December 2nd
5 Months Old!
Wow! How time flies! The girls have made such progress over the past month. Their 4 month check up on 11/23 revealed that Annika weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces and Mia weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces. The girls are gaining about 5-7 ounces per week. Amazing, considering they were gaining 1 ounce per week while in the ICN. Annika was measured at 20.5 inches (12 inches at birth) and Mia was 18 inches (about 11 at birth). They are both in the 30th percentile for their adjusted age except for Mia's length. The doctor's have told us that preemies tend to put on weight before they start putting on length. The girls love being played with and held. Annika continues to smile and is starting to explore her environment. She plays with her crib toys and loves to watch her mobile. She is gaining excellent head control and is really starting to lift her head and hold it up to look around. Miss Mia on the other hand has started to cackle when she smiles. She does this to get our attention and she sometimes scares herself because she's so loud! She has really started to find her voice and compete with Annika over who can be loudest. Mia is also gaining good head control, she still has some "bobbing" and doesn't seem too interested in lifting her head while on her tummy. She still needs to gain muscle mass and we're sure she will catch up with her sister in the near future.
Annika had her first hearing exam and all was normal. Mia is scheduled 12/17 for hers. The exam takes about 2 hours and involves electrode patches on the forhead and earlobes as well as probes in the ear canal. Annika tolerated it well, she slept and took a bottle to keep her calm. Annika has started to wear 0-3 month clothing- no more preemie stuff for her! Mia is wearing the clothes Annika has outgrown. They are growing so fast that the clothes we have last about 2 weeks before they are pushing out the bottoms! We continue to sleep in shifts with one of us sleeping in the girls' room. The doctor has told us we no longer need to wake them up every 4 hours to feed, we can let them sleep as long as they want! Hooray! Mia still goes about 3.5-4.5 hours between feeds but Annika can go as long as 6 hours at a time. This has made our sleeping a bit better. They are still in the same crib and we hope to be able to leave them in their room alone at night by the end of December. We also hope to introduce rice cereal around Christmas. The doctor said to go ahead and try when they have better head control. We can't wait! They are both still getting breastmilk. Annika is getting some formula mixed with hers. Her reflux is improving dramatically and we are so glad! That's about it for this month. We will post some more updates on the girls on their next "birthday" so stay tuned!