Big Day, Big Month

Two days ago Mia was fifteen months old! How the time flies! Next week is the anniversary of the day she came home from the NICU. Thanksgiving Day to be exact! Today is Prematurity Awareness Day, along with Prematurity Awareness Month. The March of Dimes is an organization near and dear to us, and they have done a great job promoting and bringing awareness to this cause all month long. I am already getting excited for the next "March for Babies" walk that is in April. I hope that this year our team will grow with even more supporters, and that we are able to beat our fundraising totals from last year!

Today we had our fifteen month check-up. Mia's doctor was pleased with her progress, and especially her new crawling moves! We will continue to monitor her development and feeding issues over the next months, and continue with speech and physical therapy, but at this point we are going to just let her be Mia! The sweet, funny, cute, feisty, book loving, bottle drinking, daddy's girl, stubborn, crawling, bath splashing, bouncing, beautiful, chocolate pudding loving, smart, silly, and amazing girl that she is! (Feel free to add on to this list...) :)

I LOVE that Mia came home from the NICU on Thanksgiving! Someone up above must have orchestrated the timing of her homecoming. This year, and years from now, when friends or family go around the table talking about what they are thankful for, I'll be listening, but mostly I'll be looking into my sweet girl's eyes thinking about how thankful I am for her- for all she has taught me, and all that I will continue to learn from her.

Holiday pictures!

Mia and I had a little "photo shoot" today. Long story short, things did not go as I planned. You can see from the "lovely" pictures! I was really hoping to get some cute pics for a Shutterfly offer I had for free cards- I love free anything from Shutterfly! Instead, I just used an old picture, but I think it still turned out cute. I am determined to get that scottie dog outfit another day though!

Snowflake Wonder Holiday Card

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The Princess is crawling!!

Yipee!! We have been anxiously awaiting this day! I know that all parents get excited for their baby's milestones, but for Chad and I, each milestone Mia meets leaves us not only excited and amazed, but also relieved. For those of you who don't know, Mia has been working with a physical therapist 2x's a week and another day each week with a P.T. assistant. It's not always fun, in fact the first month was mostly Mia working through tears and me fighting mine back. Her hard work has paid off, and we are just so excited for her. You can see the look of excitement in her eyes as she moves around. She had been belly crawling for a couple of weeks, and on Monday she was finally able to get on hands a knees. We keep getting the warnings of "just wait, before you know it you will be chasing her everywhere." I can with all honesty and seriousness say that we can't wait!!

Monday was crawling. On Tuesday, Chad and I though she should learn to drive :) My Dad gave us a ride on toy that belonged to my little brother, Hugh, and Mia just loved it! It lights up and sings an annoying song, but it was so cute to see her scooting (backwards) around the room. I'll post some crawling pics soon (the only one's I have are with Mia in the nude before bath time!)

Before I go a quick (not really) medical update:
Mia's MRI came back TOTALLY NORMAL. Double yay for that! This does not mean that she will not have delays, learning issues, etc. in the future, but it does mean that everything looks good structurally. We sure celebrated for this news. Blood work was taken to check for any genetic diseases that could attribute to her swallowing issues and hypototonia (muscle weakness), but what was checked all came back normal as well. We are still having to investigate possible causes for her dysphagia (swallowing disorder) and meet with our pedi next week to discuss where to go from here. The neurologist who did the MRI and lab work has suggested and EMG (easiest to google) to measure her muscle function. We are not too excited about this option unless they feel it is urgent/necessary because it would involve using needles to insert electrodes into the muscle. Not sure that any 1 year old would do well with this, but with as much poking and prodding as Mia has already had to endure, we are willing to hold off on this as long as medically appropriate.

But, back to the real reason I am here today- she's crawling!!!

Posing with Dad before she heads out for a drive

For the girl who I can never get to smile in pictures, this one is just great- little teeth and all!


She was having so much fun!


I don't know how, but she managed to scoot back into this little spot from across the room- we were laughing so hard!

No, Domino!

We were so nervous to have our two dogs Bella and Domino around Mia when she first came home. Bella has gone to live with Chad's sister, Tamara, and has been living it up with her two dogs in Austin. We are so happy that she has a good home, but we really miss her :( Bella was the "good" dog. Domino has issues. Together they were too wild to be around our little Mia. Domino has surprisingly been pretty great with Mia, but I think he would lick her for hours if no one was around. Mia is pretty happy to be around Domino, she giggles when he sneaks in a kiss, and she loves throwing her food to him when she doesn't want to eat it anymore. Here there are "playing" together this afternoon :)
"Hi, Domino."

