7 months old!

Lucy is 7 months old today - wow!  Where does the time go?

We've been enjoying the indoors lately, as the January weather in Minnesota has lived up to the reputation - it's currently 9 below outside - Brr!

Lucy recently had a pediatrician visit - here are her most recent stats:

Weight - 15 lbs, 4 oz (25th percentile)
Height - 2 feet (10th percentile)

Above her can see her poor little legs after her shots.  She did great - definitely some tears, but that's to be expected!  A note about her socks - little girl socks DO NOT stay in place, plus it's hard to find any that do not contain pink.  So, I bought her a pack of boys tube socks and love them - reminds me of the old middle school basketball days when that's what we wore with our uniforms!

Her doctor thinks that she is doing great from a developmental milestone and growth perspective.  We have urology, Gastro-intestinal and a big day of outpatient surgical-related visits coming up in the next several weeks.  She'll have an MRI as a follow-up to her shunt surgery, a full spinal MRI, and a bronch evaluation, all of which she'll be put under for.  I am not looking forward to her going under again and the possibility of requiring a ventilator - it's so great to have her tube-free and the NICU memories are a little too fresh in my mind to put her through that again.  However, we are reminded that she still does have a long road ahead of her from a medical perspective.

We were given a referral to a feeding clinic, which I am really excited about because, as I have mentioned on several occasions, I really dislike her feeding tube!  We've been feeding her a couple of bites of cereal in the morning, a bottle at noon and a couple of bites of vegetables in the afternoon - all over quite a long period - 20 to 30 minutes as least.  For a few weeks, she was throwing everything up that she took orally, but over the past week or so, she's been doing great about keeping it down, so that's super encouraging!  She doesn't drink a full bottle on her own or anything that drastic, but she'll take a half ounce or so without too much of a complaint.  At her most recent pediatrician's visit, we also increased her reflux medication dosage, so perhaps that is helping.

Since we keep her home most of the time, Lucy doesn't have too many occasions to get all dressed up.  However, we recently went to a shower for her to meet my college friends - what a treat to have her meet all the girls!

We are often reminded of God's faithfulness through this journey and his steadfastness through all of our changes.  His unchanging nature is a great comfort to us as we continue to figure out next steps for our family.  He definitely knows when we need a break and helps things fall into place for us!

Road Trip!

Lucy's first wrestling tournament - the Virginia Duals

 Uffta...we are home.  You probably didn't even know we were gone, but the three of us took a LOOOONNGGGG road trip from Minnesota to Virginia for 10 days!  I don't feel comfortable flying with Lucy yet - she's got medications and feeding tube supplies and a shunt and just way too much stuff for us to fit into 3 suitcases!  So, we decided to drive to Virginia to visit Jason's family.

With Great Uncle Billy!

 

With Auntie Kitty and cousins Ryan and Alana

Getting to know Grandpa Grover

Lucy did amazing in the car.  We tried to leave early afternoon, just before nap time and drove into the night so that she'd sleep most of the way.  We made the drive in two days each way, with a hotel stop for much needed stretching out space in between!  She spent much of the car ride sleeping, but entertained herself very well when she was awake (Jason will swear that she was awake only when I was driving so that he had the pacifier/entertainer duty!)

Dinner stop at Cracker Barrel in West Virginia

She also enjoyed meeting more of her relatives and continues to be such a joy to us.  We spent the last few days at the Virginia Duals wrestling event - her daddy was so proud to have her there with him!  She's getting to much stronger and rolls across the room when she's on the floor.  She's also getting much better at sitting up and loves to jump, jump, jump!  Her smiles light up her whole face and it's so much fun to be on the receiving end of them.

It's back to reality for us now, as we return to work, cold Minnesota weather and several doctors appointments over the next few weeks.

Happy New Year!

Wow! I cannot believe that it is 2013.  At this time last year, we were looking forward to welcoming a new baby into our home in 2012 - we had no idea that it would be such a challenge or that she'd spend 1/3 of the year in the hospital.  We didn't even know that she'd be a girl named Lucy!  We were reminiscing on the year and that first doctor's appointment when we found out about her hydrocephalus and remembered that they told us we had to decide if we wanted to continue with the pregnancy.  What a terrible tragedy it would have been never to have met baby Lucy! 

It was definitely a year of highs and lows for us as a family - from the joy of a new life to the sorrow in knowing that she will have a difficult journey through life.  From the excitement of moving back to Minnesota to the sadness of leaving our first home - where we lived after we got married and where we brought Lucy home for the first time. Jason and I are both glad to put 2012 behind us and to look forward to 2013 and getting re-settled back in Minnesota.

Hanging out with cousins Ashley and Preston on Christmas

I know that every parents says it, but we really cannot believe how fast Lucy is changing.  She definitely tells us when she is mad or happy and is getting very vocal.  She loves to be entertained and will almost always reward us with a huge grin or a little giggle if we are funny enough.  She LOVES her feet and changing diapers has gotten to be a bit challenging because she just can't lay still.  She's close to sitting up by herself and is getting an army crawl of sorts down to move herself around.

Watching wrestling with daddy...

We have a brief break from doctor's visits over the holidays.  Eating continues to be our biggest challenge; we have an appointment with the Gastro doctors in a few weeks and hope to get some ideas for how to move forward with more oral eating and less feeding tube eating.

So, from us, to you, Happy New Year!  We wish you and your families much health, happiness and many blessings in 2013!