Neonatal Follow Up Clinic

Today was Darbi's first Neonatal Follow Up clinic visit. She met with a Nutritionist, an Occupational Therapist, an Ophthalmologist, a Neurologist, a Pediatrician, and she was weighed and measured! It was a full day... 5 hours of Dr's. Surprisingly, Darbi was really good! There was a TON of kids there this month because the ophthalmologist wasn't here last month and won't be here next month so he was seeing 3 months worth of kids. It was cr-aaaazy. Everyone there was SO nice though! We got called back right away and seeing that D was still real tiny and still on oxygen, they let us just hang out in the back in the lab area to stay away from infection! I was so relieved. Parents were only supposed to come with the child that needed to be seen but since it's the summer, some parents couldn't get a sitter and came with an entire van-load.. We also had a NICU Fellow (Med student on her way to becoming a Neonatologist) following us to listen in on all of our visits. It was nice because she orchastrated where we were supposed to be and made sure that we were taken care of. I felt a little spoiled. :)

We started by getting weighed and measured. D is up to 10 lbs. 12 oz.! I don't remember the length and head cir. but she is in the 52% for her head cir, 24% for her weight, and 3% for her length! Not too shabby. Then we moved onto the Nutritionist where while she was talking with us, I fed D. I tried to take advantage of the time because I didn't know when I would be able to again. She was blown away by her medical history and couldn't believe how well she was doing! We got that A LOT today! She was pleased with her weight gain but said that I need to be more consistant in taking my calcium and mulitvitamins. I try.

Then we went in with OT to check her motor skills. Her head control is still a little lagging but we were shown different ways we could help her stay happy while we are doing it. We'll see how it goes. The therapist asked us how Early Intervention was going for us and we told her that we didn't qualify. She was actually a little upset about it. Although they said (back in June) that she didn't qualify, she should automatically just because she was a 23 weeker. And because of her brain bleeds, we are to anticipate problems and that is exactly what EI is for. The review they did on her at 1 month shouldn't be a factor because she's not going to show any developmental delays so early. So this next week, our mission (the therapist and my own) is to get her in an EI program. The last few days, Clint told her that he had noticed she was beginning to show preferrence on her right side. I hadn't noticed this but our therapist did a few exercises with D and actually noticed the same thing. She noticed it more in her right hand. D's hands stay pretty open when she's awake and playing but she tends to keep her thumb in her palm and it's very difficult to try and have her keep it out. She said that it's something we need to watch and work with her more on her right side but we really won't know more about how she's going to do until she's a bit bigger. She tends to use her left hand more and we need to teach her to use her right as her helper hand.

Next we waited for about 30 minutes for the eye doctor to just dialate her eyes then another 40 minutes until they were ready. We've been cleared back in June by our eye doctor and this was just to make sure we were all good. As suspected, no problems! Then we went right in to talk to the Neurologist. Right away, she also noticed the right-side-preferrence thing. It seemed like now everyone was starting to notice it and apparently is a big deal. She was pleased with how well she can track objects (which I attribute to her favorite bird mobile).

FINALLY, we met with the Pediatrician. We LOVED this guy. He was so eccentric.. and kind of looked like an elf. :) He kept muttering under his breath as he was reading her chart, "holy smokes"... "oh my goodness!" ... "holy moly!" ... "2 PDA ligations?!" It was awesome! One of my favorite parts... he listened to her lungs and said they sounded NORMAL!! No BPD sounds! I guess it is supposed to sound kind of crackly and he said they sounded PERFECT!! They said to still expect to be on oxygen at least for a year (meaning until next April-ish) but he thinks maybe sooner!

So all in all.. it was a good but tiring day. We know what to watch for and what we need to be better at. My favorite was definitely all the attention about how well she is doing for her age and everything she has been through. I'm guilty of bragging like crazy about her but I don't care! Everyone should know how special she is!!

Ironic/Funny story of the day: The OT was asking about how her reflux is doing and we told her that she doesn't have reflux. Her PCG5 test that was done in the hospital showed no signs of it. Then she asked how much she eats and for how long with both the bottle and breastfeeding. She'll take about 4 - 4 1/2 oz from a bottle and she NEVER EVER has a problem with spitting up. We were so proud of that. Well... tonight while I was at work, I got a text from Clint that said she took 5 oz. from the bottle!!! I was stoked... but then.. she spit up... big time. What a day to prove Mommy a liar, right??