It's been 3 years since (6/21/07) Nina came home from her long long stay in the hospital.

It's just amazing looking at her now and how she has grown into this awesome, smart, fun kid!

I come across blogs where moms are going through the beginning of life in the NICU. It's just heartbreaking and sometimes I cannot believe I was once in their footsteps. But we get through it, we put one foot in front of the other and drive ourselves to the hospital and be with our baby.

We do it because that's our job.

It's true, we do not know how strong we are until we have to be.

Hello out there!

What to say? This morning we are going to Ped for a growth check. She is about 30 pounds and 35 inches.
Nina is almost 40 months old. She has grown 1/4 inch since March.
She is great is the weight dept but kinda behind in the height.
Not sure what Ped will say about it.Blood work? Not sure. Some of my fellow preemie moms have gone down the blood work route and found nothing...

It just makes me nuts when the Doc tell me that her height has nothing to do with being born 4 months early. That my 5/5 and Jason's 5/11 height determine her final outcome...I am finding that to be bullshit when your kid was 1/3 and 11 inches long at birth.

Dentist!

SHE KICKED BUTT!!!

We have been talking about going to see the dentist for some time now. I asked her if she wanted to sit on Daddy's lap or by herself and that is what she did today! They cleaned her teeth and flossed and the other usual stuff and she opened wide and had absolutely no issues with the visit. Jason and I were floored!! Great Job!!

After the dentist we went to the zoo with her friend Ava and had a blast! Good day all around!

updates

OK, an update...here we go!
Nina had her eyes checked a few weeks back and she did great ! Amazing! Do not need to go back for exam for another 2 years.


Her 3 year checkup was good. She is still mini as I already knew, she's not even 35 inches which is mini for a 3 year old. Her weight is on track at 29 pounds. The Dr tell me this has nothing to do with prematurity, well just see how she grows in the next few months...

One wacky thig is NIna's one canine tooth never came in and then maybe 3 weeks ago it came in BUT it came in sideways. CRAZY! We are going to the dentist next month. The Neo Natal F/U people said that maybe the vent tube caused damage? WHo knows? It's just weird since this tooth should have come in maybe 18 months ago and it just broke through looking like an arrow.

NIna moved up to the 3 year old program at school and is doing wonderful. She is learning so much and getting that 3 year old sass and mouth.

She loves helping me cook and doing things by herself. Still an awesome eater.
She is potty trained, and wears a pullup at night.
What else?

At 3 years old, Nina is done with sippys. Her fav food is mac and cheese and chicken nuggets.
She has two eggo waffles every morning for breakfast with syrup. I think that is a lot of food but sister downs it. Her fav color is purple. Still loves Yo Gabba Gabba and Sesame.

She has been healthy for the most part. Dr said she has allergies so she takes Zrtec for that. We also give her Pulamocort 2 daily.
Nina is receiving 2x a month PT sessions at school.

We are looking forward to an awesome summer. Have our passes to Sesame Place and got a swingset put out back.

I have pics and I need to download them...

3 years old!

Wow! Nina is having quite the birthday month. She refuses to let anyone else have a turn of a B-day since it's all about her!
B-day was the 11th. She woke up to a room full of balloons(got the idea from Parents mag)

She had a pizza party at school with all her friends and out to dinner with more friends later! Great day!

This weekend we are taking her to see When Elmo Grows Up. and she is having a B-day party at the house!

In other news, she has her 3 year check up this week, I am wondering how is doing in the growth department. She is still very mini. NN Followup is next week.

We had her IEP completed. Very pleased with her evaluation:
She scored age appropriate with her peers for skills such as fine motor, cognition, communication, social.
She is a bit behind in self-care skills and Gross Motor.
She will receive services at school 2x a month for each.

They all told me it would happen this way...

So Miss Nina seems to be potty trained.
Last week she was peeing in her pants and this week she is not...so weird.
She still needs a pull up at nap and at bedtime but she is dry all day...
It started last Friday when I picked her up at school, her teacher told me she's been dry for a couple days during the day so starting Monday to pack changes of clothes and send her to school in underwear...so I was feeling pretty good about this and started her in underwear Friday night and we spent all weekend living large in Elmo and Princess underwear. Nina does not like to call them panties.
It is so weird to see this little person walk up the stairs and when asked where she is going she says "to the potty!"

Nina completed her evals for her IEP so I am anxious to hear back once they scored her.

Other than that we are trying to get something together to have a little party for her next month.

Growing up...

I know I do not update this blog as much as I should, but I wanted to update you guys on Nina's progress these days.
A few weeks ago we moved her into a toddler bed! We made sure her first experience sleeping in it was naptime and it worked out great. I can't believe we were so nervous that she would not transition well to a bed.

Nina's been water coloring and using other paints for a while now. It's one of her fav things to do. She can sit for an hour or so and paint stuff for us.
She still loves her babies and tells us repeatedly that she has a baby sister in her belly and she will come out on her birthday and play babies with her.

She'll be 3 on March 11. Crazy! If you would have told me in the NICU that she would have turned out this strong and smart and just able to be a "3 year old" with other kids, I would have never believed it. EVER. It's just amazing to me that she escaped so many preemie issues...I will say I am always waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I think that is normal.

As far as Nina's stats. I think she is about or over 30 pound mark. She is still on the small side for height coming in at 34 inches. She eats like she is a 15 year old boy.
She is jumping now with two feet off the ground. She likes to think she is great at forward rolls, she can do them , but most of the time they are sideway rolls.

She is doing well at school and loves going to see her friends.