GREAT appointment with Neurologist!

We had an awesome appointment today with Dr. Livingston, a pediatric neurologist. He came highly recommended from other parents and apparently he is very popular because we waited over 2 hours for the appointment! See the sign below...we just wish we had known before our appointment.


However, it was very worth it and the nurses and doctor were all very apologetic for the wait.

We made this appointment with Dr. Livingston due to our concerns about possible seizures. We had noticed on a few occasions that Campbell's eyes would twitch and look like she was having a seizure. These episodes were very rare (around once a month) and only lasted a few seconds. And, while they looked like seizures, she didn't act like she had had a seizure (usually there is a "post-ictal" period after a seizure when the person seems tired or lethargic).

We are so excited to report that Dr. Livingston does not think she is having seizures. After discussing the circumstances (usually the episode was following movement of some sort) he believes that she is experiencing movement-induced nystagmus due to an immature nervous system. He is also led to believe this due to the fact that some of her reflexes are delayed (which we knew and actually is addressed in one of her goals for PT and OT). This is great news because it is something she will grow out of!

We also took the opportunity to talk to him about her neurological development. We know she has a motor delay and wanted to find out more about the specifics of her development. The great news is the indicators of intellect such as babbling, eye contact, and visual tracking are all on target. He says that many preemies have motor delays and while she may grow up to be clumsy, she should otherwise be perfectly normal! And, since she has me as a mother, I could have predicted she'd have been clumsy whether she was a preemie or not :)

So, Robbie and I are thrilled. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!

She's on the move!

We are so excited to announce that the baby-proofing of the Compton household is underway. "Why?" you ask...well Campbell has recently been going through a development "spurt". Most of you know that she was diagnosed with a motor delay due to being behind (even considering her adjusted age) in motor skills. Well, she's working hard to catch up! So hard that her Occupational Therapist only wants to see her every other week rather than every week.

Some of her recently acquired skills include:
-pulling herself to stand in the bathtub (and subsequently falling over because Mommy didn't really think she'd be able to do it)
-trying to pull herself up in her crib
-rolling from her back to her belly (she's been able to roll the other way for months)
and... drum roll please...

CRAWLING! Yes, you heard right! Campbell crawled 2 and 1/2 feet this morning. Of course this was before I woke up and only know because Robbie reported it to me. And although she hasn't made it quite that distance again today, she is definitely on the move!

Woo hoo!

Here are a couple of videos of her working on her crawling this afternoon:
(you may want to turn down your sound, I got a little excited and my voice got annoyingly loud and high-pitched)

SNOW DAY (AKA in Charlotte - "Winter Storm 2009")

Good thing I (robbie) ran out to buy milk and bread because the Charlotte news go it right . . . Winter Storm 2009. Can you believe that, 2 inches of snow, and the Charlotte news call it Winter Storm 2009 and they even have dramatic music to go with it.

Anyway, enough about that . . . you all want to see Campbell snow pictures . . . so to keep our blog fans happy . . . here you go . . . .

We need to say thanks to Jillian Beck for loaning her snow suit to Campbell for days like this!

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Reflection Upon A Year (kind of long)

This week is exactly 1 year from that fateful 26 week appointment when my blood pressure was first elevated. Who would have ever guessed what we would go through in the following months. For the past few weeks as we have been approaching Campbell's first birthday and Robbie and I had the inevitable "so...when are we thinking of giving Campbell a little sister or brother" talk, I have been re-living a lot of the feelings that I went through a year ago.

A lot of these feelings I kept to myself or only shared with a few people but I now want to write about them to share with others. When Robbie and I were going through our hospital stay and following NICU experience, people would often remark on how "positive" we were in person and on the blog. While we never were dishonest about things, I look back and wonder if we didn't gloss over the experience to save our families, friends, and other blog readers some worry or fear. I don't know that we shared the full extent of our fears or the dangers that Campbell and I both faced. I hope this post doesn't come off as a "pity me" post. It's really for my own healing and I am hoping it will have a cathartic effect. One of Campbell's doctors described NICU parents as having post-traumatic stress disorder and I whole-heartedly agree.

