Where the Wild Things Are

Mommy is having lots of fun dressing me up. She didn't play with dolls when she was a kid because she had so many male relatives...so she's reliving her childhood with me as her baby doll....great!

Look at the wall of outfits...Mommy is gonna have a great time dressing me up. See how I look like that little Hello Kitty doll on the wall over Grandpa head. Grandma likes my outfits especially the one with the brown top and pink heart...she was asking Mommy where she got it and if they had one in her size. Grandma and Grandpa came to visit last week from Houston.



Last week was animal week, Mommy was dressing me up in these cute and sometimes silly outfits.



Here I am suppose to look like a yellow rubber ducky...see the little duckies on my feet...ha ha!



I am posing and doing my imitation of that Aflac duck.




Isn't it ironic that people like to their baby to look like animals and their animals to look like people?




I wonder if Ewok is embarrassed that other dogs will laugh at her because she has on a red bow tie?

Bobbleheads

Daddy thinks Mommy and I look like Bobbleheads in this picture. Mommy thinks Daddy is an idiot!

Three more letters...ROP

I went to the ophthalmologist today to have my eyes checked and guess what...another three letter acromyn. I have Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) which is an eye disease that affects prematurely born babies, especially those with very low birth weigh like me. If I was a full term baby, my retina would have matured while I was in Mommy's tummy and I would have a fully vascularized retina with organized blood vessels. However, coming out early, my retina was not fully vascularized and my retinal blood vessels probably stopped and started to grow abnormally which may result in scarring and retinal detachment. ROP can be mild and may resolve spontaneously, but may lead to blindness in serious cases...Stevie Wonder had ROP.

Daddy told me that between 1941–1953, there was a worldwide epidemic of ROP. Cases were then seen all over the world and the cause was, at that point, unknown. By 1951 a clear link between incidence and affluence became clear: many cases were seen in developed countries with organized and well-funded health care. Two British scientists suggested that it was oxygen toxicity that caused the disease. Babies born prematurely in such affluent areas were treated in incubators which had artificially high levels of oxygen. Studies on rats made this cause seem more likely, but the link was eventually confirmed by a controversial study undertaken by American pediatricians. The study involved two groups of babies. Some were given the usual oxygen concentrations in their incubators, while the other group had "curtailed" oxygen levels. The latter group was shown to have a lower incidence of the disease. As a result, oxygen levels in incubators were lowered and consequently the epidemic was halted. Both oxygen toxicity and relative hypoxia can contribute to the development of ROP.

So I need to go back and see the ophthalmologist next week for follow up. It's just my right eye and it's treatable. If it doesn't resolve by itself then I will need to get laser ablation therapy which is a fancy way to say"burns away" the periphery of the retina, which has no normal blood vessels. That would mean that I would have to be admitted back into the hospital for a couple of days.

I am also going to see my surgeon next week...maybe I can get a two for one deal and get my eye done and my intestine reattached at the same time!

Thank you for smoking!

The last couple of weeks have been super busy with lots of doctors appointments and home visits. I've been to the pediatrician weekly and Dr. Myles says I am doing great...gaining lots of weight and over 5.5 lbs! I think most of my weight gain last week was in my feet. I have toes like Fred Flintstone!



I also had a visit by Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Betty from the Medically Vulnerable Infants Program (MVIP). The program provides early intervention services for babies from birth to age three who are at risk for developmental problems because of medical conditions or complications surrounding the pregnancy or birth. The program provides home support for families and needed intervention to foster optimal developmental outcomes for each child. Over the next three years, Nurse Practitioner Betty will be doing home visits to play with me and follow my development. Well that is as long as there is funding from Sacramento and people keep smoking.

Daddy and Mommy said smoking is bad for me but ironically also good for me because the MVIP gets funding from First 5 California, also known as the California Children and Families Commission. In 1998, the voters passed California Proposition 10, an initiative state constitutional amendment in the California General Election. The official name of this amendment is “The Children and Families First Act.” This amendment put a $.50 tax on cigarettes, and even up to $1 on other tobacco products such as chewing tobacco and cigars. The revenue from this tax go to funding early childhood education in California like First 5.

So thank you for smoking...but for your own good you should look into a smoking cessation program! (hint hint...Godmother Cindy)

Due Date

Today was my original due date, August 18. In the last 85 days lots has happened...but the hardest part is keeping track of my age. Up until today there was my actual age (number of days since I was born) and my gestational age (number of weeks to full term due date). Now starting today I have a new age, called Corrected Age = Actual age in weeks minus Weeks premature. So today my corrected age is 1 day old. The corrected age is used to track my development because up until today I should have been still in Mommy's tummy. When they start tracking if I am doing all the things that I should be at 6 months it's a fairer apples to apples comparison. So I got a head start on some skills like latching and sucking when feeding...it's like I skipped a grade but I won't get penalized on other things like sitting up when my actual age is 6 months my corrected age is 3 months so I get some time to catch up.

But it's been quite a journey so far and I've come a long way...like I said, "Look out world here I come!"



Can't wait to share more of my adventures with Mommy and Daddy....

Early Intervention

There are no treatments for PVL, it's a wait and see approach to how I develop and then therapies (physical, occupational and speech) are used then used to help me compensate or work around any developmental issues. Everything Daddy has read talks about early intervention to help the brain try and reroute the neural pathway of the areas damaged from the PVL.

