May 16, 2010

Charlotte has her first report card and it's on our fridge! We are so proud of how she's doing.

She had 3 appointments which turned into 4 at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin on Friday, May 14. The first of which was her Neonatal Developmental Follow-up appointment where she was evaluated by occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech. They gave us all sorts of information:

Age from birth date: 9 months 4 days
Age from due date: 5 months 21 days (this is the age used for all categories below)

Growth Progress:
Weight: 14 lbs 7 0z (25th percentile)
Length: 24.5" (10th percentile)
Head size: 16.5" (45th percentile)

She is growing! We learned that when a baby eats the nutrition is first distributed to the brain and head for cognitive development, then to length, and lastly to weight. It makes sense then that her head size is basically normal for other babies her age but she's still behind in length and weight.

Bayley Test Scores: Age Equivalent

Cognitive (Play skills): 7 months (AWESOME!)
Fine Motor: 6 months
Gross motor: 6 months
Receptive Language (Understanding): 4 months 10 days
Expressive Language (Talking): 6 months

She's meeting and exceeding expectations in all categories except receptive language. The therapists said, though, that at her age there are so few skills on which to judge this category it's easy to get a low evaluation. They really look for her to be responding to her name, which she doesn't. So, we're going to do our best to not call her sweetie, baby girl, etc. in an effort to teach her her name - Charlotte.

In order to make sure her receptive language deficit isn't a hearing issue, she was sent for a screening and passed with flying colors. It was very neat to see how they do the hearing screenings. Charlotte and I went into a sound booth while Patrick and the audiologist went into an attached room. She sat on my lap while sounds were played from speakers to our right and left. When she looked toward the sound a little cartoon character would light up and shake to reward her for responding to the sound.

Charlotte met with Dr. Arvedson again to evaluate her eating progress. She was impressed by how far she's come (these are tiny, tiny steps not noticeable to anyone but Dr. Arvedson we feel). We received the go ahead to introduce flavors and textures to Charlotte. While at the appointment Dr. Arvedson put some applesauce on Charlotte's lips and Charlotte wasn't too pleased. Charlotte won't be taking anything significant by mouth - if she takes a drop of water and swallows it we are delighted, but we hope she starts to enjoy different textures and tastes near her mouth. Dr. Arvedson told us about one baby who liked pickle juice of all things.

Finally, Charlotte visited the GI Clinic for a check-up on her G-tube. No big news here. They would like us to try increasing the rate at which she eats. Right now she receives 125 mls every 3 hours at a rate of 65 mls/hour. They would like to see her rate at 85 mls/hour with the goal of at some point administering her feed in under an hour. A faster rate allows us more freedom (and Charlotte as she becomes more mobile), but we need to make sure she can keep most of her feeds down.

We had some fun on this trip, too! On Thursday we traveled to Milwaukee, making 2 pit stops. We visited Mom and Pop Place in Neenah, WI. The store is owned by a high school friend of Pat's and although we missed seeing her, we had fun looking at all the baby toys and items. I was excited to find a car adapter for my breast pump - no more need for batteries while we travel! We also stopped to visit a mom and baby who were in the NICU with us. It was fun to visit and see how baby Alexya is doing.

My parents surprised us with a visit in Milwaukee! Here are some pictures of our visit with them.





All the fun wore Charlotte out! On our way back she slept solid from Milwaukee to Green Bay, the longest she's ever stayed asleep in the car!