Neonatal Follow-up

Because Sophie was so early the hospital recommended that she be monitored by Neonatal Follow-up and Up to Three. Neonatal Follow-up is a clinic we take her to every few months in Ogden where a bunch of doctors in every field evaluate her and see how she's developing. Up to Three is here in Logan and they send out surveys for me to fill out about her progress every month or so. She's been where she needs to be up until this last one. They judge her based off her "adjusted age" which is the day she was due vs when she was born. So she may have turned a year old on sunday but to them she's only 9 months 16 days. Up to Three will continue to send out surveys as long as they feel she is developing properly. If, based on my answers, they decide she needs extra attention they'll send a physical therapist out. If Neonatal Follow-up feels that she needs extra attention, based on what they see of her that one day, they tell me to contact Up to Three. She did great in the "Problem Solving" category but not so hot in the "Gross/Fine Motor Skills". The main things making her fail is that she's not sitting up on her own yet and she can't pick small objects (like cheerios) up with just finger and thumb. That's what I picked up from the survey, she's very behind. She was in the "needs a therapist" category instead of the "here's some tips on things you can do with her at home" category. 

We took her to her Neonatal Follow-up clinic yesterday. The Neurologist said she was doing great and she'll pick up on those things very soon. The Ophthalmologist said her eyes looked great, which was good to hear because I forgot to make her an appt in February to get her eyes checked again after she had ROP in the NICU. So PHEW! The Psychologist (really?) said she lacks hand/eye coordination. Whatever, not a big deal right now, I'll work with her more she'll figure it out. The Pediatrician said that she's too white and she looks anemic....what?! She's always been this white. I've seen her anemic and she looked whiter than this. We'll have our pediatrician check her for it. The guy was darker skinned himself and he said that they train dark skinned doctors specially on caucasian kids so they know how white is too white. Haha! It's funny because I never even thought about that before. I asked if since her cheeks are always rosy and her lips always a healthy pink that could mean that this is just her natural skin color, I mean she is a red head after all. He wasn't sure. When I saw her anemic before she had no color in her cheeks and you could see her lips were really pale. I've always admired her porcelain skin, I hope she hasn't been anemic this whole time! Dr. Clark, her pediatrician, never said anything about it. However, I've noticed a couple times that her feet and hands will turn purple and feel freezing while the rest of her is really warm. Maybe anemia has something to do with that. Maybe she just has a problem circulating her blood. Maybe that would explain why she has a problem oxygenating her blood. I'm just speculating now, sorry. :0)

Purple hands and feet right after she woke up from her nap.

Healthy pink hands and feet after I rubbed them to get the blood flowing. BIG difference.

After the Up to Three survey and the Neonatal Follow-up I started to realize something. Keep in mind that this is my first kid and I was the youngest so my knowledge of babies development is limited. I always just sort of assumed they hit these milestones on their own, and I'm told that for the most part they do, but for a baby with Sophie's history it's a little more difficult and requires more involvement from us. I didn't know that. I just kept putting her in her go-pod so she can learn to stand or in her highchair with toys so she can play, or on her belly to build those muscles. I've even tried to have her sit and put her hands on her knees or floor for balance and she hated it! I hadn't tried it recently though. Coden did a few nights ago and she held herself up for at least 30 seconds! That opened my eyes that maybe I need to work with her more consistently. I made sure to tell the doctors that at her Neonatal clinic so they would know that it's just me being inexperienced. Not necessarily that she just can't pick up on these things. So today I decided to work with her on sitting up and she did it! For only a few seconds of course. Any time she slightly loses balance she gets really frustrated but she's slowly getting better. I was able to snap a few pics just before she fell. She's face planted a few times but I just pick her up and make her clap and say yay and she thinks it's ok.

She's pretty darn proud of herself!

I've noticed she does a bit better with distraction...like a singing puppy.

It's like she doesn't even realize she's sitting up.  So fun. She'll be doing it on her own in no time!

This is just a video of Sophie staring at herself. You can tell she really likes what she see's! 

(Sorry, I didn't turn the camera sideways because I wasn't originally planning on videotaping her)