Monday: Anchor School...For the first time ever, Audrey stayed awake for the whole hour and a half! We were excited to meet Logan, another little girl who has Aniridia, Audrey's same rare eye condition. Logan is 6 months old and adorable. Her mom is very nice as well...I can see a future friendship with their family, for sure!
Tuesday: Dr. Mathie for first immunizations...Audrey did so well! 2 nurses had 3-4 shots each and poked them in Audrey's poor legs while mom held her arms. It was sad to watch, but amazing how quickly Audrey got over it. She was smiling for her doctor just minutes later! We love our new pediatrician. She has a great personality and seems to know a lot about special needs kids!
Wednesday: Anchor School and Nutritionist visit... The nutritionist said that Audrey is growing well and getting the right amount of calories through her NG tube.
Thursday: Zoe, the Speech and Language Pathologist (to work on swallow) came over in the morning and we discussed how to help Audrey work on her swallowing. We are going to add a little rice milk to her bottle because thick liquids are easier to swallow than thin liquids. We will just try a tiny bit of a bottle before most tube feedings. Audrey was slightly interested in the activity, and all smiles which was good. In the afternoon, we visited the Cardiologist for another EKG....I've decided Cardiologist technicians don't have much patience for little babies wiggles! She mentioned something about needing a drink when she got home! But Audrey was as good as could be expected, with jelly on her chest and a ultrasound wand for 20+ minutes! We really like Dr. Younasai. He drew pictures of Audrey's heart for me. The gist of the visit was that Audrey's VSD is the same as before -- medium sized -- and her heart is still a little enlarged to pump the extra blood it takes for that 'leak'. He said that it may close on it's own, but there's about a 50/50 chance we will need to go through open heart surgery to fix it eventually. The surgery is 99% effective, so that's good to hear. But let's keep praying that it closes on it's own! We will go back in 2 months for another EKG to check on progress. He said that her growth is very good, and she is doing quite well so far.
Today is Friday and we are FREE and so happy to be 'hanging out' at home!
I'm trying to wake Audrey up at the moment, but she decided she likes to sleep in until about 9:00AM and then she's awake to the world. Unfortunately, this means she likes to stay up until the wee hours of 11:00 PM, which is very late for mom! It's a good thing the Olympics have been on!
Audrey is now 10 pounds, 5 ounces. She is smiling like crazy and getting more awake and aware daily. She is gaining more muscle control all the time. It's amazing to watch! She is starting to grab her pacifier with her hand and make more purposeful movements.
We're hoping for a nice, hospital-free weekend at home. Dad wants to get our new LAPTOP up and running, and to make progress on taxes.
Oh, I finally got some birth announcements ordered! So I'll be writing addresses and stamping those.
Thank you for all of your prayers, good words, and overall support! We love our friends and family!
Thanks for sharing these with me Tiff! I saw Kerrie Maxwell today, she's getting married March 20th, has her 2 adopted kids and is doing well. I'm so blessed that you both still think of me! Little Audrey is sure a cutie!!!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe how much Audrey looks like you, Tiff. She is just too cute. I can just picture her and all of her smiles. I wish you were closer so we could see you more often. What a great experience to be able to participate in that wonderful school program!
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