High Risk Newborn Clinic

Emry had her HIGH RISK NEWBORN CLINIC appointment this past Friday back in good ol' Little Rock. I was so excited to see everyone I could hardly sleep the night before! Ok, that may be stretching it a little. I'm a mom with a 2 year old and a 6 month old. I'm not sure if there is ANYTHING that makes me so excited I would have a hard time sleeping! ha!

I was a little nervous I guess, not knowing what to expect at the appointment and what they would say about Emry's development. Of course I look at her and say "WOW! I can't believe she is already able to do that" but sometimes drs have different opinions.

The clinic generally consists of a series of drs and specialists coming in one right after the other to watch her, ask questions, listen to her little chest, etc. To our amazement (although I've come to expect amazement with God's hand on this little girl!) we only saw the doctor, whom she had seen the very first week she was born, nutrition, and one of our WONDERFUL nurse practitioners who had been with us for most of our stay at UAMS. They were all pleased with where she was developmentally and health wise. The only thing they were the least bit concerned with was her still being so small but she has stayed right on track with her growth curve and proportional all the way around so they just want us to bump up her calories each feeding by adding EnfaCare (which is a supplement for premature babies) to her breast milk that I pump every day. :) I can for sure live with that!

So here is our day in pictures.....

Our first stop was a Childen's for her appointment (our first time there!) It was AMAZING! What a wonderful place!

Alli & daddy waiting in Emry's room to see who will come in next!

 Guess who was across the street!!!

We were able to stay at the Ronald McDonald house for 30 days and were so blessed by them!

 3 little amigos....

 Emry getting the "look over" by one of the FANTASTIC doctors from UAMS!

 Sweet girl passing the sitting up test :)

 Here is Emry all worn out with Ms. Dana (she was with us quite a bit over the 3 months we were in the hospital) LOVE HER!

We then made a quick stop at Ronald McDonald House:

Jeff taking in some donations to "Ron McDon" (Ronald McDonald House)

 Last picture we took here we were minus one family member :) So glad we got a shot of our little family of 4.

 Kissing ol' Ron bye bye!

It was so hard to leave Ron McDon house... All these memories kept flooding back... It was on those stairs that Alli learned to climb using big girl steps for the first time (not the crawling up the stairs toddlers do). And she used to be so scared to be near Ronald McDonald but would ALWAYS wave and say "bye Ron" everytime we'd head to the hospital. Oh I'm tearing up now just thinking about it! I broke down when we were leaving this last time as she called out the window "bye bye Ron, love you!"

So after I composed myseld we headed to UAMS:

 AWESOME STORY! I've been kinda bummed about not knowing who actually delivered Emry because all the paper work shows the attending physician and not the actual doctor who did the c-section (I guess since he is a resident??? I don't really know) Anyhow, we stopped in the cafeteria to grab a bite before heading to the NICU and Jeff says "HEY! That's the guy who delivered Emry!" WHAT?!?! Can you imagine my excitement??? Oh course I'm sure the only reason Jeff recognized him was because of the Kansas State hat! Ha! So of course we snagged a few photos! He even asked if he could take a picture with her with his camera too! Oh how I love this place! So now I sleep in peace knowing who delivered our sweet Em. :)

 Emry with some of her VERY VERY sweet nurses!! LOVE THEM ALL!

 And the ladies who work the front desk (and answered the 1000 phone calls a day I would make when I went home! ha!)

It was a very bitter sweet day. I mean 3 months of our lives were spent here! I cannot wait to go back and visit and hopefully get to see a few more familiar faces that we missed this visit.

6 MONTHS!

Emry how can you already be 6 months?!?

What are the newest tricks she has up her sleeves you might ask?

~ I'm not sure exactly what she weighs now (her 6 mo appt is next week) but at 5 months she was a whopping 7lbs 1oz (which is still WAY off the charts as you can imagine but still great for her!) Her dr wants her to gain between 1/2 an ouce to an ounce a day and she averages 3/4 ounce :).

~Her length I'm not sure about either but we'll know soon enough!

~She can sit for a few seconds (very few seconds) by herself which is HUGE in our little world!

~She has rolled over once and almost a few other times but she is not a fan of tummy time!

~She smiles at anyone and everyone who talks to her. She also laughs now which is the most beautiful sound in the world! :) She loves children and if there are any around she is right there fixed on them especially little Alli. She LOVES her sister! (and I'm pretty sure her sister can't get enough of her!)

~She started physical therapy (last week was her first session) and threw a fit the entire time through it! ha! She had an evaluation with them, occupational therapy and speech therapy a month or so back. PT was the only one where she was lagging a little so they went ahead and asked to see her once a week for 45 mins just to help her get caught up. (Although this is a whole other post in itself. I will try and post soon about.)

~She goes to bed at about 8:30pm, we wake her up at 10:30 just to top her off with a little milky and then she doesn't wake up again until about 8:30am. Yeah I know, right?!? She is a GREAT sleeper! Alli didn't sleep through the night until she was about 15 months old!

~I'm still "nursing" her. I use quotations because I pump still and feed her a bottle because I still like to make sure she is eating enough. Yeah, I know, they'll let you know if they are still hungry. After all I did nurse Alli exclusively for 15 months and she grew just fine but I still worry.... :)

~She takes 3-4 small naps throughout the day, usually lasting about 45mins to an hr. It really depends on how loud Alli is being...ha! She makes it about and hr and a half awake and then can't take it anymore.... so sweet!

~She is also lifting her head pretty well off the ground when on her tummy and grabbing and holding toys really well.

I know for most, these are such little milestones but for me after seeing what Emry has gone through, EVERYTHING she does is HUGE! It is amazing! After all, we were told IF she lived she would have no quality of life.... AND LOOK AT THIS FACE!  She is a miracle!

We love you and are so proud of you sweet Em!

I'm also back from my BLOG VACATION now so expect to see lots more posts in the future! (I just took a little like to get accustomed to 2 children, being home again after 3 months, etc, etc....) Thanks so understanding!