Children's Hospital Checkup

Last week Bea had the standard 9 month Children's Hospital discharge check up. They checked her size, motor, and cognitive abilities. They still use both her birth date and her corrected birth date (due date) since she was born eight weeks early for at least another year. Thus they scored her abilities in comparison to both 9 month olds and 7 month olds.

We're very happy to report that she did very well in all of her tests. The biggest compliments were when the different doctors and specialists all remarked that "she doesn't look like a premie". As size goes, she scored above 70th percentile compared to her corrected 7 month age and averaged right about 50 percent compared to the 9 month age. Overall she's got an above average head size, her belly (weight) isn't too shabby either. Her overall cognitive scores are very good except Melissa and I need to practice word recognition. Apparently speaking complete sentences isn't the best way to teach object recognition. She can sit and stand until the sun goes down, but she's apparently smart enough to realize it's easier to lay on her back as opposed to her front. That and Melissa and I haven't found anything to motivate her enough to crawl, it's a little early for a DQ Blizzard.

This is her third full week of day care, but I'll define full. Full means we're paying for five days. She's yet to make it in the "educational center" for a full week with all of the germs her new friends are sharing. We were happy to hear in one doctor appointment that it appears her immune system is also above average as that was one of her greatest risks being a premie. Apparently the extra freezer and generator to save the breast milk did their job, oh and Melissa didn't do to bad either.



Melissa is obviously working again, she's started up her old company communication point again and is working from home as long as she stays sane. Bea sometimes also participates in conference calls (see picture above taken in Mommy's office during a call!) As usual Melissa's doing fantastic and has lined up quite a few exciting projects already. It's been pretty stressful for her in the last month with daycare, starting up work, I've started school, I've been gone for work quite a bit and we had our one year anniversary of Elsa's passing. But of course she's handled everything better than I expected and is doing great.

The latest hurtle is Melissa's back has gone out. They currently think her extended bed rest including 56 days in the hospital before delivering Bea may have caused a L5-S1 disc herniation - the lowest disc in the back which is the same disc I had surgery on 3 1/2 years ago. It's gotten bad enough that after an MRI they gave her a cortisone shot on Monday and she's not allowed to lift Bea for one week. So that's making everything pretty interesting. We're hoping this treatment works and she can get on some good physical therapy to develop some core strengthening to protect her back more. The doctors have criticized the doctors at Abbott for not making her go through physical therapy after discharge.



And before I sign off I need the show the most recent picture. Taken on Sunday this was the last time I was smiling as they Badgers snuck one buy the Gophers in basketball right after this picture. I also cannot fail to mention the Gopher football team coming off one of the worst seasons ever, managed to sign one of their best recruiting classes ever today. They're ranked anywhere from 17th to 24th in the country so hopefully with some time for our first-time coach to learn how to coach a little more and to let the recruits develop into upperclassmen, we should be pretty good in two to fours. If you want to see animation from our new stadium that opens in 2009, go to www.gophersports.com.

Oh ya, with day care Bea is sleeping much more soundly and is sleeping through the night every 2 to 3 nights on average. She actually likes day care quite a bit and smiles everytime I drop her off and is usually smiling when we pick her up, except today she was screaming bloody murder when Melissa's mom helped pick her up and probably got a different/bad impression of the place. Overall we've seen many development benefits for day care and overall she's making the transition as easy as it probably can be.