On Fridays we wear college attire to work, so I thought that Emily needed to show a little Hawkeye Spirit as well.


Sitting without help


Aaron wants the public to know that each pyramid accent was sanded with a piece of sandpaper over 9,600 times. All that's left is the finish and the hardware.

toy laundry day

New things

Emily has a third tooth that is starting to break through. Another one on the bottom, so I think they're growing in a little out of order! She's very close to sitting independently. She can hold it for a few seconds and then topples over. Still loving bath time, and now that we add toys to her tub, she'll happily play in there for quite awhile. Loves to sink them and let them pop back up. In a couple more days she'll add carrots to her menu of squash and sweet potatoes, and in another couple weeks we'll begin adding fruits. Very ticklish up and down her back and neck, still a laugher despite the teething, although we haven't been sleeping as well at night.

Aaron's Progress Report

Lots of sanding this weekend, and what I can't share on the blog is how unbelievably smooth he was able to get the wood. The gates are completely assembled and so is one end. He's working on sanding the 20 pyramid pieces that will be the accent pieces on both ends. One more end to glue together and putting the finish on the wood... Almost there!

8 Months Today

Aaron's progress

Aaron has been busy sanding the parts of the crib over the last few days.

Today's Pics

One sweet girl.

Look at the belly on that baby!


And those cheeks!

Crib Update

Aaron spent most of Sunday working on Emily's crib, which is nearing the final stages.


A gift from a friend, a retired FBI agent... Aaron would be extremely proud!


A short clip from today's playtime. If only every weekend was a three day weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day

Like my shirt?


Ribbons are so fascinating!


I can reach for things now. And my second tooth is coming in!

Fun times

Emily doesn't take the long naps anymore, and she prefers to be sitting up. We're borrowing a Bumbo, which I have to say comes in quite handy. She's becoming more attentive to things around her and is curious by things that move, spin, light up, or make noise. She's also starting to notice the dogs more, and lately they have been capturing her interest more than the TV.

Aaron has been spending his mornings working on the heirloom crib, and it looks like it might be done within a week. Many had doubts that the cut up couch could find a new life, but it is...

Emily rolled over for the first time from her back to her belly yesterday. Of course, everyone missed it. Went to throw the diaper away and upon my return I found her on her belly. Couldn't get her to recreate it for the camera, however. Guess I was pretty lucky that I got her first roll over ever on video.

I know it's hard to tell, but I tried to get a picture of Emily's first tooth, on the bottom and toward the front. Look closely and you can see the top of it has broken through. She hasn't slept real well that last couple nights, but other than that we really had no idea that there was one coming. Pretty exciting!

Introducing the Sweet Potato

Dad, some help here.


Just a taste.


Don't like it!


As far as Thursday's appointments go - the therapist worked with Emily for almost an hour. She was pretty pleased with Emily's behavior as a 4 month old. Our "homework" for the next month is to work on getting Emily to roll over from her back to her stomach, her grip when grabbing for toys, and playing with the toes. The therapist did think that Emily had great trunk and head control and excellent tracking.
Emily wasn't so thrilled with the syniges shot this time around. Come to find out that she weighs enough now that the syniges needed to be given in two shots, so she got one in each leg. The nurse's comment that this shot burns more than other vaccines, and Emily let everyone know that it hurt this time.

Update

The first appointment today was the NICU follow up clinic. Judy, the Patient Care Coordinator that discharged Emily in September, was the one that greeted us. It was nice to see a familiar face for something that I wasn't quite sure about. Judy was quite impressed with how good Emily was looking. First thing was a weigh in - 15 pounds, 10 ounces - exactly 14 pounds more than she was at birth. Then the Occupational Therapist and and doctor came in. I knew the OT from the NICU, she wasn't one of my favorite people, and the doctor was one who had done consults on Emily but never while I was there. The two of them ran her through some exercises, but Emily wasn't quite so interested in the OT's bag of toys with 5 adults in the room (Doctor, OT, PCC, student, and me) but I think they got the idea that she was tracking, grabbing, making noises, and putting things in her mouth. They also checked out Emily's range of motion and asked me a series of questions about what Emily does and doesn't do. The whole thing took 15 minutes and we were done. Emily got an outstanding report for her corrected age of 4 months and we don't have to go back until she's a year corrected age.

Then we met Nurse Molly for coffee near the hospital. We had Nurse Molly from the first week up to the end for 4 days a week. So, Emily has a special place in her heart and she was definitely one of our favorites. She saw us through the open chest surgery and the NEC, put up with Emily's constant desat spells, and patiently worked on getting Emily to eat so we could go home. Here is Molly in one of my remember when photos (Day 74 in the NICU)


Later this afternoon we had an eye appointment. The assistant put a patch over Emily's eye and checked her reaction to a series of cards with black and white lines. She was great for the first eye, but definitely got a little tired of the game during the second eye. The he pulled out some toys and had her track them. This is what they called the BIg Girl Appointment, compared to before when they inserted a metal device into her eyelids and cranked them open. Then the doctor looked at her blood vessels behind the eye and gave Emily the seal of approval and the okay to not come back until November for a follow up.

Tomorrow we have therapy at the pediatric place in Twin Falls and the third syniges shot.