Sweet , sweet Lucy

We keep forgetting things we need to do here since we moved states. I finally got paperwork, made phone calls, played phone tag, and got in touch with First Steps ( KY's early intervention). We observed her at home, and completed paper work ( answered yes, sometimes, or not yet) to a series of questions about her communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, & personal social skills. She has been progressing SO quickly in the past few days. She is sitting up for a few seconds, and has just yesterday put her hand down to rest on it for a few seconds! She also is doing an army crawl of some sort to get around EVERYWHERE. I thought this might ' up her scores' a little.

After talking to someone at First Steps, they explained that there are 3 categories that a child's skills fall under : Typical, monitor, and concerned. Lucy had no scores in typical. She had a couple fall under monitor ( I think some of her communication and personal/social). But she had her fine motor & problem solving towards the top of Concerned, and her gross motor were very low. Sitting without any hands, standing, crawling position--these are all in gross motor. So we will have an evaluation face to face at the house with a specialist, and we will discuss any concerns, her behaviors, and what steps are next. Every time I've been worried, she miraculously picks up that skill almost the very next day. Maybe she senses my worry! ;) She still wasn't kicking her feet at all, and hadn't found them at 6 months. I had her Dr. check things out ( I was worried about Cerebral palsy), and the next few days she was kicking ad grabbing her toes. Last week I was pretty upset about her not sitting at all still, and she started sitting for about 5 seconds! We will see how she does, and hopefully she will keep progressing . Her adjusted age is about 7 months and 2 weeks old. All of this is based on her being that age. I know there is no comparison between her and Landon, but he was crawling right at 7 months, walking right at 10 1/2 months, and eating all the same food we were eating by 10 months. He had his first grilled cheese on our Gatlinburg Trip in early October. Lucy is still with baby food. She can do the Mum Mums great & puffs too, but we've tried crackers and bread and have had to finger swipe them out. 

She is still  nursing. We were supposed to try to include 2 extra 4 ounce bottles, as well as extra baby food, to try to help with her weight gain. ( She only gained 5 ounces in 3 months). We have upped her baby food, and tried to add more formula or milk. In order for her to drink more, we have to hold her hands down and shove a bottle in her mouth. I'm not forcing nursing because she has 2 teeth now, and NO THANKS on getting bitten!  She probably has only taken about 3 extra bottles since we have been here in almost 4 weeks.She has seemed to actually be nursing longer though, AND SHE HAS GAINED ABOUT 1 1/2 pounds in the past 3 weeks! She is around 12 pounds now.

I'm planning her birthday week & weekend. We will make this a big celebration! We are planning on visiting her nurses and doctors in the NICU & dropping off the gifts for the babies, probably a little celebration with anyone in Nashville who wants to, and then her 1st party here in Louisville. It will ALL be cupcake themed, of course!