First Birthday

My littlest granddaughter turned 1 yesterday. We are so blessed to have her in our lives as she was born at 26 weeks and 2 days gestation. She was in NICU for 2.5 months and then the local hospital. Here in Australia we are so lucky to have such advanced medical care for babies born so early. She came home for a few days and then just before Christmas went back in as she wasn't feeding well at all and had to have a feeding tube put in through her nose (which she hated). The best Christmas present ever was that she came home a couple of days beforehand so we had her with us for her first Christmas. She is 5 days old in the photo to the right and for a brief minute, has her cpap machine off while they clean her nose etc.

Her first year has been full of ups and downs, not just for her, but for her big sister and mum and dad. Having such a little baby to care for takes so much time out of your day and places huge stresses on mum and dad and extended family. As Tamara was born down in Brisbane and had to stay there, the family moved in Ronald McDonald House, right next door to the hospital. A real upheaval for Annika, away from home and all that was familiar to her, with a much longed for baby sister who she wasn't allowed to touch, much less hold.

Then once home, such care needs to be taken that no-one who has been sick or could have been in contact with sickness comes to visit, feeding time takes so long and had to be every 3 hours around the clock for several months. And then there were the times she pulled the feeding tube out and it had to be put back in again.

Her progress over the year has been slow but steady. She is still tiny, only 6.4 kg's and has her own "weight" line in her baby book that the nurse checks. She is way under the average for weight, but above for height.


She is crawling now and pulling herself up to stand. She loves her big sister and giggles lots. Her latest big neonatal pediatrician appointment went really well, they are very impressed with her and we were all so pleased to hear that she is in the very small percentage of babies born so early that not to have any damage to there brain or development, although she has been diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder, however it is not known how this will effect her in the future. The Dr's said the best thing for her is having an older sibling making lots of noise around her, dragging her around, putting her in boxes, playing with her and generally doing all the things older siblings do, being outside and exposed to lots of different sensations and having a range of stimuli around. To date, the only thing we, the family have noticed is she is really fussy about textures with her food and if that is all we have to worry about, who cares.

Big Sister Annika  - dress up

She gave us a bit of a fright last week, becoming sick with a nasty cough/cold and then getting a gastro bug. She didn't eat or drink much for 6 days, however the Dr's assured her Mum and Dad she wasn't dehydrated and to just keep up doing what they were. I looked after both the girls on Saturday night while Mum and Dad went out to a family wedding. We thought she had turned the corner, as she actually ate some avocado, chewed on watermelon and drunk 60 mls of a bottle. Unfortunately it all came back up 3 hrs later and again an hour after that.  After that she just wanted to sleep on me for until her tummy settled again.

She spent Sunday at the hospital under observation, but the pediatricians didn't want to keep her there, fearing with her lowered immune system, she would be too at risk of catching something worse.

She is slowly turning the corner now, eating lots better yesterday and loved her first taste of her chocolate birthday muffin, even trying to eat the crumbs off the table.

2 comments Birthday party, family