The Fi and Vi Log: NICU Follow Up

Today we had Fiona’s first NICU follow up. The state likes to track the development of all preemies, and if there are any issues, offer services to help overcome them. For example, if a child becomes delayed in speech, they can have speech therapy to help them catch up.

The good news is that Fiona is doing really well. She is developing according to her adjusted age (6 months) and maybe a little more than that, but is not yet at her actual age. No one was worried. She sat up, followed objects, chewed on everything, played with her toes, rolled all over the place, including from her back to her stomach over her left arm, something she’s never done before. She can take objects from people, reach for stuff, and pass objects back and forth between her hands.

We don’t have to go back until she is 18 months old. We saw the occupational therapist and one of the neonatologists that I used to see every day when I visited Fiona in the hospital. Both agreed that Fiona is extremely cute and kept saying it over and over gain.

Fiona has grown lately. She is now well over 15 pounds and is 26 1/2 inches long (over 66 cm)! That makes her an almost regular sized 8 months old and a long 6 months old!

This has been a wonderful happy day. Plus, Fiona has been very happy for the last week, during the day anyway. At night, she’s been waking many times, eating a lot, and generally not sleeping. This means that neither John nor I are getting any sleep either. Today I was so tired my face hurt, and then I got lost in Target because it’s being remodeled and everything has been moved around. I realized at one point that I was muttering to myself out loud while pushing a cart. Yet, everyone I looked at smiled at me. Go figure.

I’m looking forward to this weekend and my first post-pregnancy race. It’s a 5k on Sunday. John is running it too. Hopefully I won’t have to walk too much of it. I’ve been running once or twice a week with Fiona in the BOB, so running without it should be a little easier. My only worry is lack of sleep making me miss the race altogether.

The only photos I have of Fiona are from my phone. She has a tooth now, but I can’t get a good picture because her tongue keeps getting in the way. Oh, and John finally heard her giggle when I was blowing zerberts on her tummy.

Here she is, sleeping in her car seat, after the NICU follow up. John and I went to lunch and Fiona slept through the entire meal.