Tiny Dancer

Becca has started ballet class! We tried a 4-day "camp" to see if she liked it. She had one lesson a day for 4 days straight...and at the end of every day, she was saying, "Mo-wah!" (and signing it, so we know she REALLY meant it), so we we're starting regular classes in the fall. She was pretty hilarious, definitely the smallest in her 3-year-old class (by far) and unable to do a lot of the skills the other girls could do (like hopping), but all over the place and having a big ole time. Let's just say that watching her class made me smile a lot in a week that I really needed some reasons to smile. And really, looking at this sweet girl, was there any way NOT to smile?

The tiniest of dancers

Posing with her new backpack for big kid school

Hammin' it up - thank God it's a recital year!

Laughing (as usual) with BFF's Graham and Tammy

My Crazy-Awesome Kid

I'm been really discouraged lately, thinking about how much "catching up" Becca still has to do, even though we've hit the magic age by which all symptoms of prematurity should have magically disappeared. (That's the age of 3, mind you, and the general thinking is that preemies, if they are going to catch up developmentally, do it by age 2, though we give micropreemies like Becca another year because of the additional challenges they face.) I won't get into all the reasons I've been discouraged, but they are there, they are real, and I've got to own up to it. But then this evening, I was typing up a quick summary of the issues Becca and I faced in my pregnancy and the rocky road she had in the NICU, and I'm once again reminded that everything she does is a miracle. (And someday I really am going to write that post about my theological understanding of miracles, so for now please don't overanalyze my use of the term.) The lists are written for other preemie mamas, so some of you may not understand all of the terms, but don't worry about that. Here they are:

Pregnancy: 27.6 weeks, severe IUGR (370 grams), fatal prognosis @ 17 weeks, 1 week hospital bedrest, emergency c-section. Prematurity due to pre-e, HELLP, IUGR, Fetal Distress (including severe heart decelerations) and Reversed Blood Flow. In other words, my pregnancy was a clusterf&*^. But I have a cute kid now!

Becca: 27.6 weeks (I tend to think of her as a 28-weeker) - very severe IUGR, anemia, mild CLD, osteopenia (multiple fractures), jaundice (& hyperbilirubemia), transfusions (26), multiple infections, pulmonary hypertension, hypothyroidism, septo-optic dysplaysia, silent aspiration, double inguinal hernias (repaired surgically), feeding difficulties, FTT, g-tube (at age 2), multiple failed hearing tests (functionally deaf for 8 months, corrected with tubes), adenoids out, plagiocephaly and helmet therapy, severe sensory processing disorder resulting in feeding problems and g-tube dependence, gross and fine motor delays, growth hormone injections. 123 day NICU stay, 20 days inpatient since NICU discharge.


So, yeah, if you didn't know Becca and just read this list, there's no way that you'd guess that she took 4 ballet classes this week AND peed in the potty twice. That's my daughter.