Daddy and Mommy are taking a proactive approach and with the help of Dinah the Social Worker from the hospital arranged to have Jan from Project Jason (in-home child development specialists for at risk infants) come visit me at home. Jan is an Infant Development Specialist from Children's Hospital Oakland and also works at the Whitney Developmental Clinic at CPMC. Jan came by Monday for my first visit and played with me. My motor skills are at the right stage for my corrected age....I should still be in Mommy's tummy, I am not due until tomorrow August 18!

Mommy also had Ronda her pilates instructor from Fit Wise Pilates come by the house today to give me my first pilates class. Working on getting my core nice and strong!



Don't you just love my workout pants with the hearts...I am feeling all the love and positive vibes everyone is sending me.




After my class I had a protein shake with Mommy and Wolfie. Exercising makes me very relaxed and at peace...I think everyone should get some exercise (hint hint Dadddy)...it helps with stress and makes me sleep like a little lying Buddha. If Daddy starts exercising again he could sleep like a lying Buddha too...it should be easy for him since he looks like sitting Buddha most of the time.

Daddy's Girl

Most people think I look more like Daddy than Mommy right now. Mommy thinks it's because Daddy acts like a baby. Hopefully I will look more like Mommy as I get older.




But Mommy does say that everything she feeds me or see's Daddy feeding me, she thinks we look so much alike that it cracks her up!

Celebrate good times, come on!

"There's a party goin' on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times, and your laughter too
We gonna celebrate your party with you"
- "Celebration" Kool & The Gang




After 78 days in the NICU, I finally got to celebrate and go home with Mommy and Daddy on Wednesday August 11.

Mommy got me a new outfit...with comfy Ugg like booties. Nurse Josie gave me the hat which is super warm and comfortable.
















But the bigger event to celebrate is that I won "The Biggest Loser/Gainer Challenge" and dominated the dojo...destroying Daddy! My final weight leaving the NICU is 2180 grams...4lbs 13 ounces. I started at 880 grams or 1 lb 15 ounces, for a net gain of 2 lbs 14 ounces. Daddy's final weigh in was 201 lbs for a net loss of 4 lbs.



I more than doubled my weight which means that I get my Mercedes on my 16th birthday...let the good times roll!!!

Does hands-free in the car apply to babies?

The NICU nurses conducted a baby car seat test with me this weekend. Mommy and Daddy had to bring in my car seat and I had to sit in it for over an hour to make sure I fit and didn't have any problems with my breathing and heart rate being in that position.

To kill time I was checking my Facebook account and emails...which got me thinking if the law forbidding texting and using a hands-free device with your cell phone applies to babies.

The car seat test is a good sign because they usually do this when they are thinking of letting you go home! Mommy and Daddy had a care coordination meeting on Friday with Dr. Kathy and Dinah the social worker. So all things are pointing towards me going home soon...as long as I keep gaining weight. I am now 4lbs 10 ounces...the 5 lb milestone should be broken in less than a week.

Don't we all have special needs?

I think everyone is worried that I will be "special needs" but I'm not worried because Mommy and Daddy always said I was "special" to them and Mommy told Daddy when she was carrying me that she was going to spoil me so I would have many many "needs"...like a pony, Mercedes SL 55, Tiffany Ring, Prada, Channel bags, etc.

I know that I am in good hands....Mommy and Daddy have already started getting things in place to start monitoring my development and arranging early intervention therapies. Also, genetically I am at an advantage...haven't you seen the size of Mommy and Daddy's heads? They both have big bobble heads, so I figure with heads that big I will end up having some extra brain matter to spare. So I am just going to lay back and relax.

Dr. Farhad the pediatric neurologist came by and examined me today. Based on everything he saw, he said he wouldn't have known that I had been diagnosed with PVL if he hadn't seen my ultrasound. All my movements and muscle tone looks good, but the key is to see how I develop in the next 6-9 months.

Tomorrow, the physical therapist is coming by to do an assessment and teach Mommy and Daddy some things they can do with me. No more skinny legs....I am going have some "Buns of Steel" and put some "junk in the diaper trunk." No Booty Pop for this girl!

Why do bad things have 3 letter names?

Mommy and Daddy were trying to figure out why bad things have three letter names...like NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis), KGB (Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti or Committee for State Security), CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), NRA (National Rifle Association), and now the new one for our list PVL (Periventricular Leukomalacia).

I had a head ultrasound last Thursday (July 29) and Dr. Chris gave Mommy and Daddy the results Sunday...I have PVL. Mommy and Daddy are meeting with the pediatric neurologist tomorrow to get more details. There are no outward physical signs that I have PVL...it just shows up in the head ultrasound. Mommy and Daddy will just have to monitor me closely to make sure that my development is on track. Daddy is already planning on getting me lots of early intervention therapy. Mommy is gonna be jealous of all the massages I will be getting with physical therapy...you know how much Mommy loves her massages...I think that's actually how Daddy tricked her into marrying him with his strong hands.

Right now there isn't much more details Mommy and Daddy can share with everyone. So while they are figuring things out and learning more, Mommy and Daddy ask that everyone just sends their positive thoughts and prayers!

I am now over 2 kilograms (about 4.5 lbs) and still growing. I think there is another 3 letter bad thing Daddy is battling....FAT!