April 10, 2011

Last weekend we learned Charlotte makes a very cute chicken. We had fun at the Minnesota Zoo with some friends and their daughter who is just one month older than Charlotte. It was striking to see how much better their daughter walked than Charlotte - she looked like an old pro while Charlotte is still a bit stiff-legged.

We went to the zoo to see the baby farm animals. Charlotte was a bit hesitant with the goats but did feed one a pellet after I shoved her hand toward its mouth. :) She pet the baby pig without any prompting, but baby pigs are pretty adorable.

I can almost say Charlotte's vomiting has subsided! Over the past week she threw up at most once/day. On a related note, her eating has increased slightly. She is not interested in taking food on the spoon but she loves feeding herself. She has learned how to eat puffs, bits of banana, and small pieces of pasta. Tonight she chewed on an apple but I'm not sure how much she actually ate. She also drinks out of her sippy cup pretty well (though her favorite thing to do with her sippy cup is drip the water all over herself and the floor). She has her first feeding clinic appointment since our move this Thursday, and we're looking forward to some new insight.

She has become very interested in her feeding tubes, and regularly wants to chew on an extension set. I'm worried about the plastic breaking off in her mouth so pulled out a nuk last night and she even chewed on that. When we left CHW the nurses gave us a handful of nuks that she never used, so I'm glad she's finally, at age 20 months, finding a use for them!

Charlotte's silk pink elephant pajamas were inherited from her cousin Genevieve. They're 18 month size but still too big for her. We let her wear them to bed one night last week because she loves feeling the fabric, but she had a tough time walking around in them. The leg fabric kept getting under her feet and causing her to slip.


Today I took her to the park and she loved it. Last summer she was very timid and did not want to do much but play with sand box toys. Today she crawled through a tunnel, took multiple trips down the slide, and even smiled on the swing. It was hard to get her to leave!

She's gaining weight! Last Sunday she weighed 20 lbs 6 oz and today at 20 months she's up to 20 lbs 8 oz.

The order of this blog post is a bit chaotic, but on Saturday we went down to the Gopher's TCF Bank Stadium to watch Grandma and Grandpa Russell finish Goldy's Run. It was our first trip to the stadium and very fun to walk around on the field. It was especially eventful because we met a couple who reads Charlotte's blog and recognized her from the pictures we post here. Which brings me to something I've been thinking about lately...

We started this blog while Charlotte was in the hospital as a way to keep our family and friends informed about how she was doing. At the time we assumed the day we brought her home would be a clear break from the NICU, she would be a completely healthy, normal baby, and we'd have no use for the blog. Instead we brought her home on a feeding tube and have kept on blogging to keep those who choose to follow updated on how she's doing.

Another reason we maintain the blog is because we hope it might help other parents who have a preemie or a baby on a g-tube. We've read many blogs about other kids/families who've had similar experiences as us. Their blogs are comforting to read and have helped me to stay optimistic and hopeful.

Lately I'm feeling conflicted. Part of me wants to keep the blog going until she eats, but we don't know when that will be. Another part of me worries about who is reading the blog and if posting her pictures in such a public space could put her in danger. But the couple we met on Saturday were very nice and we appreciated that they continued to show interest in Charlotte's progress even after all these months. Maybe I'm being paranoid...I do watch a lot of Law and Order SVU. Thoughts anyone?