| Amanda Update |
| (Last Updated: November 2, 2002) |
| About three months have gone by since our last update, so we thought it was time to let you know how Amanda is doing. We've posted 20 new pictures of our little angel. She's getting SO big. Check them out and let us know what you think. Can you believe she turns ONE this month????? We can't believe that it's already been a year since Kim was counting the hours and minutes while on bedrest. The first few months of this year also seemed to take forever and now that she's doing something new every day we wish we could slow things down! Amanda has been doing really well. She's over 15 pounds and getting bigger and stronger every day. She's progressed from rolling around to crawling and sitting. Kim and I are now scrambling to "Mandy Proof" the house. She's still a little unsteady, but she's getting the hang of it fast. You should see her try to chase Sammy around- just as she finally reaches him he goes and moves again. The look she gives him is priceless! Mandy's also started eating real foods. It began with rice cereal, and then oatmeal, and now barley. Her GI specialist has given us the OK to start orange vegetables later this month. It will be cheeseburgers before you know it. The only thing that concerns us is some tongue thrusting when she eats. More comes out of her mouth than goes in! You can also see from some of the pictures in the photo gallery that she loves having her tongue stick out when she smiles. We're working with her on this so that she doesn't have problems later on. On the health front, she's doing very well. All of her doctors seem to think she's coming along just fine and are impressed with her growth and development. These next few months will have us on guard because it's RSV season. Preemies are at high risk of catching this very dangerous virus. Most adults and children carry RSV without being affected by it, but it can be very dangerous to preemies that have immature lungs and lung damage. For that reason the doctors have consistently talked about the importance of getting through the first winter- which means keeping her away from crowds. Unfortunately, this means that she won't be able to have the type of 1st birthday party that she deserves- we'll make it up to her in the spring :) There is a shot that she has to get once a month called Synagis. If she does catch this virus the Synagis will hopefully help it to be a milder case. We just found out that the medicine costs about $1500/dose - thank god for insurance. Once spring comes around it should be smooth sailing. Even her eyes are looking pretty good. The eye doctor said that her eyes looked better than he expected at her last appointment. However,she will always be very nearsighted and her left eye isn't developing as well as her right. They call this condition Amblyopia. Because of the poor vision in her left eye, she's relying too much on her right eye. We're hoping that the glasses can help correct this problem. She was fitted for glasses in September and is looking cuter than ever. If we could get her to keep them on for more than three seconds we'd be doing really good! We'll keep you posted on her progress. Thanks for all of your support and concern. It's nice to know we've got friends and family pulling for us. Kim and John PS: Sorry that it's taken so long for this update, but I'd rather play with her than this computer. :-) Don't forget to leave a message in Amanda's guest book on the main page. Thanks. |