Our busy day

On Wednesday, Ava had her 6 month check up at the doctor and her developmental clinic. She decided that she didn't really want to sleep that much on Tuesday night and we all almost overslept. We usually don't have to set an alarm clock because Ava wakes up around 5:30 or 6:00, but luckily Matt woke up around 8:30 and we rushed to make it to her 9:30 appointment. We arrived only a few minutes late to her developmental clinic. The neonatologists follow up with all preemies to make sure that they are on track and to set up early intervention, if needed.

Despite her lack of sleep, Ava was great. They had her do things like tracking objects, reaching and grabbing, tummy time, etc. The nurses and doctors couldn't get enough of Ava's smiles and her cute little outfit. They told us that developmentally, she is at the 3.5-4 month mark, which is her adjusted age. They said that they weren't worried about anything and she looked great. We will have follow ups every 6 months until Ava is 2. As if I haven't praised the NICU at Holy Redeemer enough, I love all of the doctors and I am so grateful that I had Ava at that hospital. They give exceptional care and take preventative measures, like the developmental clinics, to catch anything that might give the babies trouble in the future.

After we finished up with the clinic, we went to visit the NICU again before we had to go to the doctor. We only saw 2 doctors and 1 nurse because there were hardly any babies in the NICU, only 6! I think the fewest babies that were there during Ava's entire stay was 12! Since it was so slow, we got the chat for a while. Ava was giving the nurse huge smiles and was loving the attention.

Ava's pediatrician is in the medical building that's attached to the hospital, so we headed down to her appt. after our visit. It was around 11:00 at this point, so Ava was finally starting to get really tired (and only a little bit cranky). Ava fell asleep shortly after we got there and it was the first time in my life that I was happy that we had to sit for a while in the waiting room. We finally got called and they weighed and measured Ava. She's 15 pounds 6 ounces and 25.25 inches long! The doctor told us that Ava looked great and that we could go ahead and start giving Ava solids. And then came the shots...this was the only time that I thought that I was going to start crying too! I felt so bad for my poor baby...she was tired and hungry and cranky to begin with, so the shots didn't help matters. After a few screams and a little crying, she calmed down though.

On our way home, we stopped to get some rice cereal and little baby bowls and spoons. Matt and I were very excited to give Ava her first solids and to see the faces that she made. She actually seemed to really enjoy it and did pretty well for her first time with a spoon. I don't think that she liked the slower pace though, because she would scream in between spoonfuls. Once she gets the hang of it, we'll start giving her cereal more times throughout the day and then we'll be able to move onto the fun stuff like fruits and veggies!