Ellie

Ellie

Friday, April 29, 2011

9 month check up

Today was Ellie's 9 month well-baby check up. The entirety of the appointment was schizophrenic. At first Dr. W felt that perhaps she wasn't gaining enough weight, eating enough or her head size (16") was too small. But then he reviewed what documents he had, which read they wanted her to gain between 6-11 grams a day and she gained 10. She grew 3 inches. She gained over 2 pounds. The nutritionist wants her to be 14 lbs by the end of next month and she is 13 lbs 4.5 ounces today. Well on her way to 14 lbs. The pedi wants her to take 4 bottles a day- fat chance. It almost conflicts with how the GI wants her to take in more solids. So I just cram more and more food in her however I can. He held out a tongue depressor, she grabbed it and was "regarding it" as he said. He thought that was WONDERFUL! When he did his exam of her he was absolutely giddy that she had such personality coming out (I didn't regard it as her personality as much as her being pissed off that he's messing with her). He was concerned that she wasn't crawling on all fours or pulling herself up yet. Her gave the ok for her PT eval 2 days ago so I'm assuming it will be scheduled next week. He said she needs to follow up in one month, so he's giving her another month to sort of pull it all together before intense, regimented PT is ordered. We'd both also like her speech to come along a bit better. He was thrilled that her jaw was really coming out, thanks, I think, in part to her TWO front bottom teeth racing to come out. He asked me several questions that I was way ahead of so he said I was doing everything perfectly (glad to hear a professional praise my mothering so highly). He asked about her toothbrush, sunscreen, and hat- all of which I told him we had been using for quite some time. So overall he was very pleased with her growth and maturity, and giving her a month to catch up to other babies. I'm not sure how I feel about this, however, since I feel like other babies get 12 months to perfect crawling and speech. Maybe I'm wrong. Half of me thinks it doesn't matter because I'm going to freak out and she'll just wake up and do it like she always does. The other half of me is thinking there's no way we're lucky enough to have a "special" baby that doesn't need intense PT.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

PT Eval

No PT eval today, just paperwork to get the ball rolling on a PT eval. This just buys us more time for her to really get a good grip on crawling :)

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Normal Baby Stuff

Tomorrow is her physical therapy evaluation, so today I'm going to focus on all the "big girl" normal baby stuff she's accomplishing.

Her crawling is really coming along. I mean, she can crawl, but I'm not going to call her a crawler until she's up on all fours following me into another room (or leaving me to go into another room!). She seems to understand some words, and occasionally tries to communicate back. She finds it very frustrating that she can't pronounce the word she wants to say. She's gone to a restaurant twice now, and sit in a high chair both times. She was very well-behaved. I was so proud. I'm still proud! Maybe it's just maturity but it's still nice to see how well-behaved she is. She's been very cool about strolling along in her big girl stroller even tho she still seems to small for it. Usually giving her a sippy cup of juice works wonders. She can mostly sit up unassisted by herself, but the minute she gets bored or distracted she falls back over so I'm not saying she sits unassisted. She is doing really well with standing. Sometimes it's difficult to determine if she will walk first or crawl first. She didn't panic at the Easter Bunny like we thought she would, which was a pleasant surprise. She still has some separation anxiety, so she didn't play as well with the group of babies at the picnic as some others did but she did get relaxed and at least sit with me on the ground with them. She can feed herself and use either sippy cup (one with handles and one without). We're still working in "big girl" food, like grapes and pieces of beef or chicken. She's not really a fan yet, but we're working on it. So she has some stuff still left to master, but plenty of other things under her belt.

Monday, April 11, 2011

A Special Child

Stole this from another mom's page who has a special child

A Special Child
You weren’t like other children,
And God was well aware,
You’d need a caring family,
With love enough to share.
And so He sent you to us,
And much to our surprise,
You haven’t been a challenge,
But a blessing in disguise.
Your winning smiles and laughter,
The pleasures you impart,
Far outweigh your special needs,
And melt the coldest heart.
We’re proud that we’ve been chosen,
To help you learn and grow,
The job that you have brought us,
Is more than you can know.
A precious gift from Heaven,
A treasure from above,
A child who’s taught us many things,
But most of all- “Real Love”

Monday, April 4, 2011

Hearing test (ABR)

Well, it wasn't pretty but the end totally justified the means. Ellie was up every two hours last night, so I was exhausted but evidently she felt great all day and anything but tired. We got to the hospital and checked in, everything went fine. Of course they call us back literally two seconds after I get her to fall asleep. Ellie didn't want to be weighed and kept lifting her head up to sit up, which then caused her to "Bonk" it back down on the scale. The nurse gave up, I told her Ellie's weight from Thursday. They tried to get her blood pressure but it never works. They also forget to get her temperature after I had mentioned she had a low grade fever the night before (99.9) for which I gave her tylenol. The worst part was of course holding Ellie down to get the IV for her sedative (propophol). First they had to hold her arm and shine a light under it to find the vein, which Ellie adamantly opposed. Then, because she was so upset, they had to swaddle her and hold her down to get the IV in. After that it was ok but there were way too many tears and high-pitched screams for this momma. They got her sedated- which is not something you actually want to see... she was so limp and lifeless. It was just so horrifying. We were shown out and walked to the cafeteria for some sandwiches and sodas. We came back, ate and waited. The test was about 45 minutes. Ellie "hooted" every time she could while waking up. She was very smiley though, and that made my heart feel better. She had the red dots from the electordes but they faded as the day went on. The best part, of course, were the results. Ellie's hearing is considered "essentially normal," as the audiologist called it. She was only slightly off on high pitches in the right ear. The cut off was 20 and she needed it to be 25 in order to hear it. The audiologist also mentioned her ear canals are very, very small (duh) and they happened to be dirty (how do you clean microscopic infant ear canals- with ear tubes in them?) so there is a slight likelihood her hearing is even better than we think, although for all intents and purposes its nearly perfect as it is!

On a related side note, this means the ear tugging is 100% teething. The test would not have been able to have been performed if she had an infection or fluid in the ear. So it can only be dirt and/or teething that is causing the ear tugging. Now, we just need those stupid teeth to come in! This also likely explains the strange eating and sleeping pattern she's developed.