Well so far this summer has been crazy busy and keep saying I need to update the blog....so excuse the novel I am about to write :) I don't even know where to begin....since my last post so much has happened. We are in the 4th month now of Mallie being able to HEAR! She is doing great, she is comprehending lots of words, still no speech from her yet. That is normal tho, I guess. As she technically has the hearing a of a 4 month old. She does make a lot of noise and chatter tho, she just has not gone into the realm of other babbling yet. I know she understands words, like bye, kiss, hello, Macie, Up. Just to name a few. She almost always shows a response to us saying these words. She still thinks that "NO" means for her to take her implants off, haha! Every time she does it we say no, so she is associating the word no with her action that she created. We are working on that one:) She is getting stronger little by little and gaining bits of weight little by little. it was several weeks ago now but at her last dr appt - she was 13lb 6oz and that was the GR scale. (which is always less than Dr Leikert's). She also had the flu a few days before so who knows. She keeps feeling heavier to me :) Speaking of the last dr visit - it was in GR with the neuro developmental pediatrician. I have never been a fan of this office and as usual not too impressed. Mallie has a syndrome which makes her grow slowly - what part of that don't they get. She is not underweight for her length - she looks good! and its been a hell of hard road to get to where we are today. They never seemed to impressed with anything and just want to dump her full of high fat, high sugar crap! Also they want me to feed her super high cal formula 5 times a day still. I am seriously thinking of never going back there. They don't seem to interested in learning more about her condition but more like treating her like a preterm low birth weight child. The thing is - no matter how much food we dump in her - she will not GROW any faster....she will just get FAT! We don't want her to be fat, but healthy. I think we are doing just fine in that dept for now. One of the most important things is to treat her, her age not her size. Its so hard for people to do that because she still is the size of a sixth month old. Well her brain is almost 2 and in order for her to progress and move on developmentally - we have to stop treating her like a baby in some ways. Like the 5 bottles a day. She eats every three hours still but its food. Only 2 bottles a day - first thing in the AM and before she goes to bed. She also started finally drinking from a sippee cup - YAY!!! She is not a pro yet - but she is doing it. How many cups and how many days did we fight and we finally had a break thru!! We also had our first dentist appt with Dr. Martin at Lakewinds dental. He was great with Mallie and of course Auntie Jen was our assistant!! Here is a photo of her in the chair after the appt.
It was a meet N greet with some info on caring for her teeth right now. We brush Mallie's teeth every morning and at night. I usually brush them first than she does it. She is getting better with that too. we started using flouride toothpaste - bubblegum flavored. Just a dab on the brush to help polish all those little teeth. We go back in 6 months to see if she can tolerate a cleaning.
She has been scooting on the floor, mostly in a circle but she can move a bit - I will be doing dishes and find her a foot and half from the toybox. She tried to crawl a few times, but she is still lacking in head strength and she just can't quite do it yet. So close! Actually today when I let her roll around before bed - I watched her pick her head up off the ground a good inch and a half!! I was amazed - went to get the camera and she would not do it again.... little stinker:)
We got to go to the fair this year and she got to see animals and ride the carousel with Grandma Mary - she was not too thrilled but did not cry either. We got our picture with a baby white tiger. Grandma Tana was in that with us - she got to hold the bottle:) Here are a few pics....
So all in all summer has been good to us so far. I feel more normal this year with life. Maybe not normal but things seem a bit easier. We still have dr appts and OT, Speech, etc.. but I feel like we don't have to stay at home - Its easier to take her places now. We know where we stand with her weight, health, etc....so we can plan stuff again. I know the road is far from over and will have lots of challenges, bumps, you name it. But for now I am content! coming up we get to meet with a pediatric GI dr and an ophthalmologist. We see the GI doc and the audiologist at the end of aug. Then I need to schedule her endo appt soon before she is two. We have quite a bit of things coming up but all are going to be good and informative!! Well thats all for now - I know I have missed something.... I will try to post weekly updates from now on - so I can document all the great things and funny stories! Love to all - Steph
