Wednesday, February 12, 2014
My Team
Willa is dressed and ready for the big game tonight. If only she, or any of us, would be awake late enough to watch. It should be an interesting day since she is surrounded by dookies at daycare AND North Carolina is expecting to get some snow and ice.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
What is Happening Now...
Lots of changes are happening but none of them seem big enough to warrant their own blog post. I'll just try and hit the highlights of things happening in the Streett house.
Friday was International Omphalocele Awareness Day. It was great seeing family and friends posting pictures wearing black and white clothing (it was a very emotional day for me). We even had a picture of a very cute little boy dressed as a cow. MOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Willa's communication is a combination of baby gibberish and echoing words that we tell her. Willa can also point to various body parts and items of clothing. The cutest actions have to be that she will clap along with a TV show or song where there is clapping or cheering. Also, she has become quite fond of blowing kisses. It is pretty easy to tell that dogs are currently her favorite animal. Spotting a dog on TV, in a book, or outside gets Willa very excited and she attempts to communicate with her "woof woofs." Daddy isn't bending on his rule of no pets. Sorry kid.
Friday was International Omphalocele Awareness Day. It was great seeing family and friends posting pictures wearing black and white clothing (it was a very emotional day for me). We even had a picture of a very cute little boy dressed as a cow. MOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Willa's communication is a combination of baby gibberish and echoing words that we tell her. Willa can also point to various body parts and items of clothing. The cutest actions have to be that she will clap along with a TV show or song where there is clapping or cheering. Also, she has become quite fond of blowing kisses. It is pretty easy to tell that dogs are currently her favorite animal. Spotting a dog on TV, in a book, or outside gets Willa very excited and she attempts to communicate with her "woof woofs." Daddy isn't bending on his rule of no pets. Sorry kid.
Reading books makes up a chunk of our evening fun. Willa can sit and flip through books on her own or sit in our lap for 20 plus minutes. Daren has most of the Dr Seuss books down word for word. Also, Willa likes to point out any and all balls (or circles) on the pages. There is also spontaneous kissing of random pages. She is a lover.
Eating table food is still a very slow process. We continue to offer new things and Willa continues to refuse them. We are okay with this because we doubt our daughter will go off to college eating baby purees. I do think Willa could out eat her Aunt Suzie when it comes to hummus. We will have to make it a competition. Oh, and this morning when Daren weighed her she was just over 18 pounds.
Full on sleep training is about to begin. We want to stop rocking Willa to sleep after her evening bottle. We don't want to drop the bottle…just the 10 - 50 minutes of rocking. I'm currently reading a book recommended by one of the mom's in the neighborhood. If daycare can put Willa down for naps while awake then I figure we can accomplish the same thing at night.
Knee walking is not approved. Willa's physical therapist was not impressed to see her moving about on her knees. Oops! Glad I got a video before we knew it was wrong.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Omphalocele Awareness
Tomorrow is Omphalocele Awareness Day. I've been posting something each day this week on my Facebook account about the diagnosis and care of omphaloceles along with some or our personal experiences. This was the first time that I've publicly posted about Willa's medical history on Facebook. I have 576 friends on Facebook and while I hope everyone has a "perfect" pregnancy and baby...we all know that things can happen. If my words can be support to a friend or a friend of a friend than I feel like I did some good.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
North Carolina Weather
How do we go from 65 degrees on Monday to snowpocalypse on Tuesday? Yesterday we spent a good 40 minutes outside with the neighborhood kids playing with all the doggies. Today we could get up to three inches of snow! Such crazy weather.
This morning Daren is bringing Willa to the pediatrician for her 15 month checkup. I'm eagerly waiting to hear the details of her weight. Fingers crossed for a big gain!
This morning Daren is bringing Willa to the pediatrician for her 15 month checkup. I'm eagerly waiting to hear the details of her weight. Fingers crossed for a big gain!
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Opposite Direction
Willa hasn't been eating well since Saturday. There has also been random occurrences of throwing up. It has been baffling. She isn't teething from what we can tell. Willa doesn't have a fever. She is still sleeping great…and then Tuesday night during the dream feed I could tell she was starting to get congested. Wednesday we used a good number of boogie wipes and had to try and appease a very clingy baby and it all ramped up on Thursday so off we went to the pediatrician's office.
Willa has an ear infection and respiratory infection. Also, Willa is looking smaller because she has dropped a significant amount of weight. Willa weighed 17lb 2 oz on January 9th for her SICU appointment. This afternoon Willa only weighed 16lb 9oz.
Hopefully we can kick this infection quickly and start to rebound.
Willa has an ear infection and respiratory infection. Also, Willa is looking smaller because she has dropped a significant amount of weight. Willa weighed 17lb 2 oz on January 9th for her SICU appointment. This afternoon Willa only weighed 16lb 9oz.
Hopefully we can kick this infection quickly and start to rebound.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Doctor's Visit or Play Date?
Last week Thursday was Willa's second appointment with the Special Infant Care Unit at UNC. A select number of previous NICU babies are followed by the SICU team due to the risk of the infants having developmental delays. This visit was a breeze as Willa made fast friends with everyone who examined her. Plus, as alluded to by the blog title...I think some of the specialists hung around our room a bit longer than necessary to play with Willa.
First up was physical therapy. She did notice a slight bit of head tilt but only because she knew to look for it. Also said that Willa is very flexible and asked if Willa sits in a "W". Apparently "W" sitting is bad for the joints and we need to try and correct her to sit cross legged instead. Willa's core is still weak and we were given some "baby sit up" exercises to give Willa some rocking abs. A stronger core will also help her ability in walking and standing.
