Almost December?!

So apparently December begins tomorrow. Where did the year go?

Little Miss Minion rolled over twice on Thanksgiving morning, which was a nice treat for us. We’ve been working with her on rolling for weeks. She lost some of her skills after her back-to-back surgeries to correct her hydrocephalus, but she’s still meeting or exceeding all of her therapy goals. She gets oatmeal cereal now, twice a day, in her highchair like a big kid. We will be starting her on real baby food tonight, so hopefully she will like that. She has taken a couple of 6 ounce bottles recently, so the food will help me to keep up with her demands. Usually, she takes between 4 1/2 and 5 ounce bottles every few hours, plus cereal at night.

LMM was fussier than usual this weekend. We weren’t sure if it was having her routine disrupted, having different surroundings, or if something else was bothering her. Last night, we realized that she might be teething. I scrubbed my finger and felt around her gums and sure enough, there are little tiny lines of hard things right where her first teeth should be on the top and bottom. I joked that we should call the neurosurgeon today and ask him to take a look at her MRI and tell me if she’s getting ready to start teething. I saw her teeth on the first MRI she had, which was crazy to see, considering she was only like 4 pounds.

LMM and I went shopping in her closet this weekend, pulling out the clothes that she fits into now. She is pretty much out of newborn now, and into 0-3 months. I also went online shopping and got her some stuff that was hugely discounted for Black Friday. She’s got some more 0-3 onesies, a jacket, and a couple of other things coming. I also ordered myself a baby book for her 1st year to put together, since she will be 7 months old in about 2 weeks. (!!!) I ordered a TON of pictures as well, since we haven’t really had time to go through them and those were on sale to be developed too. Now I just need the time to put this stuff together.

We put up our Christmas stuff over the weekend. We’re doing an abbreviated version since we don’t want to stir up all kinds of dust. I’d like to get some of those clear plastic or glass ornaments and put some of her NICU stuff in there. Right now, we have the Weeping Angel tree topper that I made a couple years ago, 4 strands of lights, and a handful of tinsel that Mr Minion threw in the middle of the tree. 🙂 We haven’t decided what we are going to do for “baby’s 1st ornaments” but I’m sure we’ll pick out at least one. She LOVES to look at the tree with all the lights. I was putting them up and she was just laying on her play mat, transfixed. And then she was keeping herself awake by staring at the lights, so we had to turn it off so she wouldn’t get overstimulated. She needs quiet and dim light or no light to fall asleep and stay asleep, which is very important for any baby, but especially Preemies. One of the “Preemie Things” she does is get overstimulated very easily. She hates to be rocked quickly, hates being loudly sung to, hates lots of things going on in the room. When I calm her down or when Mr Minion puts her to bed, we very VERY slowly sway back and forth, or more often, we just hold her securely and gently pat her back. When all else fails, we just lay her down and play Frankie Valli songs for her. She LOVES Frankie Valli.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and a nice, relaxing weekend!

Shopping Spree

I got to go shopping this afternoon. I got myself some Starbucks, because it’s not every week I get to leave the house.

On the shopping list: 8 oz bottles, cereal, baby spoons, and random household stuff.

Cereal tonight was overall a success. She didn’t spit it out and actually seemed to kind of like the spoon. Very impressed, since she’s only 2 months adjusted.

In addition to her rolling, which she did several times today, she’s gotten quite good at sitting up with just her boppy for support.

I pulled out a bunch of new clothes for her last night, since she’s starting to fit into some of the 3 month outfits. She’s getting so big!

Shopping Spree!

I finally made it to the store to pick up some things for Little Miss Minion. Since we can’t go together, it severely limits the times that we can go.

We have 7 Dr. Brown’s bottles now, instead of just the one they sent us home from the hospital with. We can clean them all once a day now, which will be fantastic. I found Preemie flow nipples at the store too, which I was surprised to find because preemie stuff is hard to find, now that I’m looking for it. I boiled and dried them all this afternoon, so they are ready to go.

I got her a bathtub, which we will be using tonight. It’s more of a mesh recliner that you put in the bathtub, but she’s never had a real bath before, so this will be fun. I got all of her towels and washcloths and soaps put away in her bathroom, plus cleaned the shower because we never use it and it was dusty.

We also realized/remembered that we have actual bibs for feeding her, so that’s been nice today. I got some more swaddle pods in a lighter weight fabric, so we don’t have to worry about washing the one we had.

I got a mirror for the car so I can see her while I’m driving. I picked up a small package of generic wipes to see if she tolerates them. We can buy 800 for about 14 bucks vs 50 name brand ones for 12 bucks. I picked up some more dish soap, since we are going through that like crazy with washing her bottle and my pumping stuff.

I went through my “new mom” coupons and found a bunch of good ones that I used, plus a 15% registry items one, plus a buy one get one Starbucks. All in all, an excellent shopping trip.