Zoë loves to talk

Happy father's day Daddy!

Zoë has started to talk a lot. We noticed it at first in the mornings after she eats she will talk to herself for about 30 minutes. She doesn't do it all the time but she also started to talk to Mommy and Daddy. Today at the Auditory specialist office her and Daddy were having a long conversation. She has become so reactive to anyone that talks to her. She also discovered the TV and the ceiling fan. She stares at both for minutes on straight. She also follows us as we leave and enter the room. We pace in front of her sometimes to see how long she will follow us.

We went to the surgeon and pediatrician last week and she was 9 pounds. She does have reflux a little bit. Its not too bad but we did get medication to treat it. The pediatrician was pleased at her development. We even got the go ahead and let her sleep through the night because they were very pleased with her weight gain. Before we weren't able to let her sleep past 6 hours. We would have to wake her put to eat. She also estimates that Zoë is developing at a 3 1/2 month old pace. For preemies you are to go by her adjusted age for their milestone, which would put her a 1 1/2 months. So right now she is ahead of the game.

Zoë also started to fight her sleep. She gets fussy and you see her eyes are heavy, but she refuses to fall asleep. She'll take cat naps but she is still tired. We also think that the fussiness may be her starting to teeth. She chews on her hand and today she blew bubbles. Her NICU friend Jonathan already has his first teeth and he is a 1 1/2 months older then Zoë and he was born at 28 weeks. Her friend Scarlett was born on April 1 and she also has a tooth. So we are thinking to ourselves that it is possible. We will have to wait and see if this is one cause of her sporadic fussiness.

Today we went to the audiologist. When she was in the NICU, her right ear didn't pass the hearing test. For today's test we had to put her to sleep, she fought it for almost 1 hour (she had to be asleep for the test). Tia Lissa had kept her up all day to prepare for the test, so we knew she tired. Finally she went to sleep and the good news is that she passed. Everything looked normal. So out of her many doctors and specialist, we get to cross one off. This feels good, since it is one less office visit we have to make. We have literally had at least 1 doctor/specialist visit a week (Sometimes 3) since she came home. We had so many that the nurse at the pedestrian's office tried to make a joke when she saw all the future appointments that Zoë had. She said " You are here so much, we should just pull out a bed here in our office so that you can sleep here." Ok well I freaked out on her. I was like, NOOOOO, we were next door for 11 weeks, we will go home and come back (Zoë's pediatrician part of Phoenix Children's so her office is right next door to the hospital). My heart dropped when she said that.

We also want to thank those that help celebrate Zoë's homecoming. She is very blessed to have so many people love her. If you did not get to see her reactions, she loved it. We also apologize for the short notice, that is how it has been with her since she got here. She doesn't like to wait for our time table. She has her own agenda.

Also her room is not done yet, we are about 3/4 the way finished. It is starting to look like her room.

Today I am 4 months old

Today was Zoë's 4 month birthday. She is also still on oxygen, we return on July 16 for the next evaluation with the pulmonologt. She still struggles through the feedings, we think she may have reflux. In the middle of her feedings, she sometimes throws herself back, grunts and sometimes starts to cry. She is a feisty little girl. She gets mad when she doesn't like something. We already told her pediatrician, so when we go to her next appointment, we will talk about it more and see what is really going on. Besides this, she is a really good baby. She cries when she is really hungry, usually she just coos and whines when it is time to eat. She is a whiner when she is hungry.

She is getting really big. We had to adjust her car seat. She is also starting to out growing some of her newborn clothes and the newborn diapers. She is in the body of a 6 week old baby but the mind of a 4 month old. She was 8 lbs at the end of May. We also had to move her out of the basinet she was sleeping in because she moves around so much. We put her one way and she turns her body in the opposite direction. The last straw was when she got her little leg stuck between the bars of the bassinet. She screamed when she couldn't get it out. The poor baby was so upset, that when we left to work, she looked sad from the trauma. After this Tia Lissa set up her Pack N Play playpen, so she is now sleeping in that and now has a lot more room to move in. I cant believe how much she moves. She still hasn't turned over on her tummy but it is only a matter of time.

Her room is almost done. Tia Ashley has been putting the finishing touches to the walls. She is painting the flowers by hand. One more session and she will be done. After this week her room will be completely finished. Thanks Tia Ashley!!

Zoë is also starting to react to us. She follows us when we move around the room and reacts when we talk to her. I think I saw a dimple on her cheek, but wasnt 100% for sure. Need to see the next time she smiles. She dreams when she sleeps because we will see her smile and then frown then smile again.

Zoë is doing really good and so are we :) It is really good to have her home.

I am still on oxygen

My lungs are still not strong enough, so I will be on oxygen for at least 30 more days. We went on Friday and Zoë still need a little bit of help so that she can grow and not lose so many calories. This way she can grow new lung tissue and get off the machines sooner. Good news is that on Friday, she weighed in at 8lbs. She is getting big and we even had to adjust her car seat so that she can fit right. It was getting a little tight.

Zoë has also been out on the town. She went to Mommy's work, where she met everyone in person. She had been around them for the first 6 months that she was getting ready to be born. She also went to Macy's, CPK and to Juan and Vero's house for their baby shower. She wanted to give Daniella a present, since this will be her play mate when Daniella is born and comes to Arizona to visit. She also went to Pei Wei and Pita Jungle. She did really well and didnt mind those that held her. This is result of the NICU, since she had different nurses take care of her, she got used to different people holding her. Which is a good thing. But she does love it and has even screamed for Mommy to hold her.

Mommy also went back to work on Monday and Daddy was out of town since Sunday. He came back yesterday. We all survived but we both missed Zoë. She has had a good time with Tia Lissa taking care of her. She is a really easy baby to take care of. She does fight with Tia Lissa when she is trying to fix her nasal cannula for the oxygen. Zoë tries to swipe her hand away. It was weird leaving work and going straight home. I was going the opposite direction of the hospital. But it felt good when I got home and she was there waiting. However we have not lost some of our NICU habits. We are still counting everything and have a set up sort of like it was at the NICU. We count every CC and diaper change. We even dim the lights and try to emulate the environment we had there so that Zoë can feel like she did when she was in the NICU. Even when we talk to the doctors we use terms that no other new parent would even use or think to ask. Like "how many CCs per kilo should we be at now that she is 8lbs" or "Is she getting enough calories and will that stimulation make her loose calories". Another good one is when they weigh her, the nurses give us the lb and oz, we ask for her weight in grams. We have even started pressing the buttons on the scale without asking the nurse if she was ready. They are the same scales from the NICU that we became experts at. We have caught ourselves at our many doctor visits doing one of the above.

Zoë's room is almost ready. We just need a couple of more things to finish but it is looking like her room not the storage/office room that we had before.

Zoë is doing really good. She is happy baby. Thanks for everyone's well wishes. I will post some pictures this week.