"Come here..."

"You're so silly!"

"Kisses!"

"NO, Domino!"

Easy as (pumpkin) pie!

Well, Mia was just amazing at the hospital on Friday. Even though she couldn't eat that morning, she was still a cheerful little girl. I think she liked watching the early morning cartoons in the pre-op room. Even though she was having an MRI and ABR which to me would not be considered "surgeries," because of the need for general anesthesia she had the procedures done in the children's day surgery area of the hospital. She recovered quite well from the anesthesia and was crying for her bottle as soon as she woke up. I think we spent maybe 30 minutes in recovery and then were released to go home! We should hear from the doctor next week with the results.

Since Mia seemed back to her regular self today, and since the weather was so nice, we went to a local pumpkin patch for a bit. No smiles, but some cute pictures.

Go, Mia. Go!

Mia is working hard and has been a busy girl! Not only does she still love her tummy, but now she's turning, scooting, and rolling too! Her first tooth broke through Tuesday night, and she said her first syllable string (Bababababa) today! She can say Ba, Da, Ma, but she has never done a string of sounds, so yea Mia!! The cutest new thing she's been doing is trying to wave bye-bye. She holds her hand out to you instead of waving- I always end up taking her hand and she'll get the biggest smile. It's makes me melt every time. You can get an idea of the wave in the wagon picture below.
Okay, now the not fun part, I called a couple more times to the doctors/hospital and they were able to get Mia in for her MRI this Friday morning- that was a big change because they originally weren't able see her until January! Good news that they are able to get her in so much sooner, but Mia has to be sedated with general anesthesia- I am nervous and saying extra prayers for her safety, health, and comfort. We'd love your extra prayers too :)

Here are some fun pics since my last post:



There really is a little tooth coming in on the bottom!

We love going on wagon rides in the cooler weather

She even wants to sleep on her tummy now!

More fun in the tub

Cutie all ready to eat

A busy week

Not a fun one either...
#1
We saw a pediatric ENT on Monday by recommendation of our Speech Therapist in attempts to rule out any structural issues that could be causing Mia's feeding problems. Not sure if I posted this last time, but just to recap, our last swallow study at the beginning of the month showed improvement, but Mia is still silently aspirating on thin liquids. She was able to tolerate a thinner consistancy than the last swallow study, which was good news, but we are still having to thicken all of her liquids with a thickener called Simply Thick. You just shake it up in her milk, juice, etc. Back to the ENT... he used a flexible scope in Mia's nose and down the throat to take a look. Of course she was screaming, but he was able to see redness indicating some amount of reflux, and also a POSSIBLE laryngeal cleft stage 1 (very mild, but could be contributing to feeding issues). 'Possible' because he really coulnd't get a great look because she was crying, make that screaming, so hard. I have never heard of a laryngeal cleft (heck, I don't even know if i am spelling it correctly now) The easiest explanation is to go to wikipedia and search it :) If indeed this is the cause of her swallowing issues, the doctor at this point just recommended speech therapy (feeding therapy) and thickening of liquids- which we are already doing both, so that was some good news :) If they feel it is necessary, they can go in and do an endoscopy to take a better look, from the sounds of it from both the ENT and our Pedi- this wouldn't be preferred at this point (too invasive).
#2
We are STILL trying to get an MRI scheduled for Mia- looking for any neurological causes for the feeding issues, motor delays, and a cute tongue that turns a bit to the left :) (should come straight out). Insurance finally approved the MRI after about a month of paper work back and for between the doctors. Now the hospital can't see her until January!! :( She needs a pediatric anesthesiologist for the procedure and one is not available until then. Talk about job security! :)

#3 The week got better though when Mia decided it was finally O.K. to play on her tummy! She even thought it wouldn't be so back to try and move around to get her toys that way!! :) Yay!! Still need to work on strenthening her body so she can push up on hands and knees so she can crawl. She is really working hard though with physical therapy 2x's a week, and we are seeing great progess.


Well, that is enough for now! Will update with any new (or exctiting!!) info :)
Here come the cute pics.... :)

She looks like such a 'big girl' in this one!


Cutest Longhorn Cheerleader- thanks Aunt Candy and Uncle Bob Bob for such a cute outfit!


Our Nana loves us in Scotties! This outfit is from our friend Kim :)


"Do I have something on my chin?"

Hook 'Em Horns!

