Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

It's going to be a quiet Christmas here at our house this year...but we are not complaining!!! We miss everyone. Hopefully we can make it home for Christmas next year. Look for pictures tomorrow!

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8 Months!

Wow, 8 months old! I can not believe we are starting to think about planning her first birthday party!!! Ailyn's personality is really starting to show. For her 8th month birthday post, I thought it would be fun to give you some fun facts about our Ailyn.

Ailyn is so quiet. She is not a talker. When she coos, everyone will stop and listen to what she has to say. She thinks she is very funny and smiles really big after her stories. Her voice is also very soft, we love to hear her sweet voice.
Ailyn is always happy. She has a different cry for hunger, tired or boredom. She never cries for nothing. It's very easy to settle her down if she is upset. She just looks around and takes it all in. She loves to be held, she would be happy to be held all day everyday. And, we don't mind.
Ailyn has always been an amazing sleeper. Well, compared to her brother who never slept until he was 3! During the day she will take cat naps all day. Every 2 hours she is ready for a small nap. I think her mind is conditioned to eat every 3 hours since we have had to wake her up around the clock. Now, we are able to let her sleep 6 hours at night. AND, she does! I will feed her at 12:30am and she will sleep until 6:30 when Daddy wakes her up to eat. He will hand her to me and she will sleep until 9am. This makes Mommy and Daddy very happy. Don't ask where she sleeps ;)
No food yet. I gave her prunes for the first time today because she is constipated. Poor thing won't eat if she has to poop. We had already tried cereal once and she did an amazing job....like she had been eating forever! The GI doctor and Nutritionist want to hold off on the food for a couple more months so she can gain some weight. Doesn't make sense to us but we are putting our trust in the doctors.
Ailyn has spotted the cats. She is SO adorable when she sees them. She stares and smiles. Our one cat Raegan is very good with kids and doesn't mind hanging around for her to see. But, our other cat is mad at us for having another child.
Big brother Camden, rocks!! If she is upset he holds her hand. He helps with her therapy. He calls belly time "push ups" and holds toys up for her to see. She has a certain smile she gives Camden. We can't figure it out yet. We are not sure if she thinks he is crazy or just a very cool "thing".

Well, Ailyn's 15 minute nap is over and she is ready for some cuddles. Thank you for keeping up with Ailyn's story. She is so amazing to us and we love to share her with you.

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Snowy Day!

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patched

Ailyn had her eye appointment today. She had her eyes dilated and again we were told she is a tad far sighted than normal. We are going to patch her left eye a hour a day to see if that helps with the crossing. The picture above was taken 1 minute after I put the patch on. She was all smiles until she realized something was stuck on her eye! She tried rubbing it off and then when that didn't work, she cried. She lasted 15 minutes. A good start. I was told she will get used to it. If the patching doesn't work we will move on to the next step.....glasses. As much I think kids look cute in glasses I dread trying to keep them on her face!! There is an option of surgery but for now she doesn't need it.

For all those waiting on our Christmas card....I am finally working on them!! They will be going out very soon. I didn't forget about you :)

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Our school day

I have had so many friends ask me how home schooling Camden is going. So I figured the best way would be to blog about our day!
We don't do school work everyday. I "try" to get 2 hours, 3 times a week in. Those two hours can be split up throughout the day or all at once. It depends on the lessons. Camden's attention span is VERY short. If he doesn't know or understand something he shuts down and walks away. I try to make activities fun. We do have several workbooks to practice writing letters and numbers but I like doing hands on lessons best.
I have about 15 home school blogs that I follow. After Camden goes to bed, I sit and read to get ideas for the school week. I "try" to print out all our work on Sunday nights. I don't have a daily planner. I tried it but found it didn't work for us. So each week I choose a math, science,geography (we are learning about children in other countries right now),reading and an art project. I am working on finding a way to be organized. I have had some very late nights working on this! With Ailyn eating every 3 hours and needing constant attention, it's hard to follow a schedule. She takes small cat naps...and I mean small!! 15 minutes small!! This week we are working on Goodnight Moon. We have the board game and Camden LOVES to play. I was up late one night reading my blogs and came across a Goodnight Moon Lapbook. Lap books are AMAZING! So fun to make and such an easy way for Camden to learn math, reading,patterns,ect. Above is a Lapbook in progress. I can't take any credit for the Lap books.....I print them out and we make them.
We use our playroom as our classroom. It's a work in progress. It's been fun making the room somewhere they can play and learn. We already had an easel, table and chairs, puzzles, games, art supplies (Camden LOVES to paint). Once I have it "finished" I will post pictures. And, since it's a bright red room, Ailyn loves to be in there. She is always happy to lay on the rug with her toys. I use this time for her belly time. Santa is bringing her some fun toys for the playroom ;)


Each week I put site words on the easel. Camden is nowhere near reading. He knows all his letters and some sounds. He loves to write letters. He has many Christmas lists going! Lately he has been really into rhyming words. So this weeks lesson has been so fun! I have plans to make site words flashcards and put the word on the objects around the house. For example.....the word OVEN on the oven :)
Camden loves to bake. I am trying to be more creative in the kitchen. He wants to make Christmas cookies for our Santa cookie jar. The store bought cookies were not good enough I guess! We make our own playdoh. This week we are going to make glitter playdoh and make snowmen. We are working on the letter S. Have you ever taught a child to write the letter S?? Very frustrating. Every other letter he has caught on quick...not S. We make letters out of the playdoh. I print off various letter worksheets. From reading the blogs, I found neat ways to teach Camden his letters.

