Happy 3 Month (adjusted) Birthday, Sophie!

If Sophie was born on her due date, today would be her 3 month birthday. A couple of days ago we hit the milestone of Sophie being home longer than she had been in the NICU. It's hard to imagine she's so old, yet her time in the NICU seems so long ago. She has definitely changed in the past few months, although some things have remained the same.

Sophie's nippling has not improved and she still doesn't seem to feel completely healthy. We are trying various things to try and improve her loose and frequent stools, but since it's best to only try one thing at a time, it's a slow and sometimes frustrating process. We are still going to lots of doctor appointments, but going out is getting easier (probably less of a change in Sophie, and more me adjusting). This week we had two appointments in one morning (one of which was at a feeding time), which I would have thought insane a month ago, but ended up going okay. The bad news from the appointments is that Sophie will likely need two surgeries next year: one for her umbilical hernia, and one on her kidneys. The hernia surgery should be fairly quick and easy. I need to do more research on the kidney surgery, but her urologist is pretty confident that she will need surgery around her 1 year birthday to correct her duplicated kidney and reflux. I'm not sure how major a surgery that is, but it would definitely be harder than the hernia surgery.

Visibly Sophie is very different. I have posted recent pictures here. She is now close to 13 pounds. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but Sophie, aka "Baldy", has lost a lot of hair. The hair loss is apparently normal, but we didn't notice it with Owen, probably because he had very little hair to start with. Developmentally she has more alert times, smiles and giggles a little bit, and has started paying attention to toys. Her therapists have confirmed that she's behind developmentally, but that is not a surprise given her prematurity and rough start to life. Looking back at pictures and videos of Owen at 3 months, she is less giggly/smiley and has less head control.

Owen, meanwhile, is really enjoying the Christmas season. He has helped trim the tree, which obviously has more decorations on the bottom half than the top half. :-) We made a gingerbread tree, watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas", learned all the characters in the manger scene, sent a letter to Santa, went to Zoo lights, and he has even helped with the Christmas cards (hopefully the mailman will still deliver the cards given the address labels/stamps are a bit crooked!). He has enjoyed receiving cards in the mail, especially ones with family pictures. He likes learning who everyone is.

Dinner time continues to be a fun time. Owen learned that putting his feet up on the table is a no-no, so now he sometimes puts his hands on the table and says "This is a yes-yes", and then puts his foot on the table and says "And this is a no-no", just to show us he knows. Owen has always been a good eater, but Keith and I continue to find pleasure in playing games with Owen to get him to eat. One game involves him closing his eyes, crossing his fingers (his own addition to the game), opening his mouth, and then guessing the food we put in his mouth. Since we made the gingerbread tree, Owen now wants to make brocolli trees, meatball trees, okra trees, etc., and then eat them.

Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season. We are looking forward to Sophie's 5 month (actual) birthday on the 21st, and then of course, Jesus's birthday!

From o so december 10

From o so december 10