Our Dad went to the first game this Satruday, which happened to be in Houston at Reliant Stadium, against the Rice Owls. Apparently it was not one of our best games- we did win though :) Mia got all dressed up for the occasion.

A Rough Day

Today we had a long day down at the med-center. We went back for Mia's follow-up swallow study. She had better results than last time, but still is leaving us worried with aspiration on regular liquids. We will continue to thicken her liquids for now, and will be following up with neurology and an MRI in the next few weeks. Today was one of those "hard days." We are so incredibly thankful for how well Mia is doing, but I can't help but wish for everything to be "just fine" on days like this. I start questioning so many things, but Chad is always amazing and is so sweet about putting things into perspective for me. This was one of my tearful days, but after a talk with Chad, we ended the night peering into Mia's crib in amazement.

Mia would probably like to share that she was a brave girl today getting her 12 month immunizations- the girl has lungs!

Is this thing still on? :)

Ok, so apparently blogging is not the thing for me. By the time I am done with e-mail, facebook, and shutterfly, I just never seem to make it over here. We have LOTS of new pictures to share though, so I will work on adding this back to my to-do list for all of Mia's fans :)

What a busy few months we have had! In a nutshell: Mia is working hard with physical therapy now 2x a week to help get those muscles into action (still not crawling, BUT getting stronger every week!), and speech therapy weekly to work on some pretty significant feeding issues. We have been to the dr. twice now for a modified barium swallow study to view what is going on when Mia is drinking from a bottle. She was choking quite a bit during her feeds, which worried me enough to ask for help! Turns out she was actually aspirating on thin liquids (milk in her lungs), so we have thickened her milk with a special colorless/tasteless thickener that makes it safe for her to drink. We are very thankful that she has not been sick as a result- the aspiration can cause significant respiratory issues/illnesses, so we are glad to have caught this, BUT we don't know what the cause is. And it actually got worse from the first swallow study to the next, so we had to make her drinks even thicker. :( We are hopeful that it is just an issue/delay related to the prematurity, however her doctor was concerned enough to refer us to a pediatric neurologist for further testing. We met with him 2 weeks ago, and he plans to proceed with blood work to check for any muscle diseases, another MRI, and if needed additional brain function testing. Wow, this is a BIG nutshell!

Aside from all of this, Mia is a happy, growing, and curious 1 year old (and oh so cute!). We celebrated her birthday on August 14 with a small group of family and friends, and then Mom and Dad had her all to ourselves on her birthday, August 15.

What an amazing year it has been- such a journey for all three of us! Chad and I are truly blessed to share each day with our little miracle.

At one year some of her favorites :)

Domino- she is so cute when she pets him!
Baby Cheetos (don't worry, they are not the real Cheetos, but Gerber finger food)- she will even bang on her tray for more
Yogurt, apple juice, and sweet potatoes
Dum Dums- we had some left over from her party and Chad gave her a lick- she liked it so much we let her try again.... now she can rip the lollipop right out of your mouth and put it in her own- we know, not a good idea, but it really was so cute...
Her Brown Bear, Brown Bear book
Helping check the mail (really trying to eat as much paper as she can)
Kicking and splashing in her bath (still a favorite)
Piglet- I am hoping for a Piglet Halloween costume!


Does not like:
Any purees I make- so far she has thrown up my peas and cauliflower :(
Bed time- she was so good about going to bed before...


OK, now what you really want, the pictures!

Getting ready to try the sugar free cake Nana and Mom made...


Just hating it!


Daddy saving the Princess ;)



"OK, I'll try a little of this sugar- laden cupcake!"


"Ha, ha! I have them right where I want them!"


"A Princess always knows how to get just what she wants..." :)


As always, thanks for checking in on us, and check back soon for pictures of Mia's 1 year photo shoot!

8 is great!

Had to get a big bow picture!

Mia and Piglet

Tummy time really isn't that bad!

