Lilypie Premature Baby tickers

Lilypie Premature Baby tickers

Friday, August 5, 2011

Happy 1/2 Birthday Ava, Lia & Mya!!!

I am in complete shock that the girls turned 6 months old yesterday.  I don't know where the time is going.  These will quite obviously be my last children and I am a little sad that they are getting so big so fast.  While feeling a little sentimental, I started looking over the girls' pictures from the past 6 months and decided to throw together a little photo montage for fun.  Warning:  this video is a little long and complete with super sappy songs!




Or here is a you tube link to the video also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wPIR4HqeoM

As far as six month weight updates, we haven't been to our checkup yet, but here are their weights this morning:

Ava - 13 lbs. 15 oz. - 15th %
Lia - 17 lbs. 15 oz. - 85th %
Mya - 16 lbs. 1 oz. - 52nd%

They are still growing like crazy and climbing up the growth chart for actual 6 month olds.  The girls adjusted age is just over 4.5 months, so they would really be big if we looked at that growth chart!  Just in the past couple of weeks, the girls have been really progressing a lot.  They have all started rolling over regularly.  Miss Ava has decided that she will no longer be sleeping on her back and flips over to sleep on her tummy every night.  Lia rolled completely across the playroom mat one night.  Mya is capable of rolling over, but she can't kick as well on her tummy so she prefers to stay on her back.  They have also started to enjoy spending time in their exersaucers and  bouncers. 



Mya LOVES her bouncer
Bounced to exhaustion

Lia in the Walker - she can scoot around in it!

Ava in the exersaucer
The other thing that we have been working on this month is eating solids, which we started at about 4.5 months.  We are trucking right along with trying something new every 3 days.  So far we have tried:  rice cereal, oatmeal, peas, green beans, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, applesauce, bananas, peaches, pears, plums, mangoes, avocados.  They have taken so well to baby food, that they are already going through ALOT of jars every day, so I have started to make homemade baby food whenever possible.  Just this morning I made sweet potatoes, squash, peas, green beans, plums and peaches!  There isn't anything that they refuse to eat, but their favorite veggies are peas, squash and sweet potatoes.  They aren't quite as enthusiastic about green beans and carrots, but will eat them.  They love pretty much all fruit, of course.

Preparing to make baby food.

Finished product

Ready to chow down

We have been to a few doctor's appointments this month.  We had our NICU follow up in Columbia, but it was pretty uneventful.  They are a little bit behind their actual age developmentally, but that is to be expected from preemies.  We also had to take Ava to Columbia to see a pediatric plastic surgeon concerning the flat spot that she has developed on the left side of her head.  He has diagnosed her with deformational plagiocephaly (a fancy way for saying flat spot), that has developed as a result of a preference for laying on that side of her head.  In addition, she has also developed torticollis, which goes hand in hand with plagiocephaly.  Torticollis is basically a tightening of the neck muscles on one side which causes her to hold her head at an angle and makes it difficult for her to turn her head to the right.  The dr. in Columbia feels that Ava will need a helmet to correct this flat spot.  The helmet would be worn for 3-5 months for 23 hours a day.  In addition, he had requested that she start physical therapy as soon as possible to correct the torticollis.  We are scheduled to go back to Columbia on August 15th to take measurements for her helmet.

Since that last appointment, Ava has started to willingly spend a lot more time on her tummy, including sleeping at night.  I feel like I have seen a pretty noticeable improvement in her flat spot.  In addition, we saw the physical therapist and she feels like Ava's torticollis is pretty mild and that as long as we do exercises at home, we don't have to go back again for another month.  I am really torn about the helmet issue right now.  The whole thing seems like such an ordeal...I am really hoping that when we go back for measurements, they will tell us that she no longer needs one.  Here is a picture of her head that I took last week that kind of shows the flat spot.

Ava's lopsided head
There is not much else going on around the household.  I am anxiously waiting for school to start...these kids need something to do!  We registered Simone for middle school this week.  I can't believe how grown up she is getting.
Simone with her new haircut in preparation for middle school.
Here are a few more pictures from this past month:

Lia, Mya and Ava
Noa reading to Ava about dinosaurs, of course...
Ava
Lia
Mya
Mya, Ava & Lia
Mya actually enjoying tummy time
Great grandma Kolb with Noa and Lia
Sister Josetta, Sister Bernadette & Sister Laura with Noa & the girls
Remember how little they used to look in this pack and play?
Ava
Ava, Lia & Mya