I mourn....
I mourn a lot of things. I mourn that I never got the 3rd trimester "experience." I never got to complain about my back hurting or stretch marks or being humongous. I mourn that I didn't get to hold my newborn baby right after birth. I mourn that it took four days before I could hold her and when I did I was so scared that I Purell-ed my chest and shoulders. I mourn that the experience of holding her for the first time was so scary that I'll always remember the fear first and the joy second. I mourn that I had to be wheeled out of the hospital without holding my baby and went home to an empty nursery. I mourn that her birth was a dreaded event rather than a joyful one and that the tears we cried were out of fear and sorrow rather than joy or elation. I mourn that when we finally did bring her home I was unable to successfully breastfeed her due to my own insecurities about her weight gain, her weakness due to being a preemie, and the fact that she had become accustomed to bottles.

No parent...
No parent should have to worry about when or if their child will be able to breathe on her own or if the head ultrasound would show a brain bleed. No parent should have to wait to bring their baby home and when they finally do have to monitor for every single germ. No parent should have to worry that their baby is having seizures and constantly be on the lookout...so much so that every play session is spent watching her eyes to make sure they don't twitch. No parent should have to explain to their families that their child is especially vulnerable to germs so please don't touch at the holidays...and even after that explanation the parent is still uptight and nervous at said holidays. No parent should have to worry constantly about their child's development and be more relieved than excited when each milestone is reached.

However, I celebrate...
I celebrate that we do have some wonderful memories from the NICU such as that first time I walked up to her isolette and she didn't have any breathing tubes. I celebrate that although having the stress of a preemie can tear some couples apart, I have been blessed with an incredibly supportive and loving husband. I celebrate all of the support we have had from family, friends, and strangers and all of the lives that were touched by Campbell's story. I celebrate that I have been able to help other preemie families and they have found reassurance in Campbell's life. I celebrate my new friends from the Preemie board, I often call them my "Preemie Support Group" (you can read many of their stories through their blogs linked to the right). I celebrate that the fear of having another preemie is fading and I'm actually willing to consider giving Campbell that little brother or sister (although, not yet people...we just had the talk about thinking about it!). And I of course celebrate that I have my own little miracle to look at every day.

So, thanks for listening and being here with us for this past year. Your support has been so important and valuable. I appreciate each and every comment we get and I love seeing the Live Traffic Feed (to the bottom right of the blog) of where each visitor is coming from.

Oh...and maybe I do celebrate not having those stretch marks after all :)

March for Babies

It's hard to believe that it's that time again. Last year Team Campbell raised over $2,000.00 for the March of Dimes through their March for Babies. This year we have been asked to be Rock Hill's Ambassador Family and Campbell's story and pictures will be featured on local fundraising information.

As you may remember, the March of Dimes mission is to make healthy, full-term birth a reality for all babies. Research funded by the March of Dimes had a direct impact on Campbell's survival. Two drugs administered to her (steroid shots before birth and surfactant after birth) were developed during research funded by the March of Dimes. Without these drugs, we seriously doubt we'd have our beautiful little girl.

We ask that you consider supporting us in this walk. You are all invited to walk with us and join "Team Campbell" and/or donate to our team's fundraising efforts. To do this, all you have to do is click on the badge to the right of your screen.

The March for Babies will be April 25th at Cherry Park. We look forward to helping to support this wonderful organization.

Here are some pictures from last year's walk. This year we're excited to have Campbell join us.

I graduated

Well, folks, I have officially grown up. I no longer fit in the baby bathtub (apparently when mommy and daddy washed my hair water would go everywhere because my head didn't quite fit in the tub) and tonight I got a bath in the big girl's bathtub. Woo hoo! It was a lot of fun.

Here's me in the baby bathtub last night:


Here's me in the big girl bathtub:


Oh, and just for fun, here's an oldie but goodie. It's a picture of me in the bathtub from when I first came home. I was so tiny Mommy and Daddy had to put a beach towel under me so I didn't drown.

This little piggy went to market...or did it?

Crazy hair

I'm beginning to get more and more concerned that Campbell may get Robbie's crazy hair after all...

This is after towel-drying her hair after her bath:



This is an attempt by Martha and Nana to get the hair under control:

Who can do tummy time when all this hair is in the way?