My two cuties



Mia on Easter Sunday



Celebrating Mia's 8 month birthday tomorrow!! As the old saying goes, "She's getting bigger by the day." :) We do not know how much she weighs, but she leaves my back aching each night. She has been showing us more and more of her personality lately from belly laughs, to crazy splashing in the bath tub. We are in the early stages of teething with lots of drool and shoving anything that fits into her mouth. She loves sleeping with her little "lovey" bear at night. I love watching her stroke the soft satin against her head as she falls asleep- so cute!! Also she has a new friend, Piglet, who she has become quite fond of lately. Piglet's little snout and ears are the perfect size for nibbling on.
We have gone on a few outings. First to Buca de Beppo's, Peppo's, what is it called? Anyhow, that was o.k. We had a not so friendly lady roll her eyes at us when Mia started crying. Then we went to our favorite, Chuy's!! Mia slept most of the time- even when a server bumped into her little carrier (which smelled like Chuy's for a few days after, yuck!). Then our first shopping trip! We went to a gift shop called Swoozie's in The Woodlands. They had a GIANT Whoozit- we have a little version of this toy- you can google it I am sure if you don't know what I am talking about. We got some fun pictures! Today we went to Michaels to pick up t-shirts for The March For Babies which we will be walking in next weekend! I will try to set up a link so you can visit our team's page. Should be great- we are planning to have Mia "walk" with us!!

Thanks for checking in!
Love,
Sarah, Chad, and Mia :)

7 month updates :)

Checking out her mobile



We had our big "6 month" visit with the pediatrician last week- our visits are a month off because we held off a bit with Mia's immunizations when she was in the hospital. They are trying to match up our well baby visits with her immunization schedule which has worked out well so far. Mia meets with the high risk pediatric doctors at Memorial Hermann. We had the choice to use a local doctor, in fact it was encouraged because of our distance from the Med Center. We were so happy with the doctors during the hospital stay, that we decided to travel downtown as long as it was feasible. Since I am not working this year, it has worked out just fine so far. Usually people are curious about any developmental and or medical concerns at our visits. Going by Mia's adjusted age (closer to only 4 months) she was on target- the doctors had no major concerns! One of the nurses said- "She is your little miracle." I couldn't agree more! We did receive orders for more tummy time, which Mia currently HATES! She screams and flails until we put her back onto her back or hold her (she has us figured out pretty well already... :) Pretty much the doctor said, too bad, because she really needs to spend the time on her tummy, so we need to figure out a way to make it tolerable for her. I let you know how that goes... Weight was 11lbs. 8oz. and 23.5 inches long. She is right on track for her growth curve so they were happy (around 25% for her ADJUSTED age) so yup she is still tiny, but what a cutie!

Things she loves:

MILK!- still getting the good stuff from mom, but always in a bottle- yes, it is a lot of work but the doctors said to keep on as long as I can

CHAD! He can get her to laugh and laugh (I think she is sick of me by the time he gets home from work, so he has it a little easier getting the giggles out of her)

T.V.! Chad and I said "no TV until she's 2." Ha ha on us because if it is on in the background she will try to watch! I tried turning on the T.V. the other day to see if it would keep her from screaming during tummy time and it worked!! But only for a couple of minutes... :)

Sleeping! Yea for Mom and Dad- her bedtime is between 8-9 and she sleeps through the night until 6 a.m.- how great is that?!

Watching her mobile/light show- she sometimes will even make little cooing noises at the animals overhead

Baths

Dancing- we move her around, but it still counts, right?

Things she does NOT like:

Tummy time

Having to wait for her milk or an empty bottle
- when she's wants to eat, she wants it RIGHT NOW!!

Other than that she's pretty easy going :)


Enjoy the pictures!

Thanks for checking in!
Sarah

Mia at 6 months!

Big girl holding her head up


Splashing in her tub- she loves her baths!


Dressed up on a cold night


Tomorrow is my 30th birthday! I have the best gift ever this year! Mia is doing really well- being home with her is just wonderful. I love seeing all of her 'firsts' and can't wait for the many more to come! She just started holding her head up last week, which we were VERY excited about. She is working on rolling over. If she is in just the right spot on her play mat, she can get enough momentum going to roll over. Most of the time she just gets frustrated on her tummy, so we just try a little bit each day. Chad is the expert at getting her to smile and laugh- she has the cutest little laugh if he can get her going. She loves staring at the ceiling fans in whatever room she is in. She seems to like music and will wiggle around a bit if there is a good beat going. :) She is doing an AWESOME job of sleeping through most nights. She has been in her own bed by 10 most nights for the past couple of weeks, and often sleeps until 5 or 6 in the morning! If she does wake up it is because she truly is hungry- once she has some milk in her tummy she is right back to sleep.
We had a quick visit downtown last week for our monthly RSV shot. Mia will get one more next month. Her weight was 10lbs. 8oz. and the doctor was happy wih her gain since last month (I think it was 9lbs 4 oz. then). Her official 6 month check up is coming up in March- last week we didn't actually meet with the doctor.

I still need to work on getting a movie loaded... ;)

Thanks for checking in on us!
:) Sarah