Glasses, Hearing Aids and Nasal Canulas...Oh My!

Little Olivia is not so little anymore! Today we were at the hospital and Olivia weighed a whopping 11 pounds (with her casts, diaper and onesie.) It's still an astonishing amount of weight gain, last Monday she was 9 pounds 7 ounces without casts but in a diaper and onesie. Say she gained a little less than a pound in 10 days, we'll take it!

On another good note, Olivia has been home more days now (59) than she was in the NICU at Texas Childrens (57.) I didn't think it would be a big deal, but it was nice knowing she's spent more of her life outside the hospital than in it!

Every day Olivia shows us just how resilient and intelligent she is. Despite our ongoing concerns about her development, she continues to show us she's her own person with her own agenda. Yesterday, we saw our first clear indication of joy from Olivia! Casper was laying above her flopping his tail on and off her face...it was so FUNNY! She started smiling and giggling, it was honestly adorable! Today, she did a little more of the same when we'd tickle and kiss her ever growing little belly. She's truly a little miracle that we're inspired by every day.

Medically, Olivia is doing great too! She's really starting to explore the world around her with her new glasses. It's pretty rare to see her with her eyes shut when she's awake. She's growing both physically and mentally and we're confident that she'll be off oxygen and be feeding orally soon (in relative terms.) Today, Olivia got her hearing aids, which she's tolerating very well. Please keep her little ears in your prayers, hopefully something in her brain will "turn on" and she'll start hearing like a rabbit (they have good hearing right?) Only time will tell, but a few prayers can't hurt anything.

Candy Canes, Glasses and Halloween, Oh My!

Olivia has been really busy lately! First, she got her new glasses last week, and so we have been practicing wearing them and trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to keep Olivia from constantly ripping them off her face. Here she is wearing her new spectacles, while simultaneously sitting in her little chair, or her Baby La-Z-Boy, as I like to refer to it. You'll notice she has her casts on--this is her final set of casts to finish correcting her club feet. Her feet have been doing great and have been progressing exactly like the doctors wanted, and on Monday she underwent a little outpatient surgery where they cut both of her Achilles tendons (I know, it sounds terrible). With this last set of casts, which will be on for 3 weeks, the tendons will heal themselves so that they are no longer so tight, thus relieving all that tension that's been causing her feet to point downward. We were so proud of Olivia and how she did during her procedure, which we stayed in the room for--she is such a tough, strong little girl.


Olivia has gradually been getting more comfortable with her glasses, as evidenced by the picture below of her conked out with her glasses askew. Wonder where she gets it from? See right below that.


Another new prop we've been using with Olivia is candy, used sparingly for her oral-motor therapy. We took a video of her licking a candy cane, and as you can see, she seems to have a bit of a sweet tooth (er, sweet gums?), just like Daddy! (sorry the video is sideways...I can't figure out how to rotate it.)



And of course Olivia had to dress up for her first Halloween. We tried going trick-or-treating, but no one seemed to be handing out breast milk this year...jerks. :-( Actually, since Chad was out of town, my family came over and we walked to a nearby restaurant to enjoy the beautiful weather and get Olivia out and about in her pumpkin costume (courtesy of Chad's mom--thanks Mary!) She actually had 1 Halloween costume and 2 Halloween onesies (I mean, why wouldn't she have 3 outfits for 1 day?), so below are a couple pictures.


So as you can see, Olivia has been keeping a busy calendar lately, but she does still manage to squeeze in lots of sleep too! Now we are just eagerly anticipating her first holiday season, which promises to be busy but lots of fun. We can't wait!