Water Babies

Yesterday was Big Sister's last day of school, so she's now home for the summer! Today, we spent the afternoon outside, most of that playing in the kiddie pool.





Emma wasn't sure what to make of it at first and had a bit of a worried look on her face for a while, but quickly got into the swing of things and LOVED the water. She splashed and kicked for over an hour, before protesting loudly when we had to get out for supper :)





compared to her early scrawny days, Emma is looking almost pleasantly plump now, isn't she :)

Cheerios, Again

There isn't much to report this week, we're just hangin' out, enjoying the start of summer...

Emma has been working hard and has mastered the Art of Cheerios.





A handful of the little O's can provide 20 minutes of fun and, more often than not, she's able to maneuver them into her mouth and gleefully gum the goodness out of them.








It's actually fun to watch Emma practice her pincer grasp. We've been clapping and cheering her efforts with the Cheerios and she now chortles happily whenever she manages to grab a piece of the cereal :)

Swing

We've been enjoying the nice weather this week by eating our dinner outside every evening. We even had a picnic on the grass last night! :)

Michaela loves her swing set, and we decided that Miss Emma was old enough to enjoy it as well. So here you have it, with a little help from Big Sister, Emma's first ride on the swing:






P.S. We were back at CHEO for another feeding/swallow study this week. The results were the same as last time. Emma did fine on thickened liquids and pureed food, but still has a high risk of aspiration on regular liquids, so we'll continue to add a thickener to her milk. The occupational therapist believes that Emma may eventually "grow out" of the problem, so we'll likely go back for another study in the Fall.

Baptism

Emma was baptized on Sunday. We somehow missed getting a picture of Emma with Mom & Dad, but here is one with almost everyone:



Our good friends Lisa and Brian (here with Emma and their son Joshua) honoured us by being godparents:



Emma checking out "The Godfather" :)



Big Sister was very excited to wear her Party Dress. I explained that she would come up on the altar with us as Fr. Joe blessed Emma. All was good until we moved over to the baptismal font and Big Sister looked out at the congregation and saw our friends/family. She stood at the front steps of the altar and started smiling and waving to them (picture a Hollywood starlet greeting her adoring fans) and could not be persuaded to join the rest of us... Then she refused to come back to her seat... Ah, the joys of being a three-year-old :)

I'll post some more pictures of Emma in her beautiful Christening gown soon. I was afraid she'd drool (or worse!) on the dress, so kept a big bib on her 'til the very last minute and the pictures we have of her in it don't do the beauty of the dress justice. My cousin Lisa made the dress several years ago and we borrowed it for both of our girls.

Here's a pic of Emma as we were getting ready to leave for Church on Sunday:



and another one taken by Eric of Michaela in the same gown 3 years ago, so you can see some of the beautiful handwork:

Even More Follow-up.... and Raspberries!

Sorry for the lack of updates this week.... Blogger was unavailable every time I tried :(

We were back at CHEO again this week, this time to have a follow-up appointment with the Respirologist. He examined Emma, listened to her lungs, put her on a pulse oxymeter (she was satting 100%, yay!!) and pronounced her "just fine." :) Even though she's a bit congested and has been coughing for a few weeks now, he thinks she "just has a cold." While that might not be big news for another baby, it is Very Big News for Emma, because, for the very first time, a simple cold has NOT progressed to hospitalization and serious respiratory distress! Hopefully this means that as she is now bigger, her lungs are getting better , and she will be able to fight off these common bugs.

Emma's other accomplishment this week has been learning to blow raspberries :) She loves nothing better than to purse her lips, stick out her tongue, and give a big, slobbery "ppfflllttt" (preferably while her mouth is full of cereal or strained carrots)....

Nothing says you 're a Mom like getting sprayed with pureed veggies :)







...and here is Miss Emma trying to see around Mom to get a better view of her Baby Einstein DVD :)

More Follow-up & Cheerios

We were back at CHEO for two more follow-up appointments this week. On Wednesday Emma saw the E.N.T. team to have another scope exam. to check on her paralyzed vocal cord. As you might imagine, the procedure isn't fun for Emma (a thin, flexible fibre-optic tube is passed through her nose to her larynx to see if her vocal cords are moving), but at least it is over quickly.

Unfortunately, the exam showed that Emma's left vocal cord is still paralyzed, most likely as a result of the PDA surgery she had when she was 2 weeks old. When one of the cords is paralyzed, the open cord allows food or liquid to slip into the trachea and lungs. Emma will have another feeding study to assess her aspiration risk in a couple of weeks, and we'll continue adding thickener to her milk and watching her very carefully while she's drinking. The doc. said that her right vocal cord is compensating well and is moving over to make up for the paralyzed cord, so we're hoping her voice quality won't be significantly affected. There is a slight possibility the paralysis may resolve over the next 6-12 months, so Emma will be going back for another scope procedure in the late fall.

In better news, Emma also had a follow-up appointment with the ophthalmologist today. Even though she had Stage 1-2 Retinopathy of Prematurity while she was in the NICU, the doc today confirmed that Emma's eyes were "beautiful" with no evidence of the ROP. For now her vision is fine and she doesn't need glasses. Yay!!!! As she is at higher risk of developing other vision problems as a result of her prematurity, she'll have to be followed closely, but we don't have to go back for another year or so!

In other news this week, Emma tried Cheerios for the first time. Actually, the Cheerios are used as part of her physiotherapy exercises to work on her fine motor skills/"pincer" grasp. Emma wasn't actually able to get the Cheerios in her mouth, but she got some help from her Big Sister :)