Josie's Big Day

Today Josie had a follow up appointment at Credit Valley Hospital.  She gets these follow ups at 4, 8, 12, 18, and 24 months because she was less than 2 kg when she was born (James was 2.1 kg so he doesn't get to participate).  

She was first seen by an occupational therapist who looked at her cognitive and physical development.  Cognitively Josie is developing perfectly.  She smiles and laughs, makes eye contact, follows objects with her eyes and can bring objects to her mouth.  Physically Josie is a little behind.  When she stands she is always on her tip toes.  We now have to work on getting her to plant her feet.  She also has trouble fully lifting her head when on her tummy.  The therapist showed us some other positions to help her with her neck stenghth and we have committed to practicing these with her more.

We then saw a nurse.  Josie is now 9 lbs 8 oz.  which puts her between 0.1 and 3rd percentile for weight.  The good news here is that she's finally on the chart!  Her length put her in the 3rd percentile and her head circumference is in the 40th percentile.  The nurse explained that sometimes small babies will develop disproportionally large heads because that's there body's way of focusing on brain development.  Her body size will catch up but right now it's most important that her brain be growing big and strong.  This may also explain why she has trouble lifting her head during tummy time.  

Lastly we saw a Dr.  who told us that we are doing a great job as parents, always nice to hear.  It is so great that Brian was able to come to the appointment too.  We both learned a lot about how to help JJ grow and develop.  

Today was also a sad day for me because I had to pack up all of Josie's newborn clothes.  They have gotten to short for her.  She has now moved in to 0-3 month clothes.  It's neat that she has a whole new wardrobe but sad that my little girl is growing up.