Next came the nutritionist and the speech therapist. Willa did have a slight gain with her weight now at 17lb 2oz but she is not getting the ideal amount of calories per day. We are hoping drinking Pediasure Peptide will give Willa that needed boost she needs and so far it seems to be working. Speech wanted to go over Willa's language skills, imaginary play, and listening comprehension. Willa passed with flying colors. We were asked if Willa was saying "ga ga ga" and both Daren and I didn't think we had heard those syllables. Willa proved us wrong and promptly repeated "ga ga ga" back to the therapist. We have a genius child.
Here is a video that shows some of the appropriate language skills and imaginary play that is appropriate for a 14 month old. You will also see her sitting incorrectly and us neglecting to correct the behavior.
- uh oh
- hi
- woof woof
- talking on the phone
- taking commands (give the phone to Daddy)
First up was physical therapy. She did notice a slight bit of head tilt but only because she knew to look for it. Also said that Willa is very flexible and asked if Willa sits in a "W". Apparently "W" sitting is bad for the joints and we need to try and correct her to sit cross legged instead. Willa's core is still weak and we were given some "baby sit up" exercises to give Willa some rocking abs. A stronger core will also help her ability in walking and standing.
Next came the nutritionist and the speech therapist. Willa did have a slight gain with her weight now at 17lb 2oz but she is not getting the ideal amount of calories per day. We are hoping drinking Pediasure Peptide will give Willa that needed boost she needs and so far it seems to be working. Speech wanted to go over Willa's language skills, imaginary play, and listening comprehension. Willa passed with flying colors. We were asked if Willa was saying "ga ga ga" and both Daren and I didn't think we had heard those syllables. Willa proved us wrong and promptly repeated "ga ga ga" back to the therapist. We have a genius child.
Here is a video that shows some of the appropriate language skills and imaginary play that is appropriate for a 14 month old. You will also see her sitting incorrectly and us neglecting to correct the behavior.
- uh oh
- hi
- woof woof
- talking on the phone
- taking commands (give the phone to Daddy)
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Concussion and Allergy Testing
I know that is an odd title. Half of it refers to myself and the other half refers to Willa. Monday was a super fun day.
Please note that before I start talking about myself that it is absolutely acceptable to laugh at my expense. Everyone who has heard my story showed a mixture of emotions - sympathy, disbelief and amusement. It was very windy and raining when I arrived at my work parking lot on Monday morning. I put on my hood and popped my back door to get my umbrella from the back of my SUV. You can imagine, I'm walking with my head down trying to save my beautifully straightened hair and BAM! I run smack into the raised rear door of my vehicle. The concussion is an actual diagnosis as I work less than 100 yards from the UNC athletic training room (great job perk). I will run a very wide clearance of the rear car door in the future. Lesson learned.
The second half of this post is about Willa's allergy testing. Thankfully, my neighbor Larry was willing to assist me with transportation since a person should not drive post concussion. HUGE thanks is due. The doctors tested Willa for an egg and milk allergy after hearing the multiple occurrences of a rash after consuming eggs. The testing was done via skin pricks and both came back seemingly okay. Well, because of Willa's medical history, one test is never enough. The doctors also wanted to get blood work taken. We will get those results back in the next day or so but it looks like Willa is fine. I'm fairly certain I was told we can continue to give Willa items with baked eggs but I don't have a recollection of what they said about low heat eggs. I blame my concussion for lack of focus and memory.
Thursday is Willa's second NICU follow-up visit. I'm expecting to see 6-8 different specialists with everyone asking the same questions while testing Willa's milestones.
I just have to throw in a picture to add some cuteness to this wall of text. Willa is constantly getting in and out of her chair. Also, I think this hooded outfit makes her look like the boy from the book Where the Wild Things Are.
Please note that before I start talking about myself that it is absolutely acceptable to laugh at my expense. Everyone who has heard my story showed a mixture of emotions - sympathy, disbelief and amusement. It was very windy and raining when I arrived at my work parking lot on Monday morning. I put on my hood and popped my back door to get my umbrella from the back of my SUV. You can imagine, I'm walking with my head down trying to save my beautifully straightened hair and BAM! I run smack into the raised rear door of my vehicle. The concussion is an actual diagnosis as I work less than 100 yards from the UNC athletic training room (great job perk). I will run a very wide clearance of the rear car door in the future. Lesson learned.
The second half of this post is about Willa's allergy testing. Thankfully, my neighbor Larry was willing to assist me with transportation since a person should not drive post concussion. HUGE thanks is due. The doctors tested Willa for an egg and milk allergy after hearing the multiple occurrences of a rash after consuming eggs. The testing was done via skin pricks and both came back seemingly okay. Well, because of Willa's medical history, one test is never enough. The doctors also wanted to get blood work taken. We will get those results back in the next day or so but it looks like Willa is fine. I'm fairly certain I was told we can continue to give Willa items with baked eggs but I don't have a recollection of what they said about low heat eggs. I blame my concussion for lack of focus and memory.
Thursday is Willa's second NICU follow-up visit. I'm expecting to see 6-8 different specialists with everyone asking the same questions while testing Willa's milestones.
I just have to throw in a picture to add some cuteness to this wall of text. Willa is constantly getting in and out of her chair. Also, I think this hooded outfit makes her look like the boy from the book Where the Wild Things Are.
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