Last week marks a notable date – Olivia has now been home longer than she lived in the hospital! It feels great to know we’ve had our baby with us longer than away from us.
Olivia just cracked 20lbs! She’s almost growing out of her 12-month clothes at 14 months old.
Video link for those who can’t play it on the website: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Sqmuybf31ehS2JZz7
Olivia has begun rolling from her back to her belly! Thanks to the dedication of our awesome nurses who practice with her every day, we can mark this as officially having started on 2/23. She is rolling back and forth all the time now, and isn’t complaining like she used to. Olivia has also been trying to crawl, but mostly she just pushes herself backwards or rotates in a circle. It’s very cute! She still loves to stand, and tries to grab onto whoever she can to pull herself up. She’s very determined and will raise her hands up for help.
Video link for those who can’t play it on the website: https://photos.app.goo.gl/16V8anNEGVNswCii7
The speaking valve has been brought back into play with Olivia wearing it up to 75 minutes at a time. We are working to increase that time, since the eventual goal will be for her to wear it at all waking hours. We are working on weaning her vent time down again, since Olivia’s lungs are doing well.
We are so proud of this little baby (toddler???). Her smile lights up our whole day. We can’t wait until scary respiratory illness season is over and she can meet more people, and other babies. Right now her only outings are to doctor’s appointments, which are usually very scary for her (She’s had 13 in-person appointments this year alone).
Feeding therapy continues to be a slog, but Olivia recently started making some small progress. We’ve conditioned her to lean forward and “kiss” whatever food we are trying to get her interested in. She opened her mouth today for the first time and allowed us to tap her gums with a frozen strawberry. We know this is nothing for most parents, but it is outrageously exciting for us. Our hopes for the next six months are that she will be able to allow tastes of food on her tongue, and maybe even swallow some puree or liquid. If so, we will be able to do a swallow study to see if she’s silently aspirating or not, and be able to evaluate her overall swallowing capabilities.
In a few weeks, Olivia will reach her adjusted age of one year old, another unique milestone for us all.
Recently, she was featured by Boston Children’s in their latest fundraising walk email. We will once again be raising money and walking to support the Eversource Walk for Kids this summer. Our team fundraising page link can be found here, if you are able to support!
She is just so adorable. Nice punch to your nose, mom lol.