Tuesday, March 8, 2011

4 months!!!

On the fifth Matea hit the 4 month mark! With preemies the also look at the adjusted age- hers is 1 month and three weeks. Matea now weighs 9 lbs 4 oz and is a little over 22 in long. So when you look at her adjusted age she's right on track.

Matea has been tube free since mid january and it is so nice! She still doesn't eat a lot, maybe 16-19 oz a day but she's slowly eating more and more. We have to do a lot to make up her bottles. It starts with me pumping for like 15-20 min, then we add a little formula to add calories, then we blend it with a thing called simply thick. Simply thick does just that- thickens her milk. We have to thicken her bottles because she had a swallow test done that showed she aspirates when eating. This means some of her milk was going down the wrong pipe. By thickening her bottle this should help reduce this. She then eats the bottle in 20-30 min and 2-3 hours later we do it again. Basically my day consists of trying to fatten her up :)

Matea is smiling now and it melts my heart! I've caught it on camera a few times but it's tricky. She is working on holding her head up, loves to coo and kick when she's playing in her gym, and prefers our bed to hers.
Daddy daughter so sweet
Happy valentines day!

Tired mom and baby

We wanted to see what she'd look like with hair so out came my wig
Big laugh

since being home from the NICU Matea visits a lot of drs for different things

Ped- shots, weight check, the usual
Speech therapist- work on her feeding
Physical therapist- help her gain muscle strength in her neck and core
GI- she no longer has to see on a regular basis but he checked her for reflux and swallowing
Nutritionist- Makes sure she's getting enough calories and volume

We've been lucky and have loved all our doctors and nurses.
We love are little angel! We are flying to Vegas in a few days and it will be our first time with a baby. Wish us luck!

3 comments:

Karen said...

LOVE,LOVE,LOVE the photos--
I can't wait to see you--hold her--see her smile!!
You are doing an amazing job Morgan!
Jacob, you too!
Matea looks beautiful!

Kimberly Ray said...

what a cutie! I bet you are so happy to be tube free! congrats! you are such a great mom!

Jessica said...

loved this post. the girls and I looked at the photos over and over again. They thought the wig one was soo funny. Emma said "she is like a doll" Riley said "she looks really, really, really beautiful in the rest of the pictures and we really like the wig." Emma says, "bye, bye baby Matea, I hope you feel better soon." love you guys!