(feel free to pause music on bottom right of the blog)Call me superstitious, call me paranoid...whatever. I kept putting off writing anything about Alyssa in fear that if I wrote how well she was doing, something bad would happen. But now that she has caught her first cold, and luckily it was JUST a cold, not RSV...I feel like it's ok to write something. Cold and flu season really sucks when you have a prem baby. My knuckles and skin in between my fingers are raw from washing my hands so frequently. We've had our share of colds in the household, but with washing and wearing a mask Alyssa kept fairly healthy, no hospital visits and 2 (almost 3) RSV shots later...Another disadvantage of having a prem baby is that we are supposed to try and avoid all the "big toys" as much as possible like the jolly jumper, exersaucer, bumbo chairs, etc. Mainly because they don't help in developping Alyssa's muscles needed to sit up and roll, and can actually enforce toe walking and extension in her legs which we DON'T want as these are often seen in children with cerebral palsy. In a perfect world we would be on the floor all the time with our babies trying to play with them and help them with head control, rolling, sitting up, crawling...Of course this isn't always possible when you have other children.
She hasn't been weighed in a couple weeks, but probably weighs around 13 1/2 lbs at 8 1/2 months and 5 months corrected. She is a super smiley baby, just like Emily was...her entire face lights up when she smiles. And her giggle...it is the cutest thing I have heard in a long time, unfortunately we haven't heard it very often. We must not be that funny. The one day where she was laughing in hysterics was when Keith and Emily were goofing around, it was priceless! She has been to follow up appointments a couple times now, and will go again at 8 months corrected. This is where we meet with the doctor, a nurse, physiotherapist, dietician, and occupational therapist if needed. Developmentally, physio is happy with Alyssa. She seems to meeting all of her milestones, although her 8 month assessment will be a better predictor on how she is doing because she will be moving more then. She is not rolling yet, so I do have to work with her on that, but not ALL babies roll by this point. I am not concerned yet. She did have tight hamstrings a couple months ago, and would only turn her head in one direction, but with catching these things early and doing exercises to correct them (stretches), they have resolved and now I do them much less frequently then I did before. Other then her lungs, all the hand washing and extra cleaning and keeping her away from people with colds and flus (which happens to be most people this time of the year), all of her doctors appointments, and some extra hands on "play time," Alyssa is just like any other baby, except extremely special and probably the cutest baby I know at the moment. In saying that...it reminds me of the other day when I was singing to her "You're the most beautiful girl in the world...." by Prince, although I sound nothing like him. If you know any Flynn's...you know how out of tune we sing, but Alyssa loved it. But then I stopped, because I had a moment of guilt. And started thinking of Emily, she's just as beautiful...so I changed the song, to "the most beautiful baby in he world, yes you are..."...but then I started thinking of Jessica, so I had to change it again to "the most beautiful baby in the world on earth..." My voice, these words, not a pretty site, glad Alyssa enjoys anything out of my mouth. Does anyone else ever get like this, where you say something and then feel like you need to rephrase to make sure all of your children know they are loved equally?? As I read over this blog last week, I started to feel bad again. This blog really was meant to be an update of my pregnancy and how the girls were doing, which it did, but I didn't mention my other daughter, Emily as much as maybe I should have.
She is "the most beautiful 2 year old girl in the world..." And she loves her sister SO much. She is definetly going through the "terrible two's", but luckily I usually only see this side of her when I pick her up from the sitter's, other then that she's good as gold. She is going through a "mommy, mommy" phase which can be frustrating for both Keith and I, but also makes me feel SO good when she wraps her little arms around my neck and tells me how much she loves me. I remember being on bedrest and being so upset that I couldn't lift her or play with her much, I'm pretty sure she's forgotten all about that time. Last night I was reading to her before bed. She picked the book "Goodnight Moon". Alot of memories flashed in my head as I was reading her story. I read this book to both Jessica and Alyssa every night before I left the hospital when they were in the incubators, and before I could do much hands on with them. The things that stick in my mind...
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