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!