The Check-up Update: Good News!

As I've mentioned before, premature babies are at a greater risk for future health problems than healthy full-term babies. These babies also have a greater likelihood of developing breathing, vision or hearing problems and varying degrees of neurological problems, which may only show up when they are older. So, follow-up care is needed to make sure any other issues are dealt with as soon as possible.

Last week, Emma had her first appointment at the Neonatal Follow-up Clinic at CHEO. The clinic has a multidisciplinary team that provides an ongoing assessment of NICU graduates' needs and the issues they face. The team coordinates the children's care with medical specialists and community resources as needed. Last week we met with a team composed of two nurses, a staff pediatrician, and a physiotherapist. The team reviewed Emma's history and current status, measured and weighed her, and gave her a medical examination. They also used an Infant Development Scale to assess Emma's cognitive, language, personal-social, and motor development. Basically, the team watches Emma do a number of activities to see if her thinking, language, and motor skills are similar to children her own age (Emma was "asked" to do things a typical 6-month old would do, as her corrected age is almost 6 months).

The different scales look at how well the babies think, react, and learn; communicate and recognize sounds; and use their hands and fingers to make things happen. Infants are given tasks that measure their interest in new things, their attention to familiar and unfamiliar objects, and how they play with different kinds of toys. They are observed throughout the assessment for various forms of non-verbal expressions such as smiling, jabbering expressively, and laughing. They are given items that measure their recognition of sounds, objects, and people in the environment, and are assessed for muscle control such as following movement with their eyes, bringing a hand to their mouth, and reaching and/or grasping an object.

The good news is that Emma's scores on all of the measures were within normal limits. So, compared to other 6-month old babies, Emma is right on par! Her "weakest" area was motor development (something we've already noticed). The team was not concerned by this, as these results are expected of a micropreemie, but we now have some exercises/activities to do with Emma to build up her upper extremity strength. She and Mommy now have daily "work-out" sessions :)

Emma also had an audiology follow-up appointment at CHEO last week. Last time she had a hearing test, the results showed that Emma had mild to moderate hearing impairment related to a fluid build-up in her ears. The docs felt that it would most likely resolve on its own, and last week's results showed exactly that. Emma's hearing is now completely normal!!!

Next week, Emma has appointments with the Ophthalmologist and the E.N.T. specialist. Let's hope their news is as good!!!

For your viewing pleasure, I've included a pic of Emma after her first taste of carrots. So far, they proved to be her favourite meal -- even though she used some of them as a facial :)




And here is further proof of how much our girls look alike: Miss Emma enjoying her carrots:



and Miss Michaela enjoying peas (picture taken 3 years ago):

The Camping Report

The forecast called for days of rain and barely-above-zero temperatures and we feared Emma was coming down with a cold, but we hoped for the best and headed out for the Muskokas last Friday. Luckily, the weatheman was wrong (at least in that little corner of the world), Emma's cold didn't worsen, and we were well prepared for chilly weather. [No, we weren't camping in tents, the trailer is equipped with sink, stove, fridge, full bathroom, and heat!]




Although the skies were mostly grey and dreary on Saturday and Sunday(we even saw snow flurries one afternoon!), we all had a fabulous time!





Emma and Big Sister proved to be great little travellers and the six-hour drive was uneventful -- thank Heavens for the portable DVD-player :)

We enjoyed spending time with Opa & Grandma as well as Uncle Dean. Emma was able to finally meet several of Grandma's friends who have been faithfully following her progress here on the Emma Report for months.




Michaela had a great time playing with her cousin Taylor (in spite of a little unexpected dip in the frigid lake!) and discovered the joys of campfires and S'Mores!





Now, we're looking forward to our two weeks of camping on the East Coast this summer!

Gone Campin'

Emma had a Neonatal Follow-up appointment at CHEO today. Her results were pretty good, but I'll have to fill you all in next week :)


We're off on our annual camping trip to the Muskokas tomorrow and I haven't finished packing. Emma's first camping experience ... Let's hope the weather forecast improves!

Have a great Long Weekend everyone!

Books & Dora

Sorry for the lack of updates this week... there's just not much new to report.

Emma has been really enjoying her cereal everyday, but the pears we tried yesterday were not a big hit...

She's been discovering the joy of books, but would still rather eat them than read them :)








Michaela is doing well, too. We went to see "Dora's Pirate Adventure" on Sunday afternoon. While she enjoyed the show, I think she may have been more excited about having her first ever popcorn!

First Food

We saw Emma's pediatrician this morning for her 9-month checkup (even though her corrected age is only 5 months). Emma weighs just shy of 15 lbs. and is 26 inches long. A quick check of Big Sister's baby book reveals that Michaela was slightly heavier but virtually the same length at 5 months, so it looks like Emma is right on track :)

Given how well she is doing, our ped. suggested that it is now time to start Emma on solid food. She has certainly been very interested in what we've been having for dinner lately, watching intently while we're eating and often trying to grab food off our plates.

So, this afternoon, Emma had her first taste of cereal:



(as you can see from the expression on her face, she clearly enjoyed it!)

I was expecting her to be a bit perplexed by the new experience, but Emma surprised me by happily hoovering everything down and demanding more!

Even though she's never before had the experience of using a spoon, she's obviously been taking notes at the dinner table because after she got her first taste, she grabbed the spoon and promptly found her mouth with admirable acuity!







Yikes, our baby is growing up!

The Graduate

Emma was scheduled to have her last Synagis injection at the end of March (that's the vaccine to prevent RSV, a relatively common virus that can be particularly nasty if a preemie is affected).

To celebrate the occasion, reps. from the drug company that provides the shot free-of-charge to very small preemies were at CHEO to take pictures of all the "graduates".

At that appointment, we were told that the 2005-2006 RSV season was especially bad, so the drug company had decided to provide all the babies with another month's injection (No small offer as each injection costs in the neighbourhood of $1200.00!!) So, we were back at CHEO a few days ago for the last shot of the season and were presented with Emma's first graduation picture:



Each of the four times Emma was admitted to CHEO this winter, she tested negative for RSV, so the shots have obviously done what they were supposed to do! :)

We'll be going back to CHEO for 6 follow-up appointments over the next several weeks (Emma will be seen by Audiology, Ophthalmology, Respirology, E.N.T., and the Neonatology Clinic and she'll have another feeding study to check for aspiration). Let's hope all the news is good!