With a Sheep - Week 3

She's totally over this sheep thing. :) The little princess was in a mood and refused to look at the camera or stop moving. I think she was still a little angry that we allowed a mean nurse to give her shots the day before. Mean Momma and Daddy! 

Take 1 - Check out the cute Hedgehog outfit!

Little Bitty had her 4 month check up this week. She weighs 10 pounds and 2 ounces! And she's 20 inches long. She's in the 50% for weight for premature girls her age. And she finally reaches the curve! The curve doesn't start until her due date so we haven't had a curve to compare it to. She's only in the 5% for length but that's okay. She's dainty. ;)

Take 2 - An ALMOST smile and a fast moving hand.

She's a mover and a shaker. Her little arms and feet are constantly going. Trying to take her picture is going to eventually be more of a challenge. We'll have to do Napping with a Sheep! ;)

Until next time.....

Bad Math

I hate Math.

Numbers are just dumb.

But God has a sense of humor and gave us a baby that requires a lot of Math. 

You see, Little Bitty has a Birth Age and a Corrected Age so that's TWO ages we get to keep up with. And I have BBB (Broken Baby Brain) so that complicates matters even more! I'm constantly having to ask my Beloved how old our child is. How sad is that?!

Her birth date is September 20th. So she's currently 17(ish) weeks old.

However her due date was December 2nd so she's technically only a month and a half old developmentally. 

Because she was born so early, they expect it will take her some extra time to do things. But they don't know for sure. All typical baby milestones are all screwy now. All the baby books have regular milestone estimates - we don't have a regular baby. All the books have charts that list when babies should be doing things like grasping objects (2 1/2 - 4 1/2 months). However they also have footnotes that read 'for babies born prematurely, subtract the number of months missed in pregnancy from the baby's current age and check at the adjusted age.' Yeesh. Numbers.

We'll ask her Doctors when she should start teething or talking or rolling over. And the Doctors say not to worry, it could be when she reaches the corrected age or sooner. 

So basically no one knows but Alice.

She'll be considered Preemie until she's 2. By then it will be obvious if there are developmental check points she's not reaching. The doctors think she won't have any issues - she's doing great so far.

Here's the problem - she's 17 weeks old and has been home since October 30th but she's only 7 weeks old and still can't do much. Which frustrates her quite a bit! 

She's alert and bored and wants to move around so bad. But she still doesn't have hand or head control. Poor thing. So we move her from her play pad to the swing to the couch to the play pad.....

She smiles but not because she means to. She grabs things by accident and then looks surprised to find something in her hand. She is looking at things with purpose now which is fun. She has the prettiest little blue eyes. :) 

And she'll get there! We're not rushing her (although it would be lovely to have her hold her own bottle). 

She's already growing too fast. ;)

So if I pause when asked how old our child is - it's not because I don't know, I'm just doing to the math in my head. 

Until next time.....

Don't Use Momma's Words!!

It's fun speculating what her first word will be. 

Will it be 'Momma' or 'Dadda'? 

It's probably going to be "Atticus" because she hears me yelling it all day long. Stupid dog. 

Or it could be "Ya killing me smalls!" because this is what I say in the wee hours of the morning when she's fussing for attention. 

My sister is hoping for "Mamma cray!" - I've threatened to beat her (Tami) in the event these are her first words. She'll find out soon enough that her mother is a little crazy - there's no need to tell her so soon.

And after this week, her first word might require bleeping out. 

Let me explain.

I loathe dealing with insurance. I've recently switched insurances and the new insurance requires referrals for all of the specialists I've been seeing since September which means I had to find a General Practitioner. Yay. I find one close to the house and make an appointment. No big deal. I give them my referrals and we're good to go. 

If only.

A week goes by and my new BFF Gretchen, Patient Service Rep with my Hematologists office, calls to tell me the referral has yet to show up. Lovely.

I call my GP's office and stay on hold for 10 minutes before I hang up.

I call back and wait 20 minutes. Someone FINALLY answers and I get out "My name is Timberley Christie and I'm checking on referrals" before I'm disconnected. Grrrrrrr....

I call back AGAIN, wait 20 minutes AGAIN. When the nurse answers, this is what she says "Yeah, we can't find your chart so you're just going to have to make a new appointment." 
No apologies, no shame, no sympathy. No nothing.
Me: Excuse me?! You've managed to LOSE my chart in a span of a WEEK?!
Her: Yeah so just make a new appointment.

Click.

Yep. A slew of bad words erupted from my mouth before I could stop them. My Beloved calls to check in and gets an earful. Poor thing. I had to take a blood pressure pill.

I take a few calming breaths and call back. Surely they're just complete idiots and are spelling my name wrong. 

