We have had a lot going on with our Lucie-Lyn this past week!
Last Wednesday she had a developmental check up at the Mount Sinai Preemie Clinic. It was similar to a pediatrician "well baby" visit, but more thorough and detailed as they checked her entire body's movements and abilities and charted it on illustrations to match what she was capable of doing. At the end of the appointment, the doctor said that Lucie was doing very well so far, which was encouraging. The appointment was held on the exact day that Lucie turned "8 weeks old" as of for her corrected age, so they were assessing her abilities compared to other 8 week olds. The doctor expressed that Lucie's development fell within the range of about 6-8 weeks, which was helpful to know, since we don't have much to go by in terms of comparison and tracking, and we just have a general idea from the books we are reading.
Her initial evaluation for Early Intervention Therapy was on Sunday. A Special Ed Therapist came to our apartment to evaluate Lucie to see if she needs to be in the program. She said it was really just a formality because Lucie is automatically eligible for the ongoing therapy due to her low birth weight. She said that she thought that Lucie was doing really well especially considering how early she was born and that she felt that Lucie was tracking somewhere between 8-10 weeks developmentally. (It's crazy that she had two evaluations in one week, and one analysis was that she was on the early range of 6-8 weeks and the other one was on the later range of 8-10 weeks! We're basically just going to take that to mean that Lucie is somewhere in the average of 8 weeks developmentally!) She said that Lucie will be on many timelines, which we know already. She will be ahead of her corrected age in some areas, she'll be on par in others, and she will be behind in other areas where she'll have some challenges and struggles. The therapist could tell that Lucie's muscular development needed a little bit of work but she said that that is completely normal for preemies of any age. She gave us some good ideas and exercises that we can already stat using to help Lucie with some of her development, which is a little overwhelming, but exciting! Later this week Lucie will be seen by an Occupational Therpaist for another evaluation. After that, the Special Ed Therapist and the Occupational Therapist will work to write a report and recommendation as to what Lucie's ongoing therapy needs will be. In a few weeks, we will all meet and review the report so that we can start Lucie's regular therapy.
In other news.. we found out that our child care plan for July is not going to work out! Yikes! We were going to use the JPMorgan Childcare which is available all year as a back up for all employees but also as a bonus, it can be used for the first two months that parents return from leave. It is a fraction of the cost of regular childcare in NYC! Well, it seems that most parents save up their back up days for the summer so the facility is completely booked until September! Eek! So now, we are in a scramble to find care for Lucie for the month of July!!! Maybe if everyone looked after her for one day that month, we'd have it all taken care of! Ha! We're all set from August on... but definitely need to figure something out for July. Stat! If you have any ideas, let us know!!
The weather has been a little nutty lately. Warm, then hot, then cold, then rainy. Needless to say, Robby and I both caught colds from it. We are feeling much better, but of course hoping that whatever we had doesn't pass on to Lucie. She does have some congestion, but thankfully she's not coughing or anything!
We are so thankful for your constant support. Our world has been nothing but LUCIE for the past several months, and we are so thankful that you have been so understanding and so caring, even in the midst of everything you have going on as well! We hope you are all enjoying your week so far!
Love,
Los Hicksons
Nap time in the park! Nice and sunny day!
A chilly day led to being snuggled up and using monkey socks as gloves!
Friday Night dinner with the Beltrez gang!
The jury's still out as to whether or not Lucie is a fan of her new swing...