May

look how intently she is watching her dad's mouth move ... she doesn't miss much these days.

i just want to smooch this face!!! Olivia really doesn't like waking up. I think it's genetically impossible for her to like it since I could probably take pictures of her mom and dad making this same face when their alarms go off. this picture cracks me up ... what is she thinking about? In her pretty dress at mother's day brunch.

Hi everyone.

I have been extremely slack about updating this blog...especially with any news...so i'd like to do a quick update.

Olivia is doing great. She had an appointment today with the Wake County Special Infant Care Clinic. It is a group of specialists (neonatologists, speech therapists, physical therapists, etc.) who see babies that the hospitals refer for periodic assessments. They evaluate everything from the way the babies sit, interact, eat, move... all to get an idea of where they are at developmentally.

I am not just bosting when i say that the dr. and physical therapist that she met today both said they were very impressed with all that Miss Olivia is doing. We got some good advice on things we can do to keep her moving in the right direction to boot!

I don't know that I have mentioned on here in the past that we have a concern about Olivia's strong preference for her right side. Her head is almost always turned that way. In the car, in the cradle, in the swing.... always to the right. And even though we mostly joke about it's correlation with a certain someone's politcal views, we thought it worth bringing up to the clinic today. Turns out that it is very common with these "early birds" b/c of having to actually lay to any side when they should have still been "floating"in utero in a head nuetral position. BUT... it requires attention and Mike and I were shown ways of working with her (that she is NOT liking so far) to help her balance things out.

Other good news from today would be that she is just shy of eight pounds. WOW... big girl. I think the dr.'s exact words were, "i don't know what you two are doing, but what ever it is is really working b/c the curve on her growth chart has just shot up in the right direction since she's been home with you...". That makes me feel good, b/c feedings don't always feel that successful. The reflux has gotten better since switching to prevacid but we can't deny that there is still something going on. After talking with them today, and them watching her eat, we all wonder if it is not more of an issue with swallowing air opposed to acid washing back up. Again, we were given some things to try... and we definitely will.

There wasn't any bad news, per say, but there was talk of these recent night time crying spells being ..... are you ready for this..... colic! What is colic? Well near as i can tell it is what people say a baby has when they can't label what they have as anything else. Apparently colic in premature babies doesn't rear it's ugly head until the baby has passed their due date and is the adjusted age of aprox. one month. It seemed weird to me that it came out of nowhere, now, when her life is so full of good, loving, tender moments .... it seems like it should have been happening back when she was being poked, stuck, proded.... What the dr. said about how she is absorbing and learning so much more during the days now made sense. She is awake and taking so much in...so many new things being imprinted on her brain...that she has to process...that at night she has to sort of "release" at little.

Speaking of which.... it might be time for her to do a little of it right now. I better run!