Today we made a Cat and Fiddle book. I read the poem to him and then we colored pictures I found online. We put them in order and we glued the book together. He loved being able to read Ailyn a book!
We chose not to sign Camden up for a class until springtime. The main reason being all the germs. This winter we all have to make small sacrifices for Ailyn. It's a small chunk out of our life. No worries, Camden has many friends. I am very fortunate to have great friends who offer to take Camden with them to the places we can't take Ailyn. Thank you for that :) Believe it or not Camden's favorite line every morning is "Mommy, do we have to go anywhere today" When I say "No" he will say "O good, I like to stay home with my toys" This makes me feel less guilty about being stuck at home!!

I can't tell you what these are or I will ruin the surprise :) I love making Christmas decorations. I have many planned! Thursday we are making a gumdrop tree! We will make patterns with the gum drops and do simple math problems before we decorate the tree. Again, I can't take credit for this one....
Overall it's going great!! It took me a long time to get the hang of it. I didn't have a plan when we chose to keep him home. I knew nothing about home schooling. I am the one who never thought I would home school. Now, I am finding I love it and even thought about doing it again next year! After looking at the tuition of local schools, home schooling almost sounds like the way to go! If I do, I plan to join a group and be better prepared ;)

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Correction!

We have been saying that Ailyn had blood in her urine for two weeks after birth. All this time we were wrong! We think it's funny how your perception of time in the NICU is so different. A day feels like a week, a month feels like five months. So, correction! She peed blood for almost a week , not two weeks. I had to correct myself. *****My mom called me and said that she recalls her peeing blood for the two weeks***** The reason I wrote this was the developmental doctor told me it was 4 days (she read the report). I am thinking it took the 2 weeks for her to pee strait urine??? I guess I have to go read the discharge summary! I tried one time and it was very traumatizing.

Ailyn has her eye follow up this week. She has been favoring her right eye. Hopefully the patch will work. We also have her 8 month check up on Friday!! 8 months!!! The only good thing about Ailyn being a preemie is she is only 5 months adjusted :)

I finally was able to get my H1N1 last night. I feel so much better knowing we have done everything to protect Ailyn. We had a little scare last weekend. Camden came down with a cold/cough. He was very good about not touching Ailyn much and washing his hands. On Sunday, she woke with a stuffy nose and a dry cough. It went away and I am not even calling it a cold. PHEWWWW

Look for an update later in the week!

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So in love

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Some pictures for you

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10 POUNDS!

Ailyn had a follow up with the NICU doctor today. She is a developmental pediatrician. Ailyn finally made it on the "preemie" chart!!! 5% for weight! A whole 10 pounds! The doctor wasn't as concerned as last time. She said it is something we will watch and only if she falls behind with milestones, we will do a genetic test. When I was 14 weeks along I had the first trimester screen come back with abnormal cells. I did the CVS test (ouch!) and more abnormal cells called Trisomy 2 were found. We chose not to do more testing since I was already starting preterm labor. At birth we did not know if she had this Trisomy 2. The NICU doctor was very good and tested her twice. Both were negative for Trisomy. Ailyn always measured a week behind. We know she does not have the Trisomy 2 but the doctors are keeping it in the back of their minds in case she falls behind developmentally.

Ailyn is right on track with all her milestones for her adjusted age (almost 5 months). The psychologist did many tests with her. One of the things I was worried about was that Ailyn is not reaching for toys. She will grab and hold a toy but she doesn't look at an object and hold it. OF COURSE, Ailyn made me a liar! She grabbed onto the red ring RIGHT away. AND, switched hands! She said that Ailyn scored a little higher than her adjusted age on a few tests. Ailyn was being her happy social self.

The PT came in and was happy with her progress. So no new changes and we will continue PT every other week.

Overall the appointment went great. We will go back in 4 months (she will be ONE!)

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A new month!

Sorry for the delayed update. I was asked to post right away but got busy! I called Ailyn's pediatrician about the RSV shot and they had it. I took her in that day. I feel so much better knowing she has it.

I have been noticing Ailyn crossing her eyes. I didn't want to rush her back to the eye doctor so I waited a few weeks. I decided to call and see if they wanted to see her. We were able to get an appointment the next day. The first doctor didn't see her cross her eyes at all and left the room. She was going to have the main doctor check before we left. I called her back in because Ailyn was crossing her eyes. She still didn't see it!! The main doctor came in and in 2 seconds saw her crossing her eyes (note to self....never see the first doctor again) He wanted to dilate her eyes to check her retina. 2 1/2 hours later, the doctor said she was far sighted more than the "normal" baby. All babies are far sighted and they grow out of it. Sometimes it can cause crossing when they try to focus. Ailyn may grow out of it. We go back in 3 weeks, then again in January. For now I have to stand directly in front of her and see if she favors one eye over the other. If she does favor one eye, she will have to wear a patch for a hour a day. Ailyn was SO good for the doctor. She just sucked on her binki and smiled. She is a heart-breaker!

Ailyn is starting to eat MUCH better!! I think by the end of the week I will be able to increase her feeding. She does have more congestion in her throat from the new formula. She sounds like she is wheezing all the time. The new formula has iron in it and she was on iron. Poor nugget got so constipated one day. I swear she was going to pass out! It was so sad. Her blood test results came back GREAT so we were able to stop the iron. Hopefully that does the trick or she will have to go on a medication.

AND! She is sleeping 5 hours a night. The 2 extra hours really make a huge difference for me. I am able to feed her around midnight and give her to Aaron at 5:00. He will feed her and put her back to sleep. He really enjoys his mornings with Ailyn. I hear all about it :)

We have a quiet week. We are getting ready for Santa!

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