Bigger and better adventures

This time last year my friends’ son Alexander turned one year old, and we went to his party. It was the first time we had taken Talia anywhere further than a few blocks from our house since she came home from hospital six weeks earlier. It was a big event for us emotionally as new parents of a prem, as we were still very concerned about her contracting even a cold after she was diagnosed with chronic lung disease as a result of spending 11 weeks on CPAP, and we were not sure how we would cope with seeing lots of big babies.

In the end it was fine, Talia was thrilled to make her first acquaintance with balloons (which she has loved to bits ever since) and I ate the contents of her lolly bag (tut tut mummy!)

Fast forward 12 months to today and we were back at Alexander’s house for his second birthday.  The little kids from last year were positively enormous this year, but Talia has grown quite a lot too.  She scoffed three pieces of fairy bread, two pieces of sushi and a range of other food, crawled around the place, popped a couple of balloons and greatly enjoyed trying out some of Alexander’s many toys.

Then after a power nap in the car on the way home, she spent part of the afternoon rearranging the sandpit.

Life is good.

Today was my birthday (old, even older than when I was pregnant and didn’t people go on about “advanced maternal age” even then!) and also the date of Talia’s 8 month check up.

As before our four month check up, we were sent a questionnaire to complete in advance of the appointment. In contrast to the previous time, we were delighted to be able to tick “yes” to many of the questions, including almost all of those relating to fine motor skills. She can pick up items as small as a sultana. There were still a few “not yet”s, including two of the gross motor skills - rolling and crawling. However we are much less worried about Talia’s development overall than we were 4 months ago, when she was clearly showing delays in many areas.

The actual meeting with the paediatrician was relatively short, and he told us that he considered all her development to be within normal ranges, with the possible exception of her speech development. Talia babbles happily, but doesn’t use many consonants. It might be that she is not hearing everything clearly, so he arranged for us to see an audiologist to double check Talia’s hearing. Of course it might just be that she is taking her own time - the same way she has been setting her own timeline for other milestones.

In the waiting room we met up with Talia’s boyfriend Reuben who was born the same day, at a similar gestation. He has always been bigger, and now at 8 months corrected he is around 10kg, has been crawling for weeks and is already cruising the furniture. In fact he is doing better than the full term babies in my mothers group who are the same age!

Talia herself is almost 7kg - 6960g to be exact, and nudging the 10th percentile. Four months ago she was only about 4.5kg and so far below the 3rd percentile that I was stressing myself into a state of depression. Thank goodness times have changed and all for the better. Her length is a little below the 10th percentile, although with the amount of wriggling going on I’d be amazed if they actually took a correct measurement. Most amazing though, was the head circumference. This has always been bigger than anything else, but when I put it on the chart after we returned home I couldn’t believe it - 90th percentile, up from less than the 75th. I guess those brains will come in handy, especially if she turns out to be as bad at sport as her parents.

As I’m writing this post it’s the end of the day and I’ve blown out a candle and made a birthday wish - to see my daughter continue to grow happily and healthily, and tick off all those boxes as “yes” eventually.

Hip hip, hooray!

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This post was originally written for the main LAP blog and can be seen at http://www.lilaussieprems.com.au/blogs/02/our-8-month-corrected-check-up/

Upstairs, downstairs in the pram

This rocker is popular…

We went to our monthly group physio appointment at the hospital this afternoon.

I don’t know why it is, but Talia hates it. She transforms from a placid, happy baby into a wailing, uncooperative mess every time we go. I’m starting to wonder if she doesn’t like the smell or the lights - because there is nothing else I can see that is particularly different about the place, and she starts fussing even before we ask her to do anything.

I also find these visits stressful, partly because Talia is unhappy, and partly because it becomes ever clearer how far behind she is falling compared to babies of similar corrected age. She is 5.5 months corrected (8.5 months actual) and shows no signs of wanting to roll yet. She doesn’t automatically reach and play with toys, or bring her hands together often, and she doesn’t play with her feet at all.

Finally today they told me they feel she would benefit from one-on-one sessions in addition to the group sessions, so we will be starting in January. We are hoping to avoid the situation where she becomes frustrated because mentally she wants to progress but physically she is not capable.

Talia’s “boyfriend” Reuben also comes to these group sessions. Reuben and Talia were born on the same day, with only 2 days difference in gestation, but Reuben has always been larger. In the beginning Talia was 855g where Reuben was something over 1kg. Now Talia is 5.4kg and Reuben is a whopping 8.7kg.

It’s so cute to see them together!

Oliver the Magnificat came to live with us in 2004 as a refugee after friends had their second child and noticed Oliver suffering from what could best be described as “toddler stress”.

He enjoyed being an only cat in our quiet house, where he has been the undisputed ruler of the sofas for the last three years.

Then, a big change. Without any warning, there is another small creature in the house and it seems to have first priority on laps. It makes unpredictable, loud noises. Even worse, it is fed rather more frequently than he is.

What is a cat to do?