It's hard to believe it's been 9 months...

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic tonight...

http://robbieandmartha.blogspot.com/2008/04/came-into-our-hearts-2308-came-into-our.html

Crazy Concoctions- Updated 1/11

I thought I'd update everyone on some new baby food concoctions I've created with my time off. Campbell has mastered pureed food so I wanted to start making things chunkier so I've been playing with things to add to her food. If you are interested in reading about my previous ventures into babyfood making, you can read about it here.

Some of my recent concoctions include:
Sweet potatoes with pasta
carrots with pasta
squash with brown rice
broccoli with pasta
peas with pasta
pumpkin apple pasta
squash with turkey and brown rice

The pasta is just whole wheat spaghetti noodles that I cut up into about 1 inch long pieces and the rice is just whole grain brown rice.

I took a trip to my new favorite grocery store, Earth Fare, and came home with several different kinds of puffed grains to try. Tonight I added puffed millet to Campbell's applesauce and that was a big hit. She also tried puffed wheat which she seemed to like. Unfortunately, it's kind of like popcorn and has something like a kernel and I was worried about her choking on it, so we'll wait to try those again for a little while.

I also want to thank my sister Emily and my aunt Diane for their thoughtful Christmas gifts. They each got me vacuum seal freezer bags for the baby food. We had been having some issues with freezer burn and so far these have worked out great!

I'm having so much fun mixing random ingredients! So far Campbell has loved everything and is doing very well with the new textures.

Update- This weekend we added cottage cheese and tofu. Both were big hits! Poor baby ate tofu pieces dusted with crushed cheerios, cottage cheese mixed with pear and more crushed cheerios (I had extra and thought "why not?"), and carrot mixed with pasta all in one day. Ick. But, again, she loves it.

Campbell's Current Top 10

So, peeps, I'm totally gonna copy my good friend, Eleanor, and share with y'all some of my current favorite things. Some of these are Christmas presents and some are just things I'm digging right now.

#10 Picnic Basket Toy
I love my new picnic basket toy that Nanny gave me. I love taking the pieces out and chewing on them. My favorite is opening and closing the top. Tons of fun!

#9 Barn Toy
I'm getting really good at closing all of the animal doors. Now I just have to figure out how to open them...

#8 Playing the cello with my mouth
Isn't my new activity table cool? Ms. Kathy, my PT, was very impressed at how well I could stand up and play with it. Sorry the video is so dark...

#7 Plates, bowls, spoons, and spatulas
Who needs fancy toys that light up and make noise? Not me! Just give me some pots and pans and things to chew on and bang and I'm good to go!

#6 Bows
My friend Anna's mom made this awesome bow holder for me. Doesn't it look great in my room? I love my bows. Lucky for my mommy a local baby store is closing so they had all their bows 1/2 off! She must have bought a gazillion!

#5 Blueberries
My mommy has taken advantage of her time off to make me some new foods and I'm loving it. I've had mango, blueberries, yogurt, rice, and pasta. My favorite has to be the blueberries. I love them by themselves and I love them in yogurt. My mommy keeps complaining about stains, but too bad, she's just gonna have to buy lots of Stain Stick.

#4 The Beco Butterfly 2
This neat-o carrier is sooo much better than that old Bjorn thing my mommy used to wear. It was uncomfortable for me and my mommy would just complain about her back hurting. So I got her this new carrier for Christmas and we love it! We've been on several walks around the park and I love snuggling close to mommy. She keeps me warm. Also, when I stop spitting up so much Mommy says she can wear me on her back and I think that'll be really neat. (Oh, and Mommy says please don't look closely because she wasn't wearing any makeup in this picture.)

#3 Swingin' in the park.
Daddy and Mommy took me to the park the other day and I got to swing for the first time. I loved it! Daddy also made go down something called a slide but I didn't care too much for it...

#2 New Clothes
I got some fun new clothes for Christmas. One of my favorites is this striped fleece from my Nana. It just so happens to match some of my favorite tights...

And my #1 Current Favorite Thing....The Singing Christmas Dog!!!!
Thanks to my Great Aunt Diane for my favorite toy of all time! I love watching this silly dog dance and sing! I even like to dance with it!