but what do I know? Luckily, Marilyn said Ella drank the solution the nurse was feeding her. Marilyn said the nurse had Ella on her side feeding her the solution as the doctor snapped pictures or x-rays or whatever. Marilyn said it was fascinating to watch. The doctor was apparently not able to tell whether Ella had reflux or not, but was just making sure that anatomically things were correct. He said everything looked good except that when she swallows the liquid first goes up her nose. He said he was surprised that formula doesn’t come out of her nose during her feedings. When Marilyn told me this I was surprised that he was surprised…wouldn’t liquid come out of any of our noses if we were trying to drink lying down on our sides?? In any case, I guess they were just the technicians doing the procedure…maybe the pediatrician will interpret the results for us at our next visit? In the meantime, we will continue giving Ella her Zantac that she hates in hopes that it is helping her. She just seems to be uncomfortable and/or in pain while she eats. She arches her back and neck way back and sometimes appears to choke/squeal on nothing at all. I guess it could be worse…I’ve heard horror stories of little ones projectile vomiting after every single feeding. I don’t think I could deal with that.

Back to Work

And so my Family Leave time has officially run out. Today, I am trying to mentally and physically prepare to head back to work tomorrow. I know it is not going to be easy. How am I going to get up in the middle of the night to help Marilyn with the baby and not be a zombie for work the next morning? In any case, it's kind of ironic that my leave is now over and yet the baby's original due date wasn't supposed to be until later this week!

Second Dose

This morning we all trekked over to the pediatrician's office again. Ava is still sick, so she and I waited for over an hour in the car while Marilyn took Ella in to get her second dose of Synagis. Synagis is a shot that she receives monthly to help prevent her from getting RSV. She will get another dose next month and then that will be all until RSV season starts back up later in the Fall.

Weight: 6 lbs. 9 oz.

Sick and Tired

I think from being run down and cooped up in our house, Ava and I are sick. We have colds. Elaine is starting to feel sick, too. Let’s just hope and pray that the scorching off of the skin on our hands with soap and water and Purell will keep Ella healthy. Knock on wood.

The Eye Doctors

Today, Ella had another outing. This time it was to the eye doctors. We sure don’t like taking her out with all this cold and sickness but we have no choice. I had to feed her in the waiting room. I was prepared to karate chop anyone who came even close. Fortunately, we just got glances and stares from the front desk. Two of the women who worked at the front desk kept smiling at Ella. At first I thought “yeah, I know she is so stinkin’ cute,” but then after feeling them staring and smiling the whole time, I started to feel a little like a show or something. Finally, the one woman asked how much she weighed and I told her proudly 6 lbs. I also told her that she was born at 2 lbs. 7 oz. and that she is big now. She turned to the other woman and they once again smiled. I guess they had a bet. It took awhile and then finally when the technician brought us back she said she was looking for our file which wasn’t there because this was our first visit. The tech put three doses of drops in Ella’s eyes. Ella is so good about everything. After a little wait, Dr. F. came in to look into her eyes. He made some corny small talk, tortured Ella’s eyes with a magnifying glass, his fingers and a light, and then told us to look at a picture of the human eyeball. He explained that the retina grows around the back of the whole eye and that Ella’s was not quite there yet. When I asked him about the level one ROP, he gave me this vague answer (there must be a class doctors take on how to confuse your patient (or patient’s parents) enough to keep them from being able to form another question). I even asked him twice because I obviously did not understand his answer. Both Elaine and I heard his answer. We are both not stupid and neither of us could understand his hocus pocus the second time around. So she has immature retinas and we are not sure about the level one ROP or if that is the level one ROP – we will research ourselves. He also wondered why she was back so soon, even thought Dr. Q. told us to get her checked again in 2 weeks. Needless to say, our next appointment is with another doctor closer to home in two weeks.