January
10 years ago
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
December 22, 2009
All ready for her baptism
Getting good at holding on to things
When we came home we were at 17 cm, now we're at 22 cm
Opening a present from the Hoeper'sLast Wednesday Charlotte had her two month eye surgery follow-up in Marquette. It had been scheduled for two weeks ago, but the weather conspired against us at we had to push it back. She got a clean bill of health so it was all worth it.
Her feeding hasn't progressed a whole lot percentage-wise, but the gross amount she takes by bottle is increasing. She just can't quite keep up with her increasing feeds. Every once in awhile she'll take a large amount by bottle and we'll get a glimpse into what feeding like for most babies. I remember last week when she calmly took 50mls (out of 70) and it was pure bliss.
Katie consulted with Jen, Charlotte's speech therapist at Children's Hospital, and the decision has been made to have the gastronomy tube put in. Now that Charlotte is outpatient things are little more tricky, but Katie managed to get her clinic consult and surgery scheduled on back-to-back days so we won't have to take two trips. The post-surgery recovery is 2-5 days so we could be there up to a week, but after 2.5 months there this fall, a week seems luxuriously short.
Some people have asked if the g-tube is really necessary if she is gaining weight. Right now she takes, on average, about 25% of each feed from the bottle, which means about 75% is getting poured down her NG tube. The NG tube works fine, but as she gets older it will become more problematic. We can already tell that reinserting it is much more of an ordeal than it used to be. It takes a lot longer to calm her afterwords.
Also, to prevent her from pulling it out constantly, we have to keep gloves on her hands most of the time which we worry may inhibit her development. Grabbing and manipulating things is pretty central to motor skill and brain development. Also simply taking the NG tube out of her esophagus might help her turn the corner with her feeding because it won't be constantly irritating her throat causing coughs and reflux.
The g-tube isn't the ideal solution, that would be no tubes at all, but long-term it will be better for Charlotte. So back to Milwaukee.
We hope that everyone is getting settled in for a happy holiday season. Charlotte looks forward to Skyping with family back home this holiday weekend.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
December 6, 2009
Quickly approaching 4 months gestational age/1 month corrected age. We can't wait to take that picture this week.
Two doctor's appointments coming up. On Wednesday we travel to Marquette for another eye exam follow-up (at least it's not Milwaukee). On Thursday is Charlotte's one month appointment with the pediatrician. That will mean shots.
Charlotte continues to take more milk at feed time, but alas, it is not nearly enough, so in all probability we will make a trip back to Milwaukee soon for a gastrostomy tube. Merry Christmas Charlotte.
It's unfortunate because she is awake and alert more and more each day as you can see in the pictures above. But she prefers to just hang out and take in her surroundings and let us gavage most of her feeds.
On the bright side, the unsightly NG tube will be gone, replaced with the more discreet G-tube. That will give her cheeks a break from the tape and we will all have an unobstructed view of Charlotte's mug. Although Katie and I have become so accustomed to the NG tube that we don't notice it until we're showing pictures to someone else.
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