Many New Firsts for Nora

Sorry for the lack of Nora updates lately, my computer crashed but now I’m back up and there is a lot of Nora news to catch up on. Nora has been a busy little girl the past few weeks and she has had a lot of fun and exciting new experiences! In attempt to not to make a mile long post I’ll write this in a little recap format.

First Tea Party!

Time for tea! Nora made an excellent tea party hostess for her first tea party with pouring sound effects and all. 🙂

First trip to the Bookstore!

Nora loves books, taking her to the bookstore for the first time was a very exciting event. When we first walked in the door she squealed with delight upon seeing sooo many books in one place! She didn’t care what section we were in, she was in book heaven just to be there. Nora’s first trip to the bookstore was a big milestone in public outings. We have been taking Nora more places recently now that she’s older (but not too many) but still being germaphobic with obsessive hand wiping and always going on off times when there is less of a chance to be around a lot of people. Keeping Nora protected from the germs of public places has been hard at times and honestly sometimes saddening to not be able to share her with more of the world but it is a necessity to keep her healthy and out of the hospital. But with that said, not taking outings for granted sure makes these times so much sweeter and a cause for celebration.

First New Potato!

Nora has been trying a lot of new foods lately and tolerating most of them very well, the most exciting of all of the foods has been new potatoes. Not because of it being a new potato specifically but because it was the first food that we ate together as a family. Nora ate hers unseasoned of course but with the growing variety of foods she can eat comes the realization that we’re getting closer to sharing the same meals instead of Nora having to eat something totally different than us. Which this is a very happy feeling since in the beginning she wasn’t ever expected to be able to tolerate oral feedings. Nora only had a total of 4.5cm of small intestine left after having 95% of it removed when she was only 4 hours old because of a midgut volvulus which occurred in all three sections of her small intestine.

First Shands appointment in the Tallahassee Clinic

Nora sees the GI doctors at Shands every 2-3 months and we have always had to take her to the main facility in Gainesville which is 2 hours away. With Nora not being a good traveler these trips are usually hard on her since we go down and back on the same day to avoid taking her to a hotel. There are no pediactric GI doctors in Tallahassee so once a month one of the doctors from Shands comes up to the Digestive Disease Clinic to see patients. Since Nora has been doing so well they finally agreed to let her be seen in the clinic where the appointments aren’t as long and in depth. The doctor was very impressed with Nora’s growth and she got an A+ checkup.

First Butterfly Dance!

Nora has been watching little girls dance dressed up as butterflies on one of her DVD’s. When I asked her if she wanted to be a butterfly she excitedly said “yes!” I had been thinking to dress her as a duck for Halloween since it is her favorite animal but every time I asked her if she wanted to dress up like a duck she never seemed interested so a butterfly it is! I bought her wings a little early thinking it may take some time for her to get used to wearing them but our little caterpillar was ready for flight and wanted to dance with them on right away. Here is a little video of her first flight.

Nora’s Butterfly Dance (click to view)

First Night in Nora’s Big Girl Bed

Nora had been sleeping in a smaller version of a toddler crib but all of a sudden last week she seemed to be exploding out of it and couldn’t even roll over comfortably. She has been sleeping in our room with her bed right beside ours since the day we brought her home. We haven’t moved her to her own room yet because she’s a very active sleeper and often gets tangled up in her lines as well as waking up frequently during the night. So we moved her bigger toddler bed from her room into ours last week and the new bed has been a hit. With our small bedroom and a bigger bed for Nora it was too crowded to have her bed beside ours so she’s now at the foot of our bed. So Nora and I both had a first last week, a first for her in a bigger bed and a first for her mommy not having her at an arms length away, we both did better than expected. 🙂