Monday, March 2, 2009 - Update

We finally made it home from our apppointment (that was 2 1/2 hours long!) We came out of it with really good news, however. They tested Olivia on a multitude of different things and found her to be at around a 10-12 month level in most areas. Her actual age is 18 months and her adjusted age is 14 months. This is fantastic considering that four months ago, she was only at a 4-5 month level. She has progressed 6 months over the past 4 months, so she is catching up. I'm glad that I brought the video of her walking because I assumed that she wouldn't walk in a strange place with strange people. . .and I was right. Her doctor loved the video of her walking and said she had perfect "Frankenstein" form and was doing a great job. I was also told that cerebral palsy (even in its mildest form) can be crossed off the list as she doesn't see any indication of it. This is huge and something that always weighs on the mind of any micro-preemie parent. The area that she seems to be falling behind in is her speech, which is ironic because that is the area she was always ahead in. No one is too concerned about this because she makes a lot of noises and mimics a lot of sounds. She just doesn't say any word consistently except dada. I was very proud of Olivia as she did very well for as long as we had to wait. She was tired, hot and hungry (as was I) but still managed to show off many of her skills. I especially like when she starts waving bye-bye to people who aren't ready to leave yet. Thank you for sharing in my joys and caring so much about my daughter. She has definitely come a long way from her start as a 1 lb 1.5 oz baby.