"Wow"

Yesterday, my wonderful mother in law took Channing to the Dr. for an ear infection. Her regular pediatrician is on vacation this week. He is almost never gone and he's in practice by himself so we've never seen anyone other than him. This new Dr. pulled up Channing's chart on the computer and glanced through and said "WOW!". She knew nothing about Chan and her history. My MIL explained that Channing has an extensive medical history due to her prematurity. The Dr. said 'it looks like she's doing great'. My MIL said "she sure is".

This small exchange got me thinking. Channing's Dr. visits and SoonerStart and therapists and NICU clinics, all these things are just our life. I guess I don't take the time to add it up. It's all we know. I mean do kids not go to the Dr. every week during cold season? No daily breathing treatments? No ear drops? No eye drops? No antibiotics? You don't have a huge three ring binder of your child's medical history? Again we don't know life without these things. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining. We are some of the lucky ones! Compared to where we thought we were going to be.

I stopped to think about it all today and "wow"!

Pictures unrelated to post:
Channing doesn't like to have her hair in a pony tail.

And yes she was playing in the tub with the water running while fully clothed. It's indoor water play! It's hot outside!

Happy Birthday MG!

Channing and I are happy that you are ours!

Changing Tactics

Since Channing doesn't sit still, I thought I would try a different strategy and start taking more videos of her.
On to plan C. . .

Try, Try Again

This is my attempt at Channing's 19m pictures. . .taken over two days:

Flashback Friday

Bye Bye NICU!



This is soon before we left. I remember feeling that leaving was so anti-climatic. You wait and wait and wait to go home. Then one day they finally let you. The machines are turned off. The wires and lines are removed. The bracelets are cut off. You pack up your room. You say goodbyes. You calmly walk out those doors hoping to never return. (Well not return because you HAVE to but maybe because you WANT to).

The NICU is a wonderful/awful, terrible/amazing place. I hope I'm never there again because I have to be.

Flashback Friday

MG and I call this one "Stunned Channing Gaylor". Not entirely sure how that came about. I think she looks like a cartoon character. Such great hair!
I think this was a week or so before she came home.

Channing's 18m Stats

Channing is now 18 months old!

We went to her well visit last week and this is how she's measuring up:

Weight: 21 lb 3 oz. 25th percentile
Height: 31.5 inches 80th percentile
Head: I don't recall the number but it was in the 67th percentile

She has been released from PT. They think her motor skills are great and right on track. We are still going to do SoonerStart for the time being even though we did talk about discontinuing services altogether (cue panic attack)!!



Likes: Anything and everything outside. She's really loving this cheapo water table that we got from TRU. Channing would eat and sleep outside if we'd let her. Which isn't so fun for me as I'm really an inside gal! Bugs, heat, humidity - not really my thing. Remind me again why I live in Oklahoma? Channing loves pictures of her family. She makes us traipse her around the house so she can look at all the frames in the house and have her point out who everyone is. She loves watching videos of herself. Milk! This girl can't get enough milk. She loves it!

Dislikes: Being denied entry to our backyard. Still hates the car. Doesn't like CDs apparently. We put on a kids CD the other day and Channing just looked up at the TV waiting for something to show up and then started yelling when nothing showed up to entertain her visually.

We still haven't found a food she won't eat. She is such a great eater and we've been so blessed in that department since starting table foods.

Channing did two weeks of swim school. She loved it!