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At 7 weeks old (38 weeks gestational age), Brady weighed a whopping 6 pounds 5 ounces at her weight check appointment today! This is almost double her birth weight (3 pounds 6 ounces). The pediatrician wanted to see her gain 1/2-1 ounce a day and Brady’s been doing just that. I’m still only able to nurse three times a day for now since we need to make sure she keeps gaining weight. So for now and probably till she’s 6 months old, for all of her other feedings she’ll have pumped milk with human milk fortifier added to help provide her with extra calories when she takes bottles. The reason the number of breastfeeding sessions is limited is it burns more calories to nurse versus bottle feed and she doesn’t get the fortifier added (obviously) to those feedings. The pediatrician was so pleased with her gain that we’re not scheduled to go back and have it checked for three weeks at which time we’ll have Brady’s two month appointment.

Brady’s 2 month appointment = immunizations. Since she’s a preemie we wanted to delay her immunizations just a little bit. So obviously for her “two month” appointment Brady will be older than 2 months (she’ll be 10 weeks) but the pediatrician wanted to make sure she wasn’t too far off schedule based on her actual age.

We’re having a pretty hard time keeping her neck clean and dry. Brady’s a bit of a messy eater at times (if she’s tired of the bottle isn’t what she wants). She has some irritation in one of her neck rolls so the doctor called in a prescription to keep things dry and hopefully prevent it from turning into a full blown yeast infection. So until her neck lengthens out a bit more this might be a recurring theme with her.

Today was a busy day. This morning before the pediatrician appointment, Brady had an ophthalmology appointment. Her exam in the NICU showed that she had stage 1 of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) and we were following up on that. The good news was that her right eye which showed stage 1/2 of ROP in the NICU now is only stage 1. The bad news is that her left eye which wasn’t showing ROP is now showing stage 1. The opthamologist also thought he could detect nearsightedness in her (how I have no clue) which isn’t an issue now but could create a need for glasses as she gets older (as in old enough to crawl??). She has another appointment in two weeks to follow up and see how her eyes are doing. I’m praying that it resolves itself naturally and soon because this is a whole other stressor.

Brady’s been working on finding her cry since last night. Since she was born she’s never cried very much. Even in the hospital she was pretty laid back for most procedures. When she did cry, for things like getting a suppository and having her eyes held still with metal tools, it broke my heart. It’s kind of a relief because now we’ll know when she needs something but hopefully she stays a happy, easygoing baby even with her new found voice.

Pics to come soon…posting one handed is not the easiest thing.