MD Hallinan Family Blog: Settling into a routine

Annelise and I are getting settled into a routine now that she's been home almost a month. The first few weeks were difficult. She is medically complex, and her reflux is pretty severe. She was doing well at first, and then the surgeon tried to wean her off of one of her medications. That made her reflux A LOT worse. We were having alarms on her heart rate monitor, and she was spitting up several meals a day. We went back up on her medication, and she's doing a lot better. Only a little bit of spit up each day, and our happy baby is back!

She's gained a lot of weight already! At last doctor's visit, she was up to 8 lbs. 9 oz! I think she's gained more since then, but we don't have an official weight check until next week. I'll let you know! I have to change out her clothes though. All of her newborn clothes are getting small on her. 3 month outfits here we come! :-)

We're being evaluated by Early Intervention Services. Because Annelise spent so much time in the NICU, and was premature, she's a little behind on her milestones. She's almost 4 months old, but should be hitting the milestones of a 2 month old due to her prematurity. However, she spent almost 3 months laying in a hospital bed. So we have some time to make up! Early Intervention will be sending an Occupational Therapist to our house to work with Annelise and teach me how to play with her so she develops and hits those milestones (rolling over, lifting up her head, grabbing for stuff, etc.) They say that she's going to do very well with therapy because she's trying to do things now, just doesn't have the strength. We meet with everyone on November 7th to decide our ultimate goals and small goals along the way. They will also tell me how many times per month they're coming to work with her.

As always, here are some recent pictures of our cutie pie! She's getting so big so fast!