I wait another 20 minutes. They answer by calling me by name which means they have Caller ID and KNEW who it was calling all those times I got to wait for 20 minutes. This makes me ragey. Girl #1 answers the phone with "Hi Mrs. Christie, how do you spell your first name?" 

Uh huh.

She then transfers me to the Nurse (Miss Attitude) who comes on the line and says "we found your chart. I'll do the referrals after clinic because it's a lot to do (3 - I have 3 referrals) and we're busy."

Thanks lady. I appreciate that you're going out of your way to do your job for me a week after you said it would take no time at all.

The next morning when I was with both of my specialists, I called AGAIN to check on the referrals. Still working on them.

I'm thankful it wasn't for an Oncologist. I'd hate to think if I needed Chemo how long I would have to wait. Yeesh.

She FINALLY called after 4 to say "we took care of those referrals for you". 

Gee, thanks. 

So I spent the day spitting and spewing and telling my young impressionable child "don't use momma's words!" 

Good grief. 

Until next time.....

With a Sheep - Week 2

She's grown out of her newborn clothes.

She fit in them yesterday!

But today, not so much.

She's somewhere between Newborn and 0-3 months.

I'm only a little heartbroken.

what a difference a week makes

And she's happy Aunt Tami came to see her! I promise! ;)

Little Bitty is 17 weeks old and counting....She has her 4 month old check up next week. 

4 months. Yikes.

Until next time.....

One a Week with Her Sheep

Our friend over at Mamma Case has started a new blog series where she takes a picture a week of her growing little one. She invited others to follow suit and I think it's fun! And since Little Bitty isn't that active yet, I thought I'd post pictures that show how much she's growing. 

So....One a Week with her Sheep! 

The Sheep was a gift from Uncle David and Aunt Shelly.

Alice is currently 16 weeks old and at last weigh in she weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces! She's more alert and holding her head pretty steady. She's strong willed and still loves to wiggle. A lot. She's starting to focus more on items which means we currently have colored rings hanging from all sorts of places in the house. :) 

And although we're exhausted and she makes us crazy at 2am when she wants to play, we still think she's the greatest thing ever. 

Just a silly girl and her sheep

Until next time....

Dear Little Bitty...

At the baby shower one of the activities was to fill out a page for Alice with words of advice or words to describe her using the letters in her first name. Afterwards, they were put in a book for her to read one day. 

They're great! Some made me laugh! We have one VERY loved little girl. I'll share some of my favorites in a different post. 

But for today, it's mine. It took me a few months to know what I wanted to say.

So here goes...

Hi Baby Girl,

A - Always know you have a place at home - no matter how far you go. And know you are loved every minute of every day.

L - Laugh like a loon every chance you get! Find the funny in every situation. And don't be afraid to laugh at yourself...a lot. 

I - 'Innocence' does not equal 'naive'. Hold on to yours for as long as you can - there is NOTHING wrong with that. 

C - Chase butterflies and rainbows. Believe in magic. Wish on shooting stars. Dance in the rain. Dream BIG. And keep dreaming.

E - Expect life to disappoint you but don't let it break you. A broken heart heals stronger. I promise.

Love, Mom

PS: this was my first time to write "mom" on something to her. I only choked up a little. ;)

Until next time.....

Touchdown Zones and Tight Ends

We don't watch a lot of football in our house. Mostly because we just don't care and I lose interest before the first flag is thrown (they throw flags in football, right?!) and then I start asking questions and this eventually leads to my Beloved asking if there's anything else on. :) However this past Sunday there was NOTHING on BUT football. NOTHING. So we turned on the Texans game. Within the first whatever I say "uh oh, they're (the other team) getting close to the painted grass! I know that's the touchdown zone!" My Beloved corrects me "babe, it's called the End Zone. But Touchdown Zone is cute!" Whatevs. 

We're watching a little longer and the Texans have a decent play but a flag is thrown for 'Pass Interference'. This sparks a debate between me and my Beloved because I'm pretty sure half the point of football is to interfere with passes. I'm pretty sure HALF THE TEAM works towards that goal! I can't remember if they're the Offense or the Defense but I'm pretty sure that's the goal! He tried to explain the difference but I glazed over. 

Seriously. Football is silly. 

A little bit goes by (still in the same quarter though because 14 minutes is NEVER just 14 minutes) and Owen Daniels has a pretty play. My Beloved makes the comment that Owen Daniels is a pretty good player. The commentator mentions Andre Johnson and I say "I know that name! I think he's good!" 
My Beloved: Yeah but I have an affinity for Tight Ends.
Me: immature chuckling 
My (eye rolling) Beloved proceeds to tell me why he has so much respect for the Tight End position but who cares really.

All I heard was my husband say he likes tight ends. *snort

And with my sleep deprivation and my BBB (Broken Baby Brain) I laugh like a loon at all sorts of inappropriate things. And I'm okay with that